DME & Power Wheelchair/Flying

[rascalmom]

I am planning on making my DME reservation tomorrow for our Christmas trip to SSR. My dad will be traveling with us & uses a power wheelchair. It is very big & heavy, so a rental car is not an option.

Does anyone have any experience or suggestion with DME or the airlines when traveling with a power wheelchair?

I am not excited about being dependent on Disney transportation - we do tend to resort hop, but I don't know of any other options. But hey - it's WDW there are plenty of OTHER things to BE excited about!

First task is to get him & the chair checked onto the flight, 2nd is DME. Help!

 

[pugdog]

First off try to get a direct flight to MCO, less chance of damage that way. You can either check the chair at the ticket counter and then use the airlines wheelchair or gate check it. You will have to make sure he has gell cell batteries and provide instructions to how to take them out if they have to put the chiar on it's side to get it inside.
For DME make sure they know that you will need a bus with a lift.
We are going in 2 weeks and are looking forward to a great time ourselves.

 

[SueM in MN]

DME does have buses that are equipped with wheelchair lifts and tie downs to transport wheelchairs. If the first bus that comes is not accessible, they will send one that is.

The WDW buses are almost all accessible. The older ones have lifts. The newer ones have ramps. If you go to the disABILITIES FAQs thread, you will will find a section of Q&As about travel by WDW bus.
The monorails are accessible (although the ramps at MK and at TTC are quite steep).
The larger boats are accessible. Occasionally the ones that goes to WL and FW are not because of the water level compared to the level the dock is at.

We have not been brave enough to travel with DD's power wheelchair, but I have looked into it many times and we are very experienced traveling with DD's manual wheelchair. Follow what pugdog wrote and you should be fine. If there are any parts that are easily removable or may be damaged, remove them if you can (like we remove DD's armrests and the seat cushion). When we had looked into travel with the power chair, our wheelchair tech suggested taking off the joystick or heavily covering it with bubble wrap. I'd suggest he contact his supplier and see what advice they might give.

 

[dclfun]

When you make your arrangements with DME, be sure to let them know there is a guest travelling in a power wheelchair. Once they have your flight information they will then be tracking your air and once you arrive at the hospitality counter they will order the accessible bus to be brought in. Once I was also offered a private transport van but chose to wait for the bus. Get to the airport early, ask to be preboarded and if they refuse, ask to speak to the CRO. Have his chair gate-checked...this will assure that it's loaded last and thus less susceptible to damange. I'll sprinkle some pixie dust for a great holiday trip!---kathy

 

[shovan]

We traveled Southwest Airlines to Orlando in early Oct.. We used DME and everything was great. I agree with dclfun to gatecheck the chair, it allows for less transfers & probably less chance of damage to the WC.

I would also suggest being very early for your flight. A power WC can slow down check in considerably, they have to ask again about the batteries, tag the chair, & then security takes extra time as well.

I would also recommend for you to be a familiar as possible with driving the chair & hooking everything back together if the airline has to take it apart. To avoid damage to my DH joystick control, I removed part of the chair arm & the flight attendant stowed it in thier compartment.

My DH has a not so big power WC, but we had no problems with the airline or DME. Just be sure to call the airline with all details on the WC. If the chair has gel cell batteries, use the term dry gel cell batteries when speaking with anyone at the airline, we were asked over & over if it was dry. Also inform DME ahead of time that you will have a PWC. Good Luck!

 

[BCV23]

We've flown quite a few times now with my daughter's power Quickie and have had no problems. We always gate check and have never had to remove the batteries. Only once did the guy taking it to the hold want it in manual. Everyone else has wanted it in drive and just wheeled it off. I think at larger airports the gate check attendants have done it many times. Most flights the chair is up very quickly after landing. A few times we've had a bit of a wait including once at MCO and twice when we've been on 777s and landing at large airports. I'm not sure if the size of the airport or size of the plane was a factor there....or both.

I will say though that we are still too chicken to take her "good" Jazzy on a flight.

We've only taken ME once and that was in the first month it was operating. We did have some problems but all reports I've seen lately are very positive. But do tell them both when you book and when you arrive that you need an accessible bus for a power chair.

Have a great trip!

 

[rascalmom]

Thanks all for your advice and suggestions. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from OKC to MCO, so we will have one connections each way.

My dad has both a power wheelchair & a ECV. Normally I would have insisted that he use the ECV for the trip, but he just had shoulder surgery a couple of weeks ago & feels the power chair will be easier for him to drive & manage with just one "good" arm.

Sounds like I need to worry more about the flight details than DME. I spoke with the DVC member service cm this morning & he noted all the details & assured me we would have no problem getting a bus with a lift.

For those that have power chairs, but choose not to travel with them - do you rent locally or just make do with a manual chair?

 

[BCV23]

We've gone the whole gamut over the years beginning with a regular stroller when our daughter was small.

We used a manual chair for many trips. But after I drove her Jazzy down one trip and we all realized what a difference it made for her and for us too, we've never gone back to a manual. It makes such a difference in her happiness, our ability to interact in a normal way instead of over her head, etc.

After that trip we rented Jazzys from Care for several trips. We were very pleased with their service and wouldn't hesitate to use them again. It isn't inexpensive however but then the power chairs themselves aren't either.

Good luck with your decisions.

 

[SueM in MN]

My DD has traveled with a manual wheelchair since she was not quite 3 (she never had a special needs stroller and went right from a regular stroller to a wheelchair.) We looked into renting a power wheelchair for her from Care. They were very helpful, but DD needs an unusual size of wheelchair (with a seat 14 inches wide and 18 inches deep). We were not able to get a size that would fit her and thought that driving a too wide wheelchair would make it difficult for her steer acurately.

If you have a common size wheelchair and don't require a lot of extra features, you should have no problem renting one to use in Orlando. If is not inexpensive, as BCV23 mentioned, but it could make someone's trip a lot more pleasant.