So my Mom is moving to Alabama and she wants to visit Disneyland one last time before leaving California (probably forever). She can get around by walking, but it’s very fatiguing for her. She has a blue disabled tag for her car, so I’ve been looking into a wheelchair rental for our trip (it’ll just be the two of us).
Does anyone have any experience, insight, or tips about doing this? Specifically at a Disney park, though any general rental advice would be helpful (we’ve never done this before). They have a list of rides that are ambulatory only, though I suspect she’ll be mostly interested in just soaking in the atmosphere one last time (at least until my sister inevitably takes her to Orlando one of these days).
My wife was having some problems with her legs when we went to Disney World in FL a couple years back, and we rented a scooter for her for getting around within the Magic Kingdom, which I’d recommend: pushing someone around in a wheelchair all day can be tiring.
Here ya go. It’s fairly straightforward. There’s a wheelchair rental station near the entry turnstile nearest Harbor Blvd. (furthest from Downtown Disney). Just go in and put down your money ($12 plus $20 deposit for a manual chair; $50 plus sales tax for a motorized scooter). You will not be asked to present any proof of disability at this point.
Once you’re in the park, proceed to City Hall. There, you can be issued a card, with stamps on it, indicating which types of lines you will be permitted to bypass (some of the queues have been engineered to accommodate wheelchairs).
If your mother brings her disabled placard with her, make sure you’re displaying it when you buy your parking pass. The cast member who sells you the parking will put a colored slip of paper in your windshield wiper that lets the “ushers” know to wave you over to the handicapped parking areas. This gets you a shorter walk to the shuttle boarding area.
We’ve done it once and the one good aspect of it was that you can skip the line for many rides. IIRC, you walk up the exit and they’ll put you on the ride fairly quickly.
However, it’s best to not go on a weekend or holiday as it’s slow going through the crowds.
My wife shares her birthday with Disneyland Park (not the same year), and in 2013 I made plans to take her to Disneyland (because her favorite restaurant in the whole world is Carnation Cafe, on Main Street). A friend of hers decided to come stay with us during that week, and I wound up buying a ticket for her as well. She couldn’t walk well, so I had to get a chair and push her around. The lady at the counter saw me squiring a middle-aged blind woman on each arm, and was kind enough to waive the rental fee.
I’ve rented one a few times in Disney in Florida, and I imagine the process is the same. Nothing to it - go up to the booth right by the entrance, ask for a chair, give some money, and walk/push away.
There is wheelchair and stroller parking all over. We had a sign on the back of the wheelchair with a name on it, so we’d make sure to get the same one back.
We rented a scooter about seven years ago at Disney World for my mother because she has bad knees. My brother arranged for the scooter not from Disney directly but from an outside company. As I remember, they delivered the scooter directly to the hotel room. (They’re familiar with the Disney-owned hotels.) This was before people were abusing the disabled privileges at Disney World, so we were able to jump ahead of many of the lines. Now I think they make the rest of the family go through the regular line and meet the disabled relative at the head of the line.
Last December we went to D-land. My wife was recovering from Knee surgery. We spent 6 full days there and had a blast. There are only a few rides that let handicap persons go before those waiting in line. But on many of the rides there were accommodations. Mainly a fast pass. We the rides have wheel chair admission points. We would go to that point and employee would ask how many in our group. Usually it was 6 or more. They would scan our tickets. Then give us a time to return. something like be back between 3:00 and 4:00. We did not have to stand there waiting but show on time. they would scan our tickets again and admit our group through the wheel chair access.
I had knee three years ago and standing for long times for me is tiring. So when my wife would get out of the chair to dome shopping. I would sit in the chair and rest.
The only major problem was at night when the parade was passing. We were trying to leave and were on the sidewalk on main street. After the parade was over and I was pushing the chair on the sidewalk people would step up out of the street onto the sidewalk and expect me to make room for them to pass me. I guess they expected me to pass them by going over the edge of the sidewalk. In the croud the only way I could make it through was just push the chair through the people that stepped infront of me. I ran over many a foot and leg. I had to push hard. It would have been dangerous to stay put because with as many people that were passing us on the inside of the sidewalk they would have pushed the chair over the edge of the sidewalk. And people behind me were trying to also exit the park.
Yep. I went to Universal once with someone in a scooter and it took a lot longer to get around due to the crowds. It was so annoying that it made me feel a bit less guilty for skipping all the lines – but it was still a net positive timewise, (and the lines at Universal are much longer than at Disney (or were, at least, when I went there)).
Thanks everyone! Lots of great helpful hints–exactly what I was hoping for. We’ll probably be staying in one of the Disney hotels (for convenience) so that might make coordinating everything even easier.
One thing Disney is really good at - listening to you and making your visit special. If you’re staying on property, let the staff know what you need. They know how to help, and can give you advice about transportation and what to do at the parks.
At least down here, they’re really well trained. Impressively so.
ETA: Do they have Extra Magic Hours out there? In the Orlando area, most days there is one park that opens early or stays open late, just for people staying on property. Shorter lines for everything.
It’s probably quite pricey, but the Disney Grand Californian Hotel would be an experience not to be missed. Even if you stay at a different hotel such as the Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier, a walk through of the Grand Californian is definitely worth the day trip.
(And a night in the Dream Suite would top everything. But that generally isn’t something that is for sale.)
A couple of years ago, we went to Disney World with a friend who had just had knee surgery. We went to guest services, got the wheelchair, rode her around the park and turned it back in when we left.
If you’re staying on site, consider one of the better resorts - ideally one where the monorail takes you directly there. My SIL and her husband (who was disabled) had originally been at one of the bargain resorts and IIRC the bathroom was barely usable for him. They wound up moving to one of the better ones (Contemporary or Grand Floridian, I think, though it’s been many years) and having the monorail helped with the logistics. I seem to recall he had his own wheelchair though, vs. renting one at the park,
Well duh, I re-read and she’s near the California parks, moving to Alabama, not the other way around. So ignore my advice about the better resorts. I’ve been to the California parks but I don’t recall what the transportation was like (we stayed a couple blocks away at a non-affiliated hotel).
