A blind man was asked to leave a Virgin Voyages cruise recently, only to be invited back on with a handwritten apology from Richard Branson.
Donovan Tildesley, a Canadian insurance broker and former Paralympian, was booked on the Valiant Lady to sail around the Caribbean when he was asked to leave by staff who said they could not accommodate his needs as a blind solo traveller.
Tildesley said he had contacted Virgin Voyages before getting on the ship to tell them he didn’t need much help on board, he would just need a guide to assist him from his cabin to the restaurant and help with printed reading materials.
Just as he was settling in with a drink in hand Tildesley was asked to leave.
“I thought, ‘Is this some sort of joke?'” he told Daily Hive.
Tildesley was left in Miami as Valiant Lady took off without him. But Virgin Voyages was determined to undo this injustice.
The cruise line’s SVP fleet operations, Frank Weber, contacted Tildesley with a profuse apology, offering him a business-class flight to the next port of call.
Tildesley took Weber up on his offer and re-joined the ship. Once on board, he received a handwritten apology from Sir Richard Branson. It read: “That for giving us the chance to make things right. I hope you’re having a brilliant getaway.”
Tildesley called the whole affair a teachable moment and thanked the cruise line.
“I’ve taken it one step further in that I’ve asked Frank to invite me to speak at a corporate Virgin meeting next year to talk about accessibility and inclusiveness,” Tildesley said.
“Because that’s false advertising. If you say on your website that you’re completely accessible to people who are blind and you have braille on the elevators and in your rooms and everything, you’ve gotta walk the walk if you’re gonna talk the talk.”
In a post on Instagram, he added: “It says a lot about a company when they can recover from a mistake. @virginvoyages did that and then some.
“Sunday I was escorted off the cruise ship because they weren’t sure they had the supports in place for a solo blind traveller. Today I am flown business class to Honduras to re-join the same ship, and I am enjoying drinks on the #Rockstar Deck.
“Thank you for everyone’s help and support over the last couple of days!!”
Virgin Voyages said it was “infinitely sorry” for its treatment of Tildesley.
Featured Image: Donovan Tildesley back on Virgin’s Valiant Lady after getting kicked off (@theblindguy_/Instagram)
