claustrophobia-no elevators please

[2bears]

I will be making the trip to BCV in June with my family, including my mother (75 years old) my father (80 years old) and my sister (50 years old). My mother and sister are extremely claustrophobic and refuse to ride in an elevator--they take the stairs everywhere. My dad has to take the elevator, because he can't get up the stairs.
My question is this: We have reserved a 2BR at BCV. My husband and I have stayed before on the Epcot side (4th. floor) and really liked it. Would a lower level (1-3rd. floor) be as good a room for the fireworks view? I don't know if even they could make it up 4 flights of stairs after walking around the parks all day. Are there any 2BR rooms on those floors? Is there a listing of the kinds of rooms on the various floors posted on this site anywhere?
We really didn't want a handicapped room because of the strange bathroom arrangement. Any ideas.

 

[DebbieB]

See Doc's building configuration, there are 2 bedrooms on all floors:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=257950

Unless she is in great shape, I don't think your 75 year old mother should be up and down the steps the whole trip. I wouldn't want to walk up to the 4th floor at the end of the day, it's actually 8 flights of stairs. Second floor would be my limit. Those stairs are actually fire escapes, not pretty. I would request first floor.

 

[Tigger031266]

I have a great ride for them at MGM.
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[robinb]

Put that into your request. 1st floor near the main entrance due to health reasons. You can also add "Epcot side". I was in a handicapped (not by my choice) studio which was on the first floor, right past the elevators. If you look at Doc's map in the link above, it was in the red area. Look here: http://www.allearsnet.com/acc/map_bcyc.jpg and you can find in along the walkway just about where the "U" of the main building meets the long wing. We could not see the fireworks from our room, but we could see them over the trees if we stepped out to the sidewalk. Even if you don't get an Epcot view you can always walk to the sidewalk. There were pleny of people doing just that every night.

 

[dianeschlicht]

There was a post a week or so ago that BCV was not reserving "fireworks views" anymore, because there was something going up that would block them in the future. Anyone know any more about that yet?

 

[CarolA]

Are there villas on the FIrst floor towards Epcot?
(Personally I would just move to OKW max three floors!)

 

[robinb]

Are there villas on the FIrst floor towards Epcot?
(Personally I would just move to OKW max three floors!)

There are, but you can't see Epcot from the first floor. You can see the fireworks over the trees. FWIW, fiends had an Epcot (aka Epcot Resorts Blvd) view back in 2003 and I wasn't impressed. Backstage doesn't interest me and Epcot itself is a better place to watch the fireworks.

 

[donmil723]

My DH is also claustrophobic and has panic attacks in elevators. Thanks to being stuck in one at our state capital several years ago. We always requested 1st or 2nd floor at BCV and told MS the reason and they always came through for us. However, after our first couple of stays at BCV, we convinced my DH to try the BCV elevators as they have mirrors on the back wall which make them seem larger than they are and they are also fast and quiet. Thankfully, it didn't bother him and now we can stay on any floor. Now I am the one who always wants to use the stairs so I can burn more calories!

We stayed in a dedicated 2 bedroom #353 in December and were able to watch most of the fireworks from Illuminations from our balcony. The only rooms I wouldn't want to stay in are on the first floor and maybe the second floor halfway down the leg of the Y if you look at a map (even # rooms x46-x52). They are too near the trash/loading/unloading area.

Donna

 

[QUACKHEAD]

I have a great ride for them at MGM.
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Tigger.....I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY.......that was totally called for!!!!

 

[dis-happy]

Okay, I don't like elevators either. Here's what happened to me when we went to Epcot last month. We visited the Living Seas. We got into the hydrolators. I'm kind of freaking out when more and more people started to cram in behind us, and I'm trying to shoo them away saying we are FULL and will be over the WEIGHT LIMIT! Then, as they hydrolator descends, I'm clutching dh's hand, trying not to hyperventilate. The doors open, we are out of there, WHEW!!!! Later on the entire family laughed and laughed at me as they tried to convince me that the hydrolators are fake and don't go anywhere. I didn't believe them until I looked it up in the UG. Soooo, if want to play a mean trick on your relatives, you know where to go....

 

[robinb]

I wonder if there is a hydrolator by-pass. I would think that anyone with an elevator phobia would still be very nervous in anything that even looked like an elevator.

 

[CarolA]

Supposedly someone once sued Disney claiming that their eardrums popped due to the "rapid descent" in the hydrolators! LOL!

 

[kathleena]

MS will no longer take requests for "Epcot View". At the time I called, I was not even allowed to put in "Epcot side". I suppose you could try "road view".

But, given you have three qualifiers already, (low floor, near BC, epcot view), plus the 2br, I would just list the first two with medical reasons and take what you get for a view. You are really limiting yourself to just a few rooms with even just the first two requests, and if people are in the rooms that meet those two requests when they are assigning your room - you don't have much choice anyway.

 

[kathleena]

Supposedly someone once sued Disney claiming that their eardrums popped due to the "rapid descent" in the hydrolators! LOL!

Oh Dear!

I know the first hydrolators go nowhere - but aren't the set to leave the building real elevators? You go into the building and keep going up a ramp to get to a floor above ground and then when leave - you get into the elevators at that same level, but when you come out you are at ground level.

And I agree - fake or not - people with claustrophobia will have a hard time being in a small space.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

I didn't realize how bad I get freaked out in tight spaces until I did Mission Space!!! I can handle most things, I get sweaty when the elevators are packed, or standing in line to close, stuck in traffice, but I can usually work through it! but man Mission Space was it!!! This was after they "toned it down"!! NEVER AGAIN!!! Messed me up for over 24 hours!

 

[IsAreWasWereAm]

I didn't realize how bad I get freaked out in tight spaces until I did Mission Space!!! ... NEVER AGAIN!!! Messed me up for over 24 hours!

Agreed! Kinda makes you thankful for laundry facilities at DVC resorts, doesn't it?

 

[Beca]

I wonder if there is a hydrolator by-pass. I would think that anyone with an elevator phobia would still be very nervous in anything that even looked like an elevator.

Yes..that's how I learned it was "fake". My mom is very claustrophobic. She got in the hydrolator when we were little, "freaked out" and had to get off (she also did this in 20,000 leagues under the sea). We thought we would be touring the living seas without her, but when the doors opened...there was my mom grinning like an idiot!!! She couldn't have made it to a stairwell and back before we got out...I knew at that moment it was fake...I was SO mad at her for ruining it for me (and, probably everyone else on the hydrolator).

I am NEVER letting onto my kids that it is fake...it was the coolest experience when I was little. You should've seen how BIG my dd's eyes were when we rode it last time!!!

But, if any member wants to "bypass" the hydrolator, just tell the CM that directs you that you would like to do so, and they let you thru a door to the side. Sad part...now that she knows it is fake....my mom LOVES the thing!! I guess it is like a "thrill ride" for her.



Beca