Rent a car or not?

[poohcrzy]

Hi everyone,
My husband and I are taking his parents to WDW in May,we are renting 2 wheelchairs to be delivered to the resort we are staying at(AsMo).My biggest dilemma is do we rent a car or not. His parents are in thier 70's and have never taken a trip out of state before. I am worried about getting around from resort to parks to meals etc. My husband and I were there in Nov. with our kids and used WDW transpertation. We never say anyone with a wheelchair get on the bus. Is it easy and does it take you longer to get around? His parents can walk some but we are getting the wheelchairs because they could never do all the walking we plan on doing.Any help anyone can give us to help with our dilemma is greatly appreciated.$$ is a concern and we don't have a large reserve to use so if we don't have to rent a car we would rather not.

Thanks LT

 

[SueM in MN]

Welcome. We travel with ourdd who uses a manual wheelchair. We always rent a van just because it is an easy way to get the wheelchair to/from the airport. At the resorts, we mostly use the bus system. Since you said you rode the buses before, you probably know the advantages of riding the bus. For MK, it's the best way to go since the bus leaves you off right at the park entrance instead of needing to park, then go on a boat or monorail.
Most of the buses are equipped with lifts. We have sometimes had to wait for a second bus, but usually it's not a problem. Each bus can hold 2 occupied wheelchairs. The lift is at the back door of the bus; it's put down and the wheelchair would be backed up onto the lift. Then the lift goes up and you are on the bus with the wheelchair ready to tie down. Quite a while ago we had a long thread with hints/info about getting wheelchairs on the bus. ÃCLICK HERE for the link to bus info.
If you decide to use a car, I would wonder whether 2 folded wheelchairs would fit in the trunk. When we have come down with just dd, we have rented a car a few times. Depending on the type of car, some have large trunks and others don't. You could check with the people you are renting the wheelchairs from about the dimensions of a folded chair (especially how wide it is). If you decide to move up to a minivan, you should be able to get the wheelchairs in the back. If you rent a Chrysler van (Voyager or Caravan), ask for the "Grand" version. It's about a foot longer than the regular version. [

SueM in MN
Co-Moderator of disABILITIES

 

[poohcrzy]

Thanks SueM.Would we be able to fold up the chairs and have my In-Laws walk onto the bus. I think that they might be able to do this and then maybe we wouldn't have to wait for another bus.Also does the bus driver tie the wheelchair in or do we. We have obviously never done this before. Thanks for your help and boy do I love this site.
LT

 

[lisapooh]

Driver will tie down the wheelchairs. I have also seen them folded. On one bus there were 3 of us with wheelchairs. Mine does not fold as it is a power chair. One girl could not get out of her chair but her sister could and that one was folded and we were all able to get on one bus.
It is only 2 occupied wheelchairs per bus unless they send one of the special buses that will hold more. We used that once when we were in a large group and 7 of use had ECV or wheelchairs

Pooh

 

[SueM in MN]

We have only been on a bus with another wheelchair once in our many trips. Other people have posted the same as lisapooh, that they have seen folded wheelchairs on the bus. People who regularly use wheelchairs on buses (like my dd) are used to it, but some people just don't feel secure sitting in the wheelchair even though it is tied down.
Some of the bus drivers are more efficient than others at getting the wheelchair loaded and tied down. It probably is just that some have done it more.≠

SueM in MN
Co-Moderator of disABILITIES

 

[Michigan]

Lisapooh were you at All Star Music in Nov/Dec 2000? I have the 2 girls in the wheelchairs and was able to fold the younger ones up one time when there was someone else on the bus. The rest of the time when there was someone other then my 2 girls the drivers wouldn't let me fold it and hold it we had to wait so I decided it was much better to drive at that point since there seemed to be more wheelchairs or ECV's then in the past.