Deb's Digest

Thanks for the great pictures, Deb! I am staying in the THV in September, so I looking forward to this series!

Love this Deb! Of course Disney as usual always smart....thinking about electricity going out so no elevator.

Can't wait to see more of the Villas. We're staying there Sept 26-Oct 3.

I think they look really neat, it would be fun to stay at a place like that. Definetly Different! I think I will look into that for our next trip 2010. I already have my place for this year 2009 booked.

I was wondering if they were going to make some of the treehouses wheelchair accessible. Now I know my family and I can stay there if we want to push a wheelchair up a ramp that has to be at least 100 feet long. How long did the ramp seem to be and how steep did it seem?

DEB: Not sure what you are asking. There are 4 ADA accessible villas. There are no elevators. The ramps had a very slight incline. The ramp was fine for me, but I was not pushing a myself in a wc or a wc. Perhaps someone ready this who is in a wc can respond?

I can comment on the ADA questions - for a standard ramp, the federal code states the rise must be 1:12. Therefore, you can only rise 1 inch every foot. ADA compliant ramps cannot be steeper than that.

You also must provide a landing point for every 30 feet of length. So you do have a resting point every so often.

The ramps probably seem unusually long, because they are accomodating a building that was built before the code was implemented. The long ramp is the only way to get from point A (the parking area or driveway) to point B - the entrance to the Cabin. They probably chose the four closest they could find.

And you cannot rely on elevators for emergency exiting; elevators do not operate when there is a fire because the fire could spread up the shaft. Therefore, they would still have to use a ramp in case of emergency, so it would be unnecessary to install an elevator for such a small building.

This is so cool! Thanks for the photos, we are booked at one of these four units in January with my parents and spouse (who needs a scooter to get around WDW), so it's really neat to see how Disney has met this challenge!

I am so excited to see this! I was wondering how they were going to make this accessible and leave it to Disney to find a way! I can't wait to try them!! THANKS!

Deb

Our family cannot wait to go we have book the Treehouse for 11/29/09 - 12/04/09. The pictures look great cannot wait to see them in person.

We have been waiting since we heard they were going to refurbish them. We use to do alot of tent camping years ago so staying at the Treehouse will bring back some of those memories.

Thanks