Nassau! Wheelchair, Atlantis, HOW?

[Don Prince]

Wife uses electric wheelchair and we would like to visit atlantis but was informed that water taxis are not accessable. Is there any accessable transportation on the island? Is Atlantis within walking distance a mile is not to far for us. Help!


Thanks everyone for the info. This is first cruise with wife in wheelchair. We are advenurous and if there is a way we will find it, if not we will have the ship to ourselves, lol

 

[LibertyBelle]

Unfortunatley Atlantis is not within walking distance and transportation for wheelchairs is sparce in Nassau. Being they are not US they obviously don't follow the ADA laws, so their transportation unfortunatley does not accomodate wheelchairs.

Just a side note, The only port that I know of (other than Castaway) that does/can accomodate is St Thomas and that is because it is a US Virgin Island and Disney actually sent over a wheelchair accessible van (from Hilton Head that they were not using) and "donated" it to one of the taxi companies with the exclusive rights to it on days the Magic is in port. They were trying to negotiate the same type of deal with nassau but to my knowledge it never went through.

 

[videogal1]

Originally posted by Don Prince
Wife uses electric wheelchair and we would like to visit atlantis but was informed that water taxis are not accessable. Is there any accessable transportation on the island? Is Atlantis within walking distance a mile is not to far for us. Help!

I found Nassau to be largely inaccessible. I was there in May and took my own tour by way of scooter power. I do not recommend this and will not do it again as the sidewalks are very rough, the curb cuts scarce or broken, and the streets a major hassle to use, even for short distances between curb cuts. I won't go into the social problems I encountered on my little foray into the area around the port... I will be returning to Nassau in November and am still poking around for accessible excursions but even if I leave the scooter on the ship it is not likely that my service dog will be welcome, although I'd really like to see him lounging on a catamaran....

 

[abitjaded]

Ahh, bummer. There is a wheelchair group going on a 3 or 4 day cruise under the guise of Deb's site? October maybe. Cannot recall the details of where or when. I'll scout a bit and see if I can come up with the links, Chuck's fourwheelers or something? Maybe they will figure something out.

Edited: Looks like it happened in May, and his name was Chet, see how good my memory is? Is that what you took, Lynda? (You might check out shoretrips, they were great at arranging something for our group in St Thomas before DCL had a clue.) But here is a link with more links to a wheelchair crusin' company:

http://allearsnet.com/pl/mev_chet7.htm

I emailed Chet the link, since I cannot find parts of the trip on Deb's, but he works for a "rival" agency to DU, so don't know if he posts here.

Carla

 

[DramaTech]

Hi Carla,

Thanks for emailing me the link. I am allowed to post, and even offer info on FreeWheelin', with permission from the DIS. I have a contact at DCL who has offered to arrange wheelchair transportation to Atlantis. I am not comfortable with releasing her name and number on the boards, but if you'll PM me, Don Prince, I'll be glad to pass it along so that you can get some assistance. She works at the Special Needs desk at DCL and helped us extensively with FreeWheelin' Disney 2004.

By the way, we're doing it again...FreeWheelin' Disney 2005 will take place in November, 2005. Check out http://www.freewheelintravel.com for more details.

-Chet

 

[videogal1]

Originally posted by abitjaded
Ahh, bummer. There is a wheelchair group going on a 3 or 4 day cruise under the guise of Deb's site?

Edited: Looks like it happened in May, and his name was Chet, see how good my memory is? Is that what you took, Lynda?

Carla

Yes, I was a member of the first Freewheelin' cruise in May '04 and have also signed on for the second Freewheelin' cruise...May '05.

I keep hoping Nassau will get better, I guess...

 

[Don Prince]

Just got of the phone with dcl and was informed as of a week ago they no longer use the water taxis to Atlantis. They use buses and some, (Probably one) have lifts. Made a request for the Atlantis excursion noting the need for a lift. I will let you know what happens.
Thanks All,
Don