Any "Gotchas" at CBR

[Slartibartfast]

I am in the process of planning a family reunion trip to WDW for the week after Memorial Day. This will be my family's first trip to the World since 1975. Along with juggling the schedules of 12 people, I also need to ensure my brother is taken care of. He has a form of MD, and uses a Jazzy WC to get around.

I booked at CBR because it has the largest rooms of the moderates and the Jazzy needs a good amount of room to navigate. I got the roll-in shower and bed rails. Because 3 people will be staying in this room, and a King was all that was available, they comp-ed a connecting room for us!

To those of you with experience, is there anything I need to know about CBR ? Are the disabled rooms truly accessible? Is the massive size of CBR a problem for someone in a WC?
As many of you know, some hotels have a very strange definition of 'handicapped accessible', and I don't need any 'gotchas' interefering with my brother's vacation.

Also, a subjective question: if you have the choice, would you rather go to the parks in a power chair, or a manual and have someone push? The power chair means more independence, but limits the number of attractions one can see. The manual means more rides, but the embarassment factor goes up when you have to be 'transfered' (you'd have to know my brother). I want my brother to have the best time possible, so I'm just looking at all possibilities.

 

[DramaTech]

I stayed at CBR last summer in my electric wheelchair. (Not a three-wheeler, but a full chair.) I don't generally book handicapped accessible rooms as some of the adaptations make the stay more difficult for me. However, with that said, the regular, double bed room that the four of us stayed in was very big compared to many hotel rooms I've been in. There was a large space to fit my wheelchair out of the way, and the size of the resort was not an issue at all since the buses drop off at each "island". There is even an "internal resort shuttle" that will take you to the food court or pool, etc, if you'd like.

On your subjective question, I have toured the parks both ways, and I'll ALWAYS do everything I can in the future to go in my electric wheelchair. Several reasons:

1. Quite frankly, I don't trust other people's driving. I've been driving my electric wheelchair for over 18 years now. When people push me around in a manual chair, it never fails that we will run into people or places. Not that I blame them for it, they're doing their best...but I'm alot better at manuvering in my electric chair than they are at pushing me in a manual chair.

2. There is nothing like the independance of being able to go where I want to. Imagine this: you're walking with your family at WDW and something catches your eye. What do you do? You stop and/or walk closer to get a better look. In a manual wheelchair, I have no control over where I go. If I want to go and look at something, I have to communicate to the "pusher" what and where I'd like to go, and sometimes, by the time he/she gets the message and understands what I'm referring to, the thing I wanted to look at is long behind us.

3. I can easily transfer out of my chair to a ride seat. This may not be your brother's case, but Disney is very good at having manual wheelchairs for the rides where mine won't fit, and I'd still like to be in one. I also hate to for attention to be drawn to me in this regard, but many times the transfer area is out of the way, and the CMs give you plenty of time to make the transfer.

Hope some of this has helped, and feel free to ask me any other questions you have.

 

[SueM in MN]

If you haven't already, you could call WDW Resort Special Reservations:
(407) 939-7807
(407) 939-7670 [TTY]
to ask your questions. We used to stay at CBR before we became members of DVC at OKW. The rooms at CBR are the largest of the moderates and I don't think he will have any trouble getting around in a room with one king size bed in it. Even though the resort is large, it is well arranged with nice paths leading everywhere you would want to go.
For the power wheelchair question: My DD got her power wheelchair 3 years ago. We were not quite ready to take it to Florida last March, but are really thinking very seriously of taking it this Sprong. We always take it shopping now and have noticed that she is much happier shopping in her power wheelchair. Like Dramatech mentioned, she is in charge of where she wants to go and doesn't have to rely on other people figuring out what she wants to do. The other thing we have noticed is that people treat her differently when she is in her power chair. She understands well, but can't speak. When she is in her manual chair, people tend to assume that she doesn't understand and either they don't address her at all or they talk to her like a baby. When she is in her power chair, she gets treated like the teenager that she is.

 

[jdremann]

I did a room report a good while back which may help. The room layout of our room no longer shows up in that thread. If you want the diagram, I can email to those who want it.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15000

 

[Cheshire Figment]

You might want to see if you can get a room in Trinidad North. Building 31, for example, is the closest to Old Port Royale. (Note that 31 is a smoking allowed builing, but the odor tends not to be noticable unless you are very sensitive.)