EVC rentals?

[KJMAX1]

My husband's aunt is traveling with our family, and she is a little concerned her knee will start bothering her. She was wondering if it would be less expensive to rent for an entire week or daily, or do they even do a weekly rental? Also, do the scooters run out of battery for a full day at the parks?

 

[disnut1149]

You can rent a scooter weekly and keep it at the resort with you. I've rented from Walker Mobility and Buena Vista Scooters. They deliver and pick them up. The battery lasts the whole day. Just charge it at night. It's more expensive to rent at the park. You can read about it more on the Disability board.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

We rented from Apple scooter & they were very helpful & cheapest at the time. I will say if your aunt hasn't used an ECV before, it may not be so easy. We rented one for my mom. She had a hard time getting it on/off the buses (sometimes busdrivers helped, some said not allowed). She also managed to tip it over while riding it. Additionally we found it difficult to get around with. We sometimes had to wait for a bus with room or a boat big enough. Also not allowed on the train, though a wheelchair is. If we did it again, I would get a wheelchair. (Actually your aunt could use it as a walker & push it herself until needed, then she could sit.)

 

[Minniekins]

My husband's aunt is traveling with our family, and she is a little concerned her knee will start bothering her. She was wondering if it would be less expensive to rent for an entire week or daily, or do they even do a weekly rental? Also, do the scooters run out of battery for a full day at the parks?

It's definitely less expensive to rent for two or more days, even a week, from an offsite vendor than thru Disney. Disney is, when last rented thru them was $50 with a refundable $20 deposit. Oh, and you can't take outside of the park or use on the bus to hop to another park. You were able to park hop, but using the rental papers, (be sure to save them!), from your first park, you could get one at the second park with no further charge. You will get your $20 deposit back when you turn in the scooter when finished for the day. One big problem is that you can't count on getting one to rent for the day. If it's busy, or later in the day, all scooters may be all rented out at that park. You might be able to get on a wait list till one becomes available but that could take quite awhile and is not a sure thing, which can be very upsetting if you're really needing and counting on getting one! Plus, it's quite expensive! For our 11 day trip, that'd be like $550! Also, these are four wheeled and a bit large and clunky, just as a heads up. But they can be a nice, easy convenience in a sudden pinch, for sure, or if you won't take an offsite one a bus.

So, for our trips now, I go offsite and use Walker Mobility, my Dec trip is less than half that for our 11 day trip! Have used them for 4 trips so far and been very happy with them, and will use on fifth trip in Dec. Plus, there's a discount after five trip rentals! And i can get a nice three wheeler that is so much easier to drive and control, and easy to get on and off the buses,(which I never thought I'd drive onto, ever, lol!), and can, usually, in my experience, get help with from the bus driver if I'd have needed help. And, the batteries always last me at least a full day, have even gotten another day, or almost another whole day, the couple times I forgot to charge overnight. Which you can do nightly, in your resort room. If you have a car, they can easily be broken down to put in the trunk, though I've never down this.

And, I'd check out the disabilities board where you can find lots of info, (and helpful disses), as a pp mentioned!

 

[fla4fun]

Overall, it's cheaper to rent from an offsite vendor for the week vs. renting by the day at Disney. However, a lot depends on how much you think you will need it. For example, what if her knee doesn't bother her at all? What if it only starts to bother her the last day of the trip? What if you rent for a week, and she doesn't need it at all?

When my Mom first started needing a little supplemental mobility occasionally, we would rent at the parks. Yes, on a day by day basis it cost more, but she didn't need it every day (at first, she only needed it at Epcot). As things progressed and she needed more mobility assistance, then we would book with an outside vendor. At first, we booked for a few days mid trip (say, the middle four or five days of a week long trip) and would do the most walk intensive parks on those days. Eventually we rented for the entire week. She wasn't brave enough to try getting it on a bus, so we would rent the kind you can break down and put in the car and we would drive to the parks.

We did not travel during peak times, so we did not have an issue with the parks running out of ECV's. But if a standard wheelchair is a viable backup option (they never seem to run out of those), then I would get together with her and see exactly what causes her knee issues, whether taking rest breaks in the park might prevent a problem, and what she feels comfortable with as far as having the ECV with her at all times vs. only in the park. Every person's situation is different.