Taking 82 year old grandma in July, Wheelchair needed

[Tinkbell]

Hi. I'm brand new to this board so please excuse me if I ask "old" questions. I will be going with my 82 year old grandma in July. She will need a wheelchair at the resort and in the parks. The last time we went together was in 1996 and she was able to do more walking. She used a wheelchair at times when her knees hurt and she was overcome with heat. Back then the wheelchair access was pretty easy. Do we need to get special passes now for her to board the rides in a wheelchair? Also, do the resorts have wheelchairs available for her to use during her stay? We will be at AKL. We will be relying on bus transportation. Will she be comfortable on the bus? I would love to hear your experiences. I'm sure there will be more questions to come. Thank you!

 

[SueM in MN]

Welcome and don't worry about asking "old" questions. They aren't old to you. So go ahead and ask whatever you can think of.
First, how to get a wheelchair: The resorts have a small number of wheelchairs to lend out. From what most people have posted, you can't reserve them ahead of time. They are first come, first served. If you need other things, like a wheelchair accessible room (which might be handy, since it has a raised toilet seat and grab bars), you can contact WDW RESORTS/SPECIAL RESERVATIONS
(407) 939-7807 [voice]
(407) 939-7670 [TTY]

You might want to rent a wheelchair from one of the outside companies that DIS posters have used:
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

Now, for the buses: Almost all of the WDW buses are wheelchair accessible and have tie downs to carry an occupied wheelchair. She will have a seat belt and the wheelchair is well secured. Some people have posted that they got out of the wheelchair and just sat on a bus seat. My DD can't sit outside of her chair, so we've never done it personally.

Now for the parks: You can take a wheelchair into the lines and use the wheelchair entrances without having anything besides the wheelchair. No special card or anything is necessary. If she has other special needs that will make it hard for her to wait in line, you might want to ask about a Guest Assistance Card (GAC) from Guest Services. Look for any of teri's posts and you will find a link to FAQs, including info about the GAC.
Here's a link to the DIS info page about touring with mobility disabilities.

 

[teri]

I hope you have a great trip. There are more tips and information in the disABILTIES FAQ - just click on the link in my signature below.

 

[Tinkbell]

Thanks for the warm welcome and helpful info!

 

[billwendy]

Hi, I took my grandma there last year and we had the same issue since she had had hip replacement since her last trip. You can reserve a wheelchair at the hotel to use the whole time. We checked out the ones at our hotel DL but they were the standard heavy duty wheelhairs a trip earlier (not sure what they have at AKL). We decided to bring one from home ( her dr wrote a prescription, and a wheelchair vendor brought a nice lightweight Quickie Breezy to her house). We wheeled her to the gate at the airport, took her cushion off the chair and they took it right there. Then when we got off the plane, the chair was there waiting for her. This way, she didnt have to push herself to walk at the airport, we didnt have to look for a wheelchair, and the wheelchair we pushed was much lighter and easier to manage in the parks than the heavy duty ones were....we rented a car though and just had a handicapped pass that she has to park in the handi parking lot so i dont know about the bus stuff. I do know that once my uncle took her on the bus and the whole lift ordeal embarassed her to death. now the new busses are much quicker for loading, they just have a little ramp that pops out,,,,,its great!!!!!
wendy

 

[SueM in MN]

There have been one or two posts where people said they were able to rreserve a wheelchair ahead of time at the resort, but most of the posters (even recently) said the wheelchair was not able to be reserved ahead of time. This was even from people who were working with the WDW Resorts Special Reservations Department.
Wendy brought up a couple of good points. If there is a wheelchair at the resort, you get what's available. In one case, all that someone coulld get for their under 100 pound mom was an extra wide wheelchair. Someone else needed an extra wide and the one available was a regualr one. Also, the standard kind of wheelchair you find at WDW resorts and park weigh about 50-60 pounds EMPTY. My DD's lightwieght Quickie manual wheelchair weighs about 30 pounds. A big difference if you are pushing it around all day.
The light weigh ones are also easier to load in a car trunk if you will be driving. You can fold or even take off the footrests and on my DD's the wheels have a quick release pop-off (like a bicycle tire) so that you can get it stored in a smaller place.