Care Vacations; Medical equipment for cruises, Central Florida travelers
Mom and dad use their chairs to experince as much of life as they can. Photo copyright Rori Paul.
As many families know, medical equipment and access to it can be the difference between a great vacation or staying home. Assistant Laura & I know this from personal experience; mom and dad have needed a variety of medial equipment pieces over the years.
How does someone who wants to remain active do so when life – and their bodies – begin to let them down? Sticking around the house stinks, and no one should be kept from a vacation because they need oxygen, a wheel chair or electric cart or some other sort of medical apparatus.
With their medical needs, mom and dad, who’d always loved to travel found themselves having to worry more about more about where they could and could not go. As the ADA has opened doors to every type of building and facility nationwide, getting there and being able to enjoy the experience can still be a hassle.
Imagine wanting to take a cruise to a beautiful port, but needing an electric cart to get around or oxygen to breath, and you’ve got to fly to get to the ship. You can’t take yours, obviously, so what are you going to do?
Enter Care Vacations. Hey,I have to admit, I only started to think about such things because of mom and dad, but over the years, I’ve become very aware of the issues and challenges people face when they go out every day, let alone travel. When the folks at Care Vacations first asked me to take a look at their site, I did, but only quickly.
In the weeks since, – long story – I’ve actually looked at the site, emailed back and forth a couple times and then met the folks of Care Vacations at the recent Travel Bloggers Show I attended.
Frankly, that’s what kind of did it for me. It’s one thing for me to see a website or look at a media kit. And without the need to use such a service, I’ve not used theirs, and can’t speak to it from that standpoint.
But because of mom and dad, I’m very aware of what’s out there, and what they may go through to enjoy themselves – or do the simple things in life – and while you can often find a range of services and companies that offer a product or service, and they may all do it well, when it comes to the people you love, I think it comes back to two things: 1. great people and 2. caring.
Being able to take a vacation or spend the day out is of great importance to many who have physical challenges. Photo by Rori Paul.
Great People and Caring
I can’t tell you if their equipment is good – they say it is and you can see that on the site as well. I can’t tell you if it’s easy to arrange their services, but since every cruise line out there has a contract with them – some exclusively – and keep using them, I have to believe that Care Vacations offers a pretty good product coupled with ease of use.
So what sold me on them?
Great people and caring. That day at the Travel Bloggers Show, it wasn’t a long conversation, but from the moment I walked up, the people there were amazingly terrific. Friendly, outgoing, wanting to help and answer every question I had. When they found out I was a blogger – the show was an off-shoot of the ASTA/Travel Agent show – and that I’d been talking with their media & marketing person, they wanted to help in anyway they could.
Yep, you can say they were trying to “sell” me. Thing of it is, I’m a pretty good judge when it comes to the ones who are feeding me a media-induced line and the ones who really have something behind it.
These people had something behind it.
I mentioned that mom needed help – used an electric cart – and that with her visits we can’t rent one because we have no way to get it around town. They immediately jumped in with their CareBus Express.
CareBus Express offers the services of picking you up in Central Florida and getting you, your party and your medical equipment where you all need to go.
I can tell you, when she comes in for future visits, we’re going to look into this.
Mom and dad have rented electric carts while on vacation. Not yet from Care Vacations, but we will look at them for mom's next visit. Photo by Sandi Paul.
Would I trust them with mom
You bet. And that’s what this all comes down to. That great people great caring thing – it’s about trusting them to provide mom with what she needs, do it with great equipment and good service, and basing it on people who demonstrated a deep desire to do their best.
Those people at the show were such people – great people and caring. They wanted to talk about my needs and what they could do.
Care Vacations
Toll Free: 1-877-478-7827
Email: csa@carevacations.com
