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WDWRox
07-29-2008, 08:47 PM
Over the past few trips, and even on a more recent trip to a different type of theme park in Virginia, my wife has had an incredibly difficult time walking, with her feet constantly blistering and causing her a great deal of pain in her legs and knees. She suffers from fibromyalgia. She is dead-set on our upcoming trip in September of getting a wheelchair to move around the parks with. I'm not so concerned over the cost of having to do so as I am over what to do with the thing when we go on the rides. She CAN walk, she just can't walk all over the parks like we had done in the past. So we'll be having to roll up to a particular attraction and leave the wheelchair aside until we exit it. My question is.....how would we go about doing this? I wouldn't want someone else walking off with our wheelchair, so where do the attractions have areas for locking up or holding onto guests' rented wheelchairs? I'm already getting a headache thinking about it and how much of a pain it'll be, but I want my wife to have a good time too, and not have to go back to the room and get off her feet and miss a lot of the fun. Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

medic9016
07-29-2008, 09:29 PM
My DD was in a wheel chair during our trip in June with a broken ankle. When she got on a ride a CM would take her wheel chair and have it ready when she got off the ride. Rent the chair for your length of stay instead of each day. It will save you a few dollars a day. You can also get a red wheel chair pass at each park, so you will not have to wait in some lines.

bouncer
07-30-2008, 05:13 AM
Several years ago I went with my MIL and her mom who needed a chair. She was so afraid of inconviencing us but it really wasn't at all. The wheel chairs are really easy to push and when we got to the rides we went directly to the wheel chair line. They let our group ride with her and it reduced the line time dramatically.

There are also designated areas to park a wheel chair for parade watching as well. Go to a CM and they can tell you the best place to watch the parade with a wheel chair.

I agree about renting for length of stay-just like strollers you'll save $ if you rent for the week. The first day you'll get a receipt that just gets stamped on the following days at the podium next to the strollers & wheel chairs.
Will your wife be able to walk up to that point? Grandma wasn't able to walk up to the Monorail, down & thru the gates. We had to bring her own chair for her last trips.

Don't be afraid...it will go smoothly...Walt made sure of that!:thumbsup:

WDWRox
07-30-2008, 06:56 AM
My wife CAN walk, she's not crippled or disabled in that way. She just cannot handle walking around the large parks. It does a terrible number on her legs and feet. In times past we've tried all kinds of shoes, and no matter what we do, she ends up getting painful blisters all over both feet and the more she walks, the more her muscle condition acts up and it's like she constantly has shin splints but up and down both legs.

I think of things like the Peter Pan ride, Haunted Mansion, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and things like that. How do they deal with wheelchair-bound guests?

TheDuckRocks
07-30-2008, 11:02 AM
If you rent from an outside source you could have the wheelchair for your entire stay, at the resorts as well as the parks. You might also want to consider a scooter, that way she would have more independance. On the issue of someone taking the WC I would say that is pretty unlikely, I even leave things in my basket of my scooter and have never had anything missing. Sometimes a CM will move a WC or scooter but I've always found mine. On a light note, I once came out from having lunch at Chefs de France and a guy was taking a nap in my scooter and his wife who got there just before I did was giving him heck and she told him to "Say you're sorry to the lady!", with a very red face he did.

cajunmickey
08-01-2008, 09:54 PM
My mother was in the same situation. She could walk but not the many miles you walk a day at disney. We rented her a wheelchair from a local vender had it delivered to our hotel for her to use the whole time. When you get on a ride such as peter pan then will direct you to the handicap line ask if you can walk a short distance, then the cm will park the wheelchair off to the side for you and it will be waiting when you get off the ride. Rides such as haunted mantion have a seperate entrance, they will direct you where you need to go, but all the cast members were very helpful to us.

wdw_bound
08-02-2008, 09:36 PM
I think of things like the Peter Pan ride, Haunted Mansion, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and things like that. How do they deal with wheelchair-bound guests?

Peter Pan has a special entrance. Assuming you can transfer (and it sounds like your DW can) without assistance, the chair is held in that area while you board. When you are done, the chair will be waiting for you. HM has a seperate chair entrance(due to the turnstile, you can't take the chair all the way through the regular entrance), which creeped me out even more than the regular one. The chair is waiting for you when you exit). Buzz is accessible up the the very end of the entrance, and then you go through a special hallway and board very close to where riders disembark. When the ride is over, your chair is right there. For the Safaris, we were directed to a special loading dock that could handle scooters (we didn't have one, but they grouped several special needs folks together). It was a regular truck, and DD's chair was right there at the end.

Hope that helps. Have a great trip!

mickeefan
08-03-2008, 12:28 PM
Have you considered renting an ECV? They give you great mobility, and independence. On Soarin you can ride them right up to the actual ride itself.
If concerned about leaving your wheel chair, the ECV has a key and you can just take it with you when you are eating or going on a ride.
We also have mobility problems where we can not walk for any distance and rent 2. We rent from an outside company so we have them all the time and can do about anything we want to. It wasn't until we started renting that we realized how many things we had been missing out on.