Renting a chair

[followme2disney]

Can someone explain the fastest and easiest process for renting a wheel chair from Disney. Do you get them at the entrance to each park? What is the cost? How long does it take? Please help...leaving for WDW this Thursday.

Thanks

 

[SueM in MN]

Welcome to disABILITIES.
There are several way to get a wheelchair.
1) If you are staying at a WDW resort, you can often get one free of charge from the resort for the length of your stay. There are 2 "buts" involved though. One is that they are not reserved ahead of time. The second is that what is available may or may not meet your needs. People have posted that what they needed was an axtra wide chair and all that was available was a narrow one, or vice versa.
2) You can rent one from any of the parks. Here's a link to the DIS page about touring with mobility disabilities that tells about the process and costs. The area where you rent them is inside each park at the same place as stroller rental. It's close to the entrance, but may be quite a walk from the parking/tram/bus area. WDW was having a trial program of wheelchairs in the parking area to use to get to the rental area. I don't know if that's still going on. Hopefully someone else will know and post.
3) You can rent a wheelchair from one of the off-site medical equipment companies. If you need one every day, this is usually going to be less expensive than renting day to day at the parks and the wheelchair will also be available whenever you need it. This can be a big help at the resorts, since they are quite large. Here's a list of the companies that DIS posters have reported renting from:
Care Medical:
http://www.caremedicalequipment.com/

Walker Mobility:
1-888-726-6837
www.walkermobility.com

RANDY'S Mobility is in Kissimmee 407-892-4777
http://randysmobility.com/

Colonial Medical
http://www.colonialmed.com/about_cms.html

A lot of people choose to rent an ecv (scooter) instead of a wheelchair. It's more expensive, but gives more freedom and no one needs to push it.
Have fun and ask any more questions you can think of before you go. Let us know how things went once you get back.

 

[Puffy2]

Love that ECV - lots of independence and well worth the $30.00 per day! www.walkermobility.com

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If you are looking for an ECV, you are MUCH better off renting from off-site.

For a wheelchair, they are still doing the availability of chairs in the parking lot (near the HP parking) to "commute" to rental, but you can't take them further. It is possible, but not certain, to borrow one from your Disney Hotel at no cost.

 

[phillybeth]

I was in the World last week, and I saw wheelchairs in the rental area labeled "For Parking Lot Use Only" at Epcot, and saw a CM wheeling two back out the the H/C parking area at MGM. So I think the pilot program is still online.

 

[cupcake]

the cost is comparable, it's easy to take a folding wc on transportation or in a car, they are much more comfortable bc they are in excellent condition & adjustable, and you don't have to fuss with renting on a daily basis (my dh has stood in a lot of lines in his time to get the wcs, they run a tight ship but it's very high volume bc it's combined with stroller rental). we've found that the qualitiy of the WDW rental wcs is very variable and you usually cannot adjust anything (like the footrest height). I was there in October and the parking lot temporary wcs were available. it can be a major hike from the lot to park entry plus you have some standing to go thru security and whatnot, so this is a great idea. I prefer to reserve my standing/walking time for something more fun!

all this being said, though, after countless trips using rental Disney wcs, I rented a scooter (from Walker) for the first time in October. it was just AWESOME and totally worth the $$$.

if you don't rent offsite, ask your resort what they have. if they don't have a suitable wc, they can often borrow from another resort. there are no guarantees, but it's worth asking. if it's not a busy period and you are willing to wait a few days while they work on it and rent on a daily basis in the interim, they may well come up with something decent. I found that the resort wcs were in better shape generally than the park ones but I know I've seen another poster here with a different experience. I used to prefer borrowing from the resort to avoid the walking necessary to get to the parks, not as necessary with the new system of loaner wcs.

note that the Swan (and likely the Dolphin) do NOT have loaner chairs. the Swan rents for you from from offsite if you ask in advance, not sure who pays.

when are you going? if it's over the Christmas/New Years period, please post. there are some add'l tips that may be helpful to you if you do rent park wcs during a super peak period.

Cupcake