Today, instead of getting the bus down to Lower Manhattan to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, we decided to catch the NYC Subway. I was surprised at how accessible it is as many people have said it’s not. Of course, the newer rolling stock is much lower to the platform but an electric wheelchair may still require assistance from staff…
That morning we checked online as to which stations had elevators and it seemed that the station that we wanted to get off, South Ferry was accessible. However when we got there, one discovered that there was no elevator, just steps! It was probably ones oversight, however, one would recommend planning a journey on the Subway with caution.
The Brooklyn Bridge is a great way to view the city from a distance and it is accessible all the way, just a little bumpy…
After relaxing in the hotel for a while it was time to go to Broadway to watch The Lion King. A large proportion of the Broadway theatres are fully ADA compliant thus one was able to have an unobstructed view of this great show
Tomorrow, we are going back down to Lower Manhattan to visit the Freedom Tower in addition to catching the FREE ferry to Staten Island.
No visit to NYC is complete without a trip to Ellen’s Stardust Diner hence it seemed appropriate to eat at said restaurant before heading up The Rockefeller Tower. If one enjoys musicals, this restaurant is a must. In addition to serving food, the waiters are also singers thus take it in turns to sing either Broadway or famous music. Crowd participation is also necessary…
It is worth noting that the restaurant does get extremely busy and has limited space. As such, one would highly recommend pre-booking, especially if you are a wheelchair user.
The Rockefeller Center is, in my opinion, better than the Empire State Building, especially for wheelchair users as it has a glass barrier as opposed to wire meshing. There are 2 levels at the ‘Top of The Rock’ for which you can go up. The lifts contain glass ceilings so you can watch it go up to the top to reveal spectacular views…
Unfortunately, Superbunny is still broke hence it will be staying at the hotel tomorrow whilst one navigates the NYC Subway to Brooklyn Bridge followed by a performance of The Lion King on Broadway!
One of the best ways to take in the sights of New York City is by air. As such, it seemed appropriate to book a helicopter ride during our visit to this iconic city. After reading various reviews, one settled upon Liberty Helicopter Tours which, as of 2014, cost around £470 for three people!
Planning our route, we found that there was a bus to South Ferry which is where the helipad is located (the M5 if you are wanting to go!). The New York City buses are completely accessible with mechanical ramps that flip out.
After around 40 minutes on the bus, we arrived at the famous Wall Street to capture a few traditional tourist ‘selfies’…
We then headed over to the M5 heliport and checked ourselves in for ones flight at 2:30pm. This would be ones maiden helicopter flight hence there was an ounce of excitement…
Out onto the helipad, the next question was how to get one into said helicopter. No matter though as one of the staff members resorted carrying oneself on, don’t know what health and safety would say to that…
Ones £470 was well spent flying over Staten Island, Lower Manhattan and Down Town. The staff were very helpful so would highly recommend it but it depends whether you want to pay a high price for just 10 minutes!
Tomorrow we plan to visit the infamous Ellen’s Stardust Diner before we head up The Rockefeller Center after dark to catch a glimpse of NYC at night!
After an early start, one began his NYC exploration by heading towards the famous Grand Central Station which, of course, consists of trains! On our way we walked through Times Square, which even on a dreary morning, remains a sight to be seen…
The majestic Grand Central Station is a must see when visiting New York but then one would say that! We headed down to the platforms to begin with for one to go trainspotting and then walked around to check out the accessibility. Of course, being a major train station in the USA, ramps and elevators are plenty…
The next stop on ones exploration was the Empire State Building. In terms of price, it is quite reasonable for a disabled individual and one other, in total it came to around $50. The place seemed tranquil considering it is meant to be one of the icons of New York and one managed to get up to the top in a matter of minutes (skipping the queues as usual). In terms of access, as well as being able to go outside, they have lower viewing sections for wheelchairs and children allowing for stunning views over Manhattan and the surrounding areas…
As Superbunnys battery was running out, we returned to the hotel via Broadway to purchase tickets to go to see The Lion King on Saturday night, a first time experience for oneself!
Tomorrow we are going to head down to Lower Manhattan as one has booked a helicopter ride over the skyline in addition to exploring that area. In the meantime, just look how tall the Empire State Building is in comparison to Superbunny…
After 7 hours of being fed everything you can think of by Virgin Atlantic, we arrived into New Yorks JFK Airport to begin ones 3 week adventure across America and Canada.
It was a surprise not to see Superbunny which is normally at the door, instead one the airport staff was waiting with a manual wheelchair who informed us that said wheelchair was waiting next to the baggage collection area, it looked like it had been abandoned!
Visiting America is like a dream for wheelchair users who are used to navigating Europe thanks to the ADA. In addition to this, wheelchair accessible taxis are also available on demand. However, on this occasion, our driver seemed to have a death wish. As we slalomed down the highway, one was fearing for his life!
For the next few days, we are staying at The Hudson Hotel which is a stones throw away from Central Park making it an ideal location from which to explore New York. The large accessible room contains everything that a wheelchair user could ask for complete with a wet room…
As I mentioned, The Hudson Hotel is just a 2 minute walk from Central Park hence it seemed appropriate to go for a roll, especially after being confined to a plane for 7 hours…
Tomorrow, the plan is to visit the famous Grand Central Station followed by the Empire State Building!
Today was our last day in the Irish capital. After we had checked out and left our bags, we headed out for a walk in the sunshine by the River Liffey to the ferry terminal. It is worth noting that a cycle path also runs alongside the river making for an easy roll for a wheelchair user…
We decided to do a circular route crossing the River Liffey and winding our way back to the hotel upon which we discovered the Aviva Stadium, more to ones taste due to its glass structure…
Though out this blog, one hasn’t discussed the accessibility side to Dublin, as with any big city nowadays the centre is completely accessible. The issues begin when you start to enter the suburbs as the drop curbs are more like lowered down bits of concrete!
Anyway, we returned to the hotel to picked up by the prearranged taxi driver (this was not Mr Perfect). We arrived at Terminal 2 at about half 3 and checked in without any issues and Dublin Airport were really helpful getting one on the plane. After waiting about an hour in the queue to take off, we had a lovely flight back where it was clear skies all the way, so went spotting over Wales. We arrived back into Bristol with the ground crew becoming puzzled yet again. As we were being driven back, to the terminal we heard on the radio that apparently I had gone missing, that is Bristol Airport for you.
In May, one will be crossing the pond for a 3 week adventure across America and Canada!
For the past two days, one has been trying to settle the argument with Jury’s Inn Hotel regarding payment. The hotel insisted that we find a HSBC bank in order to verify that payment has been made and gave us strict instructions on how to get there which we followed to the letter. After about 20 minutes of searching for a bank in the place where it said on Google Maps, we resulted to asking members of the public. This was perhaps a bad idea as it turned out that the majority were foreigners or Irish people not from Dublin. One then realised that there was a phone number on Maps, however, that ended up being the head office who said that there was no HSBC banks in Dublin or the entirety of Ireland, very confusing!
The irony is that we ended up discovering the Docklands area with some amazing architecture which provided some great photo opportunities…
One then followed some more strict instructions to get to Croke Park Stadium which I had on good authority is an amazing building…..I beg to differ. We walked through some rather rough Irish housing estates which one would avoid after dark..
After being barked at by several dogs, the structure presented itself. Granted, it’s impressive but debatable whether it’s worth walking about half an hour to see as it took 2 minutes to walk around the whole stadium, but then one doesn’t like football?
We then walked through some more weird and wonderful housing estates and managed to find out way back to the city centre where we stopped off for some lunch. The restaurant was rather strange as they couldn’t get the orders for a simple sandwich right, so one doesn’t recommend a place called The Living Rooms. We then spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around Dublin shopping district which, as one would expect from a small country only has a finite amount of things to do…
It seems that everything in Ireland is very expensive so you would expect it to be of good quality. However, one went into an American style restaurant where a calzone was ordered for a high price, however, it seemed to be heated up from a ready meal. In addition, a cheesecake was ordered simply to find out if it was a so called New York Cheese Cake, it was far from it. As it was the last night in Dublin we went for a pint, or a half pint if your me, of Guinness!
Tomorrow, we plan to have a stroll along the River Liffey before flying home at 5.30pm, which will be interesting once again.
We woke up to another sunny day and, after breakfast, we headed out onto the LUAS which is the Dublin tram system and is conveniently located next to our hotel. The entire LUAS rolling stock consists of low floor vehicles allowing for level boarding. This makes it the perfect way for wheelchair users to navigate the city of Dublin…
It is worth noting that the area around Dublin Zoo coming from the train station isn’t particularly wheelchair friendly thus caution needs to be taken. Disabled individuals can enter for a concession with one FREE companion, in total it came to about €25 for three people. One then realised the scale of the zoo which spans around 69 acres and worked out that it was a pretty good deal for what we had paid. It must of taken us about 3 hours to walk around the zoo discovering animals like giraffes and elephants…
As you would expect from a major attraction in Ireland, Dublin Zoo is completely accessible thus making it a perfect day out for a wheelchair user. We then stopped for lunch after trying several places which only had outside seating which is a no go for me as there were pigeons or as I like to call them the DEVIL! We resorted to the restaurant and discovered that the zoo doesn’t stock straws because they pose a risk to animals, apparently it was a result of a monkey choking on one, seriously?
Tomorrow, we plan to wander to Croke Park Stadium, if we can find a way to get there that is!
Before one delves into writing about Dublin, let me introduce Superbunny (on the right of the below photo). Compared to ones other wheelchair, Superbunny is much less breakable when flying (one hopes anyway)…
Today was ones first time flying with an electric wheelchair, definitely a learning experience! As you can fly from Dublin from Bristol, that was the obvious choice of airport. After check in, we got told to go over to the special assistance point, where there was nothing but a phone on the table requesting one to ring a number to get assistance around the airport even though half of it we didn’t need anyway, but they were very helpful, but also a little patronising making me want to kill them by the end of it!
We got onto the ambulift which took us out to the airfield, I have never stood on an airfield before, it’s quite windy! Anyway, there was a large group of ground crew deciding the best way to get my electric wheelchair onto the plane and then, like normal, they decided to lift it, I’m sure health and safety went out the window!
After a short flight, we arrived in Dublin where we were greeted by yet another ambulift. Opposed to Bristol where they lifted my wheelchair, it seemed that Dublin had the sense to use equipment, it was like a luggage conveyer belt which they used to get ones luggage off the plane. As usual, one skipped through security, there are benefits of being disabled sometimes! We were then escorted out of the terminal and all the way to our fully accessible taxi with our Polish driver.
You may have thought the flight would have been the most difficult part of the journey, but in fact our troubles hadn’t even began yet! We entered the hotel to be told that they forgot to read the comments section on the booking form which clearly stated that the room needed to be wheelchair accessible, it transpires that they didn’t have a wheelchair accessible room. We were then told that we would be transferred to another hotel, which we waited a hour just for an accessible taxi to take us there. This taxi driver, who was foreign, seemed to have an obsession with the word ‘perfect’ as it was used in nearly every sentence. We finally arrived at another hotel where we were informed that apparently we had not paid for any of our accommodation when it stated on the paperwork that it was prepaid, so one got a little stressed and stroppy with the staff in both hotels. By this time it was around 5pm, and we hadn’t even eaten, so we decided to get a pizza takeaway to eat in the room. After all this palaver, one decided to go for a little roll into the centre where the Dublin Spire is located (which was completed 3 years late, fun fact!)…
As we are in Ireland, it was only appropriate to finish the day with a pint of Guinness…
Tomorrow we aim to explore the train station and then explore one of the city’s main attractions, Dublin Zoo!
