Scooters and the dark side

[nighttowll]

Due to a knee injury we will now be traveling with one member of our group in a scooter.

For anyone who has done this before, is there anything we should be aware of? Do you use the normal queues at Universal? How hard is it to move around the park through the crowds? Where do you park it? I really have no idea what to expect. We leave in a week. Any advice on touring at Universal or Busch Gardens with one would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[damo]

Some of the shops, especially in the Harry Potter areas are going to be very difficult to maneuver. Those shops are made pretty much to scale from real life. If it is possible, I suggest leaving the scooters outside for those stores.

 

[aubriee]

At FJ you have to transfer from an ECV to a wheelchair. ECVs are not allowed in that queue. Also you may or may not be allowed in the wand show with one. Twice we've been told that neither wheelchairs, nor ECVs are allowed in there, because the space is too small, but once we went straight there one morning at early entry and asked the CM at the door. He told us not to get in line, but to stay right there by him and he'd put us in last. However, he told us that as soon as the show was over, to open that same door and back straight out, not to go on into the wand shop with the rest of the crowd. He counted off the number of people allowed in from the queue, letting them in first, then opened the door and told us to park right up against the door.

 

[nighttowll]

From what I've read so far, it looks like we won't be able to take the ecv into any of the queues, but will need to transfer to a wheelchair or have her use crutches to walk the queues. I'm not sure which option would be best yet. We have the EP, so I'm hoping those queues aren't too long to walk. It seems like switching to a wheelchair may be more of a pain than her hobbling through on crutches. But crutches would present a whole other problem. What would you do with them once you got to the ride? Could you do a kind of child swap, only a crutch swap?

 

[damo]

From what I've read so far, it looks like we won't be able to take the ecv into any of the queues, but will need to transfer to a wheelchair or have her use crutches to walk the queues. I'm not sure which option would be best yet. We have the EP, so I'm hoping those queues aren't too long to walk. It seems like switching to a wheelchair may be more of a pain than her hobbling through on crutches. But crutches would present a whole other problem. What would you do with them once you got to the ride? Could you do a kind of child swap, only a crutch swap?

Using a wheelchair to get through the queue is simple. They will have it waiting for you when you get off the ride.

 

[klmall]

DH used a scooter for our trip in December 2011 and though he didn't ride any of the big rides he did "scoot" around both parks for 2 days. The only nuisance was the que for Shrek. They did not let him bring his scooter through the lines and he had to walk/stand for a really long time (and we had FOTL). Next time I will insist that he be allowed to wait on the side on his scooter or enter later after resting in his scooter until the proper time comes.

Also Poseidon's Fury didn't seem to allow scooters due to the path necessary from staged area to staged area. And it is a long walk so he didn't go.

There is a thread about handicapped access at US but I can't find it right now. You should look for that too.

 

[nighttowll]

DH used a scooter for our trip in December 2011 and though he didn't ride any of the big rides he did "scoot" around both parks for 2 days. The only nuisance was the que for Shrek. They did not let him bring his scooter through the lines and he had to walk/stand for a really long time (and we had FOTL). Next time I will insist that he be allowed to wait on the side on his scooter or enter later after resting in his scooter until the proper time comes. Also Poseidon's Fury didn't seem to allow scooters due to the path necessary from staged area to staged area. And it is a long walk so he didn't go. There is a thread about handicapped access at US but I can't find it right now. You should look for that too.

Thanks. It's so easy to find info about schoolers and wheelchairs at Disney, but not as much out there about Universal. My main issue right now is that even broken down a scooter won't fit in the back of the car, and we can't put the seat down because the car is at full capacity. It's just one thing after another.

 

[klmall]

We rented our scooter through a local company who delivered it to our WDW hotel. Then we broke it down ourselves and took it to WDW parks each day by car. We moved it ourselves to the Royal Pacific and the company picked it up from there at the end of our trip.

 

[nighttowll]

We rented our scooter through a local company who delivered it to our WDW hotel. Then we broke it down ourselves and took it to WDW parks each day by car. We moved it ourselves to the Royal Pacific and the company picked it up from there at the end of our trip.

That was my plan to rent from either Walker or Scooter Vacations as they both have smaller scooters that can be broken down and will deliver to our offsite condo on a Sunday.

The problem is after watching the dissemble videos online and looking up the dimensions of the scooter parts, I realized that even in pieces it won't in the car. The base is just too big to go in the back. We are going in a Ford Flex and the back storage area is very tiny, just slightly over a foot wide from seat back to the gate of the car. With the back seats down a scooter in pieces would fit no problem, but with the seats up, there isn't enough room. We are using all the seats, so I can't put any down. There are six of us, plus one day we need to squeeze a seventh person in as well. I'm going to see if maybe we could put the larger base piece up under someone's feet up front, it might fit that way. I'm not 100% sure that will work either, though. I will have to go remeasure. Our back up plan is putting this trailer piece we have on the back of the car, but I don't like that idea at all. I think there's too many things that could go wrong, especially when it's someone else's scooter. Plus parking will be a nightmare.

 

[aubriee]

DH used a scooter for our trip in December 2011 and though he didn't ride any of the big rides he did "scoot" around both parks for 2 days. The only nuisance was the que for Shrek. They did not let him bring his scooter through the lines and he had to walk/stand for a really long time (and we had FOTL). Next time I will insist that he be allowed to wait on the side on his scooter or enter later after resting in his scooter until the proper time comes.

Also Poseidon's Fury didn't seem to allow scooters due to the path necessary from staged area to staged area. And it is a long walk so he didn't go.

There is a thread about handicapped access at US but I can't find it right now. You should look for that too.

Hmm, I guess it really does depend on the CM. My mom has ridden her ECV into Shrek several times and no one has ever said a word. In the waiting area we were told to stay to the far right, right up against the wall and they let all the ECVs enter the theater first. There is a row in the middle that is wider and accommodates EVCs.

We've never tried to get her into Poseidon's Fury. With the darkness, huge crowd, and moving room to room, it just seems like it would be really hard for an ECV in there. I don't think I've ever seen one in there either.