HugsForEeyore
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2000
- Messages
- 4,227
Hi,
We just got back from Disneyworld, and stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge from May 18 - 24. I went with two friends, and one friend uses a power wheelchair. She unfortunately has very limited movement due to a genetic disorder (Frederick's Ataxia). But she has a service dog that gives her a helping paw
.
We were very pleased with Animal Kingdom Lodge! The buses were great, since there is only one bus stop at the Lodge. The bus was never already crowded, and usually loaded us first. Our room was on the 4th floor and close to the main elevators. We had adjoining standard rooms - my friend's room was very tight on space, with a king bed and a pull-out chair bed. She had a hard time maneuvering in the room since the room was small, but bathroom was huge and easy to get around in, though! We were on a budget and could not afford a bigger room onsite. But the proximity of being close to the lobby, bus stop, food court, and pool certainly made AKL a good choice for us!
The one small problem we had was that so-called zero entry pool. My friend only came with her power wheelchair, we did not bring a manual one. Guest services said we could rent a manual one and bring her into the pool with it down the zero-entry ramp. They told us to dry off the chair afterwards so it won't rust. So we got the manual chair, went to the pool, and managed to get my friend into the water using the zero-entry. But right after we did this, a lifeguard came over and said we can't use a manual chair in the pool. We argued that Guest Services said we can, but the lifeguard insisted we can't - she said the chair would rust, and there is a rule that AKL wheelchairs can't go in the pool. I think if we had our own manual wheelchair we could take it into the pool, but not one belonging to AKL. The lifeguard pointed to some "medical" stairs leading into the pool and said to use those for entering and exiting the pool. Here is a photo of the stairs:
<IMG SRC="http://home.att.net/~swill70/smallpool.jpg">
We gave up arguing and decided to not use the manual wheelchair in the pool, and used the stairs instead. We basically had to bump and drag my poor friend up and down the stairs, which was do-able but not very elegant!! Later the lifeguards said they will try to get a special waterproof wheelchair from Carribean Beach that is designed to be taken into pools. So whether they ever got this special wheelchair by now, I don't know. But we were dissapointed with the "zero-entry" since it was useless to us. My friend's physical limitations are quite severe (total lift, non weight-bearing legs, needs help with all transfers) and our problem may be somewhat unique, but oh well, just wanted to share our experiences from AKL! Overall, we did enjoy our stay there.
<IMG SRC="http://home.att.net/~swill70/hugtiny.bmp">
We just got back from Disneyworld, and stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge from May 18 - 24. I went with two friends, and one friend uses a power wheelchair. She unfortunately has very limited movement due to a genetic disorder (Frederick's Ataxia). But she has a service dog that gives her a helping paw
.We were very pleased with Animal Kingdom Lodge! The buses were great, since there is only one bus stop at the Lodge. The bus was never already crowded, and usually loaded us first. Our room was on the 4th floor and close to the main elevators. We had adjoining standard rooms - my friend's room was very tight on space, with a king bed and a pull-out chair bed. She had a hard time maneuvering in the room since the room was small, but bathroom was huge and easy to get around in, though! We were on a budget and could not afford a bigger room onsite. But the proximity of being close to the lobby, bus stop, food court, and pool certainly made AKL a good choice for us!
The one small problem we had was that so-called zero entry pool. My friend only came with her power wheelchair, we did not bring a manual one. Guest services said we could rent a manual one and bring her into the pool with it down the zero-entry ramp. They told us to dry off the chair afterwards so it won't rust. So we got the manual chair, went to the pool, and managed to get my friend into the water using the zero-entry. But right after we did this, a lifeguard came over and said we can't use a manual chair in the pool. We argued that Guest Services said we can, but the lifeguard insisted we can't - she said the chair would rust, and there is a rule that AKL wheelchairs can't go in the pool. I think if we had our own manual wheelchair we could take it into the pool, but not one belonging to AKL. The lifeguard pointed to some "medical" stairs leading into the pool and said to use those for entering and exiting the pool. Here is a photo of the stairs:
<IMG SRC="http://home.att.net/~swill70/smallpool.jpg">
We gave up arguing and decided to not use the manual wheelchair in the pool, and used the stairs instead. We basically had to bump and drag my poor friend up and down the stairs, which was do-able but not very elegant!! Later the lifeguards said they will try to get a special waterproof wheelchair from Carribean Beach that is designed to be taken into pools. So whether they ever got this special wheelchair by now, I don't know. But we were dissapointed with the "zero-entry" since it was useless to us. My friend's physical limitations are quite severe (total lift, non weight-bearing legs, needs help with all transfers) and our problem may be somewhat unique, but oh well, just wanted to share our experiences from AKL! Overall, we did enjoy our stay there.
<IMG SRC="http://home.att.net/~swill70/hugtiny.bmp">
We should have gotten Guest Services to back us up, but by then we decided just to use the stairs, since we did not want to get into "trouble" again.
Yes, it was very difficult getting my friend in the water, but worth it since she hasn't swam in years. Our service dog wanted soooo badly to jump in the pool!!! 
