Some wheelchair advice please??

[dskib]

Hi all. We're bringing my 83yo MIL this year. She can handle short walks and does not need a wheelchair at home, but she's got a little copd, so there's absolutely no way she could handle Disney walking. We know without a doubt that she would be dangerous, so we're getting her a wheelchair. So I have 2 questions:

1. How different are the chairs in the parks from what I would rent privately??I looked at a few websites and it's not like they offered lots of options. And price wise it looks about the same.

2. I'd really prefer to just hop onto the bus and not wait for it to get set up
for a special boarding. Is it feasable to just carry the chair onto the bus in the morning? Are they very heavy? Would the driver let us in through the rear door instead?

One more - if we rent in the park, I know we have to turn it back in. Are there wheelchairs that can be used to get her to the bus??

Thanks so much!
Deb

 

[KPeveler]

Quick answers -

I find the off-site chairs to be much more comfortable. Also, the on-site chairs are not adjustable and not all the same size. This means if the leg rests are too high or too low, you are stuck. You cannot reserve on-site chairs ahead of time, so they might be gone if you leave for part of the day.

Many resorts are huge, and you may want a chair for the resort. For instance, where I stayed at CSR was considered "central location." It was a 1/2 mile plus to the bus stop, 1/2 mile round trip to the food, and 1 mile round trip to the pool! I think you will want a wheelchair for the resort too.

You can definitely carry them onto a bus if you do not want to wait for the ramp. You can also push her up the ramp and then have her sit in a regular seat and fold the wheelchair.

There are sometimes "courtesy chairs" at the bus stops/rental sites to get from the rental site to the bus, but if you absolutely must have a wheelchair for this, then you will definitely want to rent off-site. Courtesy chairs are not guaranteed, so there may not be one there for you.

I would rent off-site and have it delivered to your resort. I think that will be the best course for you.

 

[Que_Sarah_Sarah]

I have to disagree completely with KPeveler (no offense, I promise!)

We take my grandma every year and rent the wheelchair from Disney. We've never had an issue with there not being a chair available and we love the ease of NOT needing to take one on the bus. From the drop off points at the park to the main gate is not an incredibly far walk, so even if a courtesy chair isn't available, your MIL would probably be fine.

As far as the distance from your room to a bus stop at your hotel, I suppose that depends on where you're staying.

Also, what we do with the chair is just put it with stroller parking by the rides we're going on. Works great! Just don't let them shuttle you into the wheelchair line for Kilamanjaro Safari on accident... It takes forever!!!

Regardless of your choice of chair, I recommend a poncho to cover the chair with if it looks like rain. When we park ours in stroller parking we tend to cover it because, while my grandma doesn't mind being rained on, she is not about to sit in a butt puddle, lol.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Hi all. We're bringing my 83yo MIL this year. She can handle short walks and does not need a wheelchair at home, but she's got a little copd, so there's absolutely no way she could handle Disney walking. We know without a doubt that she would be dangerous, so we're getting her a wheelchair.

I'd really prefer to just hop onto the bus and not wait for it to get set up
for a special boarding. Is it feasible to just carry the chair onto the bus in the morning? Are they very heavy? Would the driver let us in through the rear door instead?

One more - if we rent in the park, I know we have to turn it back in. Are there wheelchairs that can be used to get her to the bus??

How is your mother-in-law at "hopping" on a bus? When we traveled with my mother-in-law her biggest problem with the bus was trying to climb the stairs. They're too steep for creaky knees. In hindsight we should have just got her a taxi, rented a car, or insisted that she use a wheelchair with an automatic lift. I know she didn't want to be a burden but she delayed a whole bus full of people 10-15 mins in her attempts to be tough and climb the stairs. The bus people eventually sent a "kneeling" bus and she was able to get onto that.

 

[LisaBi]

One more thought on the rentals - it is very inconsistent as to whether or not a courtesy chair is available from the bus to the gate and back. I totally ruined a whole day once because I thought I would rent a chair at Epcot for DS. By the time we got from the monorail to the gate, he was done for the day. Since then, I always go with the off-site rental. It is usually quite a bit less expensive than renting in the parks.