Safari Steve and Sue - Thanks, Got Solutions Now

[travelitis]

The thought of the impending travel disaster over Easter was really taking all joy out of going, but I have solutions now. I may have not expressed myself clearly, but I wasn't asking to go ahead of others in line. What I meant to convey was that when I really didn't need special consideration, I was smothered with it. Now that navigating WDW is much more difficult, we felt almost singled out by the total lack of compassion and very prying questions and comments. If it ever happens again, I'll get a Guest Service Mgr., but we kept excusing the CM's saying that maybe someone had been nasty to them, and we were just getting the fallout. I was actually in tears twice, feeling defeated. Actually, just talking about it I start boo-hooing, so I'm not going to read the other thread. I got a little hint from a kind soul that there might be some unkind comments, and I don't need that on top of the bad medical news we recently got that I did NOT share on that post.

1. I talked to Guest Services who said his need to wait outside the normal queueing area of certain attractions can be accomplished with the GAC. I would carry a doctor's letter that was brief but that explained what he needs although it's not required. She was very kind and really calmed me. She also said if there were other things (he needs to carry a cushion for rides like Spaceship Earth) he needed, that shouldn't be a problem.

2. Take a cruise instead. This is becoming more of a possibility, but we'd still go to WDW over Thanksgiving. We'd have more time, so we'd probably go only every other day. I have found a ship and sailing date we're considering booking.

3. Take a babysitter, but that makes us a party of 6 and limits where we can stay.

4. Rent a motorized wheelchair for our son. (yuck! last resort!)

Sorry if i was misunderstood, but I guess you had to be there. Conversely, there was someone who made our summer trip very special and brought the magic back to Disney for us.

 

[SueM in MN]

I'm glad you are feeling better. I could tell how frustrated you were on the other post, but I didn't know what to say to make it better.
Some of what I meant didn't really come across well in typed form and probably made you feel worse. I'm sorry if it did. If you didn't read Steve and my responses after your boo-hoo, please do. We both tried to make ourselves more clear (and re-assuring).

Some things to think about from your new solutions:

3. Take a babysitter, but that makes us a party of 6 and limits where we can stay.

One possible thing to look into might be renting points at a DVC home from a DVC member. You'd need a 2 bedroom for 6 people, but that would give you a larger place to stay with a living room and a full kitchen, which may be more relaxing for your situtation. If you are spending shorter days in the parks, you will be spending more time in the room. And we find we can relax more easily if we have the living room and large space. If your DS or you need to lie down for a while, you can easily go into a nother room and not have the rest of your party around you. Also, having a washer and dryer, we find we travel with much less clothing (a nice plus since we have a lot of equipment for DD).

4. Rent a motorized wheelchair for our son. (yuck! last resort!)

If you are looking into that at all, you may want to do it soon. DD has wheelchairs, so we have never rented one, but other people have posted that the parks and outside medical companies will not rent ecvs (scooters) for use by people under the age of 18.
I don't know if they "bend" on that on not, but it probably would not be something you could decide on when you get there.

We did look into renting a power wheelchair for DD 2 years ago and were told they will only rent those to people who use one at home (in our case, DD has a power wheelchair, but we didn't want to travel with it). To rent one, they needed specific information about the drive system she uses, the computer settings for the drive system and the sizes of everything. We didn't end up renting because they could only guarantee to a standard seat (she has a more specialized seat) and could not provide some of the other things she needs.

 

[travelitis]

Sue,

Well you ruled out my last option, the motorized wheelchair. He's too young for an ECV, and I wouldn't trust him in one even if he weren't. At 12, he lacks the judgement necessary to keep others safe.

He missed more of this week than he attended, and he went to the ER today. They gave him a shot of Torodol, and he's much improved. It' too bad that we have to wait until he can't walk for the pain before we can get something to calm the flare. I can only trust that by Thanksgiving he'll be in better shape, and we can figure out a way to get around the parks. We'll have our timeshare then, so it has more space and could accomodate an extra person (babysitter to push the stroller).

In the mean time, we're thinking a cruise would solve our problems

 

[SueM in MN]

Pixie dust for you. Thanksgiving is a long time away; here's hoping you have some soultions by then.

Just wanted to mention that a power wheelchair looks easy to drive, but is much harder than it looks. A joystick controls the speed and direction at the same time. That controller takes some getting use to. Older DD and I thought we would try driving younger DD's power wheelchair. We found out pretty quickly that steering is not so easy as it looks. An ecv is actually much easier to drive. They generally steer just like a bike, with a yoke to control the direction. A power wheelchair can be just as (or more) dangerous than an ecv. Power wheelchair are much heavier - my DD's is almost 300 pounds without her in it. They also generally have more powerful motors than ecvs and can be set to go really fast (my DD's top speed is faster than I can walk. Like ecvs, they don't have brakes and only stop by letting go of the part that is controlling the power. Whatever the motorized vehicle, it can be dangerous and needs to be treated with respect by people using it and people around it.