Villa and Scooters

[Candlelady]

One of my daughters has problems walking. I know she will never keep up with her sister or with me so I'm thinking of renting an electric scooter.
Has anyone stayed in the villas with a scooter? Did you have any problems with elevators or doorways? I assume you can keep it in your villa and don't have to park it outside for the night?

 

[SueM in MN]

First of all, is your daughter over 18?
I'm only asking because the WDW parks and the outside rental places will not rent a scooter (also called an ecv) for use by someone under the age of 18.

We are members of DVC at OKW, but have also stayed at BW and VWL. The elevators and main corridors won't be a problem. A standard door size for wheelchair accessibility is 36 inches - and a scooter will fit thru that size doorway too. She might be a litle intimidated by steering to get thru the doorways at first, but she should become comfortable pretty quickly. You will have room to bring it into your villa. You may have to move a table or chair to make a "straight shot" in and a parking spot near a power outlet. OKW (especially the one and 2 bedroom villas) has plenty of room for driving in and around.

If you'd like, you can click on the link in my signature to get to the disABILITIES Board to ask more questions about touring with a scooter.

 

[Candlelady]

SueM in MN.
She is over 18. I'm sure she will try to walk the first day as she doesn't want anyone to know she is 'different'. She does not realize that others can see her limp. (brain injury from a car accident a few yrs ago.) She has severe tone in one of her legs but otherwise looks like nothing is 'different' about her. I plan to have a scooter for her and am sure after the first day, she will be more than happy to use it. I'm more worried about her driving skills than anything else. I have visions of her running over people.

 

[SueM in MN]

I'm sure she won't have too much trouble with driving it after a little practice. They steer in a similar way to a bicycle, with a sort of tiller out in front of you. So where you think you are steering it is where you go. A power wheelchair (which my DD has) is harder since you drive with a joystick and it's easy to steer it somewhere other than where you mean to. We're trying to get up our courage to take DD's power wheelchair when we go in March. She's a good driver , but I have visions of her escaping from us and running people over

MK is probably the hardest to get around with a wheelchair or scooter since it's busy and the paths are pretty narrow. AK also has narrow paths. Epcot would be the best place to start out in a scooter since it's more wide open and less crowded usually.
If you haven't already gotten info about where to rent one, here's a list of places DIS posters have reported renting from:
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

Most of the sites have good pictures so you can see what they look like. I've been told the outside rental company ones are easier to drive than the ones you can rent in the parks.

 

[BillM]

Sue has given you some good advice. I would recommend that you rent a scooter from one of the sources she has given you. The busses will handle the transport of the scooter to the parks. If you are staying at BCV or BWV you can get to Epcot with no problem and to MGM by boat.

I use my scooter on every visit to DW. We usually stay at OKW(our home resort) in a 1 BR. The OKW 1 BR and 2BR are very spacious and easy to use a scooter. We have stayed at BWV in a 1 BR and have found it pretty tight if you have to use the scooter inside. Fortunately I can get off and walk a short way and am able to cope.

If you are staying in a studio you would be better off at any on site DVC except OKW. The latter has 2 Queens and the others have a Queen and a Sofa which gives you more room for parking the scooter to recharge.