Scooters / Wheelchair question

[autumnfire]

About a week after I booked out trip for November I started getting back pain. Now I'm in terrible pain after 15 minutes of walking (confirmed herniated L4 disk and I'll be seeing a Neuro Surgeon on wed). I think it's very likely that I'll require something to help me get around and I'm at a bit of a loss as far as where to look. I'm also wondering if anyone else needed to use a scooter or a wheelchair at Disney. How did you find it overall? I can walk mind you just not long distances, sitting immediately relieves the pain.

I'm also worried about the logistics of it given we planned to bring a double stroller for our kids (A will be 3 and D will be 8 months at the time of the trip). I was so excited to go, now I'm worried that I'll be a huge limiter to my entire family and it has me just feeling down

[kittycatlove]

I'm sorry to hear you're in so much pain

My FIL has trouble walking so we rented a scooter from Buena Vista. They deliver and pick it up right from your hotel (we stayed on property, not sure if they do if off-site). It was great. You can park the scooter and then go on the rides. Depending, it could be a little bit of a walk, I say not bad, but I guess it depends on your level of pain and walking. You also get priority boarding on the busses with a scooter for you and your family.

Hopefully you can still enjoy your trip and maybe by November you'll be feeling a bit better.

[alleinesein]

Rent a scooter. It will make life easier for everyone. We used to go to Disneyland with a family friend who has a ton of health issues. She was stubborn and did not want a wheelchair or a scooter until we told her that we would quit inviting her if she didn't get one. It took less than an hour for her to love having the scooter in the park; she got to enjoy the rides without getting exhausted and she didn't have to stop and rest all the time.

Hopefully someone chimes in with info on how the wheelchair system works at WDW. At DLR the new system is awesome. You can opt for a fast pass and use the wheelchair entrance for some rides or you can get a wheelchair assigned ride time from a cast member. They scan your ticket and you can have up to 6 people and the system is separate from the FP system so you can 'double dip'--our last trip we had Space mountain FP and got the wheelchair pass for Alice while we were waiting.

[lishie]

We went to Disney with my parents right before my mom had knee replacement surgery. She had to get a scooter or she wouldn't have been able to go on the trip. We had a double stroller with us as well as the scooter. No problems.

Most of the lines she was able to take the scooter through the line. If you could do that, then we waited in line as usual, didn't get one of the guess assistance passes, but for rides where she couldn't do that, we were given a piece of paper and a time to come back where we could go through the fast pass line.

Disney's amazing. We got on the ride, and by the time we were through, her scooter was waiting for us at the ride exit.

[swarley]

We stayed offsite and rented from Walker Mobility. It was around $200 for 8 days including insurance. It broke down into 5 pieces so we were easily able to transport it to the parks in our car. I would definitely rent one from an offsite company because it's cheaper and you can use it outside of the parks (parking lots and DTD are huge).