All Star Movie handicapped rooms

[tammyh-oregon]

Has anyone stayed in one of these? What are they like? I have one booked for the first week of December traveling by myself and am wondering what they are like.

 

[Wheelsie]

I have stayed at the Movies...in Fantasia
The room is one big (I use the term semi-loosely depending on the size of your chair LOL) area w a king bed.

the sink area is in that room.

the bathroom is one big floor w a hole in the middle for water to drain from shower...there is a toidie and thats about it...

There is bars and a seat off the wall for shower and around the toidie...

I have some pics if you'd like to see some! let me know either here by PM or by email

there is a shower curtain to block the shower from the toidie

 

[tammyh-oregon]

that is exactly the information I was looking for.

 

[Wheelsie]

You're very welcome...and like I said....if you need to look at the room I can try and dig out my old pics

 

[nickiclour]

My family & I have ressies for a handicapped room at allstar Movies at the same time as you.I was told the fantasia building is the one we will be staying in. We actually have adjoining rooms reserved for us to have more room.

See ya in Disney in 30 days.YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!

 

[elehua]

My brother (cerebral palsy) and I stayed at the All Star Movie Resorts, in 1996. The last reply
is right - the room is one room but not "big" - it was almost clostrophobic. We were there for
two weeks and the best thing was the shower area. But the room was way too small. There
was a small refrigerator in our room that was included in the cost. We live in Hawaii so we had to adjust to a six hour difference. We would often get a late morning start, around 9 or 10 am we would try to leave (it's 3 or 4 AM back home!) Even though we would leave the "do not disturb" sign on the door the maid service would be pounding on the door asking us when we were going to leave - geez that's really rude. Needless to say we did not go back to that hotel. We'll return to DW next year and plan on going offsite again, as the rooms are bigger and better bang for the buck with handicapped rooms and an annual pass.

Don't forget your disabled person's parking pass if you're driving and an ID. I once tried to get a wheelchair at a non-disney park and was asked for a doctor's letter to PROVE my brother needed a wheelchair?! Fortunately I had his disabled person's bus pass and parking pass IDs and I was able to rent him a chair.

Have a good one! inkbounc

 

[tammyh-oregon]

Since it is only me, I hope the room is not to big. Hopefully I won't run into any problems. I have my own wheelchair and a parking placard. Never ran into the ID problem though. Our placard is tied to our driver's license and not a separate ID card like in some states, but it is not marked at all with anything about the disability. What are people thinking? How many people travel with a doctor's letter describing their disabilities? I know many do here because they have run into problems but I would wager that most people don't even think about it until they are hassled. What a shame.

 

[SueM in MN]

I have never heard of anyone being asked for proof that they need a wheelchair at WDW. I don't think they could since most people don't have any proof to begin with. All my DD has is her handicapped parking permit, which we could be using for our van.
We have never stayed at AS, but I know that they are the smallest rooms of all the WDW resorts. I think the room would be pretty tight for a family of 4, but for one or 2 people it might not be a problem.

 

[Dodie]

We ended up in one of these rooms last year - although we did not have the need. It was empty and unreserved - we requested a king bed - so we got the HC room.

The room was comfortable and will be fine for you and should be fine for a wheelchair. I was quite surprised to learn that there was a fridge (at no cost) in this room, because it was a HC room. This may be something you can take advantage of - if you know to expect it.

I think you'll enjoy yourself.

 

[elehua]

Originally posted by SueM in MN
I have never heard of anyone being asked for proof that they need a wheelchair at WDW. I think the room would be pretty tight for a family of 4, but for one or 2 people it might not be a problem.

I did mention it was a "non-disney" park. And yes not many people, especially DD children have a disabled person's ID with pic - AGAIN it was "NOT" a disney park. Hopefully enuf people complained and they have stopped asking for a doctor's letter. However due to medication requirements and machinery I now carry a letter with medicines and machines needed for my brother and the letter also has his DD and medical diagnosis.

Seems most everywhere we go, except some of the larger Las Vegas hotels, have told us the HC rooms only have "king" beds and NO doubles. Which makes me wonder how a family of four can use one room? They would need to pay for two, there's no way 4 people can stay in that closet of a space unless the children are really little.

As far as a w/c getting around the room, it was really tight when we were there so hopefully the chair is a standard size, if it's wider then a standard, you'll be banging the walls.

Good Luck.inkbounc

 

[tammyh-oregon]

We ran into this at Paramount's Great America. Your first visit, they go by your word on getting the backdoor pass but on any other visits you must present a letter from your doctor that they keep on file for the whole season. I think this is a good idea for a mostly local park. I was surprised at it because I didn't think they could ask but it makes sense in the long run.

It was certainly better than six flags Magic Mountain which offered nothing for the disabled who weren't in a wheelchair. You went to the exit and they told you how long the wait was and you waited at the exit that amount of time. If there was no place to sit, you were told to sit on the floor. I don't think we will be back there anytime soon.

WDW has always been accomodating to us although I am beginning to see changes for the not so good because of people trying to take advantage. There is a post on one site about requesting these handicapped rooms because you can get the fridge for free. I just wanted to scream when I read that.

 

[SueM in MN]

I saw you said it was a non-Disney park; I was trying to make clear that I had never heard of anyone needing proof for Disney park. Maybe I should have made that more clear.
I also meant the AS rooms in general (not the wheelchair accessible rooms with a King bed) would be tight for a family of 4, even without a wheelchair. Even with a narrow adult chair, we had to do some creative furniture arrangements to get around in the CBR rooms: CBR has the biggest rooms of all the moderates. Problems with room size was one of the reasons we joined DVC.
SO, anyway, I hope I made things clearer now. That's what happens when you type on the computer, talk on the phone and watch TV at the same time!

 

[Michigan]

I have 2 girls ages 3 and 11 that use wheelchair. Neither can stand or walk. We have stayed in a regular room (2 beds) at All Star Music 3 times with 2 chairs and once with 1 chair. The 11 year olds chair is 16 inch chair which makes it about 24 inches wide with wheels. They don't have any problems getting around in the room. She can wheel between the beds, under the sink, into the bathroom door and transfer over to the toilet and from there she slides over to the tub. Yes the rooms are smaller then the other Disney hotels but for the amount of time we spend in the room I would rather have the extra money to buy stuff or stay longer. Look for the wheelchair table in the food court. I don't know where it is in movies but in music it's right after you walk in the door on the left side. It's a higher round table so you don't have problems getting under the table. It's marked with a wheelchair sign on the wall over the table.

The pools also have medical steps that you can park your chair next to and slide over onto the top of the steps then slide down into the water.

 

[elehua]

Originally posted by Michigan
She can wheel between the beds, under the sink, into the bathroom door and transfer over to the toilet and from there she slides over to the tub.

Yes the rooms are smaller then the other Disney hotels but for the amount of time we spend in the room I would rather have the extra money to buy stuff or stay longer

Thank you for the information. Your girls are young and probably small enough where you can help them during bathing. My brother is much larger then I, and my main concern has been with him falling in the shower, which has occurred at two different hotels (DL and DW areas) when we tried to get a handicapped room and even though it was requested prior to visits, was told none were available. Anyway I was wondering if those rooms (non-handicap) had grab bars in the shower and how high is the tub (approximately)? He needs something to hold on to and some of the "high" lipped tubs are difficult for him to manuever.

I agree with saving money, spending it on something else. There are (or maybe less now) benefits to staying on-site. But we may split our next 3 week vacation between on and off-site (much cheaper and bigger) at Lake Buena Vista hotels.

Thanks

 

[elehua]

Originally posted by SueM in MN

SO, anyway, I hope I made things clearer now. That's what happens when you type on the computer, talk on the phone and watch TV at the same time!

Thanks for the clarification, I wasn't sure you understood and didn't want anyone to think I said Disney did this. They have been very accomodating at the parks. Now if only we could do something about the inconsiderate people who think being in a wheelchair is a benefit????

 

[SueM in MN]

The one time when we went to the local park in our area (Valleyfair), we had to stop at Guest Services and fill out a pretty detailed questionnaire about DD's abilities. I don't know if they still even do this, but all we got out of it was a list of rides that she would NOT be allowed on for safety reasons.
On one of the rides that was not on our "forbidden" list, we got in line (seen by the ride attendants), got all the way to the front of the line and found a turnstile. With no other way out, we had to back all the way out of line. The attendant said she hadn't realized a wheelchair wouldn't be able to go thru the turnstile!
Things like that make me happy to go to WDW. Even when things don't go well, they still are WAY better than anywhere else.