Hi everyone. Looking for some information regarding rentals for motorized scooters. Never had to rent a
scooter before but my mother in law is coming with us to Disney and Universal parks. Needing some information on how to go about it and where a good place is to rent. Will we be able to get one for a day that we spend at the Universal park? Do they deliver? Thanks for your time.
First of all,
to our little corner of the Internet, and the DISboards!
Next, let's break down your questions into more manageable chunks.
When it comes to renting scooters (or, as Disney calls them,
ECVs) you have 2 main choices: "Internal" (meaning you rent from Disney at the Parks) and "External" meaning that you rent from a local Orlando-area vendor, who will deliver the scooter to your hotel or Resort.
"Internal" Disney scooters are big, heavy duty, kinda clunky and, worst of all, typically each Park will run out of them at some point during the day. (I personally can't speak to what Universal does, because in all the time we have spent in Orlando, we have never gotten around to going over there...)
"External" scooters, rented from a local vendor, can come in all sizes, and types. You have 3-wheel vs. 4-wheel (DO NOT START THAT DISCUSSION AGAIN PEOPLE - REMEMBER IT'S OK TO HAVE AS MANY OR FEW WHEELS AS YOU WANT!
) "heavy duty" vs. regular, "portable" vs. "fixed" (meaning you can take it apart into multiple pieces to put in your car vs. a unit that can't be taken apart, kind of like the "internal" or grocery store style) different colors, different kinds of tillers or steering... in other words, lots of choices to make. Typically the external vendor will be skilled at guiding you/your family to make the choices that will best serve your MIL.
As far as a good place to rent, that's really subjective as well. There is a "Search..." box in the upper right corner of this page, so you can search this board for recent reviews. Regardless of what you may read here, or anywhere else, I would still recommend that you gather some phone numbers, and call and talk to any vendor you are considering using. And when you do settle on a vendor, be sure to put their contact info in your phone, along with any after hours emergency phone numbers and instructions they give you. The vendor should be willing to deliver to your hotel or Disney Resort; I have even had them deliver directly to a theme Park in an emergency. Unless you rent from a Disney Preferred Vendor you will have to be present at the time of delivery.
If you have a "portable" scooter, then you can take it apart, and off it goes with you to Universal - you didn't say if you are renting a car, or taking an Uber or a Taxi to get to Uni, but it's do-able.
My suggestion is to rent one for the length of your stay; you will find that the Disney Resorts can be quite large - and Disney Springs is quite large as well with the newly expanded areas.
Let us know if you need more guidance, or have more questions, and don't forget to try the "Search..." box to find out more info about first time
ECV users. It works just like Google!
