When people think of WDW, they think of KIDS. MAYBE young adults. But NO ONE thinks the older generations love it just as much as the kids do! A prime example is my 76 year old father, with numerous health issues. We've been to Disney World with Dad 8 times. If you ask him about any of his trips, he'll tell you about THREE things: The Lion King Show, Flame Tree Barbecue, & Spaceship Earth. To him, there's nothing else there. Those are his three favorite things. He poses with the characters, sings & claps with the shows and parades, and is willing to wait hours to see the nighttime events.
The past two years have been hard on Dad. His health has really deteriorated to the point that he is almost completely wheelchair bound. That's hard on someone who up until 2 years ago was getting on the church roof to make repairs! He was a very ACTIVE man and walked so fast that my sister and I had difficulty keeping up with him! So now, he has been diagnosed with cancer and undergone radiation, been diagnosed with "Black Lung Disease" as a result of his 30+ years of fire fighting, a blood disorder, vertigo, and I could go on. As a result of all of these issues, he became depressed. My sister and I came up with a plan. Let's go on a vacation. We named several places, easy and relaxing, that we thought he would be able to handle. His reply? "I'd rather go back to Disney World." Well, alrighty then. We planned the trip.
The date we chose was September 9-16, 2017. Kids would be back in school, so maybe the crowds wouldn't be so bad. The weather would still be warm and not too cold. Dad is very cold natured. Well, IRMA had other plans! THREE days before we were to leave, Hurricane Irma decided we didn't need a vacation right now. UGH!!! We were SOOOO close!!!
Thanks to awesome cast members at Disney and associates at Delta, we were able to reschedule our trip to January 6-13, 2018. There were no penalties or complications. We had to change our resort but, oh well, we'll be at Disney! Our goal is to stay at every resort anyway!
This blog is to highlight things from a "handicap" point of view. Everything from dining reservations to flights and transportation to rides.
Our dining reservations are done. We lost a few due to having to reschedule because of that dang Irma, but we managed to get the main ones we wanted. The most important one was Hoop Dee Doo Review. Dad LOVES this show! I think it's because of the food! When you have someone with accessibility issues, it makes a difference in which category you can get. There are 3 categories, but for wheelchair access, you can only choose categories 1 or 2. This will put you on the main floor, and the two times we've done it before, we were on the right side of the stage. There really is no bad seat here!
With any dining reservation, be sure to tell them you have a wheelchair bound person in your group. Not only does that let the restaurant help with seat arrangements, they can also offer additional assistance if need be. Or if you use the app, there is an option for you to choose wheelchair access. Dad is able to transfer from his chair, so we leave the wheelchair along the side somewhere in the restaurant, out of the way. That comes in handy at SciFi Dine In Theater. He likes sitting in the cars!
Check back during our trip, as I will be updating with information on how our trip went!!
Tammy Carathers is a Vacation Specialist with Coasters & Castles Travel.
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