Anyone do Anakeesta in Gatlinburg TN?

[maslex]

So we're heading to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area next month. One of the stops that my husband is interested in is going to Anakeesta. I've been watching videos on it and I see they have a couple different ways to get up to the top (one being a sky lift *one open/one enclosed*) and then a truck that will drive you up. Problem is, due to a knee injury, I'll be in a motorized scooter. Do you know if any of them accommodate them? And I pretty sure I read (or saw on a video) that if you do the Astra Lumina walk, it is NOT wheel chair accessible? Is that correct? I'd love to see it but if I can't go with the motorized scooter, then I'll just send my hubby by himself. He's a big "light" guy, so he doesn't want to miss it.

 

[cabanafrau]

Under the park policies on their website they say that Astra Lumina, the tower and the skywalk are not wheelchair accessible. It does also explain more about parts of the park that are accessible as well. Hope that helps.

 

[goofyernmost]

Here's my recent take on that. In May I went there with my daughter and her family. I had a scooter available, but made the decision that I would use a cane because I wanted to ride up on the chairlift. My daughter has a problem with heights so she opted to ride the shuttle to the top and the shuttle has handicap lifts so from what I could tell it was able to take someone with a scooter up to the top, but, honestly since I decided to not take it we never really found out for sure.

For me it was a mistake because the chairlift doesn't go all the way to the top so it required quite a bit of uphill walking to go up higher to meet up with my Daughter. I opted to ride back down with her and that was a little cumbersome. The shuttles really are trucks with a high platform with seats and access was on a rickety step system with almost no stair rails. I had a problem both getting on it and especially getting off because I have had some equilibrium problems and almost fell. If they do allow you to take a scooter up then almost everything other than the skywalk and the sleds to the bottom are accessible but only if they are willing to take the scooter up there. There are a lot of vista points in every direction with terrific views of the Great Smokey Mtns. To be honest I don't remember seeing any mobility devices up there at all, but I wasn't really tuned in for that. One thing I do remember is that they had a massive number of benches and chairs for people in need of resting their bones. Besides the shuttle and the chairlift they also had some small gondola's interspersed with the chairlifts.