Renting ECV in-park

[leebee]

I had a total knee replacement in June. I am doing ok, but a "6 hours on my feet" work day wears me out. I have the opportunity to go to Disney in early November (5th to 8th), so about 4.5 months post-surgery. This is a solo trip, spacing out the days (day 1 travel, day 2 parks, day 3 break, day 4 parks, day 5 travel). I am thinking about renting a scooter for this trip, but it's getting complicated. Due to our flight times, it doesn't seem possible to rent a scooter from a local company; the return time on departure day is earlier than any of the companies will schedule. I need the scooter from 9am on a Sunday with pick up by 7am on Wednesday, so basically a three-day rental. However, I'm only going to the parks on Sunday and Tuesday (so a Tuesday evening return could work). I have 2 day park-hopper tickets, planning on a park in the morning and hopping for the second half of the day.

I am wondering about just renting the ECV in-park. The price would be about the same, or cheaper, than from an off-site company and I wouldn't have to worry about delivery times. How quickly do the parks "run out" of ECVs? I'm worried about park-hopping, too. Would I have to pay a second rental fee for the ECV in the second park, or could I keep the receipt from the first park and use that to cover the second park (like offsite guest parking fees)?

I might just say the heck with it, as it's getting complicated, and as this is a solo trip I won't be slowing down or disappointing anyone if I have to take a long rest or throw in the towel and go hang at a resort (AKL, i'm looking at YOU!). However, if you have ECV rental advice/info to share, I'd appreciate hearing it. TIA

 

[TCRAIG]

I can’t answer about availability - but once you rent an ECV for the day - all you need to do is show your receipt to rent at another park if you hop - or the same park if you leave and come back. Another option is to rent with ScooterBug - they’re allowed to use Disney hotel Bell Services for drop off and pickup…

 

[Selket]

I had a total knee replacement in June. I am doing ok, but a "6 hours on my feet" work day wears me out. I have the opportunity to go to Disney in early November (5th to 8th), so about 4.5 months post-surgery. This is a solo trip, spacing out the days (day 1 travel, day 2 parks, day 3 break, day 4 parks, day 5 travel). I am thinking about renting a scooter for this trip, but it's getting complicated. Due to our flight times, it doesn't seem possible to rent a scooter from a local company; the return time on departure day is earlier than any of the companies will schedule. I need the scooter from 9am on a Sunday with pick up by 7am on Wednesday, so basically a three-day rental. However, I'm only going to the parks on Sunday and Tuesday (so a Tuesday evening return could work). I have 2 day park-hopper tickets, planning on a park in the morning and hopping for the second half of the day.

I am wondering about just renting the ECV in-park. The price would be about the same, or cheaper, than from an off-site company and I wouldn't have to worry about delivery times. How quickly do the parks "run out" of ECVs? I'm worried about park-hopping, too. Would I have to pay a second rental fee for the ECV in the second park, or could I keep the receipt from the first park and use that to cover the second park (like offsite guest parking fees)?

I might just say the heck with it, as it's getting complicated, and as this is a solo trip I won't be slowing down or disappointing anyone if I have to take a long rest or throw in the towel and go hang at a resort (AKL, i'm looking at YOU!). However, if you have ECV rental advice/info to share, I'd appreciate hearing it. TIA

In this case you may want to look at renting from Scooterbug as you pick up and drop off the scooter with the Bell services so you don't need to worry about meeting someone on a schedule. This way you'd. be guaranteed a scooter vs. renting in the park. You'll have it for your "rest day" if you want to go to Disney Springs or just use it to get around the resort.

I rented from scooterbug in July for a similar kind of trip and I can't give them glowing reviews. The ECV they left me was not working right but they did replace it very promptly overnight and a new one was waiting for me the next morning. They didn't give me any grief about replacing it either so that was good. In your shoes, this is what I would do - but I am more dependent on the ECV than you are (knees getting replaced early next year and they're BAD). My trip would be ruined if the parks were out of ECV rentals and I probably couldn't make it there anyway!

 

[Evita_W]

If you rent from Gold Mobility, they will meet you on your schedule (generally they will be waiting on you, not the other way around) and they have a sale right now that makes it about $200 with the discount code they have listed, which would be more than renting from the parks, but you would also have it on your down days. The earliest they pick up or drop off at present is 7 AM, so it is cutting it close for Wednesday, but they are generally very prompt, otherwise you could arrange for them to pick up the night before, I believe 7 or 8 PM is the latest they will pick up as a general rule. Having it for your down days will honestly make your park days much more enjoyable in my opinion.

I can tell you that the last couple of times we went, we often saw the parks out of ECVs by opening time or shortly there after, but other times available until park closing, it was luck of the draw.

 

[Genie+]

Back in March we needed to rent an ECV around 6pm at Epcot. The CM said our timing was good since they just finished up with the waitlist. We asked a bit about that and they said usually by noon-2pm they have run out of scooters and then people start joining the waitlist. You get texted when more become available and it’s your turn.

So I’d expect potential issue when hopping - you might end up waiting a couple hours. If you rent in-park in the morning you’ll need to return it there and then use receipt to pick up another at second park.

For this trip we ended up not using Gold because Buena Vista was cheaper for the short trip. But it ended up costing us more money in the end… and alot more time.

After this we’ll just continue using Gold. The 2 biggest reasons are they will schedule individual dropoff/pickup times (much much better) and their cost is very reasonable especially if you desire most of their free upgrades that others charge for.

There’s a big difference in convenience between getting the ECV at your desired time and keeping it the whole trip, than having to keep checking scooters in/out or having to comply with a pre-set schedule of resort pickup/dropoff times.

 

[Debbie Jean]

Had bilateral knee replacement 10 years ago. I treat these titanium wonders like they are gold.
Rent from Gold and would normally recommend them. Your trip is short so may not work as well for you. BTW, I always leave on an early flight home, so I turn the scooter in by 7 PM the night before.

My question to you: what is your plan B if there are no scooters in the morning or when you hop in the afternoon? You’re solo so no one to push a wheel chair. How are you with being on a wait list and potentially back tracking in the parks? What’s your plan for non park day? Disney Springs? I would never do it again without a scooter… the distance to the buses is a knee killer.

I solo all the time. I’d spend the money and rent a scooter…. Me, I’d pay for Gold for service and reliability. But at least Buena Vista Scooters or, heaven help us, the infamous Scooter Bug.

 

[maryblanchard49]

It's first come first serve when renting from the parks so, I'd recommend going with a 3rd party vendor like Walker Mobility Scooter Rentals. I always rent from them and they deliver right to your resort. They have friendly live agents that are there to help answer any of your questions and their drivers are great too! The scooters from Walker Mobility are water resistant which is great because, you don't have to worry about covering it when it rains and their battery life lasts from park open to park close! Their rates are great too!

 

[Simba's Mom]

My first time renting an ECV was on a solo trip and rented in-park. Although I'd been in Epcot for a couple hours, I didn't rent until around noon, when my back basically said "That's it-I quit!" I must have been lucky-although it was F&W time in the middle of the day, I had no problems with scooter availability then, nor later in the week, when I went to AK around 10:00 am. After a few minutes on my ECV, all I thought was "Why did I wait so long for this?" My biggest problem was, since I was solo, what do I do with the ECV when I went to the restroom. I realized that as long as you keep the key with you, it's highly unlikely anyone's going to take your scooter.

 

[R&RsMom]

I rented an in-park ECV early last December. We got to parks for rope drop, and I had no trouble with morning ECV availability. However, there was no availability at the parks we hopped to in the afternoon/evening. One day. In fact, Epcot had 23 people ahead of me on their waitlist, so I didn’t bother joining. I would say not to count on an ECV when you hop.

 

[TCRAIG]

With just 2-3 days and needing early/late drop off/pickup times - I’d forgo using Golds or any of the other off-site ECV renters and stick with ScooterBug since they can drop off/pickup at Bell Svcs without you being there…I know they’re not ‘the best’ but for your circumstances, they would be.

 

[ttintagel]

I rented from scooterbug in July for a similar kind of trip and I can't give them glowing reviews. The ECV they left me was not working right but they did replace it very promptly overnight and a new one was waiting for me the next morning. They didn't give me any grief about replacing it either so that was good.

Yes, almost every time we've had a problem with a third-party rental, whatever vendor we were using was very prompt and helpful about getting us new equipment ASAP. Walker Mobility even brought a replacement scooter right into the park where we were when the original unit broke down.

Congrats on the new knees!

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Yes, almost every time we've had a problem with a third-party rental, whatever vendor we were using was very prompt and helpful about getting us new equipment ASAP. Walker Mobility even brought a replacement scooter right into the park where we were when the original unit broke down.

Congrats on the new knees!

we also had Walker Mobility bring a replacement right to us in Animal Kingdom for same reason in less than an hour

 

[Klismania]

we also had Walker Mobility bring a replacement right to us in Animal Kingdom for same reason in less than an hour

Thank you! I'm renting from Walker in January and it's good to see these kinds of reviews!