Home for a Lifetime

Many probably assume that all of us New Englanders are snow bunnies and just love all that glorious white stuff that blankets the Northeast every winter. Well, many of us are and do love it except when school is canceled, you have to drive in it, can’t make it to work or when you get your outrageous home-heating bill. After the last snow storm where we got a whopping 25” of snow, this New Englander needed a break and I booked an overnight package for my little munchkin and I at a chain indoor water park that boasted a temperature of 84 degrees. We ended up with a ‘handicapped accessible’ room, so it also turned into a bit of a business trip.

The room itself though was a bit narrow and crowded with furniture making it rather difficult for someone with a mobility aid to ambulate. It was quite dark and the colors they choose for the decor was very dark- deep burgundy paint on the walls, cherry furniture, brown carpeting with flecks of black and gold. Even after turning all the available lights on- it was still dark and I’m 32 and have no major vision issues. I imagine someone with vision problems would be quite miserable in this room.

After getting settled we quickly changed into our tropical wear and headed down to the water park which was very conveniently located just to the other side of the hotel lobby. Needless to say- most of the water park was not accessible to someone in a wheelchair. There were many stairs to climb to get to many of the water attractions. To be fair, there were a couple areas where a child could walk/roll into the water without steps- but children with limited mobility would be quite disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to use all the fun water attractions.

All in all, the only real accessibility features were found in the bathroom. It’s a shame that this chain hasn’t used more principals or universal design when constructing their park. It’d probably expand their business considerably.