dj2
all my little ducks in a row...
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2003
My DD7 and I just returned from our trip to WDW and had a great time. I thought that maybe some of these notes might help others who are planning a trip.
I tend to get wordy, so please forgive me....
Background:
I can walk a little and can drive a car. I use a rollator (a 4-wheeled walker with a seat) to stablize myself if I have to go more than 20 or 30 yards. I rented an ECV from Walker for the trip, and a car from National at the Orlando airport. I chose to drive to the parks instead of taking the busses. Nothing against the bus system, just a personal preference.
1. The ecv was waiting for me at Pop Century's luggage services just as I'd been told. It rode well and had enough speed. I could go as fast as DD7 could jog, which was fast enough for me. It turned tight corners very well--I think better than the 4-wheeled scooters that WDW rents. The one thing I didn't like was that the speed control was a second button. I would have preferred it if speed was controlled by the amount of squeezing. Then driving would be able to be a one-handed task. With these controls, I drove with my right hand squeezing the forward lever and my left hand on the speed dial. If I released the "forward" lever w/o first reducing speed to the slowest, the ECV came to a very sudden, jerky stop.
2. For an extra $10 for the whole rental (not per day), I also rented a battery charger so that I would not have to bring the scooter into the room at night to charge the batteries. The battery charger stayed in my room, and I only had to carry the two (heavy) batteries to the room each night. This was preferable to reassembling the scooter after arriving back at the hotel. I was able to fit both batteries onto the seat of my rollator, so it wasn't too hard to get them in and out of the room.
3. The instructions for assembling and disassebling the ecv were in the back pocket as promised. they were at times very clear, but not always complete. the first time I had to take it apart it took me almost 30 minutes and I am proud of myself for not panicking/crying. One of the first steps is to lift off the seat, but it just would not come off. And there were no details provided for HOW to lift off the seat. the pictures were blurry, too. I just kept tugging, and repositioning myself and eventually (thankfully) it came off.
4. The next few steps went well, but it took me a very long time to figure out how to fold down the tiller. To be honest, I wasn't really sure what the tiller was at first, but figured out it had to be the stick that the controls were mounted on. Afterall, that's what one would want to fold down to fit it into a car. I was in the parking lot outside the classic years building and after almost 10 minutes of moving everything I could think of I asked a man emptying trash cans for his help. Took him awhile, too, then he found an unmentioned lever which needed to be squeezed. Yay!
5. Disassembled, the pieces filled the back of the full-sized Buick Century I'd rented. The rollator had to ride in the back seat next to DD7. I know this isn't safe, but we did it anyway.
6. I also had a "crutch holder" on the back of the ecv. the intent was for me to take the rollator into the parks, too, but it didn't seem too stable, so I scrapped that idea. The holder came in useful, though, for our backpack. there was also a basket in front that held the camcorder bag, water bottles, and umbrellas.
7. The heavest part was the back wheels. For me, it was very heavy. After lifting it once, I decided to change our touring strategy and not park hop. In and out of the car once per day was doable, but enough.
8. I mentioned in another post that handicapped parking at Pop Century is very hard to come by. A spot was available at midday when we checked into the resort both at Classic Hall and "near" our room in 50's building "A," but never again after that. We stayed for 4 nights and always parked far. If I wasn't the driver it wouldn't have been too bad, I could have been let off. But it ended up being a long walk for me every morning and night.
9. Also a problem was that the "regular" spots aren't that wide. I had to pull halfway out in order to be able to get the rollator in and out of the back seat.
10. The room itself was clean and small. The seat in the shower was fine. The fridge for my meds was there. Accessible rooms, however, only come with one bed and DD7 wanted her own. Having slept with her in the past at other hotels and knowing how she kicks in her sleep, I wanted her to have her own, too. The CM at the special reservations number arranged for us to have a rollway in the room at no extra charge.
11. I had a small amount of trouble getting the roll-away, since Pop Century doesn't have roll-away beds. Eventually they found it in the reservation and told me it would be there. It wasn't when we got the the room to unload luggage, but we figured it would arrive later. At 10:30 p.m. when we returned, it still wasn't there. Front desk told me once again that they didn't have roll-aways, but about 20 minutes later one arrived. Of course, the room was way too small for it and given the fact that I don't walk very well, I'm glad to say that I bumped into it only a few dozen times and only fell down once or twice.
13. Of course, they charged me for the free roll-away. We had 2 continuing reservations because we didn't want passes for the first day, and the charge was on the bill for the first reservation (it wasn't for the second, so they say). I went to the front desk on Sunday morning and they could no longer take it off my first bill, but they gave me a credit for the same amount on the second bill. That's when I mentioned about how hard a time i was having finding parking and the CM told me the employees all agreed that the person who designed the parking was a "moron." I couldn't believe she actually said that, and I only repeat it here to show that parking must really be an annoying problem if a CM would use such a word.
12. Since I can take about 5-10 steps before it's obvious that I have trouble and I can stand still pretty well (as long as it's not for too long), I don't "look" like I'm disabled. I am happy to report that I did not get even one rude comment or rude look from anyone at anytime while I was using the ecv. Only lots of friendly smiles.
13. Before the trip I'd been worried about returning the car and then getting our luggage to where it needed to be checked in. No need. I drove straight to car rental return and there were porters waiting. We chose, however, to rent ($3) a luggage cart and push it ourselves. there was a huge line of carts right where the car got dropped off, so I just brought one over to the car and unloaded. Everything went very smoothly.
14. Almost forgot, there were instructions for recharging the ECV batteries in the back pocket of the ecv, but they did not match up with the kind of battery charger i'd paid extra for. the paper mentioned things like plugging into the scooter, etc. I didn't discover this until about 11:00 p.m., and there was no one answering Walker's phone at that time of night. Praying that I wouldn't start an electrical fire, I plugged things in using my best guess and left a voice-mail for Walker to call me back at the hotel the next day to explain the charger to me. no one from Walker ever returned my call (which surprised me), but since my best guesses kept me powered for the next day and no fire occured, i figured that i'd guessed right and just kept doing it for the following three nights.
15. On top of mobility issues, I have food allergies. We had 2 pre-arranged special meals planned. I'd spoken with chefs both at 1900 Park Fair and Cinderella's Royal Table. (This was after all, our trip to meet all the princesses, especially those we'd missed in June.) Every thing went smoothly at CRT (it was wonderful!), but not at 1900 PF.
Although the chef I'd spoken to weeks prior had assured me the turkey was just turkey with no other ingredients, the chef that came to my table when we sat down told me that it was marinated (with things I can't have). Then they found some other kind of turkey they had, but it wasn't just turkey either. Had been processed with extra ingredients--they brought me the label to read. They ended up cutting up an apple, bringing me some broccoli and asparagus and not charging me for the meal. It was very disappointing as we'd eaten there twice in June and thoroughly enjoyed it. What was most disappointing was that I thought I'd been very clear with the chef I'd spoken with before we'd left home. She seemed to understand what I was allergic to. Oh well.
We had THE BEST time. We were able to get center seats for Cirque on Thursday without purchasing them in advance. Crowds were non-existant at Epcot on Friday, and we practically had the whole character bus (15 characters!) to ourselves. By Saturday, MLK weekend crowds at MK were huge and it could have been summertime for all the people that were there. Sunday and Monday were busy, too, although the rain kept people away a bit on Sunday morning.
I've been reading these boards for the past 3 months getting ready for our trip and I want to thank everyone for all their help. I got SO MANY useful tips and advice and you are all just wonderful.
Take care,
DJ
I tend to get wordy, so please forgive me....
Background:
I can walk a little and can drive a car. I use a rollator (a 4-wheeled walker with a seat) to stablize myself if I have to go more than 20 or 30 yards. I rented an ECV from Walker for the trip, and a car from National at the Orlando airport. I chose to drive to the parks instead of taking the busses. Nothing against the bus system, just a personal preference.
1. The ecv was waiting for me at Pop Century's luggage services just as I'd been told. It rode well and had enough speed. I could go as fast as DD7 could jog, which was fast enough for me. It turned tight corners very well--I think better than the 4-wheeled scooters that WDW rents. The one thing I didn't like was that the speed control was a second button. I would have preferred it if speed was controlled by the amount of squeezing. Then driving would be able to be a one-handed task. With these controls, I drove with my right hand squeezing the forward lever and my left hand on the speed dial. If I released the "forward" lever w/o first reducing speed to the slowest, the ECV came to a very sudden, jerky stop.
2. For an extra $10 for the whole rental (not per day), I also rented a battery charger so that I would not have to bring the scooter into the room at night to charge the batteries. The battery charger stayed in my room, and I only had to carry the two (heavy) batteries to the room each night. This was preferable to reassembling the scooter after arriving back at the hotel. I was able to fit both batteries onto the seat of my rollator, so it wasn't too hard to get them in and out of the room.
3. The instructions for assembling and disassebling the ecv were in the back pocket as promised. they were at times very clear, but not always complete. the first time I had to take it apart it took me almost 30 minutes and I am proud of myself for not panicking/crying. One of the first steps is to lift off the seat, but it just would not come off. And there were no details provided for HOW to lift off the seat. the pictures were blurry, too. I just kept tugging, and repositioning myself and eventually (thankfully) it came off.
4. The next few steps went well, but it took me a very long time to figure out how to fold down the tiller. To be honest, I wasn't really sure what the tiller was at first, but figured out it had to be the stick that the controls were mounted on. Afterall, that's what one would want to fold down to fit it into a car. I was in the parking lot outside the classic years building and after almost 10 minutes of moving everything I could think of I asked a man emptying trash cans for his help. Took him awhile, too, then he found an unmentioned lever which needed to be squeezed. Yay!
5. Disassembled, the pieces filled the back of the full-sized Buick Century I'd rented. The rollator had to ride in the back seat next to DD7. I know this isn't safe, but we did it anyway.
6. I also had a "crutch holder" on the back of the ecv. the intent was for me to take the rollator into the parks, too, but it didn't seem too stable, so I scrapped that idea. The holder came in useful, though, for our backpack. there was also a basket in front that held the camcorder bag, water bottles, and umbrellas.
7. The heavest part was the back wheels. For me, it was very heavy. After lifting it once, I decided to change our touring strategy and not park hop. In and out of the car once per day was doable, but enough.
8. I mentioned in another post that handicapped parking at Pop Century is very hard to come by. A spot was available at midday when we checked into the resort both at Classic Hall and "near" our room in 50's building "A," but never again after that. We stayed for 4 nights and always parked far. If I wasn't the driver it wouldn't have been too bad, I could have been let off. But it ended up being a long walk for me every morning and night.
9. Also a problem was that the "regular" spots aren't that wide. I had to pull halfway out in order to be able to get the rollator in and out of the back seat.
10. The room itself was clean and small. The seat in the shower was fine. The fridge for my meds was there. Accessible rooms, however, only come with one bed and DD7 wanted her own. Having slept with her in the past at other hotels and knowing how she kicks in her sleep, I wanted her to have her own, too. The CM at the special reservations number arranged for us to have a rollway in the room at no extra charge.
11. I had a small amount of trouble getting the roll-away, since Pop Century doesn't have roll-away beds. Eventually they found it in the reservation and told me it would be there. It wasn't when we got the the room to unload luggage, but we figured it would arrive later. At 10:30 p.m. when we returned, it still wasn't there. Front desk told me once again that they didn't have roll-aways, but about 20 minutes later one arrived. Of course, the room was way too small for it and given the fact that I don't walk very well, I'm glad to say that I bumped into it only a few dozen times and only fell down once or twice.
13. Of course, they charged me for the free roll-away. We had 2 continuing reservations because we didn't want passes for the first day, and the charge was on the bill for the first reservation (it wasn't for the second, so they say). I went to the front desk on Sunday morning and they could no longer take it off my first bill, but they gave me a credit for the same amount on the second bill. That's when I mentioned about how hard a time i was having finding parking and the CM told me the employees all agreed that the person who designed the parking was a "moron." I couldn't believe she actually said that, and I only repeat it here to show that parking must really be an annoying problem if a CM would use such a word.
12. Since I can take about 5-10 steps before it's obvious that I have trouble and I can stand still pretty well (as long as it's not for too long), I don't "look" like I'm disabled. I am happy to report that I did not get even one rude comment or rude look from anyone at anytime while I was using the ecv. Only lots of friendly smiles.
13. Before the trip I'd been worried about returning the car and then getting our luggage to where it needed to be checked in. No need. I drove straight to car rental return and there were porters waiting. We chose, however, to rent ($3) a luggage cart and push it ourselves. there was a huge line of carts right where the car got dropped off, so I just brought one over to the car and unloaded. Everything went very smoothly.
14. Almost forgot, there were instructions for recharging the ECV batteries in the back pocket of the ecv, but they did not match up with the kind of battery charger i'd paid extra for. the paper mentioned things like plugging into the scooter, etc. I didn't discover this until about 11:00 p.m., and there was no one answering Walker's phone at that time of night. Praying that I wouldn't start an electrical fire, I plugged things in using my best guess and left a voice-mail for Walker to call me back at the hotel the next day to explain the charger to me. no one from Walker ever returned my call (which surprised me), but since my best guesses kept me powered for the next day and no fire occured, i figured that i'd guessed right and just kept doing it for the following three nights.
15. On top of mobility issues, I have food allergies. We had 2 pre-arranged special meals planned. I'd spoken with chefs both at 1900 Park Fair and Cinderella's Royal Table. (This was after all, our trip to meet all the princesses, especially those we'd missed in June.) Every thing went smoothly at CRT (it was wonderful!), but not at 1900 PF.
Although the chef I'd spoken to weeks prior had assured me the turkey was just turkey with no other ingredients, the chef that came to my table when we sat down told me that it was marinated (with things I can't have). Then they found some other kind of turkey they had, but it wasn't just turkey either. Had been processed with extra ingredients--they brought me the label to read. They ended up cutting up an apple, bringing me some broccoli and asparagus and not charging me for the meal. It was very disappointing as we'd eaten there twice in June and thoroughly enjoyed it. What was most disappointing was that I thought I'd been very clear with the chef I'd spoken with before we'd left home. She seemed to understand what I was allergic to. Oh well.
We had THE BEST time. We were able to get center seats for Cirque on Thursday without purchasing them in advance. Crowds were non-existant at Epcot on Friday, and we practically had the whole character bus (15 characters!) to ourselves. By Saturday, MLK weekend crowds at MK were huge and it could have been summertime for all the people that were there. Sunday and Monday were busy, too, although the rain kept people away a bit on Sunday morning.
I've been reading these boards for the past 3 months getting ready for our trip and I want to thank everyone for all their help. I got SO MANY useful tips and advice and you are all just wonderful.
Take care,
DJ
