Snow-capped mountains, narrow fjords and calving glaciers.
Alaska is known for its beautiful coastline, where ships sail past its colourful, waterside houses and the vast Tongass National Forest.
But for blind traveller Sassy Wyatt, her experience of a cruise around the Pacific Ocean centres around sounds and feelings rather than sights.
‘The first time I heard a whale spout, it silenced an entire catamaran.
‘I couldn’t see the whales rising, but I didn’t need to; the sound was enough. The hush that followed said everything,’ Sassy told The Independent.
‘It turns out, not everything needs to be seen to be felt.’
On a Princess Cruises tour with her husband, Grant, Sassy said staff introduced themselves by name, a small gesture that helped her familiarise herself with who was speaking without seeing them.
And this wasn’t the only accessibility feature Sassy recalled.
For blind traveller Sassy Wyatt, her experience of a cruise around the Pacific Ocean centres around sounds and feelings rather than sights
Alaska is known for its beautiful coastline, where ships sail past its colourful, waterside houses and the vast Tongass National Forest
On a Princess Cruises tour with her husband, Grant, Sassy said staff introduced themselves by name, a small gesture that helped her familiarise herself with who was speaking without seeing them
She noted that the cabin steward remembered where Sassy left things and the menus were read aloud, patiently and in full.
‘Accessibility wasn’t treated like an awkward afterthought. It was built into the design: braille and tactile numbers outside every cabin, audio announcements in lifts, braille signage where you’d want it,’ she said.
Sassy even took part in a high-wire course and while she couldn’t see the view, she felt it and was able to build the picture in her mind.
Whale watching for Sassy was all about the sound and atmosphere.
She said: ‘Or guide Matt’s commentary painted pictures I could follow: the history of the land, the rhythms of the sea, the anticipation of a sighting.
‘And when the humpback whales finally breached, it was the collective gasp of the passengers, the sudden spray, the quiet awe that stayed with me.’
It comes as a British couple sold everything to travel the world with their disabled son.
The pair had struggled with finding appropriate groups and educational settings for their son that supported his specialist needs.
Whale watching for Sassy was all about the sound and atmosphere
But now their kids are ‘learning Vietnamese’, ‘bathing elephants’, ‘climbing waterfalls’ and ‘sleeping in the jungle’.
So Dan, 32, and Lou, 31, sold their home in Congleton, Cheshire, and took their children out of school to take a one-way flight to Asia this summer.
The couple booked a one-way flight to Bangkok, stayed for a month there before moving to Chiang Mai and Phuket, and are now in Penang in Malaysia.
The family is now exploring Southeast Asia – and Dan and Lou have been documenting their travels on social media.
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Blind traveller reveals what life is like for her on board a Pacific cruise
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