Here is what I mean by short trips being extremely theraputic. My wife's boss planned a belated Christmas party at a very funky, and fun place called
Teatro ZinZanni (in Seattle). This is a amalgam of a caberet show, vaudeville comedic acts, live music and singing, sprinkled with a little Cirque du Soleil or Broadway, oh and there is also dinner (a 5 course meal that was excellent). I must admit I was a bit unsure what to expect because their website doesn't really tell you much (they don't want to ruin anything). This show was amazing and well worth every penny. What I found to be really great was that it was well performed but it had some mistakes. The table in front of us (right by the stage) had a juggler pin accidentally dropped on it getting everyone wet, and in the grand finale my wife got meringued (you just have to go to see what I mean).
So here are the nuts & bolts for us mobility impared folks. It is an older building but they have nice ramps to get in, and there are ramps throughout the inside of the building. You will need to book the main floor and it probably would be good to let them know a wheelchair is coming. The mens room had one accessible stall for when you need to use the restroom (and you will the performance is long), and I have been told the ladies room had much the same layout. Overall it was great and it was nice to be right down in front instead of shoved off in the corner like wheelchairs so often are.
Bottom line: hilarious, tons of fun, great food, and somewhat awe-inspiring. Check it out!
Our family decided to take a big trip to celebrate my wife's 40th birthday and her graduating from grad school. We wanted to take a cruise, and we wanted to go to Walt Disney World too. We figured we couldn't do both. Lets face it these kinds of vacations are expensive, or at least I thought we would not be able to save enough to do both. I was wrong. We discovered that we could take a cruise to Nassau, Bahamas that would be four nights AND have some time at Disney World. It was a tricky and we compared several travel agent quotes, online deals, rental houses, and even looked at using Costco travel. I am going to try to blog our process so that you can skip all the hard stuff and do the trip that works for your family. By the way we are taking this trip as a surprise that my son will not know about until we get on the airplane. If you know my son please do not spoil the fun by telling him. Thanks.
First step, where to stay. Once we decided we wanted to visit Walt Disney World, we had to figure out where we wanted to stay (on property or off). We had very good luck using Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO) and thought about looking to rent a condo or vacation house in Orlando. We were surprised by the amount of homes that are accessible near the parks and some of the great amenities that were included with some of them. Things like a pool with a lift were very common in most of the places that we looked at, as well as roll in showers, and free cable and WiFi. the prices were amazing too. We were considering a 4 bedroom house that was 10 minutes away from WDW that was 132.00 a night (if you wanted the pool heated) which included the taxes. We came across many deals like that, which if you have a mobility impairment is very, VERY rare. This is a great option if you are on a tight budget because you can cook meals at home, have the flexibility to go to other parks if you rent a car, and did I mention private pool which is great if you have kids who are difficult to get out of the park. We saw many amazing properties but after crunching some numbers we decided that staying on property made the most sense for us since we changed our vacation to include a cruise. I believe when we eventually go back to Orlando (and we will once my son realizes that there are other parks besides Disney World there) we will definitely keep this in mind as an affordable and restful option. Stay Tuned.
