Bed height problems at WDW

[LindaDVC]

We have had mulitple trips to WDW with no problems. However the last two times in studios we had trouble with the bed height. Didn't have anything to measure with --- but the bed height was HIGH.

Since husband is a bilateral amputee and quadraplegic he is a dependent transfer. Disney was able to lower the bed both times but wondering if others are running into this same problem.

They have new mattresses which they told us might be causing the higher height --

In the past year we have stayed at two onebedrooms and didn't have a problem with the kingsize bed height. But the studio at OKW and AKL were both high!!!!!

At AKL they were really nice and gave us some compensation for my stress -- at OKW they argued that the height was fine and it was an accessible room. I agree it had a roll in shower but the bed height was high and it was a BIG problem. I was not happy with the managers attitude but they did fix the problem and checked to make sure it was okay later that evening.

Very curious re: others noticing bed height problems around WDW.

Linda

 

[BillSears]

It depends on the resort and whether they have lowered the beds in the roll-in shower rooms. I spoke about this to a manager over at CSR. I had requested a roll-in shower in the Casitas section but when I got there they assigned me a room in the Cabanas section. I eventually spoke to a manager and got transferred over to the Casistas but he warned me that the room hadn't been upgraded to be "fully accessible". Later in my trip I ran into him again and he asked me if I could tell why the room wasn't fully accessible. I told him I thought it was because the bed was too high. He said Yes, that the beds in the Cabanas had been lowered but they hadn't converted the Casitas rooms yet.

So hopefully Disney is aware of the problem and will be lowering all of the beds in the roll-in shower rooms.

I can make the transfer into most of the higher beds. But after a long day at the parks the transfer is very hard and I've almost landed on the floor a few times.

 

[SueM in MN]

We are at OKW right now and the King bed in the Master bedroom is the exact height of the top of DD's wheelchair cushion. I do have a tape measure with me and will measure later.

The problem with bed heights is that the current ADA guidelines for accessible rooms do not include any bed height standards or ranges. So, there is nothing for hotels to go by to say, "this is accessible" or "this is not accessible."
There are some new guidelines coming which do specify a range, so that will be changing.

 

[LindaDVC]

on my to do list was check what ADA recommends
so thanks for the info!

Linda

 

[Jeanieblue114]

I agree with the bed height issue at OKW. We just got back from there and I was SHOCKED at how high it was. I had never heard anything about the height. I had so much trouble getting in and out of it.

I am about 5'1" and a big girl. The bed was above my waist height. I have never had a hotel room with such a high bed without a little step stool on the side of the bed.
I had to basically lean forward onto the bed and put one leg up and then roll up onto it. I had bruises all over my legs by the end of the week from getting in and out of the thing. I don't know what they were thinking.
My dad said he thinks they don't want people sitting on the beds and wearing them out. He is 70 and complained about getting into it a lot and that he was never able to sit down on the bed.

 

[StregaNona]

It is not anyone's imagination - the newer mattresses are higher than the older ones. I had this "issue" at OKW a few years ago. The mattress came between my hip and waist. I would have needed a running start to jump into the bed - my legs would not have been happy. The old/original bed frames are not able to be lowered. Now I just ask for a stool when I check in.

I was in a handicapped unit at AKV recently. We didn't ask for it, but the bed was lower. We spoke to a CM later in the visit & commented on the lower bed. She said I would not have liked the beds in a regular room.

At POP, the housekeeping managers have been knows to ask for lower beds for guests who need it.

 

[zaksmom]

Roll-in shower room we had at CBR in June had a really nice low bed. My son has a thick cushion on his wheelchair and it seemed a little lower. Memory is that it was in unit #16. We were pleased. No picking him up to get him into bed.

 

[SueM in MN]

OKW Master King bed is 24.5 inches.

The new ADA bed guidelines for bed heights are the same as the toilet heights - which are not lower than 17 inches from the floor to the top of the seat and not higher than 19 inches.
This will be good, because there were no guidelines before for beds at all. In fact, there were no guidelines for any movable items in rooms. The guidelines only addressed permanently installed items, like toilets and built in shower seats.

 

[SueM in MN]

Just for good measure (pun intended), I measured the height of the toilet, which was 18.5 inches from floor to the top of the seat (with the lid open).
That reminded me that before the ADA Guidelines, there were no standard guidelines for toilet height. A handicapped toilet was usually somewhere between 18.5 and 21 inches, but could be as much as 24 inches (people with bad knees liked the 24 inch height).

 

[Jeanieblue114]

On our recent trip, our bed was much higher than 24.5 inches.
Ours was in the 36-40 inch height.
We were in a standard, first floor, studio.
Bldg. 15
Not HC accessible.
the bed was very difficult to get in and out of.
I don't get an HC room because the toilet is difficult for me being too high because I am short. I never thought the bed height would be an issue.
I felt like I was in the land of gulliver!

 

[Schmeck]

Now, we like the taller beds - easier to get my mom out of them when her legs have stiffened up. Lowering the beds would actually make it less accessible for us.

Sue, you've made me smile - measuring the toilet height for good measure

So, now all the HA bedrooms are going to have beds between 17-19" off the floor? What if that's too low for someone? Is there an accommodation in there to have bedrisers available?

 

[SueM in MN]

Now, we like the taller beds - easier to get my mom out of them when her legs have stiffened up. Lowering the beds would actually make it less accessible for us.

Sue, you've made me smile - measuring the toilet height for good measure

So, now all the HA bedrooms are going to have beds between 17-19" off the floor? What if that's too low for someone? Is there an accommodation in there to have bedrisers available?

Well, as long as I had the tape measure along, I thought, why not?

it would be much easier to put bedrisers on for the people who want them than to have to lower beds for other people.

17 to 19 inches sounds low, but that is actually a fairly common chair seat height, so it's not as low as it sounds.
Just for comparison, 34.5 to 35.5 is a fairly standard counter height.

 

[Schmeck]

My mom uses bedrisers at home (and they are great for college dorms, so kids can fit more crap under the bed, LOL!) and of course we could bring some with us to boost up a bed if it is too low (but boy is that hard to do with the solid beds at WDW!) but I was hoping that it would be included with any new bed-lowering regulations. We aren't a one-size-fits all species, that's for sure!

 

[SueM in MN]

My mom uses bedrisers at home (and they are great for college dorms, so kids can fit more crap under the bed, LOL!) and of course we could bring some with us to boost up a bed if it is too low (but boy is that hard to do with the solid beds at WDW!) but I was hoping that it would be included with any new bed-lowering regulations. We aren't a one-size-fits all species, that's for sure!

I know some of the beds have solid bottoms (not the ones in OKW though).
I don't think they are likely to change the bed heights in all the rooms, probably just the ADA ones.
I do know that ever since they got the higher, more plus mattresses at OKW, the bed heights in all the rooms we have been in (accessible and non-accessible) have been the same height. I didn't measure them, but they are the same height as the top of DD's wheelchair cushion, so I know they were all the same height.
Last Spring, we were actually in an accessible studio (building 33), a non-accessible studio (building 22) and a non-accessible 2 bedroom (building 64). All had mattresses in all the rooms were the same height as the one bedroom we are in now (building 28).

 

[kaytieeldr]

I requested an accessible room last year at both SSR and OKW. I expected this would mean the bed would be a reasonable height, based on an earlier stay at OKW (switched from 'regular' room to one with a roll-in shower and a reasonable-height bed).

Nope. Well, there was a mixup at SSR and I was originally given a regular studio. I could have slept on the sofa for two nights, but was concerned about OKW. MS assured me I had an accessible studio there.

I did - but with the really high beds. It took two more calls, but the head of maintenance called me and we arranged that someone would come in while I was out of the room and remove a bed frame. This worked for me. Sure, it was a little low - but I could get into bed at night!

Which reminds me of a similar experience (ultimately resolved that time, we'll see what happens next week ) in Las Vegas. The bed was too high for me to easily get in, but there was a love seat in the room so I dozed there the first night. In the morning, I called the front desk asking for help. The first person I got suggested that I call Security when I was ready to go to sleep, and someone would come up and help me into bed!!! Um, I don't think so. I did finally speak with an employee (who I hope has been promoted) who arranged for the hotel to swap out my mattress.

eta: Oh, yeah. Now I travel with an E-Z Foldz stepstool. I got the first one at CVS, and two more this past week from the Ace Hardware website. I'll be taking one to Las Vegas with me, and leaving it at my sibling's so I don't have to pack it every time I go.

 

[SueM in MN]

Which reminds me of a similar experience (ultimately resolved that time, we'll see what happens next week ) in Las Vegas. The bed was too high for me to easily get in, but there was a love seat in the room so I dozed there the first night. In the morning, I called the front desk asking for help. The first person I got suggested that I call Security when I was ready to go to sleep, and someone would come up and help me into bed!!! Um, I don't think so.

 

[BroganMc]

Last time I measured the ADA beds at SSR they were around 20 inches. my optimum bed height is 19-21 inches. Anything lower and I have to lean on something to get up. Higher and I need to climb on a telephone book to get in.

Marriott is generally horrible about bed heights. They went to the extra thick 12-14 inch mattresses a while back. Thick, pillowy and absolutely horrendous for pivoting.

My stay last week delivered two bed heights at SSR. The dedicated 2bedroom king in the Springs had a very low 16" height. The mattress and/or box spring was worn. Moving to a newer Grandstand studio gave me my comfortable 20" bed height.

It's all the fault of the newer extra thick mattresses on the market. They added 2-4 inches to mattress height. All your old sheets stopped fitting and the standard bed frames were much too high. If you want a comfortable bed with modern mattresses, you need to get a low profile frame. (Can you tell I've done a lot of bed/mattress shopping in last couple years?)

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Just back and can report on this from two different hotels.

Stayed at Pop for one night in a king bed room (and a connecting double room). My mother (who had a stroke last year and then a very serious illness afterwards which left her unable to walk - she has started walking a little again but still has weakness on the right side) could not get on the king bed - it was incredibly high (being only 5 feet tall myself I had to do the flying leap onto the bed). When I lifted the bedding, it reveiled two box springs and a mattress atop the bed frame.

Stayed at the CR - the queen sized beds were actually a little on the low side - very short bed frame and mattress and thin box spring. I was worried about my mom getting up, but she was able to do a regular two person transfer. Off of the daybed (where she napped when it was just the two of us) she was able to do a one person transfer.

The daybed was close to what I consider the perfect height - my mom is about 5 foot 8 inches and she had no problems getting in or out of it with only minimal assistance (she never transfers in or out of her wheelchair alone - even at home).

At Pop, we had to manouver her wheelchair around the double bed room and keep the connecting door open to wheel her into the bathroom. It would have been impossible for her to transfer into (or out of) the king bed without falling on the floor.

 

[Nanajo1]

I've had trouble with high beds at OKW. I moved the ottoman to the side of the bed and once I sat on the edge I put one foot on the ottoman and pushed myself back.
My sister who is barely 5ft could not get into the bed at OKW. Some how after she complained a stepstool was found for her.

 

[donac]

I noticed how high the beds were at POFQ this past AUg. I had a foot problem and a knee problem and it was a challenge to get into and out of the bed.