Off Site Riding Their Shuttles

[fostrmom2mny]

I am considering staying off site and relying on their shuttle service. How disabled friendly are they for parsons on an offsit ECV? I'd love to hear other's experiance. It may determine where we stay, and if we stay off site.
Thank you very much.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I would suggest calling the hotel directly. Find out what the schedule is and if they have a dedicated bus or they share the shuttle service with other hotels. Also find out if the company which provides the shuttle service actually has accessible vehicles.

The reason for this is some shuttles run only about two or three times in the morning, once around noon and only two or three times in the evening. And they will go only to one location and you will have to switch to Disney Transporatation when they drop you off and you must be back at the pickup point at the scheduled time or you are then talking about a taxicab.

And if it is a multiple stop route, if your hotel is not the first stop they may not be able to take you with the ECV (even if their bus is accessible).

 

[videogal1]

I am considering staying off site and relying on their shuttle service. How disabled friendly are they for parsons on an offsit ECV? I'd love to hear other's experiance. It may determine where we stay, and if we stay off site.
Thank you very much.

Ahhh, my favorite fight. Any offsite resort that offers shuttle service for able-bodied guests must accommodate a disabled guest in the same manner. That's the law. Now, the practical matter is that they will not always obey the law, do not always know the law or do not know how to implement the law. The resorts that own their own shuttles have not traditionally bothered to equip them with lifts, which is a problem for guests in chairs or on an ECV. Sometimes, too, the "ridership rules" for those shuttles will state, in very fine print, that the drivers are not allowed to assist the loading of power equipment into the baggage compartment or, for at least one resort, the rules spell out quite plainly that scooters art not allowed on their shuttles, (an illegal policy). I don't know which resort you're considering but this is what I have encountered and how I solved the problem:
Vistana Resort scheduled a shuttle to take me to WDW. The shuttle driver (not a Vistana resort employee or shuttle) refused to load my scooter and I zipped back to the manager of the resort's tours dept. for further direction. The manager accompanied me back to the shuttle stop, argued with the shuttle driver, and supervised the loading of the scooter. He also gave me his card in case I had trouble getting back to the resort because of a driver or shuttle problem. This went on for nearly the entire 2-week stay. Eventually the resort manager just made arrangements with Mears to pick me up in an accessible taxi and the resort absorbed the cost, which is, by law, their responsibility. Every time I stayed at an off site resort (and I'm not referring to Disney-affiliated off-site hotels like the Marriott or any of those that are on a normal Disney shuttle route) during the heyday of my WDW adventures in 2004 and 2005, I had to explain the equal access laws to employee after employee. It would be a good idea to find out ahead of time how the resort addresses access issues with their shuttle service before you get there. Take the names and job titles of everyone you talk to because, quite frankly, some of them just do not know and will tell you anything. Check with the shuttle company they contract with, too...the resorts do not always know the access policies of their shuttle contractors. The last time I stayed off-site I took with me the name and business number of a taxi driver that would be willing to transport me if the resort was not cooperative in locating an alternate shuttle service or if the designated shuttle driver refused to load my ECV for a return trip (Man, those parking lots at WDW can get dark, cold, and lonely while you're on your scooter awaiting a shuttle.) In the days of cell phones, take a taxi company phone number with you in case of emergency.. Good luck...

 

[SueM in MN]

One of the reason we do not stay off site.
Even for guests without special needs, it can sometimes be hard to meet the schedule - and if you miss the bus, you ate stuck

Also, some of the shuttle buses are the large tour type buses wig storage space under the bus. That's well and good if the driver will load your ECV under the bus storag. For you. But, those kinds of buses usually have a steep set of stairs to get up and down.

And (as was already mentioned), having equipment doesn't mean knowing how to use it. One trip, we were renting a van from an airport off site rental company. We verified that they did have accessible shuttles and when the shuttle pulled up, it had a nice ramp. After we were on the bus, I asked the driver where the wheelchair spot was and he pointed to a clear space on the floor. I saw there were slots for the tiedown straps and asked if we centered OK. The driver said we were and told me to lock the brakes, but made no effort to do anything else. I said 'we're ready for you to tie Dd's wheelchair down and he said, "just lock the brakes; that's what everyone else does."
I said that was not acceptable at highway speeds for the 5-10 minute trip and asked him to tie the wheelchair down, or give me the straps and I would attach them to the slots and tie it down myself since it was the same brand as the ones on our van at home. It turned out that he had no idea where the straps might be or even what they looked like. He called his supervisor, who could not help either.
We got off the bus and DD and I waited at the airport while DH rode the shuttle to get the rental van and come back to pick us up from the airport. We left with a whole bunch of contact information and spoke with the transportation supervisor, manager of that branch and the on airport supervisor. They agreed this was nit acceptable and said they would take care of it. We were not expecting much, but by the third day after we arrived, we recieved a phone call back from the transportation supervisor who indicated their whole staff had been educated, with return demonstrations, on how to correctly transport a wheelchair or ECV.
We were not taking any chances, so when we left, DH dropped me and DD off at the airport and then took the shuttle back. The drivers had actually been alerted to look for us. Somehow the driver figured out who DH was and asked if he was "Mr. R" and invited DH to quiz him on the location of and correct use of the wheelchair /ECV tie down equipment. The driver was very proud to show and passed with flying colors. While we were waiting for our plane, we called the transportation supervisor back and let him know what DH has found out.

So, some companies do take things very seriously once the problem has been brought to their attention. We were polite, but firm and knew our rights. We also made it very clear that our complaint was in behalf of other people who needed the equipment and that we would not be shy to report it further up in the corporate chain and to the Department of Trandportation if it was kit adequately dealt with on a local level.

 

[fostrmom2mny]

I'm revieving this post hoping someone can give me the offsite hotels that they have experianced ECV shuttletransportation. I know that Gaylord Palms does, I just had hoped for a different hotel due to GP's food prices.
Thanks

 

[dclfun]

Gerri- I've never stayed offsite and frankly wouldn't feel that it was worth it for me due to the inconvenience. I would not want to have Lynda's experience either and have to educate so many people or deal with incompetence like Sue did, even though both had their issues resolved. As you mentioned Gaylord Palms have you stayed there before? It is a beautiful resort but one of the more costly options. You might want to look into one of Disney's "good neighbor" hotels as perhaps they have better service. Still, I'd call and ask beforehand as to when the shuttles run, how many of them are accessible, and how is the bus configured. Then I'd factor in other things such as time spent in transport, rates and availability, and make my decision from there.---Kathy

 

[Bete]

but I dealt with the hotel directly and most representatives there could not give me very good answers when it came to specific, harder questions. One person just kept repeating we can bus handicap individuals and that's all she would keep saying. Another time I had a question where there representative was going to call me back and that never happened. I think that was already a clue of bad things to come. I had to call a lot to get any answers.

Free dining came out and I decided to do my trip differently and we are on site again. I will share what I learned from this experience.

The three major things I learned is there is a bus schedule for coming to the park in the morning and then one to leave at night. There were three choices each for going and coming to Disney. These trips are one way; so, keep this in mind. In other words, you don't have six choices to choose from, but rather three each way for times, back and forth.

At the resort we were thinking about you have to give them advance notice of your special needs. The resort will then communicate with their outside service bus company that a handicap bus will be necessary. Supposedly, this same bus will be used all day for this resort; so, you don't have to go through this for each leg of your trip, back and forth. You do have to request the special bus for each day you plan on using one. We had a wheelchair; so, I'm not sure if the same would hold true of a scooter there; so, I'm not stating the name of the resort, here.

I could see myself stuck; because, the bus arrangements would not be made properly one day for a special bus even though I did everything I should do on my end. Then, I could see myself arguing with the resort about how I'm going to get to the park, now. Luckily, I was going to have our car with us; so, if there were big problems I would have a good alternative.

I know I would be in constant fear to get the last bus of the day. What if it wasn't handicap accessible and here you are stuck with basically being deserted and later in the evening to boot. I was told it would be the same bus all day, but who knows? What if it took me a little longer to get there for whatever reasons beyond my control and I missed that last bus? I know I could get a taxi, but I just didn't want to deal with those headaches while my 90 year old mother really doesn't understand what the problem is (she has Alzheimer's) and I'm stuck somehow.

Also, I found out that the schedule did not correspond correctly with seeing fireworks and such for the last bus time pick up. This would mean you would have to settle to see less to get their bus service back to the resort.

Finally, the drop off point for most shuttle services are either the Transportation Center or Epcot. In my case, it was Epcot. You then have to take Disney transportation to get to the other parks. You would have to coordinate all your times for these connections to make sure you get your bus back in time, especially the last bus of the day. The waits are long in between times to just sit there, too to catch the next bus if you miss the one you wanted. If you miss the last bus of the day you are in a fix.

I think in my case I would have used the service for Epcot and maybe MK, but I would have driven to the other two parks anyway.

Just make sure you understand all the ins and outs of the resort you choose for shuttle service. If you can find one that has their own devoted service to the parks that might be better, but that could be hard to find and maybe not even possible.

I'm very relieved I changed my mind about the trip and we are staying on-site afterall.

 

[videogal1]

I am considering staying off site and relying on their shuttle service. How disabled friendly are they for parsons on an offsit ECV? I'd love to hear other's experiance. It may determine where we stay, and if we stay off site.
Thank you very much.

I stayed at the Vistana Resorts twice (not the Village) the first times I stayed truly off-site. Then I stayed at Summerhill...both affiliated with the time-share group RCI, I think it was...There was one more but I've forgotten its name. That was in 2003/4 or so and I like to think that the fights I put them through somehow led to some permanent changes in their (in)-accessibility policy. After I convinced them that equal opportunity in their free transportation was the LAW, they finally called a Mears accessible shuttle for me and paid for it themselves because either their regular shuttle would not accommodate a scooter or the driver of the shuttle would flat out refuse to load/unload a scooter. If you do manage to iron out an accessible shuttle plan with the resort (all shifts) you have to be very sure that both you and the shuttle will be where you/they are supposed to be at pickup time. Be sure to get the telephone number of the resort transportation manager (all shifts)in case you miss the late night shuttle connection. Been there, done that..In the end Murphy's law rules. If anything can go wrong it will. The resorts do not know the law, or mostly choose to ignore it. Take the Mears taxi number with you at all times and if they pick you up in an accessible taxi, keep the receipt.I eventually got the cell number of the regular Mears accessible taxi driver and called him directly a couple of times..The resort should reimburse you if/when there is a fiasco. Late night shuttle pickups get cold and lonely in deserted parking lots while you're waiting for that shuttle that never arrives. Be prepared for the shuttle driver to accuse you of being late and missing the shuttle. Don't expect to get free shuttle transport at times outside their regular schedule. Take your cell phone. Read the fine print on the resort's shuttle policy. One of the resorts (I think it was Summerhill) stated on their policy NO SCOOTERS ALLOWED on their shuttles By the time I left for the cruise they were promising to get at least one accessible shuttle the next year when they upgraded their fleet...yeah, sure... If you're a cranky type you'll do just fine and you'll get reasonable free shuttle service. This was my experience (edited), your experience may differ.