ECV in boats

[smittyb]

Okay,

We are taking my mom with our family to DisneyWorld and we are staying at the Polynesian. She needs a ECV and we are renting one for the length of our stay. I have been reading as many ECV and disability faqs as I can, figuring the more educated I am before hand the more fun our trip will be!

But there is one question I have not found the answer for yet. And if it exists and I have missed it please forgive me and point me to the correct web page.

How many of the boats are ECVable? I know there is a boat form the poly to the MK and also from the MK to the wilderness lodge. Are either of these ECVable? There are also boats at downtown disney back to some resorts and at EPCOT. Do any of them allow ECVs? I saw somewhere someone said that the boats are not ECVable but I also saw somewhere else in disney literature that some are.

If anyone has first hand experience with this I would love to know the truth. We are not planning on renting a car and hope to use disney transportation for the whole trip. I just want to be prepared with my options.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

I appreciate you time.

Brian

 

[SueM in MN]

The answer is "it depends".
What it depends on is the water level. All the boats you are asking about are free floating on the water. During a rainy season, the water may be quite high; when it's dry the water level is quite low. If the water level is to high or low compared to the boat, there is too much of a gap between them. For the big boat that goes from the TTC to MK, the Friendship boats that go between the Epcot resorts, Epcot and the Studio, the water level is not usually a factor at all.
The boat that goes between MK and WL is sometimes a problem. The boat that goes between the nesian and MK is the same kind of boat as the WL boat. When we were at WL in March, there was a sign that said the boat might not be wheelchair/ecv accessible, but the boat was actually pretty much level with the dock. The smaller boats that go between DD and OKW are not ecv accessible as far aas I know. We were told that DD would have to get out of her manual wheelchair to ride to DD (a new rule since last year). I am not sure about the boats that go between DD and PO because they are bigger boats, but even if ecvs can go on them, they would still be affected by the water levels.
There have been threads about this before, but they may be hard to find. When I get home tonight, I'll see if I can hunt one of them up for you. The most current one had a better description than I can think up right now.

 

[eeyorefanatic]

I just stayed at FW with an ecv from Walker mobility and took the boat several times with mixed results. I was lucky that I was able to use the boat every time I wanted to.Not only does it depend on water levels but it is also very depndent on the # of people on the boat. This can drop the boat by 6-8 inches. I was lucky in that FW is the first/last stop going to MK. Had I needed to get on or off at WL I don't think I could have done it. I asked the captain and he said sometimes they ask everyone to go to the other side of the boat to try to bring it level with the dock, but couldn't answer how steep that made it to try to drive out. He also said they were pumping over 1 mil gallons of water into bay lake ever day to try to help with the water levels. Sadly what they really need is a hurricanes worth of rain without the hurricane.

I also tipped to one side because of a wave while driving on and got bumped really hard into the doorway. I would have her just pull straight into the boat behind the foward facing open deck station and park it there.

It is also very hard to get the hang of backing them onto the buses and out of the boats.The boats were not designed to accomadate ecvs and so it is very tight to get on or off the boat.

I would be happy to answer any other questions you might have.

 

[SueM in MN]

That's a pretty good explanation, eeyorefanatic.
I heard they have to pump a lot of water into Bay Lake to try to keep the level constant, but I didn't know it was that much. But that's the reason the boats don't always work for ecvs/wheelchairs.
It's less of a problem on the waterways connected to WS at Epcot, the Epcot resorts and all the waterways that connect DD to hotels because the lakes/waterways aren't as big as Bay Lake, so they can control the water level more easily.
There are buses available in case the boats won't work for the ecv, so you won't be stranded.

 

[Andrew Bichard]

The docks on the Epcot/ Boardwalk/ Beach / Yacht / Swan / Dolphin / MGR route are all floating docks and are always at the same level relative to the boats,whatever the water level, making boarding easy. All docks have ramps to bridge the gap[ between boat & dock, and the boats line up with the dock + or - 3 inches. The problem at the Magic Kingdom is that it is a fixed dock, and the boats go up & down with water levels relative to the dock.

Andrew