I have just moved from Disney Pop Century Resort to DVC Boardwalk Villas.
I was in a Standard Roll-in Shower room #0122 in Building #10
I did not have WIFI internet access at all for my laptop the whole time. And after hours trying to find out why on my own, I called Disney IT dept and spent another 30-minutes following their suggestions.
I tried everything that they told me. I turned off my Windows firewall and deleted my Norton anti-virus to no avail.
After four days I gave up.
And I only had spotty service on my phone with Disney WIFI that used fiber and AT&T and I gave up on that too. I usually only use my phone as a phone and my laptop for everything else.
Then my camera broke.
I tried taking photos with my phone, but I have an older phone that takes poor photos.
I gave up on taking room measurements.
I guess that I was addicted to the internet.
The IT tech said it must have been my Windows 7.
It wasn't.
When I arrived at Disney Boardwalk Villas, my laptop connected immediately.
I liked everything about the POP roll-in shower room and accessibility, but with my broken wrist and weak leg didn't do much at the parks.
The Pop food court also has fewer food options.
I knew last year they stopped making the freshly made yogurt parfait, but now they had stopped the freshly made to order salads, too.
This is the first year that I dined more outside Pop because of the changes.
I did try the gondolas and I loved them.
Now that I am at BWV I am surprised how the studio roll-in shower is less accessible than at Pop.
I like the room and the pool view.
I am in studio #1070 which is one floor below the 2nd-floor lobby two doors from the elevators down the hallway. Just turn right to enter the hallway to the room.
The gym area can be seen through the window wall exiting the elevators and the gym entrance and double door push button exit to the pool area and tunnel to the boardwalk and lake. Just bear to the left after exiting the elevators.
The laundry room is only one door on the left past the three elevators down the hallway. They all have front-loading machines. Three washers and two stacked dryers and one ex-large dryer with two large tables, two rolling carts, a washing detergent, etc. vending machine, TV, and two chairs.
And the ice machine down the hall next to another exit and bifurcation of the hallways. Just look for the green exit sign on the ceiling. The entrance will be on the left.
Now for accessibility or lack of accessibility.
The bathroom entrance uses a sliding door and a minimum opening per ADA.
At the entrance to the studio, there is a 45-degree turn with a kitchenette on one side and the bathroom on the other side.
As I enter the bathroom the roll-in shower is basically a square floor shape with very little room to turn a wheelchair with an old threshold.
The handheld shower is high...very high with no adjustment bar. The staff told me they have not installed an adjustable height shower bar because of the small size of the shower area.
I asked the staff to leave the handheld shower hose hanging down touching the floor and not to replace it in its holder that is about six feet high. Although it is a handheld the holder is at regular shower height with no adjustments.
No fold-down bench in the roll-in shower because they said the area was probably too small to install one. The first night I placed towels on the upholstered chair outside the shower and I had a sponge bath until they were able to find a shower stool.
They did bring down a large plastic bath chair. They removed the backrest and when I took a shower, my back rested against the wall and my toes touched the opposite side. That is how small it the roll-in shower cubicle is. I have seen these in decades older hotels.
No push-button bottles in the shower for shampoo, etc.
They used tubes, but no place the shampoo nor body wash tubes as the original wall soap holder had ridges that slanted down and the tubes kept falling on the ground during a shower. I should have brought my reacher. The wall soap holder was not wide enough nor high enough to place the tubes of the shampoo nor body wash properly.
I finally figured out to fold a hand towel and stuff it in between the handrail and shower wall to hold the tubes.
They folded a regular bathtub shower heavy curtain together and hung it up. It wasn't wide enough and water was always on the floor in front of the sink even though I put a bath mat towel at the shower entrance. POP was so much lighter to close.
Overall the BWV roll-in shower area was about half the size of the POP roll-in shower area. If you recall the POP roll-in shower allows you to roll a wheelchair in, fold the built-in shower bench down and transfer with an adjustable height shower head and three pump bottles for shampoo, etc. At least at POP, you could lay your own shampoo bottles on top of the pump bottles without them falling on the floor.
The freestanding closet has safe on the floor. I couldn't reach it and it shortened the height of hanging shirts and pants so my clothes crumbled in a mess on top of the safe. The two doors to the closet do not recess into the closet nor open past 90-degrees when open.
Of course, to get to the balcony door there is a four-inch drop with no ramp. How difficult would it be to just saw a makeshift ramp for this?
The very large, heavy coffee table was removed for more wheelchair maneuvering and easier to transfer, for me, to the sofa.
The newer built-in table combination fold-down child's bed was a nice feature. I could roll my wheelchair up to it like a dining table with the large tv against the wall.
The staff and the property are very nice. Although none of them from the front desk, cleaning manager, engineer manager was aware of the issues after many years of now changes.
I am going write separate EXCELLENT reviews for the excellent help from the front desk Laura and Charlette, Housekeeping Manager, Keven, and Engineer Kevin and one other person that checked me in, but I didn't write her name down.
So the staff will leave my handheld shower hanging down to the floor.
So the staff will leave the kitchen plates, utensils on the lower shelf instead of the cabinets near the ceiling.
So during refurbishment every few years they can put in new sleeper sofas and new combination table/fold-down child's bed, but no changes to accessible rooms.
I was told all of the BWV studios whether Standard, Pool, and Boardwalk Views have the same roll-in showers. This is a shame for such a supposedly quality resort.
Too cheap or they just don't care to spend money on accessibility to add the different things that I mentioned above.
The engineer told a few one-bedrooms have a little larger roll-in shower, but he wasn't positive.
Oh, and even though the kitchen sink has space to roll a wheelchair under the microwave is lower, all of the dishes and utensils, etc are in the top cabinet near the ceiling like the regular studios.
The staff says that their resort does not have a disability person.
I have written to
disability.services@disneyparks.com <
disability.services@disneyparks.com> for any solutions, but I am too tired to edit this review so I will copy and paste.
I like BWV, and I like POP, but I like BWV just for the area.
Is there anyone here on
www.DISboards.com or this DISability Forum have any pull for a resolution to these issues?
EDIT to add BWV Standard Studio roll-in shower #1070 location and info:
12/12/2019.
I am in studio #1070 which is one floor below the 2nd-floor lobby two doors from the elevators down the hallway. Just turn right to enter the hallway to see the room on the right.
The gym area can be seen through the window wall exiting the elevators.
The gym entrance and double door push button exit to the pool area and tunnel to the boardwalk and lake. Just bear to the left after exiting the elevators down a very short hallway.
The gaming area entrance is outside in the tunnel on the right and public restrooms on the left.
The laundry room is only one door on the left past the three elevators down the hallway. They all have front-loading machines. Three washers and two stacked dryers and one ex-large dryer with two large tables, two rolling carts, a washing detergent, etc. vending machine, TV, and two chairs.
The Ice machine and soda machine next to unit 1085 on left side of the hallway before the green EXIT sign on the ceiling and across from another exit with glass door and windows on the right of the hallway and before the bifurcation of the hallways.
The BWV Standard Studio roll-in shower #1070 has a slanted door entrance across from a locked non-descript door.
Entering the unit has a small foyer with a mirror on opposite wall.
After entering the studio, I make a 45-degree turn into the next area.
The kitchenette is on the right with a roll under the sink space for a wheelchair where two plastic trash cans were located. I moved this out of the way. The sponge and towel and detergent located in the far corner of the kitchen sink behind the sink handle and were difficult to reach by wheelchair for me. But I have short arms.
The fridge with the small freezer located to the immediate left under a slightly raised counter next to the kitchen sink.
The small microwave and coffee maker located on this raised counter, but easily accessible in a wheelchair.
Above this counter is an open shelf running across the kitchenette above the microwave and sink and is reachable from a wheelchair.
But all of the utensils and paper plates and glasses etc. are all located in the row of cabinets situated at the height of the ceiling. Very, very high. I asked a neighbor to pull all of these items and place them along the open shelf above sink and on top of the microwave.
To the left of the kitchenette is the entrance to the bathroom with a sliding heavy wooden door.
It is more difficult for me to turn to enter the bathroom and I usually made a turn from the foyer in my wheelchair instead of trying to turn from the other direction or in place.
The toilet and wheelchair space and then wall mounted sink with flat areas around the sink area from my left to right until the wall. I was able to place personal items on the flat areas around the sink. A small shelf below the mirror with no close-up mirror with light.
The roll-in shower is on the right side of the bathroom entrance.
I don't know what is behind the wall along with the sink, but it would have been nice to more than double the space of the roll-in shower if that space was utilized.
I didn't have a roll-in shower wheelchair since I travel alone. I could have pulled myself with one, but they only had to handlebars. One on the left underneath the over 6-foot tall handheld shower attachment and one against the adjacent wall. No handlebars on the right.
The shower stool was large and placed next to the shower entrance to transfer from my wheelchair outside the shower. As mentioned before the shower has a square footprint. My back touched the shower wall and my toes squeezed up against the opposite side of the shower wall. Doable, but not very comfortable.
With my broken left wrist and my weaker dysfunctional legs made it much harder for me to stand and walk in general. But I am well aware of how lucky I am and I am amazed at how others may function with fewer limps. I this has truly been an eye-opener for me.
Enter the bedroom/living room area.
Facing the door to the balcony.
There is a queen bed on the left.
Large enough space on either side for the wheelchair to transfer to the bed.
A freestanding bedside table between the bed and sofa.
Bright lights located above the bed with one flip button can only be reached if lying in bed.
The bedside table has a combination of two electrical plugs, two USB ports, and no light switch.
Before entering the bedroom area, there is bright kitchen light. And on the opposite wall a bathroom light and a light switch to turn on the ceiling fan and bedroom dimmer light next to the TV. And an older temperature box.
Next to the bed and bedside table is the sofa and then a freestanding tall light on a pole.
The door to the balcony is not a sliding glass door, but a glass door and a glass window that is both door height.
Unable to safely enter the balcony area due to no ramp.