Parking and picking up your wheeling About This Page:

[mcm]

For rides that have exit spots that are in different places than the ride entrances, how do you get your wheelchair over to the exit?

Also, what precautions, if any, do you have to take so your chair doesn't get stolen/

[SueM loves WDW]

For most of those attractions, users of wheelchairs and ECVs actually board at the exit, so your wheelchair will be at the exit waiting for you when you get off.

In most cases, you will be waiting in the regular or Fastpass line until just before that line reaches the regular boarding area. At that point, there will be a wheelchair bypass (either well marked or with a cast member near it) that directs you to the exit.

We have been traveling to WDW for > 15 years with someone using a wheelchair. The first few years, we were concerned that someone might take her chair, but it truely has never been messed with. Since it is parked for those rides in the exit area, most of the people getting off the ride are just concerned with getting off and don't even see the wheelchair. I would not leave anything of great value on the wheelchair, but we do leave DD's backpack and haven't had anything touched.

If you are renting a wheelchair at the parks and someone takes yours, you can get a replacement by taking your receipt to a CM.
Some people take something along to mark it (like tie a bandana or some ribbon to the push handles). You will get a piece of paper to mark with your name and place in a clear plastic pocket on back of the wheelchair, but since all the rental ones look alike it's easier to find yours if you have something that stands out more.

[blondie]

We have never had a problem with anybody stealing our wheelchair or all of the stuff we end up hanging on the handles. We do, however, try and remember to take the cameras with us on the rides. There are a couple of rides which I can't remember right now which they are, that you get on in one place and off in another even with a wheelchair. The CM's always have the wheelchair waiting for us on the exit side! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[SueM loves WDW]

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There are a couple of rides which I can't remember right now which they are, that you get on in one place and off in another even with a wheelchair.

[/ QUOTE ]Pirates of the Caribbean is the one that comes to mind most easily. You actually board in one building and the exit is in another building. While you are on the ride, the cast members move the wheelchair from the boarding area to the exit. Sometimes, they are able to put smaller, lighter wheelchairs into the boat with you.

For Haunted Mansion, if someone is able to stand and walk for 10-15 minutes, they can leave their wheelchair at the exit, go into the Shrinking Room thru a back door and then board the ride thru the usual boarding area. The wheelchair/ECV will be waiting at the exit when you get off. My daughter isn't able to walk or stand, so we have to skip the Shrinking Room.

At Test Track, boarding is done on one side of the track. You get off at the same place, but on the other side of the ride car (which puts you on the other side of the track). ECVs/wheelchairs are moved over the track with an elevator and then delivered to the exit side of the track. (Guests with wheelchairs/ECVs that are too large to fit in the elevator may have to board from the exit side).
Those are the attractions I can think of right now. I don't think there are many others.

[Teresa]

At Big Thunder Mountain RailRoad, you actually get to ride twice in a row!! That way, you return to the side that your chair is on!
Splash Mountain, the chair is left right next to where you exit (out of the wet zone).

On Pirates - if you have an electric chair or ECV, then you will need to transfer to a manual (provided at the ride). You'll then need to return to fetch your electric chair. We've never had the chair brought to us at the exit. They will put the manual in the back seat of the ride for you, though.

[mcm]

Thanks for helping me out. i know most rides start and end at the same spots but i was just curioius what happens with the few that don't.

Also, i'm really nervous about my chair because i will have just cottem my beautiful new chair!!!

This will be my first trip anywhere since getting in a chair and i'm more than a little nervous.

Thanks.

[stonewall]

You've gotten some great advice so there is only a little bit for me to add. If you are using and ECV, REMEMBER to take the keys with you when you park it (and be courteous and pull it over with the others, or have a family member take it). The only time I've ever "lost" mine was when a CM had to put it in "feewheel" and move ti because I left it a bit in the way. If you have a vinyl seat, take a towel along to cover it so the seat doesn't bunr you when you get back on (yep, I still have the pretty plaid golf towel that I had to buy after the first "hot seat" experience! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]
The on;y attraction that I ever have trouble with is Buzz Lightyear, as an ECV can't wend the way through the queu line and I always end up in a 'firm' discusssion with a CM when I ask to board at the exit area (which is where they move the wheelchairs and ECVs to anyway [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]). Stay firm on that one, because the ride comes to a standstill for exiting so it is really easy to get on there.CMs tell me that ride is the one they get the most complaints about yet they continue to try to do it the "backwards" way, which must only make sense to the person who built the thing in the first place! Have a great trip!

[SueM loves WDW]

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Quote from Teresa
On Pirates - if you have an electric chair or ECV, then you will need to transfer to a manual (provided at the ride). You'll then need to return to fetch your electric chair. We've never had the chair brought to us at the exit. They will put the manual in the back seat of the ride for you, though.

[/ QUOTE ]
The 'bringing the wheelchair to the exit' if you had a power wheelchair used to happen a long time ago when we first started coming to Disney World with a wheelchair, 18 years ago. We had to do that when our daughter was younger because she could not sit in an adult wheelchair and her wheelchair didn't fold to put in the boat. They stopped doing that quite a while ago, but they started doing it again when it re-opened after the recent renovation. We have ridden it twice recently when they brought our daughter's wheelchair to the exit. She can't ride in one of the WDW wheelchairs, so that might be why they made more effort to bring hers to the exit.
I do know of other people who have had their wheelchairs brought to the exit recently.
[ QUOTE ]

The on;y attraction that I ever have trouble with is Buzz Lightyear, as an ECV can't wend the way through the queu line and I always end up in a 'firm' discusssion with a CM when I ask to board at the exit area (which is where they move the wheelchairs and ECVs to anyway [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]). Stay firm on that one, because the ride comes to a standstill for exiting so it is really easy to get on there.

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Buzz Lightyear has a moving walkway and doesn't typically come to a complete stop unless it's necessary for someone with a disability to get on and off (they won't usually stop it unless you ask for that).
We wait for the wheelchair accessible car since our daughter can't walk and is difficult to get out of her wheelchair. Some of the Cast Members on Buzz are so good at getting the ramp down and getting a wheelchair loaded that they have loaded her wheelchair without even slowing down the moving walkway.

The Imagination with Figment ride in Epcot has a very similar wheelchair accessible ride car. That ride does come to a complete stop for loading because the cars proceed thru the ride in a "batch" of about 4 cars.