Advice needed please - first time using wheelchair?

[Guest]

Hi

I go to WDW a lot but have never been with anyone who has needed to use a chair or scooter or anything for that matter. We are doing a family trip this April and my mother, who is normally pretty active, is waiting for a back operation. This means she can not walk far at all, which obviously affects being in the parks. She doesn't have her own chair because she just doesn't go anywhere at the moment where she has to stand or walk far.

We are going for 2 weeks, one in a disney hotel and one in a villa. I know you can hire chairs at the parks (at least I think that's what it said) but can we hire one for the whole two weeks from somewhere?

Also, I know they have changed the way the rides, etc operate with wheelchair users. What do we do now? And there are 8 of us altogether...what happens with wanting to ride together etc? I'm not looking to jump queues, happy to wait, but it's a family trip so we don't want to constantly be separate.

Also, do I need to do anything special when booking meals or fastpasses? She can walk short distances but standing around and walking far just sends her into agony. We were hoping she'd have had the op by now.

ANY advice would be great, thank you

[beautybutterfly]

MIL used a scooter and a wheelchair last year (alternated between the 2), we rented the scooter from Walker Mobility who were fab, they dropped off and picked up from wherever and we took a wheelchair with us so we could use it at the airport etc.

As for the rides you just tell the CM and they will sort you out, sometimes you queue as normal and sometimes you have to use a different entrance. Regarding fastpasses and ADRs I don't think you need to do anything different - we didn't anyway!

[Guest]

Hi,
look at the useful information topic in the special needs section. there will be a post about hiring wheelchairs.
Its well worth hiring one over your whole time, rather than just the parks. the hotels are pretty big and just getting to the parks can mean lots of walking too.
For rides, most of them are wheelchair accessible now. Theres only 1 or 2 at each park that you may have to go via an alternate entrance. the cast members are very helpful at directing you. you should pretty much be able to go on most rides together but not always guaranteed esp as theres a large group of you.
last times we used our fastpasses for most things and had no problems.
Not sure if youre going to think about getting an ecv, rather than a basic wheelchair. If you do, on some rides youll have to transfer to a standard wheelchair as the queue cant accommodate the ecv.
Theres a disabilities guide for each park, its well worth having a look through when you get to each park. Just so you know what to expect. There are online versions but a lot of these haven't been updated for a couple of years.

[Twiggy1953]

When you book a ADR and you get to the last bit before you press the reserve button - there is a Special Requests part. Press the Add button and tick wheelchair accessibility. They then have it marked on the reservation and know you'll need a bigger and accessible table.

[Guest]

Thank you guys!