? about ME with wheelchair

[mickey12810]

I was wondering how they handled someone who is in a wheelchair who is using Magical Express. Do they have a special bus that picks you up? There will be 15 of us traveling in July and my Dad is in a wheelchair and we were trying to decide whether to take ME or rent cars. Any thoughts? TIA

 

[MinnyGranny62]

Sorry I don't know the answer but will bump this up for someone
else to see. Have a wonderful time.

 

[SueM in MN]

We haven't used ME yet, but several people have posted their experiences and hopefully will post. The buses are equipped with lifts that can load the wheelchair onto the bus and then they have the regular type of tiedowns for safely attaching it to the bus.
If the person can get out of the wheelchair and walk a few steps up to the bus, they can get out and sit in a regular bus seat. The wheelchair is then loaded into the luggage area of the bus.

 

[joanchris]

We used ME in October with our daughter who uses a wheelchair. They were fabulous. We finally got to the ME counter, or, rather, the line in front of the counter for ME when a CM who was at the entrance for the line stopped me, I was pushing DD10 and DD7 was with me, DH was off to the bathroom or something. I was pleasantly surprised as he brought us around to the front of the HUGE Line, to talk to a CM at the counter to check us in. It appears that not all buses are accessible, but they knew we were there and were able to be sure that the next bus coming for the Contemporary would be accessible. They saved us the wait in line as we might have to wait longer for the bus. The CM said it'd be about 15 minutes. No sooner did I get to the ladies room with DD10, get her out of her chair and onto the potty than I hear DH sending DD7 into the bathroom to get us, the bus was there and ready (they need to board WC users first). I apologize to DD10,ask her if she can wait and we go!
It really was hassle free, no need to worry about our luggage, just the carryon we brought and the small bag/backpack each of us had, plus DD10's things she needed, all of which hung on her chair.
Renting a car might be difficult as you would have to worry about the chair fitting in, transfering to a seat, when on the bus you can just stay in the chair.
The luggage was brought to our room before we were back from dinner that night.
The transportation at Disney was really great too, no real hassles with the chair, however we stayed at the Contemporary for the express reason that we had easy monorail access for our Epcot and MK days. The buses were very easy to use as well.
With so many of you I would save my $$ and just use ME!

 

[luvmyeor]

ME will definitely meet your needs. You just need to make sure that they know ahead of time that you need a bus with a lift. I would also confirm that for your return trip that they have you listed as needing a bus with a lift. ME makes several stops on the way to the airport so you want to make sure the bus that you are scheduled for will have a lift. If you have to wait for another bus you may not have as much time at the airport to get checked in, bathroom , security, preboard, etc.

 

[pugdog]

We used ME without any problems. Like others have said just make sure you tell them ahead of time. They still act like the no nothing about the lift but our wait was 5 minutes for the bus.
About 2/3's of the buses have lifts. Some of the drivers are great with the lifts and some are just ok.
On the return ride a bus with a lift sowed up right on time.
The most stops you will ever have is 4MAX.Both to and from MCO. But our bus was filled at our resort so we went directlly to MCO.
I word of caution about walking on the bus, If your dad has trouble walking up 6 very steep small steps and narrow aslie then stay in the wc.

 

[walkena]

We are new DVC members and I just booked ME on the DVC member site. There is an option for selecting a wheelchair lift and I selected this and received a confirmation email from Disney today. Seems pretty smooth to me. My son is nearly 9 and for the last two trips we have just carried him on to the bus but this year we are going to finally use the wheelchair lift as he has really grown over the last 6 mths and we will probably appreciate the extra help .