OrcaPotter
Lucky to be local to the Mouse
- Joined
- May 21, 2005
I did a search, but found no specific threads, so here goes:
My grandfather needs to rent a motorized scooter for his first cruise with us aboard the Dream at the end of January. Has anyone rented a scooter to use on a Disney cruise, and what company did you use? Approximately how much did it cost you? Did they drop it off at the port, or directly on the ship?
Also, there are no handicap accessible rooms available on our cruise; has anyone used a scooter with a regular room? Where did you park it? Was it a problem?
Advice and direction would be greatly appreciated.
** Back from our cruise. A brief report and advices are below**
1. We ended up renting from Brevard Medical Supply. Making the reservation was easy, and for a very nice scooter, it cost my grandfather about $245 for the 4 day cruise.
2. However, while it is promised that the scooter would be dropped off at the terminal (and the declaration that a CM would be able to deliver it to my grandfather once he arrived to limit his walking), there is no confirmation of what time it will be dropped off. We got to the terminal around 11 AM and we weren't quite sure which CM to ask about retrieving the scooter. My grandfather managed to get through security and upstairs by himself. We asked a greeter about the scooter, and he pointed to an area where they were being kept. We saw one scooter parked there and figured, great! But we knew we had to check him in first, so we did this. Then we asked about the scooter. Turned out that the scooter parked there was not ours. A rather flustered young CM seemed eager to push off the problem by handing us the phone number for Brevard Medical, stating it was not under DCL's control, and that BMS was not open on Sundays except for an answering service. Amongst the chaos of checking in a party of 7--4 of which were cruise newbies--I tried to call and couldn't get through. Commence stressed panic.
We went over to the supervisor desk, which was a lot more helpful. The supervisor called the company herself, and discovered that the scooter was still on route to be delivered. Due to 3 ships being in port at the same time, it was causing a delay. If the scooter was delivered after we boarded the ship, it would be delivered to his stateroom. Meanwhile, they provided us with a wheelchair to get him on board.
So, pro tip: If you rent from this company, anticipate the possibility that it will not be there when you arrive at the terminal. But Disney was as good as their word, and by the time the staterooms were ready at 1:30, it was sitting outside his stateroom door as promised.
3. Then there was this issue of parking the scooter without a handicap accessible room. Unfortunately, all were booked on our cruise (1/28-1/31) and we did not have flexibility to book a different date. We took the tips from this thread about parking it in the elevator bay--the hallways by the rooms are much too narrow. This resulted in a lot of mixed information by the crew. We were told several different things: keep it parked by the rooms--it can't be by the elevators, keep it parked by the elevators--it can't be by the rooms, it can't be kept by the elevators--call guest services so they can take it down to deck 2 and park it by Enchanted Garden, etc. etc. It got quite annoying. Particularly when our room stewardess, who was exceptionally nice, kept insisting that deck 2 was where it had to be. She didn't seem to realize how incredibly inconvenient and illogical that was. We kept the scooter labeled with my grandfather's name and cabin number, so if keeping it by the elevators was not allowed, they could have left a note or called the stateroom to insist. We ignored the "rules" and just kept it by the elevators.
4. Lastly, our cruise was completely full. Last year, we went in mid-January and the ship didn't feel crowded at all. We rarely had to wait for an elevator. But this time, the ship was packed--and there were a lot of foreigners (primarily from South America and other Latin American countries). There was absolutely no courtesy given to my grandfather by the other guests. We would be waiting 15 minutes for an empty enough elevator, only for folks to rush in from behind us and crowd in. People would swarm around him, seemingly oblivious to his scooter--dash across, in front, etc. Then they had the nerve to give him ugly looks if they were in danger of getting into a collision.
Also, deck 12 is not friendly to wheelchairs and scooters when navigating around crowds, partitions, and deck chairs.
Whether or not my grandfather enjoyed himself (that's a novel-length report), having the scooter certainly helped him manage the trip. But I definitely feel for the individuals who have no choice but to be mobility handicapped 24/7.
My grandfather needs to rent a motorized scooter for his first cruise with us aboard the Dream at the end of January. Has anyone rented a scooter to use on a Disney cruise, and what company did you use? Approximately how much did it cost you? Did they drop it off at the port, or directly on the ship?
Also, there are no handicap accessible rooms available on our cruise; has anyone used a scooter with a regular room? Where did you park it? Was it a problem?
Advice and direction would be greatly appreciated.
** Back from our cruise. A brief report and advices are below**1. We ended up renting from Brevard Medical Supply. Making the reservation was easy, and for a very nice scooter, it cost my grandfather about $245 for the 4 day cruise.
2. However, while it is promised that the scooter would be dropped off at the terminal (and the declaration that a CM would be able to deliver it to my grandfather once he arrived to limit his walking), there is no confirmation of what time it will be dropped off. We got to the terminal around 11 AM and we weren't quite sure which CM to ask about retrieving the scooter. My grandfather managed to get through security and upstairs by himself. We asked a greeter about the scooter, and he pointed to an area where they were being kept. We saw one scooter parked there and figured, great! But we knew we had to check him in first, so we did this. Then we asked about the scooter. Turned out that the scooter parked there was not ours. A rather flustered young CM seemed eager to push off the problem by handing us the phone number for Brevard Medical, stating it was not under DCL's control, and that BMS was not open on Sundays except for an answering service. Amongst the chaos of checking in a party of 7--4 of which were cruise newbies--I tried to call and couldn't get through. Commence stressed panic.
We went over to the supervisor desk, which was a lot more helpful. The supervisor called the company herself, and discovered that the scooter was still on route to be delivered. Due to 3 ships being in port at the same time, it was causing a delay. If the scooter was delivered after we boarded the ship, it would be delivered to his stateroom. Meanwhile, they provided us with a wheelchair to get him on board.
So, pro tip: If you rent from this company, anticipate the possibility that it will not be there when you arrive at the terminal. But Disney was as good as their word, and by the time the staterooms were ready at 1:30, it was sitting outside his stateroom door as promised.
3. Then there was this issue of parking the scooter without a handicap accessible room. Unfortunately, all were booked on our cruise (1/28-1/31) and we did not have flexibility to book a different date. We took the tips from this thread about parking it in the elevator bay--the hallways by the rooms are much too narrow. This resulted in a lot of mixed information by the crew. We were told several different things: keep it parked by the rooms--it can't be by the elevators, keep it parked by the elevators--it can't be by the rooms, it can't be kept by the elevators--call guest services so they can take it down to deck 2 and park it by Enchanted Garden, etc. etc. It got quite annoying. Particularly when our room stewardess, who was exceptionally nice, kept insisting that deck 2 was where it had to be. She didn't seem to realize how incredibly inconvenient and illogical that was. We kept the scooter labeled with my grandfather's name and cabin number, so if keeping it by the elevators was not allowed, they could have left a note or called the stateroom to insist. We ignored the "rules" and just kept it by the elevators.
4. Lastly, our cruise was completely full. Last year, we went in mid-January and the ship didn't feel crowded at all. We rarely had to wait for an elevator. But this time, the ship was packed--and there were a lot of foreigners (primarily from South America and other Latin American countries). There was absolutely no courtesy given to my grandfather by the other guests. We would be waiting 15 minutes for an empty enough elevator, only for folks to rush in from behind us and crowd in. People would swarm around him, seemingly oblivious to his scooter--dash across, in front, etc. Then they had the nerve to give him ugly looks if they were in danger of getting into a collision.
Also, deck 12 is not friendly to wheelchairs and scooters when navigating around crowds, partitions, and deck chairs.
Whether or not my grandfather enjoyed himself (that's a novel-length report), having the scooter certainly helped him manage the trip. But I definitely feel for the individuals who have no choice but to be mobility handicapped 24/7.
