Water wheelchair?

[uncspin]

Have any of the wheelchair users on this board used the water wheelchair that is available at Poly, GF, BLT, etc.? DH and I have talked about using in the past, but haven't. We may try this year. We have used a beach wheelchair in the past; how similar/different is this?

 

[zaksmom]

We've used them at Animal Kingdom Lodge (a few years ago) and Caribbean Beach (more recently). Each posed a different difficulty for transfering my son. Both were white plastic pvc type chairs like we've seen at the beach. The seat on the one at the Caribbean Beach was a little too high, but I could get him up on it. Used it one time. We ended up using a small transport chair that we got at COSTCO just in case the pool chair didn't work -- with the hot sun it dried quickly. At AKL we were unable to use the chair -- it could be different now since it's been a few years. If I remember correctly the footrests got in the way of a safe transfer. They gave us a regular wheelchair to use for the trip -- just rolled him in and took it right out to dry. Hope this helps.
Have fun!

 

[disnutnat]

My husband is a quad and we have used the pool chair at BLT. It is plastic with a net like seat. He transferred from his chair into the pool chair and then the pool chair can roll right into the pool (at BLT anyway). BLT has a zero entry pool, which means it's like the beach and it gradually gets deeper until you're all the way in. A lifeguard at BLT said that all of the deluxe resorts are zero entry, which makes it easy for getting in and out. My hubby transferred out of the pool chair into the pool and was able to float around with his life vest on. You can also just sit on the bottom of the pool in the shallow area. Getting out was easy, just roll the chair in deep enough so that he could transfer on and I pushed him out. There were not foot rests, so he had to hold his feet up himself, but it made life super easy for us!
Hope that helps!