Cast Members and ECV

[amykathleen2005]

Just got back from our trip. My husband usually walks with a walker at home (previously broken knee healed badly, rod in leg, broken ankle) and wears an ankle air cast. We rented an ECV for the trip. It seemed like all of the cast members seemed to think that anyone with an ECV is able to walk long distances. We were told countless times to park the ECV somewhere far away and walk. My husband cannot take any steps without holding on to something or someone so this was a bit of a challenge.

Anyone have similar issues?

 

[Michigan]

I believe at all the rides where you have to park a scooter outside the line there are complementary wheelchairs to use in the line. I know for sure there is at pirates

 

[amykathleen2005]

We had that experience too. But there were times where there was no wheelchair offered and he just had to walk it.

 

[POOHsie]

When I arrived at a ride, the CM would ask about my mobility. I can't get up and walk from my scooter. (I can walk short distances using my walker but I don't take my walker to the parks. It's just too much to drag it around in addition to the scooter.) So the CM always directed me to take my scooter thru the line, right up to the ride car. There are a few rides where I have to transfer to a wheelchair, such as Pirates, BTMRR, the new Little Mermaid, Spaceship Earth, Ellen's Energy Adventure, Nemo ride at Epcot. I can't remember them all, but they are marked in the park brochures.

OP, if your DH can't handle the distance from where he parks his scooter to the ride car, based on your previous experience, tell the CM. You'll get to take the scooter all the way to the ride car (except as noted where transfer to WC is required). At the ride car, the CMs there will take the scooter/WC away and bring it back when the ride is finished.

The last couple years, some busy or unfocused CMs didn't return my scooter (or wheelchair) when the ride was finished. If I traveled with a companion, they would get it -- it was only a few feet away. On a solo trip recently, when my scooter/WC didn't arrive at ride finish, I just waited in the ride car. I very kindly explained to the new riders that I was waiting for my scooter/WC, and the CM would have egg on his/her face for not giving timely assistance. It was awkward but not world-ending.

 

[Beesma]

We just returned and it was my first time using an ECV. At every ride, I was asked if I could walk, transfer, go up a step--whichever was applicable. I was never asked to walk any distance without being asked if I could. So sorry your experience was different. Next time, be sure to tell the CM. They're really good about accommodating.

 

[ttintagel]

We had that experience too. But there were times where there was no wheelchair offered and he just had to walk it.

That happened to me several times the first time I was there with a mobility impairment, too. It seems to be luck of the draw, depending on the CM's you get.

For instance, the first time I was back at WDW as an adult, I was using an ECV because of a broken foot. I had no concept of how long the Pirates queue was, since I hadn't been there since I was a kid. The CM saw the crutches on the back of my ECV and asked "Can you walk a few steps on your crutches?" I said yes, and he told me to park the ECV and come back then he sent me through the queue. Well, as you all know (but I didn't at the time) the distance between ECV parking and boat boarding is more than ANYONE'S idea of "a few steps!" (Since he described it that way, I thought he was going to send me through an alternate entrance or something.)

Then, when we got off, the speedramp to go back up was broken. We asked if there was any other way to get out. The CM said there was an elevator but they weren't supposed to use it. So, I started hobbling up the ramp. I made it about a third of the way up before I realized there was just no way I could do it. We turned around, and then had to fight our way through the crowd like the only couple of salmon swimming downstream, while everybody going up either ignored us and plowed into us, or yelled at us for being in the way. The only thing that kept me upright was the fact that there wasn't enough space to fall down.

When we got back down, there was a second CM on duty, and after arguing some more, he rolled his eyes and said, "Well, we're really not supposed to, but I GUESS I can send you up in the elevator JUST THIS ONCE," like he was giving us a free ticket to the park or something.

 

[SMD]

Would a cane help him walk from the ECV parking? I don't think a walker would fit too well, but the ECV should have room for a cane. What about asking to have someone else in your party park the ECV? At DLR I've seen other guests retrieve and drive an ECV a short distance for someone else to get on it. DLRs set up may be different than the ECV parking areas in WDW, though.

 

[POOHsie]

That happened to me several times the first time I was there with a mobility impairment, too. It seems to be luck of the draw, depending on the CM's you get.

For instance, the first time I was back at WDW as an adult, I was using an ECV because of a broken foot. I had no concept of how long the Pirates queue was, since I hadn't been there since I was a kid. The CM saw the crutches on the back of my ECV and asked "Can you walk a few steps on your crutches?" I said yes, and he told me to park the ECV and come back then he sent me through the queue. Well, as you all know (but I didn't at the time) the distance between ECV parking and boat boarding is more than ANYONE'S idea of "a few steps!" (Since he described it that way, I thought he was going to send me through an alternate entrance or something.)

Then, when we got off, the speedramp to go back up was broken. We asked if there was any other way to get out. The CM said there was an elevator but they weren't supposed to use it. So, I started hobbling up the ramp. I made it about a third of the way up before I realized there was just no way I could do it. We turned around, and then had to fight our way through the crowd like the only couple of salmon swimming downstream, while everybody going up either ignored us and plowed into us, or yelled at us for being in the way. The only thing that kept me upright was the fact that there wasn't enough space to fall down.

When we got back down, there was a second CM on duty, and after arguing some more, he rolled his eyes and said, "Well, we're really not supposed to, but I GUESS I can send you up in the elevator JUST THIS ONCE," like he was giving us a free ticket to the park or something.

I have always used the elevator at Pirates. I was always directed there. I can't imagine taking a WC up the exit ramp, especially if you're going solo.

That reminds me... on BRMRR I would use my ECV to the ride car, then they would bring the scooter over to the exit for me to get on after the ride was finished. On my solo trip, my scooter wasn't there at ride finish. They put me in a wheelchair. There was a steep non-moving ramp up to reach outdoors and I barely made it. I wonder if this was because they forgot to bring me my ECV or was it new policy that you got a WC on exiting BTMRR.

 

[ttintagel]

I have always used the elevator at Pirates. I was always directed there. I can't imagine taking a WC up the exit ramp, especially if you're going solo.

I wasn't in a wheelchair; I was on crutches.

 

[bidnow5]

I use a cane when not on a scooter I always use the elevator at pirates

 

[POOHsie]

I wasn't in a wheelchair; I was on crutches.

Sorry. I can't imagine walking on crutches up the Pirates ramp. I conflated your post with the paragraph I was writing about BTMRR and the horrible incline I had to take solo in a wheelchair. Whether on crutches or going solo in a wheelchair, the exit incline at Pirates and BTMRR are ridiculous to handle when you're physically impaired. Especially Pirates because it has an elevator. I mean, who are these CMs reserving the elevator for? It's right there, at the finish of the ride, ready to be used as needed.

I swear, some of the CMs lately (college program, maybe?) just don't have training, or empathy, or both. In the past, I've been directed to the Pirates elevator for every trip to WDW for the 10 years I've have my mobility issue.

At Little Mermaid ride, I transferred to a WC as instructed, then the CM at the moving ramp for the ride car entry told me to get out of my wheelchair and walk to a ride vehicle. I told her at least twice that I couldn't walk but she insisted that was what I had to do. That's just as impossible as your situation at Pirates. The solution at the Mermaid ride was another CM (one using brains) slowed the ramp down, pushed me to the proper ride car, and I was able to transfer without problem. Same CM had the wheelchair in place when I exited the ride, and again I transferred fine. Didn't Disney put in a ramp with different speeds so that people who needed assistance could receive assistance?

 

[Michigan]

I swear, some of the CMs lately (college program, maybe?) just don't have training, or empathy, or both. In the past, I've been directed to the Pirates elevator for every trip to WDW for the 10 years I've have my mobility issue.

I don't think they lack the training I just think they are clueless and that isn't just at Disney. We have been back from spending the winter in Florida for 3 weeks now and have been to one or our frequent restaurants 3 times and each time the new hostess takes us to out table and leaves. Hello do you not see my 2 daughters in wheelchairs? The first 2 times I just moved the chairs while she looked with that deer in the headlight look but the 3rd time when I moved them I also told the manager and I swear I heard her say don't they need a chair to sit in.

 

[amykathleen2005]

When we went to Liberty Tree Tavern we were sitting in the lobby area, already having informed the hostess at check in that my husband could not do the stairs and that he was in an ECV. They call us for our table and the girl who was taking us takes one look at my husband and says, "oh are you taking THAT in with you".

 

[ttintagel]

I guess I'm getting used to letting go of the idea I had in the past: that WDW is a special place where I can do as much as people without any physical problems can. I've resigned myself to the idea that I'll probably end up spending the same amount of time on my next trip demanding to speak to supervisors (and then waiting for them to get there, and then demanding to speak to THEIR supervisors, etc.) that other people spend moving on to the next attraction.

 

[POOHsie]

When we went to Liberty Tree Tavern we were sitting in the lobby area, already having informed the hostess at check in that my husband could not do the stairs and that he was in an ECV. They call us for our table and the girl who was taking us takes one look at my husband and says, "oh are you taking THAT in with you".

One year my DD got married at WDW, at Seabreeze Point on the Boardwalk. A few nights later, the couple and I went to Captain Jack's for dinner. We waited in the lobby and I was in my ECV. When our name was called, the hostess caught up with the server and I could hear her say, "I don't want another (F-word) Handicap table tonight! Give 'em to someone else." The dinner was my treat to the newlyweds, but that crack really hurt.