Advise & Suggestions re Elderly Mom w/ECV

[Shoshana]

Hi everyone.

My mom (age 78, diabetic, limited mobility), myself, and my 6-yr-old dd will be staying at WL from 12/23 through 12/28. I've ordered mom an ECV. She's used to driving them in stores, etc., but when she was last at Disney 10 years ago, she was able to walk.

I know the timing isn't terrific and it will be very crowded but my father just passed away, my parents were married for 60 years. This trip was mom's idea as a way to get through the holidays without dad.

I've read lots of posts here about people being annoyed with ECV-ers -- assuming they're too lazy or too heavy to walk. I've read about people walking right in front of a moving ECV. So it's going to be crazy, right?

Please, I'd really appreciate any suggestions. Are there any tricks for navigating through the crowds? Should we proceed single file, or should I walk right next to my mother? We'll be spending most of our time at MK, hopefully at rope drop, return to the WL for a rest, and then out again for dinner.

Thanks in advance for responding.

 

[dancer4life22]

Hey! when i was like 7 maybe we took my grandmother who could barely walk and it was fine! people are generally nice about it! i never saw anyone on our most recent trip being rude about it! it doesnt even really matter how you walk. a tip: get a different horn so if you get lost in a crowd she can just honk the horn and youll recognize it. if you can put your daughter in her lap so theyl be fine and you can just listen for the horn. like this one guy in epcot in july had who i think was his grandson on his lap and had a horn that sounded like a frog so when they got seperated from the group he started to honk the horn and the people listened for the frog. or you can buy one of those mickey ears for cars and attach it.

also just so you know: rides like haunted mansion and buzz lightyear and snow white and everything where the ride never stops to let you in will stop for you. they did this for my grandmother so she could ride everything!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If you can put your daughter in her lap so theyl be fine

This is a safety hazard!

The owner's manual on all ECVs says they are designed for one person only. The rental agreements (both Disney and the off-site vendors) all say no passengers.

A standard rental ECV weighs between 150 and 200 pounds when empty and can do about 4-5MPH. If a child is sitting on a person's lap and accidently presses the throttle the ECV can jump forward, causinbg it to run off a curb or into a wall, which can easily injure the riders or, even worse, it can run into a (or more than one) pedestrian causing very serious injuries.

 

[mickeysaver]

Having gone with my partner and her mom last year the week before you are going, I can you a few things. While your mom may be comfortable on a scooter at Target, she may well feel really uncomfortable with an ECV in the parks. The ECV's in the parks tend to go a lot faster than the ones in the stores. My best suggestion is to take her for a tour around your resort's grounds to get her used to how it handles before you even attempt to get her loaded onto a bus or let her loose in the parks.

Most ECV's have a dial that lets you go from an absolute crawl to pretty darn swift. My best suggestion is to put that somewhere near the middle and leave it there. The only time that I would make it go any faster would be on an uphill/incline area. Again, if you take her on a tour of your resort, you will most likely be able to give her a good feel for how fast it goes, how it corners, and most importantly, how quickly or unquickly it stops.

If your mom is Pooh sized, I suggest that you reserve a scooter in the right weight class so that the batteries don't run out before your day ends. If your mom weights over 300 lbs, then please consider renting an extra heavy duty scooter, because while the scooter may handle someone 450 or 500 lbs, the strain on the batteries can cause it to stop working before your day ends. I encourage you to charge the scooter for as long as possible each evening/night.

Depending on your mom's comfort, you may want to load the scooter into the busses for her. Go ahead and have her lifted up first and then drive the scooter onto the bus. (This means that it wouldn't hurt for you to take the scooter for a quick tour of the grounds the first night yourself. ) Always, when loading a scooter onto a bus, put the speed dial on the lowest setting!

There is a light that can be switched on and off on most scooters. Only switch it on during the night and/or when inside a dark building. That light drains the scooter battery, so be mindful of that.

We found that in the past that Gabby's mom forgot the scooter key a lot, however, we bought a foam Mickey head keychain, in lime green of course, and changed out the scooter keyring during our stay to that keychain and she never once forgot it.

Since you are going at the holidays, you might want to decorate the scooter. I can tell you that Target has a lot of cool battery operated holiday lights that are dirt cheap that will make her scooter a bit more festive and hopefully help her to be seen. We almost always decorate the scooter baskets because it does improve the chance of others seeing you and it's fun and some of the CM's get a kick out of it. Who knows, you might get a little pixie dust for your efforts. We use pipe cleaners to hold the stuff in place. Micheals and JoAnn's sell festively colored pipe cleaners which can help keep it pretty and within theme.

Ok, that's my scooter 101 class for the Parental Units/Inlaws. Good luck to you!

 

[peemagg]

One thing I found when trying to load my scooter on the buses, was that I had to turn the speed up to get onto the ramp and then turn it back down once I was on it.

 

[mom3sonstt]

One thing I found when trying to load my scooter on the buses, was that I had to turn the speed up to get onto the ramp and then turn it back down once I was on it.

That's a problem I have too - if you give it enough juice to make it up the incline once you make it to the top you are going too fast. Also getting off depending on the type of bus and where they park me, there are some where you have to make a sharp turn so you have to give it a little "gas" but once there you are going downhill and don't need as much. It's touchy getting on and off, but you get used to it.

 

[Pats Dragon]

I was recently a first time user and found that small boats from WL will not carry an ECV. You have to wait for a large boat. Also, some CM's on rides will ask if you can walk a little and then have you park a very long way away if you say yes. Also when I parked my ecv to get on space ship earth, a cm had us hurry to get in a car too far forward and I really hurt my knee jumping in. I loved my son walking next to me to clear the way when people didn't notice me, especially when I was getting on or off ramps and elevators.