Category 3 Question - Room 8602

[KatHuss]

I am trying to get some information on stateroom 8602. We have that reserved for a cruise later this year and I am trying to get some idea of layout, how many tvs are there, which bathroom has the whirlpool, etc. We are bringing my wheelchair bound mother with us and are trying to get some idea of how we should take care of our sleeping arrangements, etc. It will be myself, DH, DD8 and mom.

Thanks for any information!


Kat

 

[MickeyB426]

Cat 3's usually have two TV's - one in the living room, and one in the bedroom. 8602, being a handicapped suite, has a larger verandah.

 

[lildeb724]

We stayed in 8600 in October. Its the room right next door and is handicapped accessible also. There was no whirlpool tub at all. Only two handicap accessible showers. Also there was only a sleeper couch as the room only sleeps four. Would your daughter share the bed with your mother? I would check with Disney and make sure these are the right arrangements for you.
Debbie

 

[KatHuss]

Yes, they know it is three adults and a child so that shouldn't be a problem. If nothing else, DD will sleep in the queen bed with us. The castaway club site has pictures of 8602 and it shows one of the bathrooms with a soaker tub.

Kat

 

[inkkognito]

Yep, it's definitely a soaker tub, not a whirlpool. It's a lovely stateroom, though, and the verandah is enormous.
Barb

 

[justmestace]

We were in 8602 for the 10 night Christmas cruise last month.

They have removed the tub from that room. The Master bath has a large, roll-in shower with a pull-down seat, and there is a large area in front of the toilet that you could turn a wheel chair around in.

The bathroom in the hallway also has a roll in shower, with bars, but no seat.

Two notes of caution: The shower in the Master bath was unusable, as the drains didn't work properly, and flooded the entire bathroom. Even after maintenance came up several times. We didn't mind, we only have one shower in our house, so we are used to sharing. Also, the toilet in the master bath rarely flushed. We were told that there is a "pressure" problem in the back of the ship. The folks in 8600 had little to no pressure in either of their toilets, so we were lucky, as the toilet in our bathroom in the hallway worked fine all the time.

Second, there is a "lip" or an edge to the verandah that makes it a little more difficult to get a wheel chair out there. Not to mention that due to the layout of the room, manuevering the wheelchair around furniture and out the verandah door would be tricky.
DCL doesn't "hold" 8602 and 8102 for specific handicap use because of the difficult layout, and because there is no wiring for any of the Emergency Pull Cords. The cords are there, but they don't work.
Sleeping arrangements: We have a teen daughter and an 11 yr old son, who refused to share the couch bed. The queen in the bedroom does not make into twin beds, it's a true queen. So we took an air mattress for our son to sleep on. It fit when it was laid up next to the verandah door in the living room. The family that had 8102 had DCL bring in a roll-away bed, as they had the same situation with their kids. DCL will not admit to having rollaway beds, though....but I took a picture of it. They moved the dining room table, and put the bed up next to the door that adjoins to 8100. I didn't want to do that, because then there was NO room to move about the living area, and it half blocked the bedroom door.
I have a lot of pictures...if you PM me your e-mail address, I will send you some.
Would I stay in that room again? Most definitely....my husband and I loved the verandah....even though there really is no privacy out there. But we don't have to try to manuever a wheel chair, either.

Also, there was some discussion on these boards a while back where one family said that at night they got wet (or any belongings that they kept on the verandah) from the crew hosing down the buffet area up above. Some people said they didn't recall this happening......I can guarantee you that after 10 nights there......EVERY night they hosed the deck above, and every night it did wash down to the verandah. We just didn't leave anything out there, and if WE were out there, we learned to run.

 

[justmestace]

I forgot you asked about the TV's.

There were 2 small tv's at first. One very small one in the bedroom, on the desk. And one slightly larger in the living room entertainment unit. After the 4th day or so, the came while we were out, and put a larger TV in the entertainment unit.
One other thing....when the couch is folded out into a bed, there is no room to walk between it and the entertainment unit to get to the verandah door and/or the desk in the living room.

My opinion.....even though the verandah is huge...this room is not suitable as handicap, unless there are only two people in the room, and the couch is never opened.