Rented the Dream Scooter just got back

[jbuey22]

EDITED BY MODERATOR TO ADD:
AS OF MARCH 30, 2010, OVERSIZE SCOOTERS ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED ON THE WDW BUSES. THIS INFORMATION WAS POSTED on April 2, 2010 BY A WDW BUS DRIVER:
" Effective Sat. , March 27, a wheelchair/ECV measurement box will be tested at Disney's Port Orleans (Riverside South) and Disney's Pop Century resorts for apporximately 2 weeks. At those two resorts, guests using wheelchairs and ECV's will need to verify that their wheelchair/ECV is contained within the marked area (footprint is 30" by 48")

If the wheelchair/ECV fits within the measurement box, please load the guest(s) as documented in the Bus Transportation Operations Operating Guide and allow up to five additional guests to board with the guest with disabilities. Direct any additional guests in the party to load in the standard queue.

If the wheelchair/ECV does NOT fit within the measurement box, explain to the guest that the wheelchair/ECV won't be allowed on the bus and a Bus Guest Service Manager will be contacted to provide assistance. Then, contact the Operations Center using your radio to request a GSM response to the location."
End of Quote.
I have been advised by the rental company that the Dream Scooter will fit into the measurement box as long as the front wheel is turned.

It is important to keep in mind that the weight limit for the WDW bus ramps is 600 pounds; the limit for the ramps is 800 pounds according to the bus driver who posted the information. This is for the weight of the ECV/wheelchair, rider and any items being carried.END OF NOTE

I was in Disney Aug 30- Sept 7th I rented the Dream Scooter and loved it. We had a thread started already but it isnt here anymore. I told everybody I would update when I got back. Well it was a Dream. It fit on all modes of Disney Transportation. I have pictures but am leary of posting them because I am not sure why the first Thread was removed. So this is my written review. If the moderator gives the OK I will post pictures. First of all, yes it worked in all situations, but if you are a new ecv driver or in-experienced in any way I would suggest renting a normal 3 wheel scooter. I dont recommend 4 wheelers because they dont turn as well and some of the larger ones wont fit on the lift busses. Had that problem 2 years ago. The Dream Scooter with the motorcycle type front wheel, turns on a dime. Even though it is a inch or 2 wider it navigates through the maze turnstiles much better. Some of my examples are the que for expedition everest, buzz lightyear, and test track. I was easily able to navigate through them without even bumping poles. Parking on the busses was so easy because of the turning capabilities. And getting off most busses from the rear handicap spot was as easy as turning the wheel and driving off. And as you enter the bus the quick right turn was too easy. Also I took this on the water transport from Port Orleans to DTD and had no trouble with this either. Now occasionally the rear fenders would get caught on the folded up seat as i would drive off of busses. but the guy who rented me the scooter told me they were removing the fenders if they came back damaged and was not worried if they did. In fact I ran into one other guy with a dream and his had no fenders. All in all i would recommend this for large people who have decent driving capabilities. And if you dont I am sure it would'nt be too hard to get used to.

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for the report.

The original thread wasn't removed, it just got pushed back to page 5 - here's a link to that thread. New threads start out on page 1; they go further down on the page as other new posts take their place. When someone posts on an older thread, it pops back up to page one.
If no one posts on a thread for a while, eventually, they end up a couple of pages back.

I would be interested in seeing pictures.

BUT, the company encourages people renting their scooters to carry children on them. Because this is not a safe practice, Cheshire Figment and I discussed and decided not to allow links or the name of this company to be posted. We did not want to support a company that encouraged unsafe behavior. If they change their website and information to not include encourage this behavior, we would discuss maybe allowing links.



EDITED TO ADD:
The information in italics is why we did not previously allow links to this website.
Cheshire Figment was able to talk to the owners earlier this year about our concerns and they subsequently did remove the videos showing children riding as passengers on their ECVs.
We will now allow links to the company, but I wanted to leave the information in the thread to give the history of why we did not previously allow links to be put up.
The company is called Scooter Orlando.

 

[jbuey22]

yes i figured out how the threads move around. But I only see 4 pages of the DisAbilities thread. I search all 4 of them and didnt see the First thread that was started. In fact I still dont. Anyways I am at work now and will post some pics of the scooter on busses and boats. I also agree its best to keep the name of the company out of it. And also agree that giving rides to children(which I saw plenty of) is not cool. I also saw a few other disturbing things with people on scooters. I dont want to judge so I wont.

 

[SueM in MN]

The way the settings for the boards are, they normally only show a short past time period or number of days (they do that because the more busy boards might have 3-4 pages per day and if they showed all pages as the default, there would be way too many).
I have my settings to show all pages because I need to find older things frequently (this board actually has 181 pages as I write this).

 

[jbuey22]

Thanks Sue for the tip on the thread settings. Here are some of the pics of me on the scooter. Dont pay attention to the fat guy with the deformed leg.

here is a card that is posted on the scooter

as you see it doesnt take up much more room than a regular scooterand it is much more comfortable. it comes with a basket on the back of the seat, but i removed it. never tried getting on a lift bus with it so cant comment on it, i removed it the first day in my room before i went anywhere.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Thanks for posting the info and pictures, but it doesn't look comfortable to me, but then again, I need to be able to stretch out my legs when my knee is cramping and I can do that with the regular scooters.

Suzanne

 

[SueM in MN]

thanks for the pictures.
I can see why it might be best for people with experience - it looks like a pretty tight fit side to side.

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

I think I will keep my ressie with Walker. That thing looks HUGE! It's a challenge to wiggle a regular heavy duty scooter just right into the bus cubby hole. I can't imagine doing it on something that sits so high up and is even just a bit longer.

Nice report. I do have a question though. How did it's batteries hold up? I find that if I don't book the longer life battery unit through Walker, sometimes, it's a bit of a challenge to make it through a day without the dreaded blinking battery light.

TIA

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I think I will keep my ressie with Walker. That thing looks HUGE! It's a challenge to wiggle a regular heavy duty scooter just right into the bus cubby hole. I can't imagine doing it on something that sits so high up and is even just a bit longer.

Nice report. I do have a question though. How did it's batteries hold up? I find that if I don't book the longer life battery unit through Walker, sometimes, it's a bit of a challenge to make it through a day without the dreaded blinking battery light.

TIA

I have had the same battery problem the last 2 times I have rented from Walker, so this time, I decided to get the extended range HD scooter, hope for a better trip, it is hard for DH to push me in a WC, especially when I paid more to rent an ECV that ends up sitting in the room.

Suzanne

 

[jbuey22]

The battery life was never an issue. In fact the rental company expressed how the capacity was 1 1/2 times larger than the biggest bateries that the smaller scooters hold. All I know is it was never an issue. A couple of days were very long, had a 715am appt for the train tour and didnt get in till after wishes...whoa that was a long day. But as heavy as I am(heavier than most), the battery meter was a set of 6 or 7 red light indicators. when fully charged it would of course be on the highest light bar. It never went below the 2nd from highest. and of course i plugged it in every night.
As far as leg room and stretching out your legs etc. I also have a serious knee problem. The leg that I have all my trauma with has had a replacement and barely bends 90 degrees. With that said, yes often I would find myself stretching out my leg and there is no comfortable place to rest it and drive at the same time. But as you can see I am very large, and over 6ft tall. So it appears on the pictures that the leg room isnt there, but ive been on worse.
Finally let me reitterate that this scooter isnt for everybody. If you are less than 300lbs I wouldnt even consider it. Way not neccessary. But you all can see that I definetly require a larger scooter. And as far as manuevering it on a bus, I found it easier than any other scooter. I turns on a dime plus on all other scooters there is a body or frame especially the 4 wheel scooters. That makes it harder to turn on busses without hitting things. This is more like a bike on the front end sleeker without the wide body in front by your feet. Think of it like this. regular scooters are rectangular in shape. like a pack of playing cards. Now take the same pack and instead of the rectangle make it a triangle by cutting off the 2 angles to form a long triangle. now if the bus is twice as wide as this pack of cards with seats and poles and peoples legs in the way, which shape would hit more corners when manuevering.
Anyways it may be starting to seem like i am trying to sell this thing. All I can say is I am a very experienced scooter driver. I have rented one every Disney trip. I found it the easiest to manuever and comfortable especially the reclining seat. The only issue is the width. There was no problem on the transportation, but i did forget to mention that I had to back it into my room every night. and the room didnt have alot of width so there was some scraping and re-positioning issues when getting it into the room. I fits between the door of the room, but when the door is open the width of the door is 2 inches, so once you got passed the door it was no prob.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I am over that 300+ range and only 5'5, but stretching that leg out is necessary and I also have plantar fasciitis and have to stretch out my legs and feet for that too. Maybe one day, I will rent the dream scooter.

Suzanne

 

[mechurchlady]

WHAT deformed leg? I only saw lots of bus pictures, the rump of a bus driver and a really handsome guy. Wow he is so cute, did you say deformed leg, where, excuse me but I am too busy looking at that cute guy.

Great pictures of the busses that better show how the system works.

I need a colour printer so I can print a picture of that handsome guy.


Yo prudes, I am only teasing and joking. I am like an old cat who cannot catch a mouse let alone remember what to do with it.

 

[Belle1962]

Did the handle bar tilt or were they set in place--the pics look like they were set. I.E. if you wanted to adjust how far out your arms had to reach or tilt it close to your body could you easily move the handle bars?

 

[toocherie]

WHAT deformed leg? I only saw lots of bus pictures, the rump of a bus driver and a really handsome guy. Wow he is so cute, did you say deformed leg, where, excuse me but I am too busy looking at that cute guy.

Great pictures of the busses that better show how the system works.

I need a colour printer so I can print a picture of that handsome guy.


Yo prudes, I am only teasing and joking. I am like an old cat who cannot catch a mouse let alone remember what to do with it.

Man--we're going to have to keep our eye on you!!!

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

I have had the same battery problem the last 2 times I have rented from Walker, so this time, I decided to get the extended range HD scooter, hope for a better trip, it is hard for DH to push me in a WC, especially when I paid more to rent an ECV that ends up sitting in the room.

Suzanne

Thank goodness it's not just me! Of course at 350+, it's not unexpected that the poor machine is going to be working hard to get up to any sort of decent speed. I have never officially booked one of the HD extended range scooters before, but I got one in a trade off of a scooter with a bad tire during my last trip and it did soooooo much better. I have one reserved for December for me. My MIL is maybe 260, so she is getting the regular HD scooter, which should have plenty of battery overkill, since she isn't as Pooh sized.

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

WHAT deformed leg? I only saw lots of bus pictures, the rump of a bus driver and a really handsome guy. Wow he is so cute, did you say deformed leg, where, excuse me but I am too busy looking at that cute guy.

Great pictures of the busses that better show how the system works.

I need a colour printer so I can print a picture of that handsome guy.


Yo prudes, I am only teasing and joking. I am like an old cat who cannot catch a mouse let alone remember what to do with it.

I will say, that even though I am sooooo not straight, that I do think he is the sort of big guy that I would find myself attracted to, if I were. He has a very cute face! Also he just seems like good people. I mean, he came here to post and showed us all of those pretty pictures.

I say we keep him around. You can keep him for eye candy, I will keep him for a DIS buddy.

 

[jbuey22]

believe it or not i was once a young stud and in the Navy. I didnt want to say but since all of you have been so interested, my leg trauma was the result of a shark bite! 1985 19 years old. Compound leg fracture, arterial graphs, my knee was bent forward 18degrees and my lower leg was twisted when they retrieved me. so picture your leg bending forward with you foot pointing 30 degrees to the left. Not fun. spent 3 months in the hospital and didnt get out of bed for the first 2. Believe it or not I wasnt realy disabled until i finally couldnt stand the pain no more and got a knee replacement in 1998. I thought the replacement was gonna solve everything and it was a disaster that went wrong. Ill see if i can find my old stud pictures...lol...right!

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

Thanks for telling us your story. It stinks when the "cure" is worse than the problem.

 

[mmmbop]

Thank you for the report! I remember reading about it, and looked into it. I thought my uncle would look super cool on it. Your pictures just proved the fact it's a cool scooter.

 

[mechurchlady]

believe it or not i was once a young stud and in the Navy. I didnt want to say but since all of you have been so interested, my leg trauma was the result of a shark bite! 1985 19 years old. Compound leg fracture, arterial graphs, my knee was bent forward 18degrees and my lower leg was twisted when they retrieved me. so picture your leg bending forward with you foot pointing 30 degrees to the left. Not fun. spent 3 months in the hospital and didnt get out of bed for the first 2. Believe it or not I wasnt realy disabled until i finally couldnt stand the pain no more and got a knee replacement in 1998. I thought the replacement was gonna solve everything and it was a disaster that went wrong. Ill see if i can find my old stud pictures...lol...right!

OOH, more pictures, yeah. I would love to meet you for shark dinner someday just to chat. If you had not pointed out your leg I would not have known about it. I look at machines like the ECV and the face.