VGF Handicapped Accessible 2 Bedroom

[GranJan]

I was just able to book a handicapped accessible room at VGF for Oct 2014. Can anyone tell me about them. My daughter & her family will be using the 2nd bedroom. Some accessible rooms we've stayed have no storage in the bathrooms & I hesitated to book a HA room for that reason. With 3 kids she needs storage. I need the HA room for myself though. Are both bathrooms of a 2 BR accessible or just the master bath? If both are, will she still have storage? At least at VGF I know she'll still have a tub & not just a roll-in shower. Thanks for any info.

 

[wdrl]

The VGF Map and Villa Room Numbers thread shows the location of some of the Handicap Accessible villa. So far, only one HA 2BR villa has been posted to the thread: Villa 1424, a Standard View Dedicated Two-Bedroom. Click here to see some photos of the views from the villa and a photo of the bathroom.

BCV23, who stayed in the villa, posted "1424 is a dedicated two bedroom, H/A with a tub/shower combo in the master. No roll in shower."

I'm sorry I don't have more specifics to offer you, but hopefully someone else will post with more useful information.

Good luck!

 

[GranJan]

Thanks for the info. The pictures worry me though. Nothing about that bathroom looks accessible. I see no grab bars or hand held shower in the tub or grab bars by the toilet. I assume that's the master bath? Is it possible some of the other standard view 2 BR are HA & no one has posted that info to the thread yet or do you have another way of knowing which rooms are HA?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Hmmmm - that is the strangest HA config and I'm more than a little doubtful about it although I saw that is what was reported. It just looks exactly like the toilet tub room in the second bedroom of our standard 2BR. I can't imagine they installed that as the HA bathroom in the master - it's just not HA and the standard set up would be better in most cases.

OP - the booking options on the website are fairly specific so if you request a roll in shower then that is what you should get. Here's the picture of part of the 2nd bathroom in our 2BR so you can see that there was a grab bar for the tub but this was not an HA villa. I'd guess that the same grab bar is in the photo and I have photos from a studio and a GV and see that the tub/shower combos all have the same grab bar.

I've never been in nor seen pictures of a DVC resort where the 2nd bathroom in a Dedicated 2BR has been HA - it's always the master. But other than the pictures referenced I have not seen any other reported VGF HA room pictures.

 

[BillPA]

Normally only the master bedroom is set up to be HA.
You might ask for a lock off, with HA in the 'studio' side. Not sure if that is available or not, just a thought.

 

[GranJan]

Actually, it would be great if only the master bath is accessible. That's all we need & I just didn't want my daughter & 3 small children to deal with the disadvantages of a HA room. We considered VWL but pictures of the HA rooms showed just a sink on the wall with no counter space or storage. Our last trip we had a regular room at BLT & it made me realize I now need a HA room but don't want the rest of the family to sacrifice for me. The room we booked at VGF is a dedicated 2 BR & said it was wheelchair accessible with a tub & grab bars at the toilet. Those pictures didn't look that way. That must be the 2nd bathroom. I hope your right about only the master bath being accessible. I tried roll-in showers once & hated it. It seems they would only work if you actually had something to roll yourself in there. I use a walker in the room & trying to get in & out of that roll-in was treacherous with all the wet floors. I just wanted a tub with hand-held sprayer. I'll rent a nice shower bench like I have at home. I can just sit down, swing my legs over, then I have dry floor to get up on. The grab-bars in the toilet area are needed too. The only HA room I've ever stayed in was a studio with roll-in so I have no idea how the 2 BRs are set up. I also wonder about the kitchen...I saw a post about the stove being so low that children could turn it on. Hope that's not true with my small GKs.

 

[rlovew]

I don't remember there being any storage room in the bathroom of our VGF non-handicapped studio- maybe we were able to put one toiletry bag on the bathroom sink but I don't think we could really put much of anything on it- I don't think they have bathroom storage either way.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

When my mother was traveling with us we just got in the habit of renting a elevated toilet seat (the kind that can also be used as a stand alone) and placing the frame over the bowl.

The height can be adjusted as needed and we no longer had ANY worries about their being grab bars. We actually were first supplied with one at AKV on a trip where it first became apparent we needed to address some accessibility issues and after that we just rented it since the resort supplied was not guaranteed. The walk in shower was fine since I assisted her and the resorts always had a sit down stool to use. I don't know if they had a full transfer bench for a tub though. The walk in shower at VGF has an adjustable height shower head but, for example, at VWL they did not so maintenance came and installed a handheld head in the shower for while we were there. So if you are having issues with anything do check with housekeeping and maintenance and see if they have items to assist or else places like Care Medical (which is where we rented from) can get you set up very quickly with assistance devices. We even would rent a lift chair for Mom.

Many of the HA rooms will have lower kitchen counters, lower switches and lower beds which we otherwise did not need and actually were more difficult from Mom to bend over since she was using a walker and not a wheelchair. We just needed the shower bench and the grab bars by the toilet. This also was before Disney was required to have the HA booking options online and better descriptions so I just hated not being certain of what we would get and decided to make it easy on us all and provide what we needed via the rentals and/or items from the resort when needed.

Here's a shot of the shower head and bench next to it in the walk in shower of the master of our VGF 2BR standard view:

Here's the master tub and they also placed a grab bar at the end of it to help steady although it's not handy for much else.

As was mentioned there is counter top "storage" in the 2nd bathroom but it's an open leg design so not much storage either way.

 

[GranJan]

Thank you so much...these are very helpful! Looks like there's plenty of storage in the 2nd bath...the counter space & the shelf above the sink at least gives you some space. The picture I saw of the remodeled VWL just had the porcelain sink with no shelf. After I struggled so much at BLT on our last trip, I was about ready to give up traveling. Our daughter was in the studio section & I noticed the day we were leaving that the sink & counter was next to the toilet in their room. That would've worked better for me than the master bath since you'd have the counter to grab onto. My husband said we'd just get a HA room next time or rent what we need to make things easier. Renting one of those toilet things just seems gross to me...I don't know why. I figured with the HA room we wouldn't have to rent so much equipment.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thank you so much...these are very helpful! Looks like there's plenty of storage in the 2nd bath...the counter space & the shelf above the sink at least gives you some space. The picture I saw of the remodeled VWL just had the porcelain sink with no shelf. After I struggled so much at BLT on our last trip, I was about ready to give up traveling. Our daughter was in the studio section & I noticed the day we were leaving that the sink & counter was next to the toilet in their room. That would've worked better for me than the master bath since you'd have the counter to grab onto. My husband said we'd just get a HA room next time or rent what we need to make things easier. Renting one of those toilet things just seems gross to me...I don't know why. I figured with the HA room we wouldn't have to rent so much equipment.

Hmmm - well - I'd bet it's sanitized far better than any of the bathroom bits in the parks or any public place. Probably more sanitary than any other seating in the rooms. It's just a piece of equipment and one that can be cleaned and sanitized quite easily.

The issue can become that there are various configurations of HA room and it really just depends on what your needs are. I preferred not to struggle with getting things the way Mom needed. So knowing what she needed we preferred to rent. She knew what she was getting and we knew what we were getting and also weren't confined in our booking.

 

[GranJan]

You're right about the sanitizing. If I couldn't get a HA room I'd rent one of those. I see what you mean about just renting what you need to make the room work for you. Then you don't have any unknowns to worry about. Thanks so much for your help