Honolulu, Hawaii
Polynesian Cultural Center
Jsn. 31, 2008
Description & Accessibility
You should try and spend a full day here it is on the north shore of Oahu (the same Hawaiian island as Honolulu).
It gives you a taste of Polynesian culture without actually going there
There are a variety of ticket options…
We bought the ‘super ambassador’ tickets which provided a private guide for the day, now if you browse the options at the above link you will see you can just go with general admission tickets at far lower cost and you can just browse the park on your own, or take anything up the ‘super ambassador’ tickets which are the most cost.
Accessibility:
We arranged for a mini bus to transport us from the hotel in Waikiki to the ‘Polynesian Cultural Center’ at the time I had a manual foldable wheelchair and was able to bring it on the mini bus. If you have a powered scooter or wheelchair that can quickly fold or come apart, a larger bus with under floor storage bins should be able to transport your mobility device if you can manage the steps into the bus. If you cannot manage the steps into the bus and / or your powered mobility device cannot fold or come apart / is too heavy to lift into the storage bins of the bus then alternative transportation methods will be needed such as a wheelchair accessible taxi.
The park itself is mostly accessible with ramps but I came across one location that had steps for front roll viewing of a show by the water, there was a designated viewing area for wheelchairs completely accessible but I had paid for the super ambassador tickets which gave us front reserved seating, and that front spot had steps so in this case I had to carefully walk with assistance the few steps and have the wheelchair brought down / up.
There is also a canoe tour (they are large canoes and stable not the small canoes that the word seems to imply), this you have to be able to transfer into the boat, no roll on capabilities.
There is a show in the evening in the theatre and there is wheelchair designated locations (I believe at the back if I remember right) but since we had bought ‘super ambassador tickets’ we had front of stage seating, the problem is it was not wheelchair accessible, so what they did was bring us through back stage and onto the stage to the front and with assistance go down 2 or 3 steps to the front seating, then they took the wheelchair away and brought it back at the end of the show taking the same route out over the stage and through backstage and out.
Now the guide did push me in the wheelchair but I had to sign a waver form first. But sure if all the guides would offer this or not.
By: Donald Kerr