Will someone watch my chair while on ride?

[Windjammermay]

Hi all
I am so excited I can't see straight. I am going to Disney April 20 thru 27th. It will be a Magical Gathering and there are 15 of use. I can't wait to see my mom and family.

I got a concern, it is probably nothing but here goes. I use an Invacare TDX5 (electric chair). I read that we can transfer to a ride or stay in our chairs for the ride. My question is, if we transfer to a ride what will happen to our chairs? Will someone take care of our chair while we are on the ride so that no one will accidently take it on use ? How can we get our chair back if we are on the other side of the ride when we get off?

 

[Mrsjvb]

the chair will be placed at or near the exit where you get off the ride. they will not specifically assign somebody to guard it though.

they are usually in an out of the way are where there is no general access from like crowds. if you are worried, if you have some way to lock the wheels or secure it from being started, you may want to try that

 

[Windjammermay]

I am glad to hear they take it out of the general publics way. That sounds safe. I can not really walk, I kind of shuffle and my arms go all over the place. I figure I will get my brother to help me to the ride, more like a transfer.

I was afraid of trying to get back in my chair and it being misplaced. I would really be in big trouble.

 

[SueM in MN]

You will be able to stay in the wheelchair for all shows and movies; there are spots for parking the wheelchair to view the show. Here is a picture of the seating area for Fantasmic. The wheelchair parking spots are outlined in blue. There is a spot next to each wheelchair spot for someone to sit; the rest of their party can sit in front.

SOme attractions also have a wheelchair accessible ride car/boat. Here is the picture of the wheelchair accessible boat from Jungle Cruise:

Here is the wheelchair accessible boat from Small World:

and the ride car from Imagination:

A few of the wheelchair cars have a bump or something else on the floor that may prevent your wheelchair from going on. Here is a picture of the accessible ride car on Triceraptop Spin, which shows that situation. Aladdin's Magic Carpets has the same situation.

My DD has an Invacare TDX power wheelchair also. We have not taken it to WDW, but I could see that it would not have enough clearance to go on this ride car. If you are able to transfer to a regular seat, you would be able to park your wheelchair and go on a regular ride car. Another option would be to move to a manual wheelchair at that attraction and you could use that in the accessible ride car.

Some other attractions have a wheelchair boat/car where a sharp turn is required, but the TDX wheelchairs can turn very sharply. THis is the boat for Living with the Land:

and the car for The Great Movie Ride:

The ride tram for the Backstage Tour at the Studio and for the Safari at AK are almost the same in terms of getting in and out:

If you look in the disABILITIES FAQs thread, there are some links in post #3 that will help you - there is a Trip report from eternaldisneyfan that talks about her trip with a wheelchair to WDW.

the chair will be placed at or near the exit where you get off the ride. they will not specifically assign somebody to guard it though.

There are a few attractions where they will move the chair for you from where you get on to the exit.
For most attractions where you enter on one side of a track and exit on the other, wheelchair users are sent to the exit to board (usually, you will wait in the usual line for a while, but are re-routed just before the regular line gets to boarding).

they are usually in an out of the way are where there is no general access from like crowds. if you are worried, if you have some way to lock the wheels or secure it from being started, you may want to try that

Usually, the ride will be at the exit and since most people are focused on getting out, they don't even notice things like wheelchairs parked there.
Once when I went on Haunted Mansion with DH and DD. When the ride was over, I got off. Unfortunatly , the CM forgot to stop the moving walkway for DH and DD to get off, so they continued on for one more ride. I stood at the exit and waited for them. I would bet that no one noticed me at all.

PS - I am going to move this thread to the disABILITIES BOARD. That is much more aimed at WDW trips and you will get more answers there.

 

[Andrew Bichard]

the car for The Great Movie Ride:

I just want to warn wheelchair users about this ride car. The Great Movie Ride car loads from a raised dock and there is a gap between the stripy part of the dock and the edge of the ride car (the shiny metal strip on the photo.

I rode on in my chair going forward and immediately turned to the right to face forward. As I did so, my back wheel dropped down the gap and my chair tipped. I wasn't hurt, but my chair suffered minor damage. I would have been safer had I reversed on to ensure my back wheels were entirely in the car before I swung my front wheels on.

Something in the depths of my memory says that they used to put down something to bridge this gap. Is my memory deceiving me?

Andrew

 

[SueM in MN]

I just want to warn wheelchair users about this ride car. The Great Movie Ride car loads from a raised dock and there is a gap between the stripy part of the dock and the edge of the ride car (the shiny metal strip on the photo.

I rode on in my chair going forward and immediately turned to the right to face forward. As I did so, my back wheel dropped down the gap and my chair tipped. I wasn't hurt, but my chair suffered minor damage. I would have been safer had I reversed on to ensure my back wheels were entirely in the car before I swung my front wheels on.

Something in the depths of my memory says that they used to put down something to bridge this gap. Is my memory deceiving me?

Andrew

I especially noticed that on our last trip.
I tried to take a picture of it, but it doesn't show up very well. We have never had anything to bridge the gap, but we have only been with DD's manual chair and either backed in or tipped the front wheels up slightly

 

[going/again]

I especially noticed that on our last trip.
I tried to take a picture of it, but it doesn't show up very well. We have never had anything to bridge the gap, but we have only been with DD's manual chair and either backed in or tipped the front wheels up slightly

Hi Sue as you are considered the most informed on the dissabilities threads, any idea why they have not added a similar lift to POC as is on Jungle Cruise
as this is brilliant

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I think the reason is there is only about a six inch clearance on the route the boats take between unload and load. They can't have anything sticking up and also they can't go below the bottom of the boats or they will drag on the floor.

 

[SueM in MN]

Yes, Cheshire Figment got it.

After you get out of your boat at the exit, you go up either a very steep moving ramp or an elevator to get from the lower level where the ride ends to the upper level where you got on.
The ride boats also have to make the trip one level up for boarding. As you get off and look straight ahead, there is a dark area that the boats go thru. It has kind of a fringe of broom-y kind of stuff just above the level of the top of the boats. That's the close clearance above that Cheshire Figment mentioned.

The water is also not very deep in the whole ride. An additional complication is the drop that the pirate boat makes in the dark before getting to the pirate ship battle scene. They would have to be able to secure the wheelchair pretty well to go down that.

Jungle Cruise is an easier situation since the ride is all level.
Even that had some problems. While they were testing the Jungle Cruise boat, a DIS poster who worked there kept me updated. I remember he told me that one of the prototypes pushed down with so much force that it pushed the boat straight down underwater when they tested it.