Going to WDW soon, question about ECVs

[Sarabell]

Hi guys! I am a bit intimidated by this subject, because I know a lot of people dread the ECV users, but here's my story:

My sister called me yesterday and said she wants us to go next January with her boyfriend, my husband an my mom (YAAAYY for the possibility of a trip). She is 65, she LOVES WDW, but she suffers from a condition called artherosclerosis, which means her arteries clog and it makes walking long distances or standing for long periods of time very dificult and sometimes painful for her. Her last trip was in 2011, and apparently it was just starting (we didn´t know she had it back then), so walking slowly was all we needed to do, cause we just thought she was tired.

In october 2012 she suffered a heart attack, had sugery and everything was well until a month later, when her condition became very agressive and since then, she has had at least 5 surgeries and a few procedures to help with the clogged arteries. She is so excited to go back to WDW, but she's scared that she might ruin our trip because she might not be able walk for 10 days straight without feeling pain, and that just breaks my heart, so I thought about the possibility of renting an ECV for her. Can you please let me know how that works? (not the renting part, but the getting around the parks in one)

Are there places she can leave her ECV parked while in line? or is there a way she can stay seated while we wait in line when the waits are long? I´ve been there and I've seen plenty of people using ECVs, but I've never needed to look into how Disney manages these people with limited mobility in terms of riding attractions or waiting in line.

I really want to go, and I'm so happy to see my mom so excited about a trip with everything she's had to endure in the past few years with this condition, so I want to do everything in my power for her not to feel like she's going to be a burden if she comes with us. I promise you we will be very responsible and avoid hitting people's feet at all cost. I appreciate any help you can provide.

Have a great day everyone!

 

[nickys]

I suggest you start here:

Help

Help

disneyworld.disney.go.com

From this page you can find out about which rides she would need to transfer and so on (there are several different categories of rides). They seem to have changed the help section a bit, so I can’t find the actual list of all rides! It seems to be split by park now.

All the buses and most of the boats can take ECVs, and there are also different types of hotel rooms for varying disabilities if you were planning to stay onsite.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

First off, I'm glad your mom is going...she will love it! Rent an ECV from an off site company...Buena Vista is a great company (among several). They will drop it off at your resort and pick it up. The ECV's you rent at the parks are on a first come basis and you must leave it at the park when you leave. Just my famous piece of advice...the first day, BEFORE going into the parks, take 15-20 minutes with her and let her familiarize herself with the ECV...starting, stopping, steering, etc. That will help lessen the stress when you get to the parks. The bus drivers are phenomenal with their assistance. Just don't forget to plug it in to charge every night. Take the cord with you while at the parks. CM's will allow you to "plug in" while eating, etc. There's nothing worse than heading out the door in the morning, only to find out it's only got a 25% charge. We took my late dad there in 2013... hadn't been on a plane since he came home from the Korean war...he had a BLAST with his 5 grandchildren and talked about it until the day he passed. You can park the ECV outside the attraction and walk onto the line or in many cases, you will be able to park right inside the attraction. See if you can also rent a cover for it in case it rains. HAVE FUN!!!!

 

[NickMaio]

Hi guys! I am a bit intimidated by this subject, because I know a lot of people dread the ECV users, but here's my story:

My sister called me yesterday and said she wants us to go next January with her boyfriend, my husband an my mom (YAAAYY for the possibility of a trip). She is 65, she LOVES WDW, but she suffers from a condition called artherosclerosis, which means her arteries clog and it makes walking long distances or standing for long periods of time very dificult and sometimes painful for her. Her last trip was in 2011, and apparently it was just starting (we didn´t know she had it back then), so walking slowly was all we needed to do, cause we just thought she was tired.

In october 2012 she suffered a heart attack, had sugery and everything was well until a month later, when her condition became very agressive and since then, she has had at least 5 surgeries and a few procedures to help with the clogged arteries. She is so excited to go back to WDW, but she's scared that she might ruin our trip because she might not be able walk for 10 days straight without feeling pain, and that just breaks my heart, so I thought about the possibility of renting an ECV for her. Can you please let me know how that works? (not the renting part, but the getting around the parks in one)

Are there places she can leave her ECV parked while in line? or is there a way she can stay seated while we wait in line when the waits are long? I´ve been there and I've seen plenty of people using ECVs, but I've never needed to look into how Disney manages these people with limited mobility in terms of riding attractions or waiting in line.

I really want to go, and I'm so happy to see my mom so excited about a trip with everything she's had to endure in the past few years with this condition, so I want to do everything in my power for her not to feel like she's going to be a burden if she comes with us. I promise you we will be very responsible and avoid hitting people's feet at all cost. I appreciate any help you can provide.

Have a great day everyone!

Have an amazing time.
Ignore anyone at the parks who throws negativity at you, just go at your own pace.

 

[DisAl]

Everything Smiley/OCD said.
We took my mother on our last trip (at that time one month from being 89) and she had a wonderful time. Like your sister she could handle short distances but anything else is difficult for her. You will find the CMs to be extremely helpful in accommodating her needs as best they can.
There are some rides that she will have to park at the entrance just like a stroller, some that she can ride the ECV all the way in to the boarding point, and even a few such as Voyage of the Little Mermaid in MK that have a special ride vehicle that can actually accommodate a wheelchair or ECV. On the rides with the moving belt boarding system they can slow the belt down if needed to allow extra boarding time.

 

[The_Jobu]

I hope you all have a great time.

 

[Sarabell]

First off, I'm glad your mom is going...she will love it! Rent an ECV from an off site company...Buena Vista is a great company (among several). They will drop it off at your resort and pick it up. The ECV's you rent at the parks are on a first come basis and you must leave it at the park when you leave. Just my famous piece of advice...the first day, BEFORE going into the parks, take 15-20 minutes with her and let her familiarize herself with the ECV...starting, stopping, steering, etc. That will help lessen the stress when you get to the parks. The bus drivers are phenomenal with their assistance. Just don't forget to plug it in to charge every night. Take the cord with you while at the parks. CM's will allow you to "plug in" while eating, etc. There's nothing worse than heading out the door in the morning, only to find out it's only got a 25% charge. We took my late dad there in 2013... hadn't been on a plane since he came home from the Korean war...he had a BLAST with his 5 grandchildren and talked about it until the day he passed. You can park the ECV outside the attraction and walk onto the line or in many cases, you will be able to park right inside the attraction. See if you can also rent a cover for it in case it rains. HAVE FUN!!!!

Thanks so much for the advise! We will be staying offsite though, so transporting the ECV would basically be impossible. This makes me think it might be easier to just rent a regular wheelchair which we can fold and throw in the back of our rental van. I suppose lines and everything in the parks work the same in both cases (???)

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Thanks so much for the advise! We will be staying offsite though, so transporting the ECV would basically be impossible. This makes me think it might be easier to just rent a regular wheelchair which we can fold and throw in the back of our rental van. I suppose lines and everything in the parks work the same in both cases (???)

You should still be able to rent from an off site company and request one that breaks down into several pieces...that will allow you to transport it in your vehicle. Trust me, you really DON'T want to be pushing a wheelchair all day at Disney...Even though the temps will be ok at the time you're going, it's just an added effort...with the ECV that breaks down, the heaviest part should be about 50 lbs...

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Oh, and yes, the lines would be the same for wheelchair vs. ECV...

 

[DisAl]

Thanks so much for the advise! We will be staying offsite though, so transporting the ECV would basically be impossible. This makes me think it might be easier to just rent a regular wheelchair which we can fold and throw in the back of our rental van. I suppose lines and everything in the parks work the same in both cases (???)

As others have already said, yes.
One thing to consider when you talk to the chair rental company is that you or someone else will be pushing the chair for several miles per day, so make sure that you take into account the type and height of the handgrips also. We averaged 8 miles per day. FYI, it seems to us that Animal Kingdom is the most challenging for a wheelchair "pusher" due to the many hills. And be careful of the trolley tracks on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. We have seen more than one wheelchair get a wheel caught in the track and damaged.
Here are three other "tips" that worked for us. First, get a bag to hang on the back of the wheelchair to hold your water bottles, rain gear, etc. Second, make sure your chair is well marked. On each handle I tied a piece of surveyors tape to make ours stand out. (I used lime green on one and pink on the other.) If she leaves the chair for a ride and you park it is very likely that it will have been moved by a CM as they consolidate stroller and wheelchair parking so anything you do to make yours stand out will help, and you don't want someone to accidentally grab your chair. When you come out of an attraction and yours is one of a dozen wheelchairs and ten dozen strollers that can really help. Third, take an extra rain poncho or something you can spread over the chair when you park it to keep it dry if it rains.

 

[Disney.Mike]

Like others have said, rent from an offsite company. I've personally used "Yellow Scooters" in Orlando for my Grandmother. The rates were reasonable, much cheaper than renting from WDW.

 

[Sarabell]

You should still be able to rent from an off site company and request one that breaks down into several pieces...that will allow you to transport it in your vehicle. Trust me, you really DON'T want to be pushing a wheelchair all day at Disney...Even though the temps will be ok at the time you're going, it's just an added effort...with the ECV that breaks down, the heaviest part should be about 50 lbs...

That's actually great info! I'm a rookie in terms of these "devices" so I didn't know there were ECVs that you could disassemble. We will be with 2 strong men (I know my husband is pretty strong, I hope my sister's boyfriend is too ), so 50 pounds shouldn't be a problem at all.

As others have already said, yes.
One thing to consider when you talk to the chair rental company is that you or someone else will be pushing the chair for several miles per day, so make sure that you take into account the type and height of the handgrips also. We averaged 8 miles per day. FYI, it seems to us that Animal Kingdom is the most challenging for a wheelchair "pusher" due to the many hills. And be careful of the trolley tracks on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. We have seen more than one wheelchair get a wheel caught in the track and damaged.
Here are three other "tips" that worked for us. First, get a bag to hang on the back of the wheelchair to hold your water bottles, rain gear, etc. Second, make sure your chair is well marked. On each handle I tied a piece of surveyors tape to make ours stand out. (I used lime green on one and pink on the other.) If she leaves the chair for a ride and you park it is very likely that it will have been moved by a CM as they consolidate stroller and wheelchair parking so anything you do to make yours stand out will help, and you don't want someone to accidentally grab your chair. When you come out of an attraction and yours is one of a dozen wheelchairs and ten dozen strollers that can really help. Third, take an extra rain poncho or something you can spread over the chair when you park it to keep it dry if it rains.

You are right! pushing a wheelchair does seem like a hassle on top of all the walking. I usually mark everything (luggage, etc), so I had actually thought about marking the wheelchair too, just to avoid a scavenger hunt when looking for it after each attraction, or even worse, having someone take ours and having to deal with the rental company afterwards. And having our water bottles and everything else on the chair instead of our backs does sound like an added perk! Thank you so much!

Like others have said, rent from an offsite company. I've personally used "Yellow Scooters" in Orlando for my Grandmother. The rates were reasonable, much cheaper than renting from WDW.

Thanks for the recomendation. We will be there for 2 weeks, so renting from WDW each day would really add up quickly. An outside company for the whole trip sounds like it will be much better for our pockets. Thanks!