Question
This question isn`t exactally your area, so don`t feel you need to respond if you don`t know.  I am getting married soon, my soon-to-be husband uses a wheelchair (it might intrest you that he is a doctor}.  We do alot of traveling, so I know how it can go.  I was wondering if you had any ideas for where we should go on our honeymoon.  I get frusterated with stairs being in the way and narrow doorways and such (he doesnt).  We are in Texas and want to stay in the US.  Any ideas?

Answer
Hi,

First congratulations on the wedding!
Would be more than happy to offer my 2 cents.

You didn't mention if your husband to be uses a manual or powerchair. So I'm going to assume (a dangerous thing to do) that he uses a manual.

Right off the top of my head I would say a Caribbean Cruise with NCL. While I'm sure some of the other cruse lines are accessible, I can tell you first hand about what I've seen one NCL and Carnival.

First I can't say for Carnival's newer ships, but the older ones I WOULD NOT recommend. While they called it accessible, it was rigged at best. Ramps were too steep, narrow, and it was an overall pain for chairusers to get around.

However I was just on one of NCL's older ships last May and very impressed. There must have been at least 6 chairs on the cruise, along with a few folks on crouches, and all were getting around just fine!

The casino, theater, and dinning rooms were wonderful. Large ramping, wide doorways, and staff that knew how to be discreet. As for the accessible state rooms, I never saw one, but did ask a few folks. All were impressed.

The down side is that many ports of call are not very good. Depending on your husband's ability you will need to do some research on which ports you might want to go to. Another thing to look out for is find out if the ship uses a pier or tender. Piers are very easy to navigate, but tenders and be tricky.

If you decide on something like this, let me know. I'll be more than happy to help you research it. As well as the low down on the ports of call I've been to.

Now for another idea, Las Vegas....... The city that never sleeps is also accessible.  My last trip there was about 5 years ago for a Spinal Cord Injury Convention. Several thousand people attended and a large part of the group were chiarusers. Now to top it off Jerry Lewis was doing his thing the following week-end  which added a few more users to the population. So by the time you figure the normal about of folks that just happened to be on vacation, the convention, and Jerry's telethon there were chairs everywhere!!!!!!!!!  

The accessible rooms were great, and when they ran out, several of the hotels did some rigging. One of my friends ended up in a rigged room.  The hotel removed the bathroom door, and extra furniture, for my friend that's all he needed.

While it has been many years since I've been to San Antonio TX, a friend of mine was there a couple of years ago and loved it!  Very accessible including the transient system.

Another friend was in Washington DC, again was impressed.

Of course there are many other places, however with out knowing what you like I could spend days writing.  Also there is the unknown of future hubby's chair and ability.  I know some folks who go most anywhere, and do stairs very well. On the other hand I know a few folks who are like bulls in a china shop.   ;-)

As a rule watch out for historical places in the US, many times they are not fully accessible.

My personal vote is for the cruise. Very romantic, good food, and cheap!
You didn't give me a date or what part of TX, but NCL has a ship that leaves  out of Houston. This is the one I was on. However their are terminating this as of the end of December, so you would have to fly to FL if the wedding is after that.

Hope this helps.

Robin