How accessible would a new resort be?

In traveling and encountering varied levels of accessibility in lodging, restaurants and attractions, I always try to keep in mind the age of the facility. Naturally, you expect more accessibility in a newer facility. But sometimes you are charmed by the care taken with an older facility -- pre ADA -- that still has tried to make their place as accessible as possible.
What I haven't ever had the chance to do was visit a brand new resort to see how it has handled a modern sensibility to accessibility issues. That is until the end of last week.
We had a large indoor waterpark resort open about 25 minutes from our home. Key Lime Cove in Gurnee, Ill. opened earlier this month. We had seen the progress going on from the tollway and when we heard it would open in time for our spring break week, we thought why not get a few days away? Our family loves to be wet. So we made a reservation. Only later did it strike me that this would be a unique opportunity to see how a brand new resort might handle accessibility right from the start.
My quick assessment? Obvious care to make the facility accessible were evident throughout. Here's an off-beat example. Right by the front desk, there was an observation area looking out on the indoor waterpark facility. It was on a raised platform and I bet not too long ago it would have been accessible by only a couple of small stairs. But someone had the foresight to ramp the access to the platform. And the ramp was the only access, in a nice touch. Other high points included the roomy and handy family changing rooms off the waterpark area and that all parts of the waterpark area were accessible to someone in a wheelchair at least at the pool deck level. The bathroom in our room, not a designated accessible room, was better than most for us. Its use of a pocket door made it roomy enough that we could pretty easily help our son on and off the toilet.
Most of the disappointments in fact are just seemingly inherent in the design of waterparks today -- especially the inside variety. Water slides call for a lot of stairs. Some parks have ways to get the tubes you ride in up without them having to be carried, but I haven't seen that conquered with people who can't do all the stairs yet. Perhaps some day. Still Marcus was able to make very good use of the wave pool, which are a very handy zero-depth type design. In fact, thanks to one new device I will detail in my next post, he got way more use out of the wave pool here than usual.
Everyone has their own accessibility priotities, and you should always check out how your must haves will be handled at any facility. Still our experience at Key Lime Cove was very accessible. It gave a glimpse of what all facilities might be like someday.

Photos by Darren Hillock. Top: Key Lime Cove wave pool. Below: The ramp referred to in teh blog post.