Transfer To Regular Seat...

[bouncy54]

I've researched touring the parks on an ECV for months now, but haven't been able to pin this one down.

I'll use "The American Adventure" as an example of what I'm trying to figure out.

I can't stand or walk for more than a few minutes, so I'm sure I'll be taking the ECV into the building to see the "Voices of Liberty" perform. When it's time to go into the theater, and after I park my ECV, am I then allowed to transfer to a regular seat if I'm capable of doing so?

I guess what I'm trying to find out is...are there any attractions in WDW where I MUST stay in my ECV at all times?

 

[Cheshire Figment]

All mof the theaters have special seating for people in wheelchairs and/or ECVs. Basically think of a long row of seats with soime of the seats removed. This allows a person in a wheelchair or ECV to park and have others in the party sit alongside them.

Yes, you can park and transfer to a regular seat. However, most of the theaters you exit from the oppoisite side of where you enter. You would be able to park along one of the side walls, but you would be going against traffic either to be seated to when you are getting out.

 

[bouncy54]

Yes, you can park and transfer to a regular seat. However, most of the theaters you exit from the oppoisite side of where you enter. You would be able to park along one of the side walls, but you would be going against traffic either to be seated to when you are getting out.

How about if I wait for most of the crowd to leave, then make my way back to the ECV? I know it sounds really selfish of me, but I want to be able to actually see the shows.. not be stuck off on the side or in the back row because of the ECV.

My disabilities really frustrates me at times. I need the ECV to get from point A to B, but am not completely immobile. Ok... my whine is over. I know I sound really petty when there are so many in worst conditions than me.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

A lot depends on the theater.

Some of the shows they have load and unload happening at the same time.

Other theaters, such as American Adventure, have 55 seats per row and staing in place or trying to go against traffic is not easy (and inconveniences the other Guests).

 

[POOHsie]

Not sure if I was at the Hall of Presidents in MK or American Adventure in 2009, but I transferred from my ecv to a seat, and at the end of the show, I had an incredibly hard time getting up off of the seat. It seemed really low to the ground and my legs don't work well. It was like struggling to get off of a low toilet seat where there wasn't a grab bar handy.

In my mind, this was because, in the regular theatre seating, the floor is slanted downward, so the vertical height from your foot to seat of the chair is computed on that basis to come up with the proper height for the seat of the chair. On the handicap row, the floor is flat, so the measurement from your foot to seat of these SAME chairs is LESS THAN IT SHOULD BE. An adjustment should have been made by the engineer to elevate the theatre seats in the handicap row. This is my personal opinion, and I welcome comment.

I made a comment about the chairs in the handicap row to some staff person, in a nice way, because I wasn't the only one struggling to get up. The response back to me was that the theatre had just been remodeled! (Translation: he/she did not feel my pain!) I feel like a video should be made of the struggling people getting out of the theatre seats in the handicap row, and sent to the engineer to play over and over again.

On a side note, recently my family and I went to NYC to a Broadway play. My ticket was for an open space for my ecv in the handicap row at the back of the theatre, next to a regular theatre seat for my mom. Other family sat elsewhere. The theatre was old and had been retrofitted for handicap accessibility. What they did was take out seats, and part of the back partition wall, to make room for ecvs/wcs to just pull into an open area that was formerly part of the back row. So the floor where I sat in my ecv watching the play was still SLANTED. For 2 hours I had to keep myself from slipping forward out of my ecv. My legs and butt were exhausted fighting to push myself uphill while gravity was moving me downhill! Bet no-one considered that when making accessibility changes. Or maybe they did ($$).

 

[SueM in MN]

I don't have time for a long reply right now, but in some shows you would not want to transfer because the regular seats are benches of some sort (example of this would be Fantasmic).

The regular seats in other shows may be 'real' seats, but are theater seats, which are normally 15-16 inches from the top of the seat to the floor. That can make getting up challenging, as was already mentioned.
Usually, if you do choose to transfer, you will need to park your wheelchair or ECV still in the designated area ( not just along a wall) for fire code exit reasons. If you move to a seat in the last 2 rows, you will usually still be in the designated handicapped seating area and will have less guests to contend with when getting out. Remember though that in all shows, as one seat of guests is leaving the theater, the next set of guests is arriving.

The wheelchair seating area for American Adventure is in a flat area at the back of the theater (I can't think of any where the wheelchair area is sloped). You can see more in a photo montage of American Adventure in post #24 on page 2 of the EPCOT FAQs thread near the top of this board.