At the Airport

February 26, 2016

I am finally sitting at the gate waiting for my departure. It has been a long road to get to this stage. I finally found day tours that cater to people with disabilities in both the Algarve and Lisbon area. I feel confident that it will be fun and relatively stress free. The white hatters were extremely helpful when I arrived at the YYC terminal, as usual, bringing me to the KLM check-in counters as I was at the other end of the terminal.

My first contact with KLM was not the best experience. I think some of their staff could use some sensitivity training. When I told the checking agent I needed help with my bags, she looked at me as though I had two heads. The other gentleman was a little more with it. She started to clue in a little as she brought me to the gate. She insisted that I walk to the security. It was only the lovely ladies in line that told me to go ahead that understood the difficulty. Sometimes fellow travelers save the experience from being a real disaster. So, two positive experiences balancing out the one annoying one. At least the ratio is still to the positive.

More success pre-planning

Sunday February 14, 2016

I have had some luck in the past few days with finding tours fitted for mobility restricted travelers around Lisbon. They don’t require a credit card or haven’t asked strange questions, so I am hopeful they will work out. 

In searching for local tour guides in the Algarve, I stumbled upon a company based in Vancouver that uses locals to create tours of their region. It may work out, but it hasn’t been finalized yet. So, I have all the major things booked- the flight, accommodation, transfers, and now we just have to explore how to travel around while I am there. Most people have been very helpful and responsive, but whether that translates into anything tangible when I arrive is yet to be seen.

One of the problems with using email as a means of communication is that a person is at the mercy of the other person’s response time.  They don’t always respond quickly and if you forgot one small detail then the wait begins again. Sometimes, I just pay for the call if there isn’t a 1-800 number just so I can get a complete and instant response. I can ask all my questions and hear whether or not the people are interested in my needs.If the tours work out well I will post the company names. I don’t want to promote anyone that doesn’t follow through.

Pre-travel access planning for the Algarve area in Portugal

Friday, February 12, 2016

It has been an arduous time trying to plan a trip through a travel agent. I usually don’t go through one, mainly because I haven’t been able to find one that can do disability travel well. I end up doing more work in order to finalize things. You know how it is when you talk with a 3^rd or 4^th party. The communication breaks down very quickly.

This is the first time I have booked through a conventional travel agency. Of course they all say they are familiar with disabled  friendly travel, but this is sadly untrue. The tour operators are even farther behind in the realm of accessible travel. In any other industry, if you take out the disabled part of the equation, by overlooking this huge market the customer service people would be fired. Therein lies the problem. As soon as disability is mentioned the idea that it is more work, more expensive and that there is no market begins to predominate the conversation.

The online company I wanted to book some day trips through didn’t ring true after many months of emailing back and forth. They started asking some questions for information that seemed more like a scam. What angers me, if they are crooked, is that they are targeting people with disability.The months arranging via email in the end was a waste of time. I had to start from the beginning. Now I only have 2 weeks before my departure to scramble for accessible day trips in the Algarve.

It has definitely been a learning process this time around. I am sure that once I am there I can get a better sense of where to find accessible tourism and how it works. I will be more discretionary with travel agents. It really pays to find ones that are specifically focused on disabled travel.