ºoº Newbie Scooter (ECV) Rental, Travelling, Adventure Experiences at WDW (retitled )

[RaySharpton]

I thought that I would change the title of this thread and add some information in case any newbies would like to hear my experiences.

The best place for information is in a sticky at the top of the board by Sue.

I'll put the thread's page number and the post's number followed by a description of what I wrote.

ºoº Page-#3, Post-#34: My rental experience from calling outside rental agencies for prices.


First, I want to thank everyone for all of the information that you gave me here on the Disabiltiy forums.

I had the best time ever. I can't remember when I have had a better time at WDW. And I think that it was because I rented a scooter to use for my whole trip from an outside rental agency.

I have rented ECV's from WDW parks for years because of walking, mobility issues.

I had no idea how much difference it made to me using a scooter outside the park, too.

These are my impressions and feelings that I experienced renting a scooter and using it to go everywhere at WDW:

1.- My first feeling was that I was "smiling" all of the time. I was so happy all of the time. Everywhere.

2.- I never had to think about planning ahead of time how to space my walking and the time to make it to certain places. Or even if I did think about it, I realized that it didn't make any difference. I had a scooter to go everywhere. For those that don't understand, I just wouldn't go if I didn't think that I could make the trip. I would stay in the room rather than worry whether or not I would have to ask for help getting back to my room for inability to go any further.

3.- If I was late waking up, or if I had to go from one park to another park or resort, I just said to myself, "I have a scooter." I can go anywhere and not worry about the pain of walking, getting out breath, then getting agitated and irritable because of the former. I could just "smile" and enjoy the magic. It is amazing how much that I missed having to watch the ground as I walked.

4.- Alan delivered my scooter to the OKW lobby 15 minutes after I called him. I arrived early around 8:00 A.M., checked in and got my key, but my room wasn't ready, yet. He gave great instructions about the steering tiller adjustment, the 360 degree seat swivel, the arm rest adjustments, the unlocking of the wheels that the Castmembers use if they need to move the scooter without power, the nifty automatic, retractible, electrical cord in the back of the scooter, the red light indicators for recharging and a phone number to call anytime if I needed his help, which I didn't.

5.- My first trip was to check out the pool, and ramp to the boat dock. Then I hit the road and walked the trail from OKW to SSR to DTD. Then I got on my first WDW bus lift back to OKW to check in, and then another WDW bus ramp to MK to watch Spectromagic and Wishes. Then rode right into my room. Wow. I was so happy and smiling all day.

6.- I went somwhere every single day, instead of everyother day or not at all.

7.- 99% of the guests and castmembers were all wonderful about me using a scooter on the WDW buses, boat launches and everywhere.

8.- Using the WDW buses always took some readjusting to get on the RTS lift, and the NOVA ramp backing up to get on. The Gillig ramp was the easiest going forward. But I just took my time, just the "SLOW SPEED". I was never hesitant about getting on the buses.

9.- I found a lot of convenient electrical outlets to plug into to recharge while dining, watching fireworks or parades.


10.- I went on trip around the Boardwalk lake, and the Carabbien Beach lake and island, the POFQ an POR river and trails, and so many others.

11.- I got to the park without being exhausted, tired or in pain.

12.- Did I say that I was smiling the whole trip.

I'll be glad to answer any questions about my trip.

Sincerely, Ray

 

[rascalmom]

So glad to hear you had a wonderful trip!

 

[Belle1962]

Ray--great to hear you had such a great trip!

 

[Sue & Co.]

Ray- glad everything worked so well for you - it makes such a difference to a holiday.

I will be taking my own wheelchair for the first time next year when we go to California rather than renting and I'm sure it will make life easier (if a little cramped in the car to and from the airport!!).

Sue

 

[JudithM]

I am glad to read your "smiling" report about using an ECV around WDW. It is wonderful to have your own mobility & freedom!

 

[disneymiss]

I hope to be smiling too.....I will be leaving this Saturday for my solo Disney trip with a scooter I bought on Ebay for a really good price, I am not sure about using it or the problems I will have but I too can't wait not to worry about getting somewhere and not being able to get back or walking from the bus to the ticket location and realize that I can't go any further, my breathing (asthma is really bad, have such shortness of breathe it is really scary) and being alone does not help.....so I am glad to hear you had a really good time, did you do any rides???? did you have problems with getting in lines or did you buy pass some of them....I am so new to this that I am not sure what kind of problems I am going to run into...wish someone was going with me, but my 23 and 25 year old are too old to go with mom...unless of course I pay for them and a friend....think I will keep going Solo......any advice from everyone would help so much....excited by scared too...

 

[Mykelogan]

Yay Ray! So happy that your trip went well!!!

Disneymiss, I can understand your concerns and I think doing several things will help. First, be sure to ask at your resort (if your are onsite or at the parks themselves offsite) for the disabilities guides for each park. They will let you know what rides you would need to tranfers on, etc. A majority of the ride lines have adequate space for an ECv to manuver so there is no need to jump ahead. I found the CMs very helpful at each park on my last solo trip. So please do not stay away from a ride because you are not sure how best to access it.

Mike

 

[RaySharpton]

I am glad to read your "smiling" report about using an ECV around WDW. It is wonderful to have your own mobility & freedom!

Thank you, Rascalmom, Belle1962, Sue, Judith, and everyone for your good wishes. I did have a wonderful time and I will never visit WDW without renting a scooter again. It made that such of a difference in my magical experience.

Sincerely, Ray

 

[eeyore45]

How wonderful!! Thank you for sharing! Invaluable information - I have a friend that is considering, but is 'afraid' since she is so 'young' and doesnt 'appear' to need an ECV - yet her tumor in her back makes it impossible to walk, so I definately share the info many of you post!!

Thanks again!!

 

[RaySharpton]

I hope to be smiling too.....I will be leaving this Saturday for my solo Disney trip with a scooter I bought on Ebay for a really good price, I am not sure about using it or the problems I will have but I too can't wait not to worry about getting somewhere and not being able to get back or walking from the bus to the ticket location and realize that I can't go any further, my breathing (asthma is really bad, have such shortness of breathe it is really scary) and being alone does not help.....so I am glad to hear you had a really good time, did you do any rides???? did you have problems with getting in lines or did you buy pass some of them....I am so new to this that I am not sure what kind of problems I am going to run into...wish someone was going with me, but my 23 and 25 year old are too old to go with mom...unless of course I pay for them and a friend....think I will keep going Solo......any advice from everyone would help so much....excited by scared too...

Hi, Cheri.

It is a bit scary when you are by yourself and something happens and no one is at your side to help you.

But WDW is such a nice place to be to ask Castmembers to help if you need it, even though I don't like to ask for help, or even think about asking for help. I guess that I'm stubborn.

I see that you are staying in a OKW studio, too. I really enjoyed my OKW studio.

I parked my scooter at the foot of the first bed, as I entered the studio, and plugged my scooter in the electrical outlet.

I could have easily backed the scooter to be more out of the way against the connecting door between the closet and table against the far wall away from the two queen beds. But I like to put my suitcase on one of those suitcase stands against the door. I know no one will enter that way, but I just feel a little better with something always against that connecting door all of the time.

Almost all of the WDW park ride lines for the scooter follow the regular queue line into ride attraction until there is a need to change to a area to enter.

For instance, at MK's Splash Mountain retraction, I entered the same Fast Fass line as everyone else, without difficulty. And also entered the same Standby line as everyone. The trail winded around outside and then went inside until it came to the first steps, then the scooter is directed to the exit area to park against the wall. You may have to wait about 20 to 30 minutes to board. I think that they do this to allow the same amount of time for the other walkers to arrive at the same time as you board. But sometimes there is an open seat and it may only take 10 minutes of waiting. That happened with me one time when someone changed their mine about riding, so I was able to get on after only 10 minutes of waiting at the exit. Of course, the line at the beginning took just as long as everyone else. I think that it took about 45 minutes following everyone until I got to the first stairs and then I was directed to the exit.

Most rides, if they are not as long as Spash Mountain and they don't have a lot of stairs like Splash Mountain, I will park outside the ride attraction and walk in with everyone else using my cane. If you can do this, I think that experincing the queue lines are just as enterataining. I would love to go through that Spash Mountain trail with all the caves, but everyone gets so upset with me about not catching up with the line and wondering if they should pass me or not. I guess that I feel pressure to hurry. So do what you can and enjoy.

You should not have any problems. Most of the castmembers will help you decide what to do and where to go. That is what is so nice about WDW.

Have a great time.

Sincerely, Ray

 

[RaySharpton]

Yay Ray! So happy that your trip went well!!!

Disneymiss, I can understand your concerns and I think doing several things will help. First, be sure to ask at your resort (if your are onsite or at the parks themselves offsite) for the disabilities guides for each park. They will let you know what rides you would need to tranfers on, etc. A majority of the ride lines have adequate space for an ECv to manuver so there is no need to jump ahead. I found the CMs very helpful at each park on my last solo trip. So please do not stay away from a ride because you are not sure how best to access it.

Mike

Hi, Mike.

And thank you. I had a wonderful time.

And I agree with every single advice that you gave.

You should be able to ride just about any attraction that you want to.

To give another example how scooter friendly WDW has made their new rides, the new Epcot Soarin' ride attraction is designed for a larger fastpass area for any scooter to enter and get a fastpass.

And you can follow the regular walker line in your scooter all of the way to your ride attraction seat. You park right beside your Soarin' ride attraction seat. How easy is that. But that is assuming that you can get out of your scooter. If you can't get out of your scooter then there is supposed to be another place to go and view the ride.

Sincerely, Ray

 

[RaySharpton]

How wonderful!! Thank you for sharing! Invaluable information - I have a friend that is considering, but is 'afraid' since she is so 'young' and doesnt 'appear' to need an ECV - yet her tumor in her back makes it impossible to walk, so I definately share the info many of you post!!

Thanks again!!

Being "afraid" is a common complaint. Being "judged" by others is a common complaint. But don't let that fear stop her from renting a scooter for her whole trip.

I speak from experience.

I used to just rent a scooter when I got to the WDW park. I had a hard time walking long distances at a time, too.

But there was something else that I didn't realize.

When I had to walk from my room to a bus or car and then walk from the bus to the WDW park entrance and to the scooter rental area, I was exhausted, in pain, out of breath and I am ashamed to say, sometimes very irritable because of the pain.

I did not feel this using a scooter outside the park. I did not feel like I couldn't make it because of the walking distance. I had a scooter.

It was amazing how much that I missed of the magic at WDW by looking at the ground at my steps as I walked. I had to put all my concentration in walking, and not falling down.

I say do it. Use the scooter everywhere, and park it whenever you want to to walk. I use a collapsable cane and place it in the scooter basket.

Go to any hardware store and buy at least two velcro strips, about one foot long to attach any cane, or walker, or crutches to the back of the scooter for easy access and carrying it with you if you need it.

Rent the scooter for the whole trip.

Let her explore WDW. Explore the resorts, and their walkways and lakes, and paths, and boat launches, etc..

Sincerely, Ray

 

[Mykelogan]

To give another example how scooter friendly WDW has made their new rides, the new Epcot Soarin' ride attraction is designed for a larger fastpass area for any scooter to enter and get a fastpass.

And you can follow the regular walker line in your scooter all of the way to your ride attraction seat. You park right beside your Soarin' ride attraction seat. How easy is that. But that is assuming that you can get out of your scooter. If you can't get out of your scooter then there is supposed to be another place to go and view the ride.

Sincerely, Ray

Ray, this is great to here! Thanks for posting your experiences. I did want to ask you as one "pooh sized" guy to another, how were the seats and seatbelts on Soarin?

Mike

 

[LovePug]

I'm glad you decided to do it. It makes all the difference in the "World". My spouse would never be able to do WDW without a scooter. I finally ended up buying one for our trips because, for the price that I got it for, it'll pay for itself by next summer. After that it'll be "free" . I'm so glad you had a great time and an improved experience .

 

[RaySharpton]

Ray, this is great to here! Thanks for posting your experiences. I did want to ask you as one "pooh sized" guy to another, how were the seats and seatbelts on Soarin?

Mike

Everything about Soarin' is big. The seats were easy to get into for me, but there was no extra wiggle room. I was surprised that the seat belts were plenty large enough. I did have to feel for the buckle attachment on the right side of the seat. Next time I will look for it before I sit down. Sorta like the buckle attachment on the Test Track seat that is sort of hard to feel for on the right side, but I was able to find it and hook it up on my own.

As you enter the Land Pavilion, take your scooter to the left side down the long ramp instead of the longer way on the right side. Once you get on the 2nd level, you will see the escalators and stairs to the third level down on your immediate right. Make a left turn and you will see the single elevator and restrooms.

Take the elevator down to the third level and scoot around following your right side until you see the entrance to the Soaring entrance. On the far right is a area to pick up your fastpass. In the center is the standby line entrance, whick I took after getting a fastpass. And on the left is the fastpass line.

The queue line is very wide, about four to five people wide almost all of the way. Once you get to where they let the fastpass enter, you also enter another queue with standby and fastpass people.

They asked me to drive my scooter in the third queue line.

Let's see if I can describe this about the seats. There are three huge mechanical arms that hold three rows of seats. Each arm loads the same row, one at a time, before being lifted up.

I was in the third row outside. I guess so that it would be easier to turn into the doorway versus being in the first row and make an immediate 90 degree turn. When I drove in the door to get seated, they had already filled rows one and two of all three mechanical arms. It appears that the center, arm rows has ten seats. And the two outside arm, rows has about seven seats each.

I could see already see rows one and two were already up in the air part of the way. So there was plenty of space to drive right past in front of all the rows.

Anyway, they told me to park my scooter in the large space beside the center, arm, column area. I didn't have to turn the scooter sideways or anything. I just hopped in the end seat. The seat have large storage areas underneath each seat. They won't let you hold anything like a backpack. The person next me was holding his backpack, and the castmember layed it on the ground next to my scooter as the show was about ot start.

Each seat shares an armrest, so I just grabbed the end armrest and let the person next to me use the other armrest.

The seat belt was on my left and the receiving end was on the right, back side of the seat. As I said, next time I will look for this site before I sit down. The seat belt was large enough for me.

Then the three arms lifted all of us up in front of the sceen along with rows one and two at the same time and the show started.

Wow......what a show!

I understand that if you are unable to get out of a scooter that they have a static place to watch the movie, but I don't know where.

So you follow the regular walkers all of the way through the queue and ride. WDW did a wonderful job.

Afterwards, they let our third row out first. Sorta of unloading in reverse. We loaded last, but unloaded first depending on whether you were on row one, two, or three.

As you exit, you pass the fastpass on the right.
Then I used my fastpass again. I was hoping to try a different row, but I was on the third row again by chance. I guess that I could have asked, but I was having to much fun.

Have a great time.

Sincerely, Ray

 

[RaySharpton]

I'm glad you decided to do it. It makes all the difference in the "World". My spouse would never be able to do WDW without a scooter. I finally ended up buying one for our trips because, for the price that I got it for, it'll pay for itself by next summer. After that it'll be "free" . I'm so glad you had a great time and an improved experience .

Thank you, I did have a great time. I'll have to look on ebay, too. Just as a curiousity. I don't know if I will buy one yet.

I need to lose weight. Then maybe I could get a scooter that was not a heavy duty one.

Using a scooter gave me so much freedom to go where any walker could go and not have to think about anything that might compromise my trek. This is so hard to explain to some walkers.

Have a great time.

Sincerely, Ray

 

[msr709]

So glad to hear of your experience Ray. I'm also going this summer and using an ECV. Which company did you use? I used Walker Mobility last year and they were very good but they do deliver without you being there and since last year I had my nephew and BIL to handle the mechanical stuff I didn't think this an issue but since I'm going solo I think I need someone to teach me where everything is. Was it Randy's? TIA

 

[Nanajo1]

Ray,
Thanks for posting. I'm glad you had such a good time.
It sounds like you did everything you said you wanted to do. I was smiling reading about your trip

 

[disneymiss]

Ray, thanks so much for your advise, I can't wait, there has been so many things over the years that I have not seen or was really able to get to because of getting so tired or scared. And at least I will always have a seat, yeah, I am so excited, thanks again for giving me so much hope...Cheri

 

[RaySharpton]

So glad to hear of your experience Ray. I'm also going this summer and using an ECV. Which company did you use? I used Walker Mobility last year and they were very good but they do deliver without you being there and since last year I had my nephew and BIL to handle the mechanical stuff I didn't think this an issue but since I'm going solo I think I need someone to teach me where everything is. Was it Randy's? TIA

Hi, msr709.

I used Randy's Mobility for the first time. I picked them because of the price and the way they made the totol charge for the week.

They charged me $200.00 total for a heavy duty "Amigo", three wheel scooter for one week from Saturday to Saturday, really eight days. I say that because some of the other companies only charged per day or $39.00 to $40.00 per day. That would make it $280.00 for seven days and $320.00 for eight days. Also, some of the other companies didn't carry heavy duty scooters.

So the price made the difference for me.

The normal size scooter by Randy's Mobility was $175.00 per week. So some of the other scooter rental companies may match closer to price for a scooter that is not a heavy duty scooter.

I have heard a lot of good things about Walker and Medical scooter rental, too. But I have never used them.

I hear that some resort bell services help you learn how to use your scooter.

Do you have to take your scooter apart, or will you be staying in a WDW resort and use the WDW transportation?

I'm sure that the other scooter companies will leave written instructions. And I'm sure that they will give you a telephone number to call incase that you have a question.

I think the personal attention would be great for someone that has never used a scooter, or someone that has to take a scooter apart to load in their car. Especially if the scooter is not the same brand that they have used, in case it is taken apart differently.

If you have used the same scooter before, I think that you will be alright.

If you need to take the scooter apart by yourself and put it in the car, can you physically do that by yourself, since your BIL and nephew helped you on previous trips.

Let me know how it goes, and have a magical trip.

Sincerely, Ray