Universal- What Should I Prepare for?

[travelitis]

Yes, what does that mean? My son is going to have difficulty transferring twice: once from his power chair then from the manual chair.

 

[Weedy]

Yes, what does that mean? My son is going to have difficulty transferring twice: once from his power chair then from the manual chair.

(If it is a normal chair it can be brought right in)So for example at the mummy you'll need to move to the regular wheel chair outside. You have as much time as you need for that. Once inside and before you board, you'll need to fully move out of the chair and into the ride vehicle the chair can be moved right to against the vehicle and your son can slide right in.

 

[New England Eeyore]

I'm a little late to this post but I wanted to add my experience because when I was looking I didn't find a lot of information about ECVs and Universal. Unfortunately, with the situation described by the OP, I don't think Universal may be as user-friendly as you need it to be. I can't speak to the OPs situation of transferring from a wheelchair to a ride, but I can speak to that of your wife - of needing an ECV and navigating the queues.

My husband uses an ECV when we travel to theme parks and having extensive experience with Disney, we were surprised at how different Universal was. You're right to be proactive and asking these questions ahead of time. We were naive and went in without doing much research, expecting it to be like Disney. Unfortunately, Universal team members are not always especially helpful in these situations. I'm sure there are exceptions (like the above poster's son, I'm sure) but our experience across the board was very poor.

As was said, you cannot bring an ECV into any ride queue except for the Hogwarts Express. All rides (that we tried) had transfer wheelchairs available, however it took us awhile to learn that. They were not always offered. When they saw his ECV approach, they just said "park it over there." He needs an ECV because he cannot stand or walk for long periods of time, so being forced to abandon the ECV and stand in a 30 minute line was pretty unpleasant for him. In fact he skipped a few rides altogether before we learned of the transfer chairs. Then, once we learned of them and I would go to the TM at the entrance and ask for one, often I was ignored or made to wait. (The reality is that a lot of queues have stairs and thus guests in a wheelchair get sent through an alternative, sometimes shorter path, sometimes with an elevator. It almost seemed to me that some TMs were judging anyone that asked for one as trying to skip the regular lines.) My husband HATES to be made to feel like he's a nuisance or a burden or different in any way, which is why Disney is so wonderful for him - no one ever makes him feel like that. Universal was a different story.

The other reality of the transfer chair is of course you need someone to be there to push you in it. You would have to be pretty familiar with manuevering a manual wheelchair alone (the queues are not wide open sidewalks - they are winding, and involve many tight turns and sharp corners), as well has have enough upper body strength to do so, neither of which would apply to my husband. So if your wife would be in a similar situation, then she would not be able to get through the queues.

I hope that is helpful. We had a wonderful trip and made the best of everything but it was eye opening for sure.