82-years young. Where to stay? Any EVC advice for the stubborn elderly?

[Hisgirl]

Yay!!



We now have two rooms booked at the Grand Floridian for Oct 20-25 with free dining!

SO very excited! Mama and Daddy will be celebrating their SIXTY THIRD WEDDING ANNIVERSAY!

And the funny thing...my DH was hearing me making all the plans and last weekend began sorta quietly and somewhat sheepishly saying, "Maybe...if I go too, your Daddy would feel better about going??" Then he said it a second time a little louder and direct expectant eye contact...

I didn't think he would want to come back so soon. We just went in April and are taking his daughter and our 3 young grandloves in February, but now, yes indeedy, the bug has caught my husband!

My question to all of you wonderful friends is this....

How long should I keep Mama & Daddy out on one day (with scooters) before bringing them back for tv time and an ice cold tea? I do NOT want to wear them out and I need to be super careful about this. Any experiences with other golden seniors would be greatly appreciated regarding their stamina. (Mama and Daddy are relatively fit and walk at the gym 3 X a week) Thank you!!

 

[JennyDrake]

I'll second renting 2 ECVs from outside company no matter where you stay.

 

[JennyDrake]

Yay!!




My question to all of you wonderful friends is this....

Hold long should I keep Mama & Daddy out on one day (with scooters) before bringing them back from tv time and an ice cold tea? I do NOT want to wear them out and I need to be super careful about this. Any experiences with other golden seniors would be greatly appreciated regarding their stamina. (Mama and Daddy are relatively fit and walk at the gym 3 X a week) Thank you!!

"My" senior is different circumstances, but for what it is worth..."mine" is 86, mobility issues following a broken hip. Once we got to a park, her day was ~ 6 hrs long before she was asleep at the wheel (LITERALLY). We were not at an Epcot or Monorail resort, so it was *too much* (for her) to get her to/from resort for rest. After 6 hours, Miss M was very tired, mentally fading and ready for light supper and bed.

 

[Hisgirl]

"My" senior is different circumstances, but for what it is worth..."mine" is 86, mobility issues following a broken hip. Once we got to a park, her day was ~ 6 hrs long before she was asleep at the wheel (LITERALLY). We were not at an Epcot or Monorail resort, so it was *too much* (for her) to get her to/from resort for rest. After 6 hours, Miss M was very tired, mentally fading and ready for light supper and bed.

Hi Jenny!

I'm SO glad you posted this. THIS is exactly what I want to avoid. If I use up all their energy, they won't be able to walk into dinner and getting up to do it again will seen like a chore. I think I need to do a very easy day each day and bring them back BEFORE they get worn out!

So I'm thinking if 6 hours was waaay too much, then leaving it to 4 hours.

 

[Bete]

Hi Jenny!

I'm SO glad you posted this. THIS is exactly what I want to avoid. If I use up all their energy, they won't be able to walk into dinner and getting up to do it again will seen like a chore. I think I need to do a very easy day each day and bring them back BEFORE they get worn out!

So I'm thinking if 6 hours was waaay too much, then leaving it to 4 hours.

I would practice back home at a zoo. You can rent scooters there, too. See how that day goes and then you will have a good reference for how much they can handle before a break.

Do they normally nap at home? If yes, follow that schedule for the trip. If they retire early you have to take that into consideration, too. If they are on any meds make sure you follow their time regimen there, too.

Another consideration at Disney is the scooter you get. If you rent from Disney you will have one with head lights. Many of the portable travel scooters you rent from outside vendors don't have lights. This may not be a major problem; because, there are lights in the park, but it still is a little dark. Some older people have issue with night vision.

Finally, be aware there are curbs at some places like around the MK castle. You have to use the scooter as if it's wheelchair and access the handicap access ramps. The ramps are built into the sidewalk. Sometimes with crowds it's hard to see where they are located. You can walk anywhere, but the scooter can't. The railroad tracks at MK can be troublesome to get over with a scooter; so, be careful there, too. Usually, I would direct anyone in our party with scooter or wheelchair to follow my lead.

Mix some shows with rides. My mom and hubby would cat nap at some shows. This helped to last longer at the parks.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

the ECV's are only available from the front gate and the walk from any of the resorts is long.

This is not correct. You can rent ECVs at the International Gateway.

We'll be in a car, so that would be difficult if not impossible to fit 2 in a trunk.

Several years ago we had two families (total six people) traveling together and had need of two ECVs. We tried everything at a rental company up to and including a Cadillac and there was no way to get two EVCs in any car or SUV.

does the monorail take us straight to Epcot and Magic Kingdom? If so...I'm thinking that might be really easy with an outside scooter rental making a resort direct delivery.
Thoughts?

The monirail is one stop from GF to MK. To get to Epcot you take the monorail to the TTC and change to the Epcot line.

"My" senior is different circumstances, but for what it is worth..."mine" is 86, mobility issues following a broken hip. Once we got to a park, her day was ~ 6 hrs long before she was asleep at the wheel (LITERALLY). We were not at an Epcot or Monorail resort, so it was *too much* (for her) to get her to/from resort for rest. After 6 hours, Miss M was very tired, mentally fading and ready for light supper and bed.

Hi Jenny!

I'm SO glad you posted this. THIS is exactly what I want to avoid. If I use up all their energy, they won't be able to walk into dinner and getting up to do it again will seen like a chore. I think I need to do a very easy day each day and bring them back BEFORE they get worn out!

So I'm thinking if 6 hours was waaay too much, then leaving it to 4 hours.

Back when my mother was only 91½ she visited me for a couple of days. I had to "force" her to use an ECV. We took it easy and were able to do about eight hours in each park we went to with no problems.

 

[JennyDrake]

Hi Jenny!

I'm SO glad you posted this. THIS is exactly what I want to avoid. If I use up all their energy, they won't be able to walk into dinner and getting up to do it again will seen like a chore. I think I need to do a very easy day each day and bring them back BEFORE they get worn out!

So I'm thinking if 6 hours was waaay too much, then leaving it to 4 hours.

I'm going to ramble for a bit and you can extract any info that may help you on your trip. As I said before, my circumstances were different.

I went to WDW 3 times over 18 months as a traveling companion to an 85/86 yo lady w/ mobility issues (broken hip) and mild to moderate dementia. Her son is a friend and he needed same sex help with mom. My input in planning, etc was somewhat minimal and that's OK!

Because of Miss M's loss of short term memory, getting her up, dressed, and out the door (on an ECV that she had never driven) was a good hour or more; then to the food court and another 30-45 min for breakfast, then wait for bus and enter park- another 30-45 min. So you can see that by the time we got *into* a park, she had already been up for 2-3 hours.

[Just my opinion - I think it would have been preferable for someone to go get breakfast and bring it to the room, bypassing the schlepp to the food court and the change in surroundings for her.]

So we would arrive at a park about 10 a.m. By 3 p.m. she would start "sundowning" and by 4 she was pretty done in. Back at the resort by 5 and she was too spent to focus to eat.

An Epcot resort would have been a good option, but it was not affordable. I do think that if we had taken her back for a midday rest, we could not have gotten her out and about again. We sorta tried on Trip #2 for her to see Illuminations, but she didn't want to go and I don't think she would have gotten much out of it except more fatigue.

While the ECV was a good option--it was not a great option in HER case. She had never driven a car. The ECV required a lot of concentration on her part and she made a lot of mistakes, most of them harmless to herself and others. The most memorable was semi climbing the walls at the Country Bear Jamboree....

[Just my opinion - after the first trip I REALLY wanted a push wheelchair.]

The third trip her son discovered HE could pilot the chair while walking alongside. This was easier on both her sanity and mine.

She enjoyed all of the shows and LOVED Beauty and The Beast. American Idol also ranked high. Country Bears was rather lost on her and she found the Tiki Room "weird" LOL!

Other than FotLK, AK was pretty much a loss for her. MK was "too much." And while DHS is my least favorite park--it was her favorite

Again, everyone is in a different situation so certainly YMMV!

 

[lolakat]

My mom has mobility issues and we have done WDW a few times together. I would recommend renting the ECV from an outside supplier. I don't think we are allowed to say the name of companies on here but if you search on google you will find them easily. They will drop the scooter off at your hotel and pick it up at the end of your stay. THen you can just use WDW transportation to access the parks and you won't have to worry about fitting the ECV in your car. I agree staying at the Beach or Yatch Club is your best bet if you want to concentrate on EPCOT. There is a bit of a learning curve in driving the ECV but I found my mom was able to master it fairly easily. The hardest part is getting on/off the buses but if you are only going to EPCOT andyou stay at BC or BWI you will not need to worry about the buses. I have also done WDW with my grandmother in a push wheelchair. I found it is a LOT of work to push someone around the park all day.