Trip Report Broken lifts, EMTs, and spitters (oh my!): WDW with a wheelchair and DAS

I’m back, Magicians! For those who don’t know me, my name is Emily. You may recognize me from my sister @krause's Disneyland trip report from this past April, which was in celebration of my 30th birthday! I also wrote a report in September 2018 from a trip with my friend Kaitlyn and @krause wrote one other from a WDW trip from February 2018 for a trip with her family, myself and our parents. The last time I was in WDW was November 2019 (don’t remember a report? You can blame @krause for that as she took the notes) and I cannot wait to get back!

Let's get to the details!

Who: Myself, and my friend Jenny. This is us (I'm on the right):

Some background on Jenny: Jenny was born with cerebral palsy which, for her, means some physical and cognitive disabilities. Jenny will be using an electric wheelchair on our trip. Her physical disabilities affect her life far more than her cognitive disabilities and she lives very independently. That being said, we know that getting the DAS pass will make this trip much more comfortable for her and so we plan to try to get the DAS using the online chat option when the time comes. Jenny has been to WDW before, as a child in 1996 and then again as a teenager (2006ish?). She remembers very little about her ‘96 trip and as a teenager she only did one day at Magic Kingdom, so lots will be new to her!

Some other (probable) players include: My parents, and my sister Kaely, her husband and two children. They are at WDW similar days as us (arrive and leave two days later than we do) and are staying off-property. Our trip dates just happened to coincide but we plan to meet up with them for dinner one night and potentially in a Park if possible. Here's us on our 2019 trip (not sure where the @krause crew was during this photoshoot):

From L to R: Mom, Dad, my sister Kaely, her kids G and B (who are much bigger now!), her husband K, and myself.

When: October 25-November 3, 2022. We are flying in the afternoon of the 25th from Winnipeg, Canada where we both live.

Where: Pop Century Resort. This is only my second stay on property after staying at Port Orleans Riverside in February 2018. I liked the idea of having Skyliner access so that we don’t have to load the wheelchair on a bus each time we want to hit a park. I have not yet been on the Skyliner so having a wheelchair on there actually scares me a little bit but I’m pushing through the fear!

Up Next: The "Why"

 

[Astingel2016]

Thank you so much for reading! Rest assured you will have a wonderful time!

The main reason we went with the chair was because it is what Jenny knows and what she was most comfortable in (she's not the best driver/navigator at the best of times), and as with @pkkurz I would recommend going in whatever you think you would be most comfortable in. I can see how a scooter would be nice as I feel like they are a bit harder to ignore (so hopefully fewer people jumping in front of you and blocking your path). I also think more rental companies offer scooters than power chairs and that scooters are probably cheaper (and maybe have better battery life?).

One other thing I would consider is transferring from the scooter/chair to the ride vehicle. I'm not sure how worried about that you are. In some cases when getting on a ride you have to transfer from scooter to a standard wheelchair (provided at the ride entrance) to the ride vehicle. With the power chair we never had to transfer to the standard wheelchair, it was always straight from power chair to ride vehicle. And, of course, in other cases, she could drive her chair straight on to the ride (such as Small World, Toy Story Mania, etc.) which is great unless you don't want to go through the inconvenience of waiting for the accessible ride vehicle - in some cases it might be easier/faster to use the standard ride vehicle. There are park maps for guests with disabilities (found here) that indicate how transferring is done for each ride.

Other great resources are diz-abled.com and the facebook page they run - https://www.facebook.com/groups/WDWMadeEasyForEveryone.

I hope this helps!

Thanks so much for all of the information! The biggest thing I'm really worried about is the wheelchair they provide being big enough for me. I don't mind transferring to the wheelchair at all, that's fine. I just don't want to be stuck for an entire ride in a wheelchair I don't really fit in lol! I chatted with a Disney cast member online and they said each ride has a normal wheelchair and a larger size, so I'm hoping they're right. I really appreciate you taking the time to reply, especially so long after you originally posted! Thanks again!