Wazowski
Thats Wazowski, with ONE "I"....
- Joined
- May 8, 2008
- Messages
- 13
Hi all, I'm new here 
My wife and I just went to Disney from April 20-25 and during that time I rented an ECV. I have Cerebral Palsy and walk with crutches, so while I didn't use it all the time (going in restaurants, rides etc..) it definitely made jetting around the parks much easier.
The part that wasn't that easy was transportation from our hotel to each park and back again. We stayed at the Comfort Inn, LBV and were picked up each morning by Town and Country Transportation. We had to call 24 hours before hand and let them know that we needed a handicapped equipped shuttle which was fine, however the shuttle they sent made it a bit tricky. They wound up sending a bus that had a set of stairs that transformed into a lift. This was fine except that once the scooter was on the bus, it had to be tightly turned and navigated down the isle to a "docking station" where the scooter could be secured. Needless to say that each morning with a bus load of people (we were always the last to be picked up) sitting on both sides of the isle, this made getting the scooter to the docking station very difficult. One morning in particular there was a full load of people and a woman in a wheelchair already, so there was no room for the scooter except up in the front of the bus next to the driver which is not safe and of course blocked an exit sure there be an emergency.
Once at the "docking station" it was impossible to parallel park the scooter, so the driver would either not lock it into place or he would have to lift it and set it into position. Getting off the bus also proved tricky because now the scooter had to be backed down the isle and onto the lift, which usually took me multiple tries. Thankfully everyone got off the bus first so I was free to attempt this without bothering anyone. Eventually I gave up driving the scooter onto the bus and would get on, then my wife would push the scooter onto the lift, and then the driver would navigate it down the isle and secure it. It was more work for him, but less for me not having to try and avoid the other passengers. On that note as well, most of our drivers seemed annoyed that they had to deal with this, especially when we had some of the same drivers over and over again. Gladly though, the driver we had the most was nice and seemed to have a sense of humor about it, so for him I felt bad.
Now in contrast, we have Disney transportation, the big white buses with the red DISNEY on the side. When going to HS or AK Town and Country wouldn't take us directly there. They would take us to MK and then we'd have to get off, and then go meet the Disney bus, which was a bit of a pain at first, but I'm glad we did it now because I got to see how much easier it was dealing with Disney's transportation. The handicapped equipped Disney buses have a separate wheelchair/scooter entrance in the back. The bus is lowered to the ground before you get on and a ramp is simply folded out and you drive on the bus into this wide, spacious area in the back. Once in all I had to do was quickly parallel park and get off the scooter. I didn't have to avoid any passengers (as they were usually loaded after me, which didn't take long, and there were no seats to try and avoid). On top of that, the drivers were some of the nicest and most helpful people we encountered.
So what did we learn from this? Next year we are staying at a Disney Resort JUST for the ease in transportation. If we had known that staying off-site and using alternate transportation, at least with the company we had, was going to be such a pain, we would have spent the extra few hundred and stayed on site.
Of course I can't speak for the other companies out there, but Town and Country, at least if you're going to be using an ECV, isn't really equipped to conveniently handle one.
My wife and I just went to Disney from April 20-25 and during that time I rented an ECV. I have Cerebral Palsy and walk with crutches, so while I didn't use it all the time (going in restaurants, rides etc..) it definitely made jetting around the parks much easier. The part that wasn't that easy was transportation from our hotel to each park and back again. We stayed at the Comfort Inn, LBV and were picked up each morning by Town and Country Transportation. We had to call 24 hours before hand and let them know that we needed a handicapped equipped shuttle which was fine, however the shuttle they sent made it a bit tricky. They wound up sending a bus that had a set of stairs that transformed into a lift. This was fine except that once the scooter was on the bus, it had to be tightly turned and navigated down the isle to a "docking station" where the scooter could be secured. Needless to say that each morning with a bus load of people (we were always the last to be picked up) sitting on both sides of the isle, this made getting the scooter to the docking station very difficult. One morning in particular there was a full load of people and a woman in a wheelchair already, so there was no room for the scooter except up in the front of the bus next to the driver which is not safe and of course blocked an exit sure there be an emergency.
Once at the "docking station" it was impossible to parallel park the scooter, so the driver would either not lock it into place or he would have to lift it and set it into position. Getting off the bus also proved tricky because now the scooter had to be backed down the isle and onto the lift, which usually took me multiple tries. Thankfully everyone got off the bus first so I was free to attempt this without bothering anyone. Eventually I gave up driving the scooter onto the bus and would get on, then my wife would push the scooter onto the lift, and then the driver would navigate it down the isle and secure it. It was more work for him, but less for me not having to try and avoid the other passengers. On that note as well, most of our drivers seemed annoyed that they had to deal with this, especially when we had some of the same drivers over and over again. Gladly though, the driver we had the most was nice and seemed to have a sense of humor about it, so for him I felt bad.
Now in contrast, we have Disney transportation, the big white buses with the red DISNEY on the side. When going to HS or AK Town and Country wouldn't take us directly there. They would take us to MK and then we'd have to get off, and then go meet the Disney bus, which was a bit of a pain at first, but I'm glad we did it now because I got to see how much easier it was dealing with Disney's transportation. The handicapped equipped Disney buses have a separate wheelchair/scooter entrance in the back. The bus is lowered to the ground before you get on and a ramp is simply folded out and you drive on the bus into this wide, spacious area in the back. Once in all I had to do was quickly parallel park and get off the scooter. I didn't have to avoid any passengers (as they were usually loaded after me, which didn't take long, and there were no seats to try and avoid). On top of that, the drivers were some of the nicest and most helpful people we encountered.
So what did we learn from this? Next year we are staying at a Disney Resort JUST for the ease in transportation. If we had known that staying off-site and using alternate transportation, at least with the company we had, was going to be such a pain, we would have spent the extra few hundred and stayed on site.
Of course I can't speak for the other companies out there, but Town and Country, at least if you're going to be using an ECV, isn't really equipped to conveniently handle one.
