Rent a Car with an ECV?

[herrmannpt]

We are traveling as a party of 9 at the beginning of June. In the group is my 7 yo son with Autism and my mother with several health issues who requires frequent breaks from the heat and will be renting an ECV. We're doing a split stay and will be on the Monorail loop for the first 3 days of the trip, which should be great. Afterwards, we'll be at Animal Kingdom Villas- Jambo house. I'm concerned with Jambo being the 2nd bus stop that buses are mostly full before they even get to us, which will make it hard to load my mom. I hate to waste precious morning park time when the temps are cooler for her waiting on transportation. Between her needs and my son's, we will be resting for several hours each afternoon at the hotel and will have limited park hours. Is it better just to rent a car and drive ourselves? Realistically with such a big group, some of us will still need to ride the bus, but at least my Mom and son could ride in the car where it is more calm. How difficult is it to disassemble and reassemble the ECV's (my mom is small and we will be renting the kind that can disassemble)? She has a handicapped parking tag. How far out are the handicapped parking lots at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios? Any advise is appreciated!

 

[mamabunny]

The internal bus system at WDW uses buses that can carry 2 ECVs or wheelchairs at once. All of the boats that she can use the ECV with will accept at least 2 ECVs or wheelchairs.. Typically, you will find that huge majority of the time you won't have to wait for another bus or boat.

June will be hot - can you/your Mom handle taking the ECV apart... and then putting it back together in a blazing hot parking lot with no shade? Even in the mornings when it might be cooler, is that how you want to spend your days? There is a "time cost" either way - you can stand in a parking lot all hot and sweaty, trying to deal with a rental ECV, or you can stand and wait for a bus. If it is really better for your Mom to avoid the bus, then at least rent the car with the expectation that you will have to assemble/disassemble that ECV every time you go somewhere no matter how hot it is, if it is raining, if you are tired, if she is tired, etc.)

I honestly can't speak to how far out the handicapped parking is at those Parks, because even if we road trip to WDW, once we get there, I don't touch the car again until the day we leave.

 

[powellrj]

We always rent a car and my ECV can be taken apart in about 3 minutes. I have an older bigger one, so the newer ones aren't as heavy and bulky. We rented one on our last trip because I wanted to have my wheelchair to use in the room. Handicap parking at AK is pretty close.

I like to have a car for the freedom to come and go. We like to leave the bubble to get groceries and outlet shops.

 

[Selket]

If someone will be with her who is in good health and can take apart and put together the ECV they don't look that bad. My husband and son have done it for me when we took the car to Universal Studios. They never had a problem with it and it went fast (we rented the portable one from Buena Vista Scooters). When my friend who has a HC tag has traveled with us and we drove to the parks with her - I've never thought the lot was very far. If your mom has the scooter it definitely shouldn't be an issue. We never drove to the MK though as we wanted to avoid having to park at the TTC and take the monorail.

That being said, I've only ever not been able to get on a bus one time in maybe 6-7 trips where I've used an ECV - the bus already had two.

 

[Tozzie]

AKV is my home resort and I stay there often the 2 times I was waiting for a bus and I was unable to board with the ECV, there was a transportation CM and they called another bus and I don't think it went to Kidani first because it was empty. They do try to do everything they can.

 

[ktate82]

When DMIL travels with us, she uses an EVC. She has rented in the past, but in the last year, she has gotten her own to use at home, so we will be bringing it with us. We have always rented a minivan (there are 6 of us when her and DSIL travel with us) and driving has never been an issue. The only time we would take the buses was to MK (due to the boat or monorail ride over), and we never had any trouble getting on buses (we were at Kidani though). She does have a handicap parking tag and the spots at HS and AK are close, and Epcot isn't very bad either. We always preferred to drive to those three (waterparks and Disney Springs too), just so we had some calmness in the car on the way back and had seats. I agree with the previous posts that if you have someone who is in decent health that can break down and put together the EVC, it's not a big deal.

 

[herrmannpt]

Thanks for the input. I think we are going to go ahead and rent a full sized car. Some of the people in our group are interested in going to the water parks and miniature golfing, so it will be helpful to get to those places too. If we decide to drive to the parks, we'll have a large trunk for my Mom's ECV. My husband and I would both be able to help break down and reassemble it. I watched a couple of videos online. It looks pretty quick and easy to do.