WonderlandisReality
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2016
We did a split stay 12/9-12/16/2023 with 2 nights at Art of Animation in a Little Mermaid Handicap accessible (roll-in shower) room and 5 nights at Boulder Ridge/Wilderness Lodge in a Handicap accessible (roll-in shower) deluxe studio.
My 12-year-old uses a rollator/transport chair combo device. The whole family uses ADA equipment in the bathroom.
While we did book the LM room ourselves, the DVC studio was booked on rented points and was a fulfilled room request done via a popular broker.
AoA is great. The walk to the LM rooms in building 7 were about 5 minutes but not as far as I had initially imagined from reading other posts on the DIS. My daughter could access everything in the resort, including pools and the playground without my assistance. Overall, the resort is level. Nothing is really uphill or downhill from anything else. The wheelchair line for the Skyliner was fast, and we had no issues rope dropping HS arriving 5 minutes before the skyliner opened for the day.
LM room (Room 7547);
Pros: Ground floor, comfortable beds, fabulous functional bathroom. The roll-in shower was huge and AMAZING! It was 5 stars for everything except the hand shower itself. It surprised me with so much water pressure it took off on its own, dancing around the shower and drenching me while I was trying to assist my daughter. She thought it was hysterical. The bench was sturdy, just a well-thought-out bathroom space. Lovely hot water!
Cons: This is the biggest floorplan for the LM rooms (a little more than a standard room due to the bump in near the door being eliminated), and there is minimal maneuvering space. Her rollator is compact and I can see where someone with an ECV would struggle. We mostly left her rollator just inside the door between the window and the bed and the room was small enough for her move around without it with help from myself or my youngest child. An individual using a wheelchair would likely find the room thermostat inaccessible. It's up high near the head of the bed closest to the window. There is nothing really to prop the door to get in. The orange chairs are too lightweight to hold the door. Due to location near the elevators in the Ursula building there is quite a bit of foot traffic and noise that is heard inside the room. I am 99% certain that all ADA/wheelchair rooms that have 2 queen beds are located in this area of building 7.
WL: At Christmastime this resort is unsurpassed. It's beautiful. Boulder ridge is is an easy downhill walk from the main lodge but that becomes a moderate incline when walking from Boulder Ridge to the main building. Everything is undercover. No issues whatsoever being totally undercover from the bus stop to the room in a downpour. The boat access was actually quite easy to get to MK. My daughter was able to access everything at the resort although some ramps (like from the lobby to Whispering Canyon) were not immediately obvious to find. The tables at Artist Point are very close together and we had to get help from the Server and the Evil Queen in making a path to leave.
WL studio (Room 4546):
Pros: Room is spacious. Easy to maneuver with the rollator. Would not be difficult to fit 2 ECVs with ease. The automatic door opener was very handy. Twin Bed under the TV and the main bed are very accessible. All beds are very comfortable. Dead quiet location. We never heard neighbors. We only heard kids in the hall in the early evening once. I was out on the balcony and could hear MK fireworks but just inside the closed door you could not hear a thing. We were on the 4th floor and never waited over a minute for the elevator.
Cons: (We had a lot more trouble with this room). The queen murphy bed in this room is lower to the floor than a standard murphy bed and that is enough change in cantilever mechanism to really increase the difficulty in pulling the bed down. You would not be able to do this without a moderate amount of upper body strength and the ability to stand (and brace) yourself. The lowered main bed and layout of the room has no natural place for bag storage (we just had them in a corner). Getting onto the balcony is tricky with the swinging door (a standard sliding door would be easier here). The coffee table/table thing is VERY difficult to roll on the carpet that is placed here. The shower is very small (probably 30" x 30") and has a plastic fabric bench that sags when you sit on it. It's not impossible to work with (and certainly better than no bench) but I was shocked at the difference between this shower and the room at AoA. The sink in the bathroom has a horrible design that makes it impossible to wash your face without drenching the very small counter and floor or accidentally hitting your head on the immovable faucet (daughter hit her head). The studio kitchen has an accessible microwave and sink, but the rest of the appliances are up on a shelf that you would need to stand to access. A wheelchair user would only be able to access the lower shelf of the pantry while seated. Most of the supplies we found were on the upper shelves. There is ZERO counter space in the studio kitchen.
Both are great resorts. In a perfect world we would have been able to blend the room at WL with the bathroom space at AoA. We had a great trip!
As a side note: I was really nervous about the logistics of bringing my daughter's rollator on the airplane (2 flights each way) but this ended up being a non-issue and I was really glad she had equipment she was familiar in using. Disney was always really good about getting the rollator to a ride exit right when she got off.
Edited to add: Room numbers
My 12-year-old uses a rollator/transport chair combo device. The whole family uses ADA equipment in the bathroom.
While we did book the LM room ourselves, the DVC studio was booked on rented points and was a fulfilled room request done via a popular broker.
AoA is great. The walk to the LM rooms in building 7 were about 5 minutes but not as far as I had initially imagined from reading other posts on the DIS. My daughter could access everything in the resort, including pools and the playground without my assistance. Overall, the resort is level. Nothing is really uphill or downhill from anything else. The wheelchair line for the Skyliner was fast, and we had no issues rope dropping HS arriving 5 minutes before the skyliner opened for the day.
LM room (Room 7547);
Pros: Ground floor, comfortable beds, fabulous functional bathroom. The roll-in shower was huge and AMAZING! It was 5 stars for everything except the hand shower itself. It surprised me with so much water pressure it took off on its own, dancing around the shower and drenching me while I was trying to assist my daughter. She thought it was hysterical. The bench was sturdy, just a well-thought-out bathroom space. Lovely hot water!
Cons: This is the biggest floorplan for the LM rooms (a little more than a standard room due to the bump in near the door being eliminated), and there is minimal maneuvering space. Her rollator is compact and I can see where someone with an ECV would struggle. We mostly left her rollator just inside the door between the window and the bed and the room was small enough for her move around without it with help from myself or my youngest child. An individual using a wheelchair would likely find the room thermostat inaccessible. It's up high near the head of the bed closest to the window. There is nothing really to prop the door to get in. The orange chairs are too lightweight to hold the door. Due to location near the elevators in the Ursula building there is quite a bit of foot traffic and noise that is heard inside the room. I am 99% certain that all ADA/wheelchair rooms that have 2 queen beds are located in this area of building 7.
WL: At Christmastime this resort is unsurpassed. It's beautiful. Boulder ridge is is an easy downhill walk from the main lodge but that becomes a moderate incline when walking from Boulder Ridge to the main building. Everything is undercover. No issues whatsoever being totally undercover from the bus stop to the room in a downpour. The boat access was actually quite easy to get to MK. My daughter was able to access everything at the resort although some ramps (like from the lobby to Whispering Canyon) were not immediately obvious to find. The tables at Artist Point are very close together and we had to get help from the Server and the Evil Queen in making a path to leave.
WL studio (Room 4546):
Pros: Room is spacious. Easy to maneuver with the rollator. Would not be difficult to fit 2 ECVs with ease. The automatic door opener was very handy. Twin Bed under the TV and the main bed are very accessible. All beds are very comfortable. Dead quiet location. We never heard neighbors. We only heard kids in the hall in the early evening once. I was out on the balcony and could hear MK fireworks but just inside the closed door you could not hear a thing. We were on the 4th floor and never waited over a minute for the elevator.
Cons: (We had a lot more trouble with this room). The queen murphy bed in this room is lower to the floor than a standard murphy bed and that is enough change in cantilever mechanism to really increase the difficulty in pulling the bed down. You would not be able to do this without a moderate amount of upper body strength and the ability to stand (and brace) yourself. The lowered main bed and layout of the room has no natural place for bag storage (we just had them in a corner). Getting onto the balcony is tricky with the swinging door (a standard sliding door would be easier here). The coffee table/table thing is VERY difficult to roll on the carpet that is placed here. The shower is very small (probably 30" x 30") and has a plastic fabric bench that sags when you sit on it. It's not impossible to work with (and certainly better than no bench) but I was shocked at the difference between this shower and the room at AoA. The sink in the bathroom has a horrible design that makes it impossible to wash your face without drenching the very small counter and floor or accidentally hitting your head on the immovable faucet (daughter hit her head). The studio kitchen has an accessible microwave and sink, but the rest of the appliances are up on a shelf that you would need to stand to access. A wheelchair user would only be able to access the lower shelf of the pantry while seated. Most of the supplies we found were on the upper shelves. There is ZERO counter space in the studio kitchen.
Both are great resorts. In a perfect world we would have been able to blend the room at WL with the bathroom space at AoA. We had a great trip!
As a side note: I was really nervous about the logistics of bringing my daughter's rollator on the airplane (2 flights each way) but this ended up being a non-issue and I was really glad she had equipment she was familiar in using. Disney was always really good about getting the rollator to a ride exit right when she got off.
Edited to add: Room numbers
Last edited:
