2 replies to this topic

[Rossi-46]

wheather it is planes , trains or cruise ships what problems have you come up against.

[qbounce]

I asked again and again if this car rental company had a wheelchair adaptive van to pick me up in to take me to its service center . . . even after I'd landed at the airport.

From there I planned on renting a regular car that my manual chair could easily break down in, after I'd transfer in with a slide board.

Anyway, they showed up with their regular van, no lift, and the guy slid the door open, looked at me and said, "well, hop in."

He went back and got a regular car because it turns out, they don't have a van with a lift, as they said they did time and again. Good thing I'm in a MANUAL chair. I could only imagine what others go through in a motorized one.

This was my very first time traveling, so lesson learned. From now on, I'll request a regular car to pick me up anywhere.

[jscott92064]

We made the mistake of not really checking into how accessible the area was for a wheelchair. We went to Catalina Island, CA, last weekend and were fortunate enough to stay at this hotel where they treat you like family. They secured a golf cart for us for the weekend (at an amazingly cheap price compared to a standard rental) as it seemed everything was on a hill and there was no way I could push my husband everywhere.

The other part was the only way we could get to the island was by ferry or helicopter. We took the ferry on the way over and my husband got very cold - AD started to kick in big time. I thought we had dressed him warmly enough and I had to press the crew for a blanket from their first aid kit. (They did not want to give it to me at first - not really understanding what AD was. Played a little game with me --sorry, maam, no blankets and I was like --okay, so someone falls off the boat and you haul them back in, what is the first thing you put on them? Gee, a blanket from your first aid kit --I'll take that.)

In the future, we'll make sure to bring one of those small thermal blankets (probably one from first aid kits), etc., something easy to carry so we have it just in case. (On the way back, we took the helicopter ride --rode with a marine who lifted my husband in and out of the helicopter -no sweat!)

Turns out Catalina Island is just not built well for disabled folks --the infrastructure is old and just not set up that way. Still a gorgeous place and we made the best of it!!! Next time, we should do more homework as I think we were lucky how things fell into place for us.