Since 1980
my family has taken in excess of 30 trips to Walt Disney World. Sometimes as a family, sometimes separate,
sometimes with friends and each adventure has been unique.
Our last
trip was in December of 2006 when we took my mother-in-law with us. Because she couldn’t walk any great distance
we had taken our Jet 7 ECV (Electric Convenience Vehicle), but because of her
health it didn’t get much of a workout, we instead spent more time at the
camper where she could relax and we cut our trip short when it became evident
that the trip was too much for her.
A little
background on this motorized wheel chair.
It had originally belonged to my grandmother when she was in her mid 90’s
and up until her death. But she seldom
used it.
After her
death we put it in storage under good conditions where it would stay until it
was needed by friends and family for short periods of time. Always being put up properly and cared for as
prescribed in the manual.
It’s most
recent use had been earlier this year when my silly knees were acting up and we
took it to Silver Dollar City. Where of
course the tires promptly wore out, as written about in the “My Horse Threw a Shoe” blog post.
When we were
prepping for this trip it was decided we would take it “just in case” and two
new tires were ordered and mounted on it.
I am most certainly glad we did.
Of the 12
days we were at Walt Disney World it was not used only one day, the first
day. This was because I developed a
series of minor health issues that in and of themselves would not have required
me to use the chair, but combined they left me seemingly doing bad movie
impressions of Darth Vader and Camile. Not
to mention very weak. Dh also had some
walking issues, so between us we put that little chair through its paces. As a
result we also saw Disneyworld in a whole new way.
A way that I
think could be eye opening to both those who do use ECV and those who don’t.
First of all
let me describe our “scooter”, it’s not really a scooter at all it is an
electric wheel chair, much like those you see on tv. It has a 360 turn around in one spot radius,
a nicely padded seat, a speed adjustment and a joy stick to drive it with.
So what did we learn at WDW that we hadn’t really paid
attention to before? Lots and I’ll use the ECV initials to describe it twice
(no not the same description twice, the initials in two ways.
E
IS FOR ELECTRIC
Well duh, you say.
No I am not talking about the power source for it, which by the way is
two large rechargeable batteries. I’m
talking about what you do to re-charge those batteries when they start running
down and you are in the middle of a park.
The Jet 7 takes 14 hours to be fully recharged, because of
the schedule we were keeping it was lucky to get 10. So as the week wore on we were seeking out
recharging stations more and more. The
more we looked the more we were amazed to find.
Disney thinks of everything to help make your trip more enjoyable.
There are of course the obvious ones in the new Fantasyland
that have benches located right beside them so you can recharge not only your
ECV, but your cell phones. They are cleverly disguised as tree stumps.
Others were a little trickier to find. Some the cast members knew about (like the
one in the Hollywood studios at Hollywood and Vine that a cast member took us
to that is between two store fronts where you can stay with your chair while
other members of your party shop in the two storefronts that flank it)
If you are out and needing to charge your ECV here are some
places I suggest you look and you will be very likely to have great success.
These sites will work for your cell phones too.
1.
The Podiums at most restaurants, exhibits and
indoor rides, just ask a cast member and they can generally point you to one.
2.
Look around at the landscaping, just inside
the little fences are often covered electrical outlets that you can plug into
while your family members either shop or enjoy a nice break sitting on a bench
in the shade.
3.
In Quick Service food restaurants they are
generally scattered around the perimeter walls inside the eating area.
4.
In shows like The American Adventure they are
generally right on the back wall where you are sitting in the disabilities area.
5.
On the way out of the Animal Kingdom on our
last day I did not have even enough juice to get out to the buses and with the
chair being a bit heavy we weren’t looking forward to pushing it. Then I spotted an outlet box on a post at the
bag check point station that was closed for the day. We checked with a cast member, and sure
enough we were welcome to use it.
6.
Often near restrooms.
So check around there are outlets everywhere and Disney
is more than glad to let you use them.
They do ask you don’t block doorways or access to trash cans.
E
IS ALSO FOR ELIGIBLE
On the various Disney groups lately there has been a lot
of discussion on the new GAC id you needed to have to be able to enter the
handicapped area at various attractions and rides.
I personally never acquired one because I never needed
one. Only one ride asked me if I had one
in all the time we were there and when I said no I didn’t have one or a fast
pass they wrote me out a piece of paper that had a time that was equivalent to
what the standby time for the ride was.
Then we were told to come back ANYTIME after that time and we could go
into the fast pass lane. It took all of
maybe two minutes to get that piece of paper.
If you are using a scooter or wheel chair you are
eligible for the GAC and they will not ask you the nature of your
disability. I am certain the fact that I
was in an obviously privately owned ECV sped up our access to everything the
entire visit.
C
IS FOR CONVENIENCE
Not just the convenience that it allowed my family to enjoy
the trip despite my annoying health problems but for the conveniences Disney
makes available to those with disabilities.
I’ll go into the transportation system in the Vehicle
part of this post, but there were all sorts of niceties I discovered while wheeling
my way through the park. While a few
displays were too high for me to look at easily from the chair, most were
readily available to me.
Shops, and exhibits all had wide enough aisles I could
easily, even as the novice driver I was, maneuver without taking out tables of
glassware.
No ramp was too steep for my little Jet 7. I cannot say this for one hill in Silver
Dollar City, which they have clearly marked on their map as a no-no zone for
ECV.
Every store, exhibit, ride and restroom had wheel chair
access.
I only came across one exhibit that I would like to warn
single wheel chair travelers about. The
China Exhibit of the Terra Cotta Soldiers.
The door there does not have the button you can push and you must bump
the door open with your foot or hope someone comes along that is willing to
hold the door open for you.
We found this out the hard way when dh went outside in
search of bench to rest on while I toured one of my favorite exhibits. Luckily about the third kick of the door to
get out a kind soul saw my dilemma and held the door for me.
The only other time I had any difficulty was at Yak and
Yeti when I went to find a seat while the men purchased our meal. Had visitors pushed their chairs in when they
left their tables it would not have been hard to navigate, but it was nearly
impossible in the outdoor setting to weave my way through the tables and
abandoned chairs to find a place we could eat.
Cast members are EXTREMELY helpful from holding doors to
stepping out of their booth to hand you your purchases. They go out of their
way to help you.
Various theaters and venues have different locations
designated for those in wheel chairs or on ECV.
In some, like the Carousel of Progress they are on the front row, others
they are the last row. I personally
prefer the last row because of two reasons 1) you can often find an outlet near
your seat, like in the American Adventure and charge while you enjoy the show
and 2) the front row has the same problem the front row of a movie theater has,
you really have to crank your neck to see the show. I realized after we got home we could have
tilted my seat back to make viewing easier.
Duhhh!
Disney also does all it can to help you stay safe when in
a wheel chair or ECV, but some of that responsibility must fall to you as well.
They have painted the edge of all the ramps down off of
sidewalks/curbs white for you to be able to see them in low lighting situations
and where there are trolley tracks there are occasional solid areas in the
tracks for you to easily drive over without getting a wheel stuck.
I learned to watch for both of these safety measures and
thank goodness I did. One night as we
were leaving the Magic Kingdom my husband urged me to take off through the
crowd where there was a break. Only I
knew that there were curbs all in front of the castle and I did not see the
white ramp markers anywhere in the area he was trying to get me to go in.
He kept telling me it was a ramp, but I slowed down to
look. Thank goodness I did, in the dim
light, just a few inches in front of me I could see that it was indeed a curb
with a pretty good drop off. I slammed
on the brakes quickly , causing dh to bump into the back of me. He started fussing until I pointed to the
drop off that would have definitely bumped me out on my face and possibly
damaged my already aching knees. He
turned pale in the dim light and after that he always walked in front of me
when we were in a crowd to make certain we never had such a near miss again.
This
brings me to: C IS FOR COURTESY
Courtesy is a two way street, both by the ECV driver and
those around them. Let me say right now
that 99.99% of those you encounter are courteous to those on an ECV, but there
is always going to be that .01% to deal with.
So it is up to you how you handle it. Will you let that jerk ruin your trip, or
will you simply wait them out until they get a clue you can’t move until they
do? I chose to wait them out. Generally when they realize what they have
done they will be embarrassed and apologetic.
But there will always be the ONE.
Like I said courtesy goes both ways and generally if you
are courteous to others they will be courteous to you. More than one parent grabbed their child to
keep them from cutting in front of me.
Many a child and adult held doors open for me, or offered to let me go
in front of them in line.
We always waited our turn in line and never expected any
special treatment.
V
IS FOR VEHICLE
Disney vehicles to be exact. Whether you are staying onsite or offsite
once you are using the Disney transportation system you are well taken care
of. No type of transportation was ruled
out for us due to the ECV.
Here’s how different systems handle the ECV.
The buses all kneel, and once they kneel there is a ramp
folded out that you can drive your ECV up onto with no problem. Some people get a little upset because the
ECV is loaded first, then the occupant’s family next and the ramp has to be
folded up and that door closed before the front doors opened before they can
load, but honestly it takes less than five minutes to do this.
My husband did 99% of our loading and unloading of the
ECV during our trip because he drives it much better than I do in reverse and
you have to back it into the spot for the bus driver to strap it down.
If it is a consolation to those who grumble about the ECV
being the first to be loaded, please note that they are also the last off the
bus.
My dh even made the remark that he remembered being a
grumbler in the early years and now takes it all back. So if you are grumbling, remember some day
that might be you on the ECV.
On the monorail you are simply told to drive on and off
the cars, in this instance you are the first on and the first off. So be ready to depart quickly if you don’t
want ran over by those behind you anxious to get on to their adventures.
On the ferryboats you drive on when your turn in the
queue happens and drive off in the same order.
It is the boat from Fort Wilderness Campground to the
Magic Kingdom that is the most interesting to do.
You can only take the larger of the boats that comes to
the marina because the smaller boats require you to step down into them. As I told the guys more than once, the Jet 7 was
pretty versatile, but it is lousy on steps.
With the bigger boats you queue up with the other
passengers and when it is your turn they have you drive directly on to the
boat. ONLY, sometimes there is a slight
problem with the dock/boat height equalization.
Either the boat is higher or lower than the dock, and
there is that step thing again. To solve
this problem the cast members ask everyone to shift to one side or the other of
the boat which in turn raises or lowers the boat as needed.
Once you are on the boat you drive all the way forward to
the blue line, turn off your cart and wait to depart at your destination. Easy Peasy.
Ride Vehicles, you will be asked at each ride if you can
transfer and walk a short distance. Dh
and I both always did transfer, but some people can’t, and there were a couple of
times I probably shouldn’t have chose the walk option (Soarin’ for one).
If you can transfer on all rides we did, except Pirates
of the Caribbean, we took our ECV right up to the loading for the ride through
the queue. At Pirates they have a wheel
chair you have to transfer to that can be pushed through the line and then you
transfer. I do not believe this ride has
an option for those that can’t transfer, but I am not certain. It’s that step thing again.
V
IS FOR VALUE OR aVAILABILITY
Are ECV valuable at WDW?
If you are as sick as I was, or have problems in walking, breathing
difficulties or are being treated for other medical problems that hamper you
walking great distances, absolutely.
Since nothing that was bothering me was contagious it allowed me to go
and have a wonderful time. For others
it’s even more valuable, because they must have their scooter for more serious
health reasons.
With all the little touches Disney has done to make it an
enjoyable experience, including decorations and hidden Mickeys at lower eye
levels I believe the ECV to be very valuable if you need one. Now if you are just being lazy, or think it
will allow you to cut to the front of the line (it won’t) then that is a
different story.
Availability.
Disney does have scooters for rent on a daily basis, but I am told they
can get a little pricey. They also have
some business associations that will rent you ECV by the week at a lower price
and deliver them to your resort if you are staying on site.
C heck with WDW or your travel agent for a list of those
that deliver directly to your resort.
Not all ECV rental companies are partners with WDW, but they can still
deliver to you, simply in a different area.
My suggestion is, if you have respiratory problems,
trouble walking, or tire easily rent an ECV.
You will be glad you did.
Jan who was most thankful for her little Jet 7 this trip
in OK
