A Close Look at the Accessibility of a Luxury Hotel in Orlando

Ever wondered how accessible the Caribbean Royal Hotel in Orlando, Florida truly is? For its first anniversary of #NationalAccessibleAirTravelDay,  we're diving deep into every nook and cranny - from the thermostat to the shower gel placement to the furniture layout - to bring you a thorough understanding of the hotel's temporary and long-term accessibility features. We discuss the thoughtful designs such as the lower height placement of thermostats and outlets and bountiful spacing for wheelchair maneuverability, plus we delve into the smart furniture arrangement that accommodates additional medical devices.

But our investigation doesn't stop there. We're scrutinizing accessible amenities like bathroom facilities, elevators, and ground-floor rooms. We weigh the pros and cons of the rolling shower and explore the convenience of wall-attached toiletries. We also assess the accessibility of the pool area and delve into the significance of disability home ownership. Lastly, we share tips on disabled-friendly taxi services and discuss the vital role of real estate agents and developers in creating truly accessible homes. Join us for this enlightening conversation on making living spaces accessible for all. Click here for the transcript. 

To  learn more about national accessible air travel day, check out www.allwheelsup.org 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to AI Home Podcast, the first podcast for real estate resources and independent living strategies for the disability community. Why? Because accessibility is home. Hi, I'm Angela Fox, blogger, author and your host. Now let's begin. So today I'm doing real quick in regards to some recent travel. As you can see, I'm staying in a particular hotel, so I apologize for the echo, but I was on travel.

Speaker 1: 0:33

And one thing I've always said, when you are looking for what kind of applications to do in your own home, if you are a person with a disability aging in place or you simply want to make sure that your home is available for all states, for all stages of life is if you want inspiration as far as something that you can touch and feel, as of just Googling online. I think photos are great resource for modifications. It's always hotels. They have always been on the front line as far as living accommodations, as far as housing accommodations, even if it's just meant for temporarily, for a few days or a week or two. So I always like to suggest to individuals if you want to make sure that a modification will work for you or you just need something a little bit more inspirational than what you can find on Google, is to go to accessible hotel rooms, and today I am at the Caribbean Royal in Orlando, florida, and they are on road to drive. So if you want to go back and I've been very impressed overall with the modifications to the hotel as well as the pool so one thing I have found in this particular room is that a lot more things are accessible that you may not get in other hotels, even if they say they are ADA compliant, because you've got to really look at the room all this futures and not just get into the room. And also, can I use the bathroom? Traditionally is what hotels have really focused on as far as modification, but here at the Caribbean Royal hotel resort is a lot more than that. So what do I mean by that?

Speaker 1: 2:30

Let me go into a few things that you may not think about as far as accessibility for a house or for a hotel room, and one thing is that the thermostat is actually lower where I can meet and reach it in a wheelchair. So for those of you who are new, for my accessibility is home podcast channel is that I am a paraplegic, which means I can't walk, stand or even move my feet, so I've been that since four years since I was born. One thing that's really important to make sure I can reach everything, and one thing, as I just mentioned, is the thermostat. It is much lower so I can reach out or have to ask for someone else, so that is fantastic. Another thing that you may not necessarily think about is how many plugs are in this room, and the reason why I imagine that is if you are in an electric wheelchair, like myself I have a travel wheelchair where I'm on travel, called the Airhawk travel chair, and it folds up. Or you may have some other medical device that requires electricity, and if you only have two, three or four plugs, that may do the job for your electric wheelchair, your electrical medical device that you need to charge up. But what about your cell phone? What about your computer? What about other families who also have a cell phone in a computer? So if you're traveling with them? So having three or four outlets can be very cumbersome, I think, for any family.

Speaker 1: 4:01

Here at the Caribbean Royal, they have a million outlets. It's phenomenal. So the room I'm in which is a rolling shower, the bedroom has outlets on every wall, including underneath the TV, which I think is phenomenal, and then on top of that. They have the standard little clock for if you want to set your alarm or just know the time, but within this little clock this actually places where you can plug in a USB port and just a regular plug. So that was fantastic and they have two clocks.

Speaker 1: 4:35

And another thing you want to be mindful as far as outlets. Can you reach them? Is it convenient or is it furniture that might be in a way that your wheelchair can't really move around or whatever device you may be using? Here at the Caribbean Royal Hotel there's a living space in the hotel room that I have that has another TV, a pullout couch and a table, and there are additional outlets there. I am very impressed with the outlets as far as the number and accessibility for individuals who may be lowered because they're in a wheelchair, or even children as well. Another thing that I think is really interesting is the fact that behind me you see the curtains, so there was a particular shade or night shade to block out the light, and then you have the decorative curtains that go left and right. Oftentimes I can't reach the pole to pull off the curtain or even have it handled to move it left and right, so a lot of people don't really think about that.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Another thing that could be a hidden mist is how the furniture is arranged itself in the hotel, meaning that sometimes there's not a lot of space between a wall and a bed, and so that may be problematic to me. For wheelchair users, can I reel around the bed, get next to the bed and then obviously have outlets nearby when I'm at that location? So here in the Caribbean Royal there's a lot of space not just between the nightstand and the bed, but also the corners themselves are empty without furniture. So if you want to put something away like a wheelchair that you can fold up and put in the corner, there's plenty of space on either side of the bed to do that as well Be able to maneuver around. I am always excited to see that as as well.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Also, another thing that might be a little bit pit and miss is if there is a refrigerator and microwave and a coffee maker, if you do have that type of stuff in your room. Not all rooms obviously have that, but if you do, can you reach it from a wheelchair? Here at the KLB Royale, in the living room portion of my particular hotel room, I was delighted that the cabinetry. Underneath the second TV that's in the living room. Actually, if you open that up, there's a refrigerator and a microwave. So they are at the waist level, or actually slightly below waist level, just to give you a framework. So I was super excited and the counter space is throughout the KLB hotel room, which let me by counter space, the counter space underneath the TV, as well as your bathroom sink. Any knife stands I can wrap into counter space. Are they at the level where I can touch it? And then, particularly here, there's a coffee maker and it was on top of the counter and I can reach all of that. So that's all those things that you don't necessarily think about.

Speaker 1: 7:41

One thing I want to leave with is the door to get outside, one thing that sometimes can be missed is there a people at my level? I certainly don't like to open up the door with strangers. So that's something that is there for KLB. That's something that can be missed in accessible hotel rooms and maybe within your own particular home you might have a people or some way that you don't have to open up the door for security reasons. The actual lock I can also reach on the exterior door for my hotel room, which can also be missed sometimes away above, and also consider that for your own home as well.

Speaker 1: 8:21

The one thing I do have to mention, that's a little bit of deterrence. The door itself does not. The exterior door itself does not have a push button, so you have to manually open. That to be problematic as well. It was heavy, I don't think necessarily the door, but the mechanism that's attached to the door that was preventing it from slamming in your face. But that also creates a lot more pull and that was a little bit challenging in my electric wheelchair. So one quick fix you can do is you can actually adjust that little gizmo and make the tension a little less.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Also, the doorways between each to get into the room, as well as the doorway for the bathroom and the doorway for the actual bedroom. They're not pocket doors, but they are backyard doors. The doors are cane and they could go slide back and forth. Now that's really a great design tip as well as accessibility, because if you have a regular door that opens out, that can prevent a space for you to be able to maneuver. Obviously, you don't have that for the exterior door, but I meant for the doors within, to the bedroom and to the bathroom, so that was super great. However, I didn't measure the doorways, but the space between the doorways it does seem a little narrow. I was able to get through just flying my airhawk and I think technically just eyeballing you probably could get through. If you're using another electric wheelchair, something from Jazzy or a promo bill, or even a scooter, I believe you could get through all the doors. It just went for show up. You gotta be mindful, because then you're not going to have as much space that I think you should have within those doorways.

Speaker 1: 10:09

As far as how the general layout of the Canobie hotel room I have, it could be better. While I did say there's a lot of space to maneuver as far as furniture, I'm talking about the actual layout itself. So you have the living room space, which is phenomenal, but they actually put the bathroom sink out in the hallway, which is fine, and so when you look into the bathroom which I have, a rolling shower. It just has the toilet and then the rolling shower and because of how you may have to maneuver that could be a little bit problematic Now the shower, which actually, in my opinion, looks more like a wet room than an actual shower. And if you want to know what wet room is, check out my podcast, that episode that I had with Karen Wilson and she talked about a wet room and that was I believe I published that in June of 2023. So please check that out.

Speaker 1: 11:16

So the kind of the shower because it just has a toilet and a rolling shower does feel like more of a wet room. So it's a lot of space to maneuver but depending on the direction that you're wheeling, meaning it's only to be a straight shot from the rolling shower straight to the sink. But once you have the sink, if you have a scooter because, remember, the sink is in the hallway and the hallways were wide, but based on your direction, I wonder if you are in a scooter. You're coming from like the bathroom, and then you want to take a 90 degree out of the bathroom in your scooter I'm a little bit concerned that it might be a little tight. You might have to back up and get the angle correctly. I'm in the air hot, so I don't have that particular problem, but I still want to mention that I think it's still maneuverable and everything like that, but you've got to pay attention as far as the wheel and shower bathroom itself plenty of space. Like I said, it reminds me of a wet room, the handy bars. It's even a spot in the corner where you have your towels that you want to move your wheelchair totally out of the way. It's a good space for that. I was able to transfer to the toilet just fine.

Speaker 1: 12:29

As far as the wheel and shower or the rolling shower, there's pluses and minuses. One plus I really enjoyed is obviously the thought of a lift. There's nothing for you to step over. You can really wheel strictly into it. But one thing I was really disappointed is that there was no bench that was attached to the wall that could fold down and fold up For those who do need a seat, because you don't want your chair to get wet or damage if it's electric wheelchair. So there was nothing like that.

Speaker 1: 13:01

I was really surprised. I had to call them and they provided me a bathroom seat. However, if you use those, things can be very wobbly. They're not super stable and honestly, I think they're really designed for people that can stand and maybe take two or three steps and so you could just sit down, but if you are in a wheelchair you can't walk a stand. You have to scoot from your wheelchair to this bathroom seat and that could cause you to pull it and things like that is not connected to the floor, so you have to be mindful that you don't tip this. So I was really surprised that there was not a bench that was up against the wall, attached to the wall. So that's a major issue in my opinion.

Speaker 1: 13:45

But some of the other pluses is that you a lot of times I have issues because hotel rooms have the shampoo and conditioner and these two little bottles and everything like that where you could maybe take it home free advertising for the hotel. I totally appreciate that, but there's oftentimes no shelving in these wheeling or rolling showers, so where do I put that? And I could potentially drop my shampoo on the floor. That's a problem. Here. In the Royal Caribbean rolling shower, I was super impressed that they have just simple bottles for each shower gel, shampoo and conditioning and these were actually attached against the wall and they were pumped, which is a lot easier than trying to squeeze a separate bottle, and it's also better for people with dexterity because you just hit the top, because it's the pump of each of the shampoo and conditioning and it's attached to the wall, so I don't have to worry about falling off, and it was at a level that I could reach, so that was super exciting.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Another great thing that I really absolutely love was that there was a handheld shower, which most accessible showers for hotels do have, but they usually have the bar and the attachment go all the way up to the ceiling and so when housekeepers come they will often put that handheld shower at the very top and then I can't reach it to pull it down. Here in the Royal Caribbean it was not always at the top and in fact it was placed at a location that I could reach, that even if it was at the top of the bar I could still push it down, and I think the way they did that is also in the shower. They have a regular shower head at the very top and there was buttons that you can use. I take a minute to figure out to be perfect on this, but we can turn off the upper shower and just use a handheld. But if somebody doesn't need to use a bench and are standing, they can use a shower head that's directly above them. So it was a very universal design shower as far as a rolling shower. For those reasons, they do have drainage. I wish they would use a linear drainage. They just use one circle drainage and so that is a little bit harder to prevent flood, but I think they thought about that because, again, the whole setup looks like a wet room.

Speaker 1: 16:12

As far as the other accommodations in the hotel, the elevators were fine, fully accessible, but my hotel room was actually on the ground floor and there was several of these rooms on the ground floor, so you don't have to worry about if there's a fire. God forbid, if there was a fire in a hotel, who's going to come to you if you're on the second or the 15th floor? Right? That's pretty scary. Here at the Royal Fair there are a lot of accessible hotel rooms on the ground floor, so I was super excited to hear that. And then, as far as the pool, I did use a pool. They had two pools, two hot tubs and they do have a accessible lift, which was very easy to use and I was super excited.

Speaker 1: 16:57

But one thing you need to be mindful of is not a permanent fixture, so you have to go and ask somebody from the hotel to bring it out, which they were more than happy to do. It just takes a minute and not every hotel individual out on the pool knew exactly what I was talking about, and also there was no signs, no information given to me to tell me hey, you need to request it. They do say they have these lifts on the website, but I'm old school and I'm used to it when it was permanently attached to the actual pool and so when I first arrived, I scouted things out and I didn't see it and I literally thought maybe it's broken or maybe they lied. They also left you alone. Sometimes they like to do it for you, and these people were very well trained and they just showed you how to do it, ask if you need assistance, and then they left me alone each and every time. So I am super excited about that.

Speaker 1: 17:54

The only other issue I want to mention is that this resort does not have an airport shuttle, so you do have to use taxis, and Uber and Lyft are not wheelchair accessible. But there is an other taxi service called Comfort Taxi and I highly recommend them to get back and forth, although it's going to be a lot more pricier than using Uber or Lyft. Yellow taxi is accessible from the airport, but you've got to wait and I always like to book something in advance, and so that's why I use Comfort, even though it's a little bit more expensive. So that's my review, everybody, and thank you for listening. Bye now. Horizontalhousescom is the hub for all things related to disability home ownership. You will find my blog, this podcast, my book and how my consulting services can help real state agents or healthy developers market and tap into the largest minority group, the disability community. Please help me continue this exploration of disability home ownership by connecting through my Facebook page. Remember, sharing our collective experiences will allow us each to lower the kitchen sink but raise the bar for disability home ownership. Thank you,