Van rental

[Berronfam]

Can someone please recommend wheel chair lift van rental agency? We will be arriving in October and need someone that can drop and pick up the van from MCO. Thanks.

 

[SueM in MN]

There are some companies listed in post 2 of the disABILITIES FAQs thread, located near the top of this board. I am copying that information here for you.

Accessible Vans and taxi
We have little feedback about these companies. Check when making a reservation about how and where the van will be delivered to you and how it will get back to the rental place.

• http://www.wheelchairgetaways.com/franchise/florida_orlando/home.htm (We have not used them in Orlando, but have used them at home when our van was out of commission. The van was delivered to and picked up from the shop where our van was being repaired. Since each is individually owned, this may not be the case at all sites.)
• http://www.rainbowwheels.com/ People have posted several times that they rented from this company and were pleased with the service. Link to 12/07 review by someone who used them.
• http://www.medicaltravel.org/van/van_rental_fleet.html
• http://www.discountmobilityusa.com/van_fleet.html Someone reported a bad experience in June 2007 with this company.

Accessible Taxi vans
The company used most often by DIS posters is MEARS, which includes buses and taxi vans. Mears taxicabs operate under the Yellow Cab Company, Checker Cab Company and City Cab Company brand. You can use these accessible taxis to get to places within WDW and also to get to other nearby locations like Universal or Sea World.
Taxicab Dispatch: (407) 422-2222

There are not that many companies that rent wheelchair accessible vans and we don't have a lot of recent reviews!but you can probably find some on the internet - I just haven't had time to search it out.

Most people don't end up renting wheelchair accessible vans because:
- WDW transportation is wheelchair accessible. This includes Disney's Magical Express (selected buses), all other WDW buses, monorails, and most boats. There is more information about transportation in the disABILITIES FAQs thread.

- regular vans are quite expensive to rent compared to a car. That price itself is surprising to many people. Wheelchair accessible vans are even more expensive - really shocking to most people, so many choose not to spend the extra money.
In our case, we have a wheelchair accessible van at home, but decided it just was too expensive to rent one. Our daughter uses a manual chair at WDW, so we can transfer her out and fold her wheelchair to put it into a vehicle.
We also choose to use WDW transportation often because it is so easy.

If you do end up renting, please let us know how it went.