OT: Vegas ECV Report

[ZekeKelso]

Before taking my dad to Vegas, I did some research. Several people had asked about Vegas in this forum, but there wasn't a lot of info. I hope folks don't mind my posting this report here in case anyone looks for the info in the future - I know there's a lot of overlap between Disney folks and Vegas folks.

I arranged a rental with www.scootaround.com before heading out. Price was about $160 for 4 days, including damage insurance. They were very helpful and good to work with on the phone.

When I got to my hotel, the ECV wasn't there as promised. It was Saturday afternoon and it took 10 minutes on hold before I got through to somebody at Scootaround. They connected us to the driver, who explained where he had drooped it off. Turns on the problem was the hotel's, which had directed him to the wrong tower. Not the driver's fault at all, but getting a hold of him was a pain.

It was supposed to be a transportable model, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to get it apart. Luckily we had rented a minivan and could just lift it in. The concierge gave my dad a brief lesson on how to use it (he had never used one before) and suggested that on future visits we just go through the hotel. Apparently, all the big resorts have agreements in place for ECV rentals.

The ECV was a trip-saver. My Dad couldn't possibly have gotten around in Vegas without it. Just too much walking. At it was easy to use - valets were happy to help get it in and out of the van, there were always elevators when we needed them, restaurants and shows were happy to deal with the ECV, etc.

At the end of the trip, we just had to drop it at the bell desk. Presumably the driver would be directed to the right tower for pickup.

All in all a good experience. Next time I'll investigate in-house rentals. But if that doesn't work out, I'd use Scootaround again if necessary.

Sal

 

[RNMOM]

ZekeKelso, thanks for the report. I haven't been to Vegas but have considered it. I have my own scooter and took it to a convention in Colorado Springs and then to Santa Fe and Albuquerque. I have an easy time navigating the square and stores in Santa Fe and was surprised at that. The casinos near Albuquerque were great.

Glad your father had a good trip thanks you your planning.

 

[SueM in MN]

This is a good place for this thread because people who come to this board are looking for general, not Disney related information. If anyone else wants to add anything about Las Vegas (ECV or anything else related), this thread will be a good place to add it.

Coincidentally, DH and I were just in Las Vegas this weekend and I was thinking I should add something on this board. We arrived on Thursday morning and got home last night (Saturday) at 11:30 pm.

Neither DH nor I are disabled, but because we usually travel with someone using a wheelchair, we do have our "accessability eyes" on when we travel. (our youngest DD is a wheelchair user and my FIL used an ECV). I had never been to Las Vegas before, so I probably didn't notice as much as I would have if the area was more familiar to me.

We noticed a fair number of people using ECVs - at least a couple per day. We walked from the Mirage, which was the resort we stayed at, as far down the strip as Mandalay Bay and as far in the other direction as the Wynn.
If you travel between the different resorts, we did notice there were a lot of stairways/ steep moving ramps and escalators. Most did have pretty evident elevators in the same area, but we could not find the elevators in the Venetian that would take you to the same place as the moving walkways did.
One thing we noticed about the steps was that they were usually very steep, but each step did not have as high as normal 'rise' (so you didn't step up or down as much as you usually do on steps). We saw one woman take a spill down a few steps because she missed a step. Many of the sidewalks were sort of 'shiny' , which made them bright/reflective in the sun and a little bit slippery.

If you are traveling with an ECV, I feel that in most places you would not have a problem. Many of the elevations were to take you across streets, so it did make things easier to navigate. We found some of the sidewalks to be very congested and crowded, to the point of being a bit difficult to navigate on foot, especially in the area near Hard Rock Cafe and a strip mall near there. That area had construction and also a lot of people. There was also an almost 3 block area of construction between Bellagio and Monte Carlo.

Another thing we noticed was that most of the hotels had very heavy glass doors that had to be pushed or pulled open. That led to a sort of entry area that had a second door that had to be opened before you actually got in.
The newer resorts had doors that opened automatically, but the older ones (like Mirage) did not. They mostly did have a button to push for opening the door, but I'm not sure the buttons were in consistent places (like the far left door) or anything that would be easier to find.

We did at least walk thru parts of the gaming areas in most of the resorts. They did look pretty accessible, in terms of the amount of space to drive thru. We did notice that most of the ECV users who were using the gaming facilities (both machines and gaming tables), had gotten off of their ECVs and parked it behind them. I did not notice any wheelchair accessible machines and did notice the wheelchair users I saw had transferred to a chair at the machine. Many of the machines had an attached chair that might be difficult to transfer to. I hope someone with more Las Vegas experience posts more about that. I was just so 'dazzled' by all the new stuff that I'm sure I missed a lot.

Restrooms mostly had heavy wood doors, but they were often blocked open. So even though they were heavy, they were not a problem. All the restrooms that I went in had a nice sized wheelchair accessible stall. I didn't keep track of where I went, but I saw quite a few. I also saw a number of nice companion restrooms. The newer the resort, the better the accessibility. The Mirage was built in 1989, before the ADA came into effect. According to the internet, Mandalay Bay was built in 1999 and New York, New York was built in 1997, so they would be expected to be more accessible. From what we could see, they were.

 

[LindaBabe]

Watch out for the elevator doors! I had an ecv from scootaround last year - it was great, but at the luxor, the elevator doors closed too quickly. They didn't stop when touched and I wound up wishboning my cane as I wedged it in the door to keep it from shutting on me and the scooter.

 

[SueM in MN]

This doesn't have anything to do with ECVs, but I wanted to add a little about smoke for people who are sensitive to it.
Smoking is allowed in many places inside and on the gaming floors. Even though there were quite a few people smoking, some of the resorts had much better ventilation than others. The Mirage was pretty good; it actually felt like there was a breeze in there. Some of the other resorts were not very good. I am very sensitive to smoke and found I could not breath well in some of them - Harrah's was hard and Excalibur was very hard. I could pretty much tell within about 5 minutes of entering the building whether or not it would be bad.

 

[RNMOM]

Just thought I would add a couple comments about the two casinos I went to in Albuquerque. The Star and the Sandia. Both are new and beautiful.

The casinos are also both smoking facilities but the heavy smoking occurs in the evenings so we went early in the day and came home mid afternoon. My DSis and BIL go nearly daily and have a ball.

The casinos in both have movable chairs at the slots so I was able to park my ECV and just turn the seat. It was more comfortable than trying to climb up the chair that was bar height. The floor helpers actually moved it for me and were very nice and helpful.

The casinos are owned by the Native American tribes and as such are not limited by federal laws about smoking and such. I don't know what the situation is in Las Vegas. I found the personel at Albuquerque's casinos to be very accomodating and helpful for me with the scooter.