Agree with what Cheshire Figment wrote, plus the roads have a lot of traffic, cars are traveling fast and many people are unfamiliar with where they are going so are watching for signs and would not expect to find anyone walking along the highway.
There are no walking paths from the POR to the parks.
The only resorts with walking paths are:
Contemporary, which has a walking path to Magic Kingdom.
Yacht Club, Beach Club, Boardwalk, Swan and Dolphin, which have walking paths to Epcot and the Studio.
Most guests will not say anything to you. An occasional one will, but they generally comment more or less anonymously on the internet. Sad to say, there are a lot of petty people making nasty comments on the internet at times and once someone has posted, others jump right in.
Some things you can do to ease things:
- become familiar with the controls. Most
ECVs have a control with a turtle and a rabbit. Rabbit is fast; turtle is slow. For most situations, turtle is your friend. If it is set at turtle, it will have a much slower top speed and will be easier to control. We've actually shown a lot of people the speed control in the parks when they were having trouble. Because they didn't notice it or know what it was, they didn't use it.
Also, get familiar with the control that takes the
scooter out of gear (may be marked "Push" or "Freewheel"). That allows you or someone else in your party to push the scooter to move it into position if it is hard for to drive it there.
There will also be a lever that allows you to turn the seat when the
ECV is parked. This is useful for sitting close to a table without having to do as much back and forward.
- practice driving the ECV so you feel comfortable before trying to get on the bus or go out in the parks the first time.
You need to be able to drive forward in a straight line, back up in a straight line, turn in both directions while going forward and backward, stop.
The more comfortable you are with doing these things, the easier and faster you will be able to get onto the bus.
- to get on the bus, you will need to parallel park the ECV into a specific place on the bus - the space is on the driver's side of the bus, so even if you are used to parallel parking a car, unless you drive on one way streets, you will not be used to parallel parking on that side. If really flustered, you can take the ECV out of gear and push it onto the bus and into place.
- there are no defined bus waiting lines at most resorts (I know there are none at POR). When getting on at your resort, have park out where the driver pulling up can see there is an ECV to load. Other guests who were already on the bus may have to move, but guests who are getting on at your stop will not have gotten on and then have to move right away.
- at the parks, try to avoid leaving at peak times. Peak times include right at park closing, after an parade, right after fireworks or shows like Fantamic or Illuminations. If you are leaving at one of those peak times, wait a few minutes until the crowd is cleared. For Illuminations and Fantasmic, it only takes about 10-15 minutes after the show for the crowd to thin out.
That will help with getting out of the park since you will not be a heavy crowd. That will also help with the buses. The people (at least in our experience) who are the first ones out want to be on the first bus and get very impatient at having to wait for
anything. They are also usually concerned about getting a seat and anything that might prevent them from getting a seat.
- if you are approaching a park bus stop and see a long line waiting to get on for your resort, hang back a bit and let them get on the first bus. When you get to the stop, you will be first or waiting with just a handful of people in line. You may be 15-20 minutes later than if you got on the first bus, but your experience will be much better.
- don't panic about missing the bus. Busses will run for at least 1 hour after the park closes and Transportation CMs will make sure that no one is left at the park (they don't want you trapped there any more than you want to be trapped there).
- I don't know how many are in your group, but up to 5 people can enter with the ECV. If you have more than that, split up and have the rest wait in the line. One other thing I know ticks people off is guests deciding as the bus pulls up who is traveling on the bus with the person using the ECV. Split up when getting to the bus stop and be ready to load.
