Hi All,
My name’s Mike, I’m from Australia.
In February 2010, I did a theme park tour of central Florida and needed to use an ECV due to chronic health problems (part of which involves weakness, fatigue & myalgia). I was able to find heaps of information before I went on all of the Disney parks, but there was very little info for Busch Gardens and Universal, specifically for navigating them with an ECV. So I’ve compiled some of my experiences for those in the same situation as me.
I know Bill Sears has an excellent report on his experience at Universal in a wheelchair. I thought someone might be able to add this thread to the disABILITIES FAQs under his.
There’s also a quick review of Kennedy Space Center at the bottom.
Busch Gardens
We arrived at opening, even though it was low season, so we had very very low crowds. We were sent in the back entrance on many roller coasters (up the ramp) and seemed to be given priority in the queue. But it was very nice to be there with such low crowds, because the trains weren’t even filled at that point so we weren’t taking anyone else’s seats!
While very few of the queues were “mainstreamed”, the disabled entrances were well sign posted, and the attendant’s were ready to tell you where you needed to go without you having to grab their attention, like at Universal (see below)!
Ride by Ride:
Montu, Kumba & Gwazi - went up exit ramp, straight on next train.
SheiKra - elevator wasn’t working! Ended up just walking up the stairs (3 flights!), but it looked like when the elevator was working, it would take you right to the back ride vehicle on the entrance side of the platform
KaTonga - Chose to walk in, but the accessibile seating was about 5 rows from the front (a very welcome change from the usual right at the back of the theatre at many theme park shows)
Pirates 4D - Chose to walk in, but it seemed very accessible (big wide ramp to get up), there were seats right at the back (and maybe halfway back as well?)
All of the animal exhibits were very accessible, and I could generally get a good front view.
I was feeling pretty good while we were at Busch Gardens, so combined with the low crowds, I ended up just walking on to Cheetah Chase, Wild Surge, and Rhino Rally. We didn’t go on any wet rides as it was too cold.
Universal Orlando
I had some really poor experiences at Universal, and I was very disappointed compared to our Disney (and even Busch Gardens) experiences. ECVs generally weren’t allowed in the ride queues at all (show queues were fine). This seemed to be an overall policy, and you were required to transfer to a manual wheelchair, which was usually readily available, but not always! Also there seemed to generally only ever be one wheelchair at any given ride. I’m not sure what they’d do if they needed more. I wonder if they’d make you wait until the first one was available again!
There were a number of unhelpful attendants at both Universal parks. Disney cast members would spot you in an ECV from afar and be ready to give you the information you needed as soon as you approached. A few of the Universal attendants were particularly unhelpful, and seemed in need of coffee first thing in the morning! Some of them didn’t give you ECV information until you drove into their immediate line of sight, and you almost had to wave your hands around and specifically ask them “How do I access this ride?”. A couple of them seemed to be trying to ignore me until I did this, and I don’t know why else they’d think I was driving up to the entrance of ride.
However we did have a number of friendly attendants too, and overall I still had a blast despite this somewhat negative review!
We stayed at the Royal Pacific Resort which was very ECV accessible. The water taxis were great, fully accessible with friendly captains, and being able to zoom along the path connecting the hotels with the parks was great (when I was alone and able to go as fast as the scooter let me
)
Islands of Adventure
Hulk - Transfer to wheelchair, use elevator, not too bad
Dr Doom’s Fearfall - We had to go through a video arcade, find an elevator and use the back entrance to the ride.
Spiderman – Were instructed to enter via the gift shop, and then through the ride exit where there was NO signage to say that it was the wheelchair/ECV entrance! There were waves of people exiting the ride and you had to time your entrance carefully as there was not enough room for two-way traffic. Although once we finally got in, the attendants were helpful and one guy moved my ECV to the exit for me! However no-one reminded us to get 3D glasses, and there were no obvious signs to remind us in the wheelchair entrance. So by the time we remembered that we needed glasses, we were already on the ride! We had to ride without glasses once, and then ride again with glasses. There were no real lines (we were there at opening in low season), so that wasn’t a problem.
Jurassic Park River Adventure - Had to transfer to a manual wheelchair (there was only one there, not sure what would happen if they needed more!). Express Pass queue was very wheelchair accessible, and the attendant at the loading dock was very nice. The wheelchair was waiting for me when I got off.
Duelling dragons - Once again no signage, however the queue might’ve been somewhat temporary as it was through a construction site. I was able to take my ECV very close to the loading dock and park, however once again there was very little information volunteered to me, if I wanted info I needed to grab the attendants’ attention and ask. It was all a little chaotic, luckily there were so few people there that we ended up climbing through ropes and going on Ice, then Fire, then Ice.
The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride - The first attraction that seemed to be well signed! There was a colourful wheelchair sign pointing to the elevator, and then on the elevator doors, and people were helpful enough when needed at the top. I think I was able to take my ECV up.
Mythos Restaurant - Everyone was very accommodating. I told them I was happy to park and walk, and they found somewhere out of the way where I could park my ECV and not have to walk very far.
Poseidon’s Fury - Awesome ECV accessibility. I actually felt guilty because it was so good! I was always at the front of the rooms and got to see everything very well! Wonderful!
Jurassic Park Discovery Center - Excellent. Very easy to use elevator between levels. Plenty of room to move around!
Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges - Ended up just walking onto this one with all the ponchos etc. I assume wheelchair accessilbilty was fine, but didn’t really check (sorry!).
Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls and the Sinbad Show (were closed for refurb).
Universal Studios
Mummy - There was (one) Wheelchair available (ECVs not allowed in queues). Forgot our express passes and went through the incredibly long windy queue. Disabled route was well marked (elevator), staff were reasonably helpful once we arrived, but not friendly.
Jaws - Very friendly staff member at entrance. (one) Wheelchair available. Went thru express queue, stood/sat in line ready to board boat.
Men In Black - Rude (young) staff member at entrance when we asked about a wheelchair. Wheelchairs not available at front, needed to fight your way thru the outside line for the regular queue to get to them as they were holding people outside the doors. Staff member said “can’t he just walk 2 feet” referring to me. I ended up just walking the express queue anyway (even though I was having a particularly bad day), and it was probably about 200 metres with ramps, stairs down, and stair up after the ride. I used the disabled elevator to avoid the up stairs. The ride seemed very well set-up for wheelchairs and ECVs (very wide, elevator available), but their policy seems to be to not allow ECVs in.
Jimmy Neutron – Attendant told me to wait at the front of the line, but I felt awful about that, imagining all of the dirty looks I might get for skipping the queue, and not sure if I’d necessarily get a moving seat inside, so I ended up walking the express queue. Probably not a good idea with some standing required inside in a second queue. After all that I was exhausted and angry lol, it wasn’t even a good ride.
Terminator 2: 3D - ECV accessibility was perfect (although there seemed to only be room for 3 ECVs (or maybe 6 wheelchairs) in the entire (large) theatre.
ET Adventure - Had to wait for them to fetch us a wheelchair. As always, ECVs weren’t allowed in the queue lines.
Beetlejuices Graveyard Revue - ECV access was great. We were in the middle of the theatre (not the front or back).
Horror Make Up Show - ECV access great again (great for shows but not rides). Seated middle of the theatre (not at front or back)
Animal Actors Live on Stage - ECV access good, but no companion seating! I was really tired so ended up sitting by myself in my ECV (for the back rest). The theatre had backless bench seating.
The Simpsons Ride - Wheelchair was available at the entrance. As always, no ECVs allowed in the line (although it seemed wide enough for them).
Twister - A kid stood half in front of me at the last minute, so I couldn’t see everything properly, there was no separate wheelchair area. However we were led through the pre-show area ahead of everyone else, and the attendants were very good at clearing the way for me.
Hollywood Rip Ride Rock’it – Ended up just walking the single riders line.
Overall the Universal parks were very disappointing after being at Disney. The most disappointing part was not being allowed to take ECVs into queues that were clearly wide enough (especially Men in Black and The Simpsons). I wonder if this was so they didn’t have to move ECVs for guests while they’re on the ride, because they let you take them into all of the shows.
Kennedy Space Center
I ended up returning the ECV before we got to KSC, so I borrowed one of their wheelchairs.
Having a borrowed wheelchair was great, everything was really accessible, and being able to just walk on the buses and collect a new wheelchair at each of the bus tour locations was great. All of the exhibits had ramps and elevators, and the terrain was really flat.
However the IMAX shows could’ve potentially been a problem if I wasn’t able to walk short distances. There were stairs and stairs for basically all seating except the front row (which was waaay too close to the screen). However I think there was one of those chairs that can take you up a staircase, or some kind of elevating device. To be honest I didn’t really look closely, and just walked in so that we could get a good seat.
I’m not sure what it would’ve been like with an ECV, I imagine I wouldn’t have been able to take it on the bus tour.
My name’s Mike, I’m from Australia.
In February 2010, I did a theme park tour of central Florida and needed to use an ECV due to chronic health problems (part of which involves weakness, fatigue & myalgia). I was able to find heaps of information before I went on all of the Disney parks, but there was very little info for Busch Gardens and Universal, specifically for navigating them with an ECV. So I’ve compiled some of my experiences for those in the same situation as me.
I know Bill Sears has an excellent report on his experience at Universal in a wheelchair. I thought someone might be able to add this thread to the disABILITIES FAQs under his.
There’s also a quick review of Kennedy Space Center at the bottom.
Busch Gardens
We arrived at opening, even though it was low season, so we had very very low crowds. We were sent in the back entrance on many roller coasters (up the ramp) and seemed to be given priority in the queue. But it was very nice to be there with such low crowds, because the trains weren’t even filled at that point so we weren’t taking anyone else’s seats!
While very few of the queues were “mainstreamed”, the disabled entrances were well sign posted, and the attendant’s were ready to tell you where you needed to go without you having to grab their attention, like at Universal (see below)!
Ride by Ride:
Montu, Kumba & Gwazi - went up exit ramp, straight on next train.
SheiKra - elevator wasn’t working! Ended up just walking up the stairs (3 flights!), but it looked like when the elevator was working, it would take you right to the back ride vehicle on the entrance side of the platform
KaTonga - Chose to walk in, but the accessibile seating was about 5 rows from the front (a very welcome change from the usual right at the back of the theatre at many theme park shows)
Pirates 4D - Chose to walk in, but it seemed very accessible (big wide ramp to get up), there were seats right at the back (and maybe halfway back as well?)
All of the animal exhibits were very accessible, and I could generally get a good front view.
I was feeling pretty good while we were at Busch Gardens, so combined with the low crowds, I ended up just walking on to Cheetah Chase, Wild Surge, and Rhino Rally. We didn’t go on any wet rides as it was too cold.
Universal Orlando
I had some really poor experiences at Universal, and I was very disappointed compared to our Disney (and even Busch Gardens) experiences. ECVs generally weren’t allowed in the ride queues at all (show queues were fine). This seemed to be an overall policy, and you were required to transfer to a manual wheelchair, which was usually readily available, but not always! Also there seemed to generally only ever be one wheelchair at any given ride. I’m not sure what they’d do if they needed more. I wonder if they’d make you wait until the first one was available again!
There were a number of unhelpful attendants at both Universal parks. Disney cast members would spot you in an ECV from afar and be ready to give you the information you needed as soon as you approached. A few of the Universal attendants were particularly unhelpful, and seemed in need of coffee first thing in the morning! Some of them didn’t give you ECV information until you drove into their immediate line of sight, and you almost had to wave your hands around and specifically ask them “How do I access this ride?”. A couple of them seemed to be trying to ignore me until I did this, and I don’t know why else they’d think I was driving up to the entrance of ride.
However we did have a number of friendly attendants too, and overall I still had a blast despite this somewhat negative review!
We stayed at the Royal Pacific Resort which was very ECV accessible. The water taxis were great, fully accessible with friendly captains, and being able to zoom along the path connecting the hotels with the parks was great (when I was alone and able to go as fast as the scooter let me
)Islands of Adventure
Hulk - Transfer to wheelchair, use elevator, not too bad
Dr Doom’s Fearfall - We had to go through a video arcade, find an elevator and use the back entrance to the ride.
Spiderman – Were instructed to enter via the gift shop, and then through the ride exit where there was NO signage to say that it was the wheelchair/ECV entrance! There were waves of people exiting the ride and you had to time your entrance carefully as there was not enough room for two-way traffic. Although once we finally got in, the attendants were helpful and one guy moved my ECV to the exit for me! However no-one reminded us to get 3D glasses, and there were no obvious signs to remind us in the wheelchair entrance. So by the time we remembered that we needed glasses, we were already on the ride! We had to ride without glasses once, and then ride again with glasses. There were no real lines (we were there at opening in low season), so that wasn’t a problem.
Jurassic Park River Adventure - Had to transfer to a manual wheelchair (there was only one there, not sure what would happen if they needed more!). Express Pass queue was very wheelchair accessible, and the attendant at the loading dock was very nice. The wheelchair was waiting for me when I got off.
Duelling dragons - Once again no signage, however the queue might’ve been somewhat temporary as it was through a construction site. I was able to take my ECV very close to the loading dock and park, however once again there was very little information volunteered to me, if I wanted info I needed to grab the attendants’ attention and ask. It was all a little chaotic, luckily there were so few people there that we ended up climbing through ropes and going on Ice, then Fire, then Ice.
The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride - The first attraction that seemed to be well signed! There was a colourful wheelchair sign pointing to the elevator, and then on the elevator doors, and people were helpful enough when needed at the top. I think I was able to take my ECV up.
Mythos Restaurant - Everyone was very accommodating. I told them I was happy to park and walk, and they found somewhere out of the way where I could park my ECV and not have to walk very far.
Poseidon’s Fury - Awesome ECV accessibility. I actually felt guilty because it was so good! I was always at the front of the rooms and got to see everything very well! Wonderful!
Jurassic Park Discovery Center - Excellent. Very easy to use elevator between levels. Plenty of room to move around!
Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges - Ended up just walking onto this one with all the ponchos etc. I assume wheelchair accessilbilty was fine, but didn’t really check (sorry!).
Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls and the Sinbad Show (were closed for refurb).
Universal Studios
Mummy - There was (one) Wheelchair available (ECVs not allowed in queues). Forgot our express passes and went through the incredibly long windy queue. Disabled route was well marked (elevator), staff were reasonably helpful once we arrived, but not friendly.
Jaws - Very friendly staff member at entrance. (one) Wheelchair available. Went thru express queue, stood/sat in line ready to board boat.
Men In Black - Rude (young) staff member at entrance when we asked about a wheelchair. Wheelchairs not available at front, needed to fight your way thru the outside line for the regular queue to get to them as they were holding people outside the doors. Staff member said “can’t he just walk 2 feet” referring to me. I ended up just walking the express queue anyway (even though I was having a particularly bad day), and it was probably about 200 metres with ramps, stairs down, and stair up after the ride. I used the disabled elevator to avoid the up stairs. The ride seemed very well set-up for wheelchairs and ECVs (very wide, elevator available), but their policy seems to be to not allow ECVs in.
Jimmy Neutron – Attendant told me to wait at the front of the line, but I felt awful about that, imagining all of the dirty looks I might get for skipping the queue, and not sure if I’d necessarily get a moving seat inside, so I ended up walking the express queue. Probably not a good idea with some standing required inside in a second queue. After all that I was exhausted and angry lol, it wasn’t even a good ride.
Terminator 2: 3D - ECV accessibility was perfect (although there seemed to only be room for 3 ECVs (or maybe 6 wheelchairs) in the entire (large) theatre.
ET Adventure - Had to wait for them to fetch us a wheelchair. As always, ECVs weren’t allowed in the queue lines.
Beetlejuices Graveyard Revue - ECV access was great. We were in the middle of the theatre (not the front or back).
Horror Make Up Show - ECV access great again (great for shows but not rides). Seated middle of the theatre (not at front or back)
Animal Actors Live on Stage - ECV access good, but no companion seating! I was really tired so ended up sitting by myself in my ECV (for the back rest). The theatre had backless bench seating.
The Simpsons Ride - Wheelchair was available at the entrance. As always, no ECVs allowed in the line (although it seemed wide enough for them).
Twister - A kid stood half in front of me at the last minute, so I couldn’t see everything properly, there was no separate wheelchair area. However we were led through the pre-show area ahead of everyone else, and the attendants were very good at clearing the way for me
.Hollywood Rip Ride Rock’it – Ended up just walking the single riders line.
Overall the Universal parks were very disappointing after being at Disney. The most disappointing part was not being allowed to take ECVs into queues that were clearly wide enough (especially Men in Black and The Simpsons). I wonder if this was so they didn’t have to move ECVs for guests while they’re on the ride, because they let you take them into all of the shows.
Kennedy Space Center
I ended up returning the ECV before we got to KSC, so I borrowed one of their wheelchairs.
Having a borrowed wheelchair was great, everything was really accessible, and being able to just walk on the buses and collect a new wheelchair at each of the bus tour locations was great. All of the exhibits had ramps and elevators, and the terrain was really flat.
However the IMAX shows could’ve potentially been a problem if I wasn’t able to walk short distances. There were stairs and stairs for basically all seating except the front row (which was waaay too close to the screen). However I think there was one of those chairs that can take you up a staircase, or some kind of elevating device. To be honest I didn’t really look closely, and just walked in so that we could get a good seat.
I’m not sure what it would’ve been like with an ECV, I imagine I wouldn’t have been able to take it on the bus tour.
.
