ECV user advice please !!

[andipanda]

My daughter (21) and I (58) will be staying at PORFQ January 8 to 15th. We have not been to WDW in many years; but are Disneyland APs.

I will be renting an ECV for the week, as it is easier than bringing mine. I can easily transfer, and can walk short distances, but have had a knee replacement, and need the other one done...so steps, and any distance is out for walking, as is standing in line.

We have told the reservation desk that I will have an ECV with us, but I am wondering about the buses to the parks. Will I have to wait for several buses to get on in the mornings ? Will it be difficult to get to and from parks to use our park hoppers ?

Any tips for the parks in particular ? Thank you for your help in advance ~

 

[dawnhaze]

I went for 8 days in October with an ECV and only had to wait for a second bus a couple of times, both of which were at park closing, and it was because of other wheelchairs and ECVs in front of me. I also skipped a bus willingly once because it was a lift-type instead of a ramp-type, and those lifts scare the heck out of me. Mornings were never a problem at all. I didn't do a lot of hopping, but never had a problem on those buses either.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

I do not know your resort, is there more that one bus stop? if there is it would be helpful to be at the first bus stop as it is harder to get on bus with others already on the bus. that is the problem I had with leaving the resort in the morning as I was at the last stop and needed to be at first.

 

[Piper]

PORFQ is a wonderful resort. It is usually the first stop the bus makes and you should not have difficulty boarding.

 

[andipanda]

Thank you for the replies. We are getting so excited !!!!

 

[Minniekins]

We stayed at Beach club Villas and I rented a scooter from Walker. I wasn't going to do this because of having to get the ecv on and off the bus, so was just going to rent from the parks as I had the last couple visits. But, after checking out the cost of offsite renting, just to see, the cost was a little less than half and there was so much less walking that way, too!

Being at BC, only had to use bus for AK(once) or MK. You can walk(ride) over to Epcot and Dhs from BC, or take the boat(no buses). And you can get to MK using the monorail. I read that getting on the monorail was easier than a bus so we planned to use that to get to MK, but we still had to get back! I was worried about using the buses and having to wait for another if they were crowded, or there was a line and I didn't wanna cut in front of anyone. It went much better than expected, so that I even ended up using the bus for MK more often than I planned. I waited for a second bus one night because I didn't wanna cut in front of the whole line who had been waiting awhile when I got there and didn't want someone to not get on because of me suddenly pulling up. Bus driver said that was my choice and he'd call another bus to come. (DD23 wasn't too happy with me but I was feeling very self conscious at the moment, lol). And another time the bus I was waiting for was already full of ecv's. The rest of the time the buses worked pretty smoothly, and I would get on the first one that would come.

Not sure if this is helpful, but it was my experience, which was better than I expected! I got pretty good at 'parallel' parking on the bus, actually even got a hand on one of the buses, lol! Several bus drivers seemed pretty surprised, lol. We did have hoppers and it was pretty easy getting around on the buses and on the monorail. We had a couple MK/EP days and used the monorail to go between the parks which was easy as the monorail guy directs you to pull in the correct loading area and puts down a ramp for you. So bus and monorail, even the couple boats we took, worked out very well, without much waiting for a second (or more bus) - I thought it would be worse and more waiting.

Now we were there the second week of Dec, and it wasn't super busy, so that helped. And, I didn't always go to parks in the mornings, so crowds weren't really an issue when we'd be going over. And, it might depend on what resort you are at and if yours is the first one to board the bus.

P.S sorry so long, lol!

 

[andipanda]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I appreciate it. I don't use an ECV all the time, but know that I cannot manage walking even part of the day ! I use my own ecv here in California and use it at Disneyland all the time, and for long shopping trips. Disneyland has wonderful mini vans that take you from the parking lot to the parks, but the distances in Florida are multiples of what our parks here are....

Thanks again.

 

[Minniekins]

You're welcome! I don't use an ecv anywhere but Disney, and it definitely keeps Disney doable now with the bad knees, lol! (I avoid long shopping trips at home, lol!) Been back two weeks from our mom/daughter trip, had a great time, temps mostly in the low 80's, and already planning our next trip in Dec again - we can't wait to get back! Hope to get to DL together someday!

I hope you two girls have a wonderful mother/daughter trip, with some great weather and lots of magic!