Pleased with WDW ECV? Height of ride seats?

[Dedejf]

My friend and I will be going to WDW in early December. We have both had bilateral knee replacements so will need to rent ECV's. Almost every post I've read says to rent them through somewhere other than Disney. Here's the thing. We don't think we'll be able to take them apart and reassemble them after transporting them in our car. Has anyone had good experiences with the ECV's at the parks? Does it make sense for us to rent them from the parks instead of trying to disassemble and reassemble ones we rent elsewhere?

One other concern. Is there a site somewhere that gives the height of the seats of the different rides? We are both concerned if the seats are too low that we wouldn't be able to rise from them.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer on either issue. We are very much looking forward to our visit!!

 

[daisyduck123]

We just got back yesterday from 8 nights in WDW.

We were a group of 8 & we had rented 2 scooters from Walker Mobility for the entire trip.

We rented:
1) for DH (he broke his big toe the morning we left for our trip on May 11)
2) another for my DFIL because we knew he wouldn't be able to walk long distances.

Here's how this went:

Assembling & disassembling the scooters each day was a pain.
We had our own cars though, so we thought it'd be easy.
Half-way thru our trip, my MIL decided she wanted a scooter also, so we just one at the parks each day for her.
My FIL saw how easy it was to get one, so he decided to rent each day also rather than using the one from Walker Mobility (the things are just SOOOO heavy to put together).

Half-way thru our trip, my own dad tripped at AK so we had to get him a scooter as well.

We were a sight....a group of 8 & four of the 8 were on scooters!!

If we had to do it again...we'd just rent at Guest Relations at the parks...except for my DH. Due to his broken big toe, he even needed a scooter just to get around our resort, so we had to have one full-time.

**The ones from Walker Mobility were a little faster than the ones you rent at the parks.

 

[SueM in MN]

My FIL never minded the park ECVs. They are a bit larger and less manouverable that the smaller off-site rental ones, but not bad.
If you get to the parks fairly early, you should not have a problem getting one in early December. There is no guarantee though, so if you could manage with a wheelchair if there are no ECVs, you will be OK.

If you are staying on site, you do have the option of using WDW transportation (there is more information about this on the disABILITIES FAQs thread near the top of this board).

THere are also links to the WDW Guidebooks for Guests with Disabilities on the FAQs thread. They don't have a lot of information, but have some general info.
There are also pictures of some of the ride cars on allearsnet.com . They are more to show the size of the seats, but in some cases you can figure out the step up or down. If you have questions about specific attractions, just ask. Someone probably can give you a good answer.