New to ECVs at the World

[IloveJack]

My parents are joining us for half of our upcoming trip. They went with us two years ago, when we only visited two parks. My mom is disabled and mostly uses a walker. However, as she can't stand for long periods of time, she gets a scooter, if available. On our last trip, she rented a scooter in the parks, but found that the long walks to and from transportation, as well as Downtown Disney, were very hard on her.
We went back-and-forth about renting inside the parks or from an outside company for this trip. However since my dad has recently retired, and they are traveling more often, she decided to buy her own scooter last week. Now she is a little concerned about using Disney transportation. Of course the busses make sense, but we will be staying at the FW campgrounds, and using the boats quite a bit. How do ECV users use the boats? Did they transfer and then the cast members put the ECV on the boat?
Do you have any advice for a new ECV user at the World?

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

You usually drive the ECV onto the boat or the bus, however if she is uncomfortable parking it we found most of the bus drivers are happy to do it for you. My mom had some issues maneuvering around on the buses and they almost always offered and if not, were happy to when asked.

[TheDuckRocks]

ECV users can take all the boats you do not have to step down into. Actually the boats are very easy to use. After using the buses a few times your mom will get the hang of it. The bus drivers are more helpful in getting your scooter onto the buses in the last couple of years. I have been using a scooter for the past 11 years and at first almost had panic attacks every time a bus pulled up. After a couple of times I was able to pull that puppy into and out of any loading situation like a pro. Have your mom practice with her new chariot at home before you go. When you get there listen carefully to what the bus driver tells you and follow his or her instructions carefully, keep the speed as low (turtle) as you can, smile a lot, thank everyone profusely for their help and she will have a great trip.

[IloveJack]

Thank you for the advice and encouragement! They are going camping twice in the next month, so hopefully she will have plenty of time to get the hang of this one. Having used only rental units before she was quite surprised at its speed! ;)

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

I hate to be a bit of a voice of concern, but the boats from FW to MK weren't as friendly as we hoped. My Mom uses an ECV at Disney at well, and it was a bit of a source of frustration.

The buses were excellent, no issues at all, but the boats were a bit of a challenge. The general issue was about getting them off and on, the boat never lined up exactly with the dock, so we found it easier to push the ECV on than to have her try and ride it on. There also isn't a good place to store them, so they block traffic a bit. What we did is send Mom on, with some of our group, let everyone else on, and then push the ECV on. At the other end, we waited until everyone was off, and then we pushed it off again.

Usually, the MK boats are accessible. But, we had a few times where they were using a "sub" boat which wasn't accessible. So, we were stuck. Even when we said that her ECV could break down and be carried on, they wouldn't let us. I know it was "only" a 30 minute wait, but it was a pain.

It was all manageable, but threw us for a bit of a loop, especially when they wouldn't let us on the "sub" boat. Enjoy FW ... we fell in love with it!