Onsite wheelchair accessible rooms

[MadViBe]

I have looked on the website for rooms for five. We will be a family of three adults (including my disabled daughter) and two children aged 10 and 11.
I found regular rooms that sleep five in both the Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans. I realised that I had missed the accessible rooms box so redone the search.
I found that the only rooms to come up were Value family rooms, the cabins or deluxe resorts. All of these options are more expensive than the moderate resorts of CB and PO.
I find it alarming that I will be paying more for a room for five than a regular non disabled family of five needs to.
Is this correct or am I missing something?
My daughter has microcephally which includes severe learning difficulties. She uses a wheelchair as has extremely tight joints and cannot hold her balance for long.
Thankyou

Edited as wrote incorrect number in party.

 

[stitchlovestink]

The problem is that each room in those resorts offering the Murphy bed for the 5th person are the same size. The way the HCA rooms are proportioned though are different. Since the need to make the bathroom larger in a HCA room, they have to take that space from the "sleeping" area. That means the sleeping area is already going to be smaller. The rooms that accommodate a 5th person are already crowded. And now you want them to fit 5 in an even smaller space? It's just not possible because then the HC person will probably be complaining that there isn't enough room to move around in their WC/ECV. Unfortunately, that is the way it is. Disney is not obligated to offer HCA rooms of every configuration.
Your other option is to book a value and request connecting rooms. That would probably be cheaper than a deluxe and you would have 2 bathrooms...a huge plus!!

 

[lanejudy]

If non-HA rooms are offered for 5 guests, I believe WDW must also have something comparable to offer as HA for a family of 5. The issue OP may have run into is that there are limited number of HA rooms, so it is highly possible any sleeping 5 at CBR or POR are already booked. OP doesn't mention the timeframe.

It may be possible to find a room if you can be flexible with dates and length if stay. I have read numerous reports of the WDW booking system being challenging for exact dates but adjusting arrival and/or departure dates may find an opening.

Good luck and enjoy your vacation!

 

[LilyWDW]

I am going to agree with Lanejudy. I am sure that Disney offers rooms of the makeup you are needing at those prices, but they only have to offer a specific percentage of them. Once they are gone, they are gone. It is very likely that the ones you are looking for have already been booked.

 

[MadViBe]

I have checked loads of dates, Ive checked for a week mid month, from May through to November. All of them coming up the same.
The POR has 'normal' rooms for 5 guests but only 4 guests allowed in the adapted rooms.

 

[jmartinez1895]

We booked a roll in room at POR for 5 and had to book a year in advance and had to be flexible with the dates. I can't speak for the other resorts, but POR has a very limited number of HC rooms for 5 and they book fast.

 

[DisneyOma]

I have looked on the website for rooms for five. We will be a family of five adults (including my disabled daughter) and two children aged 10 and 11.

Why do you need a room for five when you are a group of seven?

 

[MadViBe]

Sorry. I miss typed. We are a group of five. Three adults and two children.

 

[MadViBe]

We booked a roll in room at POR for 5 and had to book a year in advance and had to be flexible with the dates. I can't speak for the other resorts, but POR has a very limited number of HC rooms for 5 and they book fast.

I am pleased to hear that they offer them in the POR. Are the roll in rooms layed out the same as the regular rooms ?

 

[jmartinez1895]

I am sending you a Pm or conversation as they call it here with our personal experience.

 

[SueM in MN]

If non-HA rooms are offered for 5 guests, I believe WDW must also have something comparable to offer as HA for a family of 5. The issue OP may have run into is that there are limited number of HA rooms, so it is highly possible any sleeping 5 at CBR or POR are already booked. OP doesn't mention the timeframe.

It may be possible to find a room if you can be flexible with dates and length if stay. I have read numerous reports of the WDW booking system being challenging for exact dates but adjusting arrival and/or departure dates may find an opening.

Good luck and enjoy your vacation!

Agree with this.

Whether the layout of the accessible rooms is different or not depends on the type of accessibility you need.
If you need a roll in shower, the bathroom area will be larger compared to a standard room. That is necessary to make space in the bathroom for maneuvering with a wheelchair and also for the roll in shower.
They 'get' that space by making the sleeping area slightly smaller compared to standard rooms (and also, at some resorts, squaring off the area by the door and window).

If you don't need a roll in shower room and just need features like grab bars in the bathroom, the room plan will be pretty much the same as in standard rooms. It may not be possible to bring a wheelchair into the bathroom, but you would be able to get close.
There are more of those rooms with grab bars available than there are rooms with roll in showers.

Also, Caribbean Beach is undergoing a renovation this year. Some areas are being built into Disney Vacation Club villas. That would affect availability at Caribbean Beach and also the other moderate resorts.

 

[powellrj]

If you don't need a roll-in shower and can make-do with grab bars, you can request a shower bench from housekeeping which is what we did last time we couldn't get a roll-in shower.

 

[mamabunny]

We have had times when we were not able to book a particular room category that we *knew* existed at a certain WDW Resort, at all.

However... there were only 4 of that type room at that particular Resort. And with the help of a very long-suffering and patient CM, we found out that those four rooms had indeed been booked nearly non-stop for months.

If those rooms are just booked up (and I would suspect they are) you will need to adjust your accommodation preferences. There have been several times in the last few years where we simply didn't get either the room, the Resort, or both, that we wanted. It happens. Our last trip, we did a "split stay" and were able to stay in the room we wanted at both Resorts, but had to move Resorts halfway through our stay. (I DO NOT LIKE SPLIT STAYS! Can you tell? LOL)

As Sue said, CBR is going to have crazy amounts of construction going on for quite a while it looks like. The Cabins are great - but they are more expensive. I kind of feel like it's worth it though; We stayed in one this past September with a roll-in shower, and fell completely in love with Fort Wilderness. The Cabins are quiet, and the other campers are so friendly! I lovedlovedloved the full kitchen - it was great to have a dishwasher and a full size fridge! The entire cabin was wheelchair friendly, and I could easily get about the entire layout. That's the Reader's Digest Condensed Version for you...

Here's a floor plan:



I've never (yet) stayed in any of the family suites at the Values. If I had to choose, I would probably lean towards ASM because I like the way the layout looks. The bonus with either of those suites is you will get two bathrooms - and those are the only place short of a DVC Villa or a super-high end Deluxe suite where that happens at WDW. These images are copied from someone else's post here at the DIS (I think it was Poohsie) (I keep them in my WDW planning folder)

Here's floor plans for ASM and AOA Family Suites:



The ASM suites are more "hotel" like - there isn't as much heavy theming, so if you think you would want or need a visual break from all the Disney, that might be a good choice. The AOA suites have a dining table that pulls down and turns into a bed at night, along with a double sofa bed, so plenty of sleeping space as well. AOA is heavily themed around different movies, but they really are adorable. And, at 565 square feet, you will have lots of space for everyone.