Report on Accesible Stuff on Recent Trip

clkelley

<font color=purple>I squealed really loud!!<br><fo
Joined
Mar 26, 2001
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Our group of 6 just got back from 8 nights at All-Star Movies.

We had 3 folks in personal ECVs.

I had booked two accesible rooms with roll-in showers and one standard room, hopefully connecting.

We booked Tiffany TownCar vans for the roundtrip to/from the airport and for two roundtrips to Universal/IOA.

We were able to fit both of the larger ECVs in the back of the van without disassembling and the third really small one, we took the seat off and folded down the tiller, and squeezed it under one of the seats. Our luggage fit around everything.

The airlines took all three of our ECVs without batting an eye even though we were on a small 35 passenger jet. They fit through the door just by folding down the tiller and folding down the seat back.

When we arrived at All-Star Movies, they had our rooms all messed up. They only had 1 of the rooms as accessible, the other two were right next door to us.

When we told them we needed two accessible rooms they tried to tell us we only booked 1, but we called for the manager and he looked through the records and realized we had indeed booked two accessible. The only one they had available that night was on the other side of the resort and did not have a roll-in shower, and also the small fridge didn't work, but they promised the next morning they would move our friends to the roll-in shower room right above us. They gave us 1/2 off of one of the rooms that first night.

When we arrived in Orlando on Friday night, we knew the hurricane was coming, probably on Sunday, so we had Tiffany drop by a store (Goodings, Publix was closed already) and we got some sandwich stuff to avoid paying the high food court prices. We knew the accessible rooms had fridges.

When we arrived in our rooms, we put our perishible stuff in the fridge, turned it on, and didn't really think about it.

The next morning, our friends packed up their stuff and went by the front desk to get new room keys for the room they were supposed to be moved to, but the front desk wouldn't do that because the previous folks had not checked out yet, so they said just drop by in the evening and they would have the luggage moved and they could get the room keys when we got back.

We went to Magic Kingdom all day Saturday until about 3:30 pm when we went over to the Polynesian, then took the walkway over to Shades of Green to purchase our Universal tickets.

We then came back to have dinner at Ohanna which was delicious. The parks were closing at 7pm, so no Wishes or Spectro, so we just took the monorail back to MK, then took the bus back to the room.

When we arrived back at All-Stars, there were lots of hurricane notices out and the TV stations were already showing movies, and the food court was serving a limited menu.

When our friends tried to get their room keys, the front desk didn't know anything about them moving, and they had no room at all!!!

They finally spoke with the manager from the previous evening, and he managed to get them the room right above ours and then had their luggage picked up and a bag was missing!! They finally found the bag. The manager credited our 3 rooms $100 each for the problems.

Now I know they were dealing with the hurricane, but this had nothing to do with the hurricane!!!

When we arrived back in our room, we discovered the fridge in our room was also not working and all of our food we had purchased was spoiled, so my hubby took the food and the Gooding's receipts to the front desk and got reimbursed, and they brought us another fridge. We used that money to purchase some things for the hurricane and then settled in.

After all of this, the rest of the trip was great! As far as buses, they could only take two of the scooters most of the time, but always sent a special bus immediately for the third one. On a couple of occasions when the bus was not crowded, we took the small scooter apart and was able to take all three of them. (It was smaller than some of the huge strollers some folks bring).

Universal/IOA was pretty good about accessiblity, but terrible with information. There were at least two occasions where we took scooters into the line, (we were told at the entrance to do so) but when we got to the front were told we shouldn't have brought them through.

On Mummy, we had to go back out with the scooters, and wait in the line again with a regular wheelchair. Fortunately, we ran into a manager type on the way out, and he led us to a place to park the scooters and got us in right away. Otherwise, somebody was going to hear about it because that was a long line (granted, the only long line of the trip).

So word of warning, if you book an accessible room at All-Stars and are dependant on the fridgie they provide, please make sure it works, because they are getting old and apparently several of them are dying.

Carol
 
Wow, 3 ECVs together. You folks must have looked like a Gang!;) Interesting how they dealt with the 3rd ECV by sending a special bus (as they should!), and how well you all fit in the Tiffany van.

Glad they were ashamed about the AS room mess-ups, but it did cost them plenty in the end, didn't it.

Thanks for the report!
 
Glad to hear you made it thru the hurricane OK.
And it sounds like they made good for all the mistakes (although it would have been better to not have the probelms in the first place).
 
We definitely were a group! We called ourselves the scooter brigade!!

We had fun though and the ECVs made the trip possible for my hubby who has a knee that is gone, and for our friends who both had recent foot surgery.

Hopefully hubby will have his knee replaced before our next trip and we won't need the ECV!!!

However, I will continue to take it with me on my Ft. Wilderness trips for zipping around the Fort instead of a golf cart. Not having to use the internal buses is great!

It looks like we'll have to buy new batteries for our ECV before we return it to my parents. It was my grandmother's before she passed away. They gave it to us on loan as long as we store it, and give it back to them should they need it. It's been a lifesaver!!

Our friends found their ECVs used in the local paper . Two 1 week trips to WDW (based on rental cost) will have them paid for.

I would highly recommend hunting for a used ECV if you need one for WDW and go often. They can usually be found in the $500 range.

Carol
 




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