Been Doing Disney Since I Was Little....But Now As A Wheelchair User

[Wheelin In Disney]

Hello, my name is Samantha Blythe and I've been to Disney World since I was a baby as my mom goes to an annual veterinary meeting every January in Orlando. We've always stayed at Marriott Orlando World Center, but since a couple of years ago, my mom got a great deal on the All-Star resorts, which are way cool because of the free bus transportation.

I was born with a very rare genetic birth defect known as Apert Syndrome, and have been using a power wheelchair, manual wheelchair, and walker due to my uncoordinated balance control.

Whenever we go to Disney World, we always take my Kaye reverse walker and my manual wheelchair. But someday, Ihope that we can take my power chair and my walker. But, my medical equipment supplier had said that taking a power chair on an airplane would be too risky.

Samantha

 

[pugdog]

unless you have some special equipment on it with some advance prep work you can take it with little risk.

With my DW's chair she has a Jay2 deep contoure back and a head rest on it. there is also a fixed front end and tilt.

so what we do is tilt it all the way down, and drop the arm rests all the way down. we then take the control box off and place it in the seat. to make this quicker we replace the original screws with ones that have wings on the nuts. then we lower the back canes and jay back down on top of the controler, once again to make it quicker and easier we have replaced 2 of the 4 bolts here with cotter pins so we can lower the back. once every thing is down we then have 2 straps that we use all the way around the chair to sinch it down and keep things in place. you then disconnect the battery harness from the battery box release the cluches so the it will free roll and let them roll it on the plane. if you don't already have gell cell batteries then you should have them replaced now so the airline does not have to take them out, it can just mess up your day if you don't. once it it compacted down it is only about 27 inches tall and will fit upright through any door size for the airline that we use. you might want to call your airline and ask them the cargo door size on the plane you'll be on to make sure it will work for you.

one key point is to MAKE SURE you take the control box off. if you don't they might try to drive the chair them selfes and drive it off the ramp, that one I have seen myself. Also with it sticking out it is just asking to be broken off.

Also if something happens to it the airline is responable to fix it, just make sure you file a claim BEFORE you leave the airport. we have only hade to make a claim once and that was before we knew that we hade to take off the head rest and the chair shifted inflight and bent the back so we had to have that replaced. the airline has a DME company in orlando that they sent out to see what was wrong and then they fixed the problem at no cost to us.

if you have any more questions let me know and if you would like some pics of how we do this to our wc let me know and i could email them to you.

 

[Wheelin In Disney]

I have a Jay 2 Deep Contoured back with a headrest and chest posture belt on my power chair, too!! I have a friend who took her power chair to Disney World, and she said that she and her mom were able to take it on an airplane without any problems-and it was the same size as mine. The airlines were careful in handling it, but the big drawback to their trip, was trying to find accessible transportation for her power chair. (Something which my mom doesn't want to have to deal with.)

She has since gotten a new one-a Permobil C2K, and her mom doesn't really want to risk the chance of taking it on an airplane, due to it's size.

Samantha

 

[BillSears]

Hi Samatha,

I don't really have any advice about the power chair situation since I use a manual chair. But I did want to just pop in and welcome you to the DISboards.

I do remember this thread having some discussion about power chairs and traveling to WDW:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=672361