Travel Tips – Page 2 – You Should Go Anyway

I forgot my laptop and had one delivered to the airport

January 20, 2020January 22, 2020youshouldgoanyway

Five minutes from arriving at my departure airport, I realized I left my work laptop at home. The only way I can feasibly travel like I do is to take it with me and work on my trips. That’s also the only way I could afford it! Once the “Fuck!”s stopped, I just decided to figure something out when I landed in Florida.

The problem was that I was getting on a cruise ship the next morning and was only going to be at the Fort Lauderdale Airport, not a hotel, for the night before. A person without a wheelchair would probably just hop in any old taxi and go to Best Buy but the accessible taxi options were slim-to-none. I also didn’t want to spend $100 on a taxi fare.

Essentially, my options were:

Don’t do anything and just work on my phone. (This idea makes me cringe since I am a programmer.)
Use the onboard computers in the ship cafe. (Probably limited ability to do the things I would need to do, e.g. connect remotely to my computer at home.
Buy a computer in a port. (We weren’t stopping anywhere for two days and the first two ports were barren.)
Buy something in the airport tech store. (There wasn’t one in my terminal and those places are expensive!)
Call my cousin’s new wife and get one of her family members in Miami to bring me one to use for the trip. (I just can’t bring myself to be THAT guy tho.)
Stop working completely, stay in Aruba, and change my career to shell-necklace-maker.

The last option I had was to see if Amazon would deliver me a laptop at the airport before my flight.

So I fired up the Prime Now app, changed my location to Fort Lauderdale, and bingo — a small selection of computers I could have delivered during a two-hour window the next morning.

Unfortunately, the only options were cheap ChromeBooks which wouldn’t allow me to install the software I use and a MacBook Air, which is not my preferred platform — but it was on sale.

Once I figured out the address of Terminal 2 at FLL and gave very specific instructions to the driver — “Meet me under the Air Canada sign at the end of Terminal 2 and look for me in my wheelchair” — I crossed my fingers and clicked Confirm Order.

I was a little concerned they would cancel the order because I was nowhere near home and the purchase was both expensive and RANDOM AS FUCK. This happened to me in France once and I had to call to tell them it really was me. But the order kept processing and the next morning at 7:30AM, the driver was there in front of the Air Canada door with my new laptop.

The best part is that although I didn’t want to spend that much on a computer, I won the money back in the casino on the ship the first night!

Flying into Miami vs. Fort Lauderdale for a cruise

January 13, 2020January 17, 2020youshouldgoanyway

After spending a night in the Fort Lauderdale airport, I can confidently say that it’s better to fly into Miami for cruises departing from either Miami or Fort Lauderdale.

I’ve flown into Miami International for a cruise previously and there are many hotels near the airport that are both cheaper and more convenient, especially for wheelchair users. For example, at MIA there is actually a hotel in the airport itself and several very close to the rental car / train / bus station.

Personally, I’d opt for that convenience because it saves the hassle of having to find wheelchair accessible transportation to a hotel. In addition, it makes the task of getting to the port on a cruise shuttle easier as well because you can catch it from the airport nearby.

The notes I put on my wheelchair when I fly.

January 9, 2020youshouldgoanyway

Once my wheelchair is taken from me at the airplane door, there’s not much I can do to guide how it is handled. It’s frustrating but if you are able to do what you can to provide notes, it can only be helpful.

I decided the best way to do this is create a one page document, print it, and annotate it in order to communicate the important things about my chair. Then I tape it to the seat so that it’s under my cushion. After I’m transferred off my chair and take my cushion, the instructions are right there.

Here’s a scan of my document:

I’ve received positive feedback from cargo teams who say they couldn’t have figured out how to manually push the chair. Every little bit helps!

Wheelchair accessible overwater bungalow in Tahiti

January 4, 2020April 23, 2025youshouldgoanyway

I was fortunate to find the Sofitel Moorea Ia Ora on Moorea in French Polynesia. It’s just a quick accessible ferry ride from Papeete and a great alternative to the larger Tahiti island. I would stay there again in a heartbeat!

I always wanted to stay in an over-water bungalow with a hole in the floor to see the water and this is exactly what I got. It was off-season so it wasn’t as expensive as I was expecting, which was great!

The accessible bungalow on the property is the closest one to the beach. Originally I was a little disappointed it wasn’t closer to the horizon bungalows further on the water, but it was actually nice to be really close to the beach for convenience and for the beach scenery.

The accessible bungalow had a nice big bathroom with a high toilet, grab bars, and a roll-in shower with a seat. There is no step to enter and a very small threshold to get onto the deck. The property would benefit by making the entire sun deck accessible (there was a step down to the sunning chair) and if they got really proactive, they’d have a lift that could drop you down right into the ocean and pull you back up! Unfortunately there was also no lift for the pool.

There was, however, a ramped access to the water which I found useful. The rest of the beach was pretty inaccessible to wheelchairs. You could go along the harder sand/stone along the beach but I was starting to get a little stuck in my power chair. The good thing though is that at least you can roll up really close to someone who is on the beach itself.

There was at least one accessible garden bungalow and you could stay a few days there and then move to the overwater if you wanted to save some money.

The property was a short drive from the ferry port and there is at least one accessible taxi company to get you there. The buffet breakfast is awesome too and the staff was absolutely incredible!

The wheelchair accessible bungalow on the water.

Tahiti to Moorea ferry with a wheelchair

January 2, 2020April 23, 2025youshouldgoanyway

During my trip to French Polynesia I decided to stay solely on Moorea except for one night on Tahiti. As a result we had to go straight to the ferry port in Papeete after landing. After arranging a wheelchair accessible taxi to the port, I did research and determined that I would have no trouble getting a ferry to Moorea.

The ferries run almost all day, every day. There are two companies that operate various schedules. I decided to go with the Aremiti due to our arrival time but there is also the Terevau company.

The staff on the ground at the port was so helpful in getting our luggage on their little luggage carts, but the best part was that they have a disability rate for the ferry. If you have “proof of disability” then you can get this discount. If you don’t have a card because your country doesn’t have one, then go ahead and use my tongue-in-cheek disability card generator, which I used for this purpose. The guy was about to give me the discount anyway but I managed to load mine up and show it to him.

Once the boarding started someone came and guided us up a special ramp to the front of the boat where the elevators were. There is a nice lounge with food and drinks and a quieter front lounge, all with open seating. There was an accessible bathroom and plenty of room to move.

There was no need to set up anything in advance either, which was great! But if you prefer to do this, you can call the number on their site.

Someone will help lead you up the ramp for wheelchairs as cars roll onto the ferry.