This January, one of Spinal Cord Injury BC’s Peer Program Coordinators, spent one week in Hawaii. We asked her to tell us about accessibility in Hawaii, the best places to stay in Waikiki, and how she narrowly avoided disaster…
How did you decide to go to Hawaii?
It was a last minute decision, a friend of mine said he was going before Christmas so I thought, I’m going too!
I have been to Hawaii four times; the last time was 18 years ago.
Tell me about accessibility in Hawaii, how accessible is it?
In the Waikiki area and the resort I was in, it was great. There weren’t many barriers, so if I wanted to I could just take off no problem.
There were also some really pleasant surprises. They have lifts in all their outdoor pools. Their American Disability Act is saying that as of March 2012, every hotel and resort needs to incorporate accessible pools. It was fantastic, and all the hotels and resorts have different kinds of lifts so it was neat to try them out and compare them. What was really cool was my hotel had just installed their lift a month ago so I was the first to use it. It was awesome.
You were in Hawaii 18 years ago, how has accessibility changed in that time?
If you wanted to go on excursions or tours, back then it was very limited, there were almost no options. Now you can get you can get to the luaus, you can get to the circle island too, they’re all accessible. So there are lots of things to do.
There are many more options in the bigger chain hotels. Before hotels would only have one accessible room with one bed, but now you can get a single bed, two beds, a roll in shower, whatever you want. In this particular hotel, Outrigger Reef on the Beach, they had 44 accessible rooms so there are many more options. I always tell people to go for the bigger resorts. If you spend more money, your access amenities are far more accessible to you.
I wanted to stay in Waikiki and I wanted to stay near the beach. It was in one of those areas that people told me is nice. Out of the three hotels options, I wanted The Sheraton, because I know they have pool lifts—they’ve had them for years—but nothing was available. My next choice was The Hilton, but they had a big event there so all the rooms were taken. And my next was The Outrigger, so I got my third choice.
What kind of feedback would you give your hotel in terms of their accessibility and amenities?
I told the resort that they really need to post a photo of someone using their pool lift on their website. Hotels and resorts never show photos of their accessible amenities online. They only talk about it but they rarely show it, and that’s too bad. It really helps as a traveler with a disability to be able to see their amenities, to make sure that yeah, they really are accessible.
How is getting to and from the airport in Hawaii?
I find that tricky everywhere I go. I’m working with the travel agent a lot because they’re good at doing the research for what is available.
I heard on Maui that you can use a similar system to HandyDART and just pay bus fair but on Oahu that’s not available. Accessible cabs require 24-hours notice, so that wasn’t going to work, and my hotel’s shuttle service wasn’t accessible.
So my travel agent found two different companies with accessible lifts for shuttles. The trip to the airport was great, I even got a lei, but on the return trip, they sent over a big bus and the driver said to me, “Can you walk and is the chair heavy?” And then they realized that there was a note clearly indicating that I needed an accessible vehicle. Apparently, it wasn’t on the “manifesto”.
I was getting a little panicky because I had to wait for them to get a vehicle and a driver to pick me up. It was stressful. Since then my travel agent has written a letter of complaint so I’m waiting to hear what will happen with that. Hopefully I will get some compensation for that.
I’ve had a similar experience with a cruise because I wasn’t able to go on an excursion even though they said I could when we booked, so I got refund through my travel agent for that.
Buses in Oahu are very accessible. I went to the University of Hawaii and to a shopping centre on a bus because I forgot the power cord of my chair’s charger. So the public buses are very accessible.
You forgot to pack the power charger for your wheelchair, how did you deal with that situation?
That was not my finest moment! Before I went on the trip I phoned up my chair’s manufacturer—like I always do—telling them, “This is where I’m going, can you give me the number of a place in case my chair breaks down and I need some service?”
They gave me the initial of a name, NMS and they said they’re US-wide I should be able to find them no problem.
So when I realized I didn’t have my charger, I went to the clerk at the hotel desk and told that I needed to get a hold of this company, “NMS”. She didn’t know anything about them and we couldn’t find them online with just the company initials.
As it turns out, her brother-in-law works for a company in Honolulu that rents scooters so she got him on the phone at home—it was a Sunday—and he said that he didn’t know if any of his chargers would work.
I told him that I had just one cord missing and he suggested I call RadioShack. “The place you’re looking for is called National Mobility Systems, they’re not open till Monday, if that doesn’t work call me,” he said, but it was going to cost me $375 to rent a scooter and a charger through him.
Finally I called RadioShack and they said to come with the charger. They had all the cords ready for me at the front counter when I arrived and the first one I tried worked—I plugged it in right there at the wall to make sure. I bought it for only $11.95, so it worked out really well in the end.
So what did you learn from this experience?
I spent a year planning my other trip and there were very few flaws. My job involves a lot of planning, so I try not to plan my personal life too much but now I know that I should plan better, and not to pack at the last minute. It would have helped if I had the company’s full name from my chair manufacturer too, and contact information, instead of just the acronym.
ACCESSIBLE HAWAII TRIP PLANNING
Travel Agent (who has lots of experience helping travelers with disabilities):
Catherine Radley, 604-520-3399, catherine@cruisesetc.ca
Accessible airport-hotel transportation options:
Patty’s top hotel picks in Waikiki:
Sheraton Waikiki, 2255 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, (808)-922-4422
Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, 2005 Kalia Road, Honolulu, (808)-949-4321
Outrigger Reef on the Beach, 2169 Kalia Road, Honolulu, (808)-923-3111
