Parking

[Randa]

Is there a place at the parks I can drop my family off and then return to park the car. My father is going with us and walking around the parks is gonna be bad enought for him (2 strokes), let alone the parking lot too? Thanks for all your help. We're trying to con him into trying a wheelchair, but you know how Dad's are.

 

[desianne]

I don't know about the parking but I have very bad arthritis. The first time we went to Disney I tried walking and had a miserable time. A woman came up to me, she could tell I was in pain, and told me to stop being vain and rent a wheelchair. The next day I did and it was okay but not for me. Having my husband push me around made me a nervous wreck, he pushed me into someone once, and you are dependant on someone. So the next day, I rented an electric chair. It does cost more ($30) but is worth it for me. I'm not depending on anyone and if they go on a ride I don't want to I can go off on my own. Maybe your father would perfer this. There are alot of seniors that rent the chairs.
As for the parking, I don't know about dropping off someone but I have handicap parking and I found that usually I had to walk further with the handicap parking than if we just parked in the regular spot and took the tram. We never take the handicap parking now.
I hope you can talk him into renting a chair. He'll enjoy the parks alot more.

 

[teri]

Please be sure to check out our FAQ -just click on the link in my signature. There is a section there about traveling with elderly, and about ways to convince them to use a wheelchair or ECV if they need it. That really is your beest bet - if your father has trouble walking a short distance tehn it is unreasonable to think he will be able to get more than a short distance in the park... and the distances are vast.

I have mentioned before, for some families the tram from the regular parking lot is a much preferable option to the handicapped parking or drop-off options when they are available. You can tell the parking guy that you have someone in your party with special needs and they will let you park in one of the reserved spaces near the tram stop... so you don't have to walk far at all. The trams go all the way to the front, right in front of the gate. That is your best option, next to a chair. For Magic Kingdom, if you don't use a chair, I recommend taking the ferry and not the monorail from the parking lot. that ramp up to the monorail is very steep and it wears frail people out before they even begin their day.

Buses are another option, but often elderly do not want to ride teh buses. They do go closer to the gate as well, and particularly if you go to MK, they are the better option from your resort because you don't have that long walk from the lot to the ferry and then to the main gate.

 

[SueM in MN]

My FIL has been saying he will rent an ecv for about the last 10 years on our trips to WDW. So far, he talks about it every year, but each year he doesn't do it and he sees less and less of the parks.
There are drop off points at MK, the Studion and Epcot. I'm not sure about MK since we take the bus from our resort to go there. The drop off points are at the front of the Handicapped Parking, but, like other people said, you will end up closer to the park entrance by using the regular parking lot (parking on the end of the rows) and using the trams.