Disability permit in Florida advice

[arieliwish]

Hi all,

My husband is disabled following a major stroke almost ten years ago and has a blue badge for parking in the UK. I've read that we can apply for a temporary badge for Orlando and have found the form online to apply for this.

Has anyone done this? I think I complete the form and post it off to the county dept responsible for our area - anyone know which county WDW OKW is in? It also says to include $15 payment - can I send cash through the post? If not how do you pay $ by cheque??

I thought this would be an easy one to tick off my list!

 

[wilma-bride]

Try this thread

 

[arieliwish]

Thanks Wilma-bride for that link, haven't read that before that we can use our own blue badge and don't need a temporary local one.

Does anyone know if that is still the case? The latest post on that link is 2012 and before that 2011, so wondered if anything had changed since.

 

[Tony Toon]

DH had a UK Blue Badge for parking until October of last year. Delighted to say that replacement knee no2 was successful and he no longer needs the badge. The three years we had the Blue Badge we didn't bother applying for a temporary one for Florida. We had ho difficulty using the Disabled parking as they call it at any park (Disney, Universal, Discovery Cove or Busch Gardens) or any outlet/shopping mall we visited - and we visited loads! We attached two small bulldog clips and a piece of elastic to allow us to hang the badge from the rear view mirror the way the Americans do and were always waved straight through. Never a problem (and we visit for 4 weeks at a time). THe UK Blue Badge is universally recognised and when we were coming for the first time we did find a thread here with an official statement confirming a temporary pass was not needed.

Mrs TT

 

[arieliwish]

Thanks guys, that's great info and will be easy for us to take the blue badge we have.

 

[rpbert1]

We used ours, till they apparently started giving tickets out to people. No problem in the parks with the UK one, but outside of them we decided to play it safe for the sake of a few $$ rather than run the risk. We have been getting temporary one for the last few years.

 

[darthtatty]

I too would suggest getting one if youre planning on going anywhere outside the Disney parks.
Im sure people have struggled at Universal and got tickets at malls.

 

[darthtatty]

heres a thread with better details.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3048460&highlight=blue+badge

 

[Tony Toon]

I too would suggest getting one if youre planning on going anywhere outside the Disney parks.
Im sure people have struggled at Universal and got tickets at malls.

Never had a problem at Universal - CMs direct you to the appropriate area although even the Disabled parking is still a fair step from the entrance. Just their parking I'm afraid - nothing to do with the Blue Badge. We enjoy shopping and have never had a problem parking in the Disabled bays at any of the Malls, restaurants or the Outlets. Our understanding was that provided your badge is in English there is no requirement to get a temporary one.

Mrs TT

 

[chmurf]

I'll give another perspective (my own $.02)

when I'm on holiday I don't want to get in any kind of trouble or argument.

My disability card (blue badge) is a European model, and has "parking card" translated into 10 diferrent languages (including english of course) on the front, as well as the wheelchair sign.

So I'm probably fine.
I know I'm fine at Disney's DTD, parks and resorts.
I know I'll be fine at any other theme parks.

and I know I'll be fine everywhere else 99% of the time.

But I don't want any elderly parking enforcement cop-wanna-be to question the validity of my permit, even though law is probably on my side.

There is a temporary parking permit I can get, for no hassle and for $15
I call that peace of mind, and I also call that "Hakuna Matata" ... a worry free philosophy.

I think I could do without, but $15 is not much to be 100% sure.

But I guess it's only because I'm very paranoid

 

[Rainforest]

We went (as a group) last year with an elderly relative who uses a wheelchair a lot, and thus has the UK Blue Badge.

We showed the card at Disney, Universal, and Seaworld, and were directed to the disabled (handicapped) parked areas; once parked, we had to leave the UK Blue Badge on the dashboard. At the malls, we parked in the disabled bays, but always left the UK Blue Badge in the middle of the dashboard so that anyone could see it. We didn't have any problems.


On a related note, I am going again in a couple of months time, this time with a friend who has a UK Blue Badge. I read on the DIS Transportation forum that if you use the valet parking at places such as the Contemporary Resort, and you have a US Disabled License Plate, then Disney waives the $16 valet parking fee (although you should tip the parking attendant a few $ anyway). Does anyone know if this would apply if you had a UK Blue Badge as well?

Thanks.

 

[Tony Toon]

We went (as a group) last year with an elderly relative who uses a wheelchair a lot, and thus has the UK Blue Badge.

We showed the card at Disney, Universal, and Seaworld, and were directed to the disabled (handicapped) parked areas; once parked, we had to leave the UK Blue Badge on the dashboard. At the malls, we parked in the disabled bays, but always left the UK Blue Badge in the middle of the dashboard so that anyone could see it. We didn't have any problems.

On a related note, I am going again in a couple of months time, this time with a friend who has a UK Blue Badge. I read on the DIS Transportation forum that if you use the valet parking at places such as the Contemporary Resort, and you have a US Disabled License Plate, then Disney waives the $16 valet parking fee (although you should tip the parking attendant a few $ anyway). Does anyone know if this would apply if you had a UK Blue Badge as well?

Thanks.

Indeed it does. Valet parking is complimentary for all blue badge holders at all Disney resorts. A small tip is all that's necessary.

 

[Rainforest]

Thanks for the info, Tony Toon!

 

[arieliwish]

Thanks for that very useful info, we've hired a motorised scooter so it's no big problem if we park in standard parking further away from the entrance but if disabled parking is available then it might make things a little easier.

X

 

[buzz242]

We've used our blue badge for the last nine trips we've made to Florida, we did buy a temporary permit the first time we went but we were told that it wasn't necessary. They did however advise us to hang our blue badge from the rear view mirror rather than leave it on the dashboard. We've parked at all the theme parks, shopping malls, Wallmart etc without any trouble.