Located in Central Florida, Port Canaveral is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world and one of the most popular special needs Florida vacation destinations. Cape Canaveral cruises for limited mobility travelers include 3-, 4-, or 7-day voyages to places such as the Eastern Caribbean, Bahamas or Mexico. For limited mobility travelers cruising out of Port Canaveral, pre-cruise or post-cruise stays in the home city of Cape Canaveral, Orlando and surrounding areas offer travelers many options. Don’t let limited mobility stop you from visiting Cape Canaveral’s great attractions.
The best known tourist destination in Cape Canaveral is the Kennedy Space Center. The Kennedy Space Center is NASA’s launch headquarters and provides trips for disabled passengers to tour launch areas, meet veteran astronauts, see giant rockets and train in spaceflight simulators. Visitors to this Cape Canaveral attraction can also view the Shuttle Discovery launch, scheduled to lift off on February 24, 2011. The Space Center offers many ADA services to make Port Canaveral trips for disabled individuals enjoyable. Accessible features include special wheelchair accessible seating, audio guides, Assistive Listening Devices, American Sign Language Interpreters, Guided Tours for guests who are blind or low vision and more.
Special needs vacation destinations within this Florida city can also include the 35 acre Jetty Park. Jetty Park includes a beach, campground and full range of activities. One of this park’s best-loved features is the 1,200 foot Malcolm E. McLouth Fishing Pier. The Pier is open 24 hours, is paved, lighted and equipped with fish-cleaning tables with running water. Additionally, the Pier is fully accessible to the physically challenged. Guests to Florida with special needs may also rent one of the two beach wheelchairs that give access to both the beach and pier.
About 20 miles northwest of Cape Canaveral, in the city of Titusville, is the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum. At this museum in Florida, special needs visitors may peruse displays of restored types of world military aircrafts from before WWI to the present. The Museum contains three different buildings: the Main Hangar has approximately 30 aircrafts on display including a F14A Tomcat, Mig-21, TA4-J Skyhawk and others; the Memorabilia Hall contains flags, guns, photos and other artifacts from WWI to present; and the Restoration Hangar currently holds a C47 and three other planes that visitors can watch the restoration process. These buildings as well as the Gift Shop are all wheelchair accessible
A little further northwest in the city of Winter Park is the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. At this destination in Florida, special needs visitors can marvel at the world’s most comprehensive collection of lamps, art glass, furniture, jewelry and other works by Louis Comfort Tiffany. In its galleries, the museum also features decorative art, pottery, graphics and late-19th and early-20th century American paintings. In the evening, the museum also holds plays, musicals, Philharmonic concerts and ballet performances in its intimate theaters. The Museum is wheelchair accessible as all galleries are on a single floor.
Limited mobility visitors may also opt to visit the city of Orlando, a 45 minute drive east of Cape Canaveral. With destinations such as Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios, Sea World and Epcot, it’s no wonder that Orlando was rated the No. 1 summertime tourist destination by the American Society of Travel Agents for eight straight years. For Cape Canaveral and central Florida equipment rentals, including scooter rentals and wheelchair rentals, please contact Special Needs Group.
Cruises out of Port Canaveral: Carnival, Disney, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean
Interesting Fact: In homage to its spacefaring heritage, the Florida Public Service Commission allocated “321” as the telephone area code for Cape Canaveral and surrounding counties.