Wheel chair - who do i need to alert before hand?

[sleepingbean]

Do I need to call the airline? We will have a wheelchair with us and she can transfer. Do I need to let the hotel know via phone call to Disney? Do the faxes really need to be done, or is a call good enough? Thanks in advance!

 

[disney david]

Do I need to call the airline? We will have a wheelchair with us and she can transfer. Do I need to let the hotel know via phone call to Disney? Do the faxes really need to be done, or is a call good enough? Thanks in advance!

Do you need a handicap accessible room? Are you using magical express? If yes then you need to let Disney know so you can be booked in the right room and they can send the right bus to pick you up. If no then you don't have to contact them ahead of time. Which airline you using?

Sorry made mistakes about airline thanks sue for correcting

 

[sleepingbean]

Thank you! Good tips.

 

[SueM in MN]

If she can climb the stairs for the Magical Express bus, the wheelchair can be stored underneath the bus with the bags.
You don't need to contact Magical Express if that is what you plan to do because you don't need a special bus.
If she will not be able to climb the stairs, you will need a lift bus. You don't HAVE to contact them ahead of time, but your wait for the bus may be shorter if you have arranged it ahead of time.

For the room, as was mentioned, you don't need to do anything unless you need an accessible room. If you need an accessible room with a roll in shower, call right now to the reservation number - that is a separate category to book and there are not that many of those rooms.
If you are in a resort without elevators, you will need to request first floor; that would be a request made by calling the reservation number.
The number you used to make your reservation is the one to call, not the resort number. Most of the resorts actually discourage faxes - they become an expense to the resort because of paper costs for printing and personnel costs to try to sort thru them and match them up to all the reservations. The DVC resorts have actually told members not to send them; they are not read and will be thrown out.
Otherwise, any room will work with a wheelchair and you don't need to do anything special.

The Skycap assistance that was mentioned is usually when the skycap brings a wheelchair for you to use and stays with you to push the wheelchair. You can request it from the airline, but don't count on it since you are bringing her own wheelchair. It might be provided if you have special situations- like more bags than you can handle with the wheelchair or not enough people to push a wheelchair and a stroller, for example.
If you need assistance from the baggage department to get to the Magical a Express bus, there are usually skycaps there offering services without having yo prearrange it.
But in general, wheelchair assistance is used for people who need to borrow a wheelchair for use in the airport.

 

[disney david]

If your flying jetblue they have it online hat you can fill out a form where you can let them know if you will be bringing a wheelchair. So you don't have to call not sure if all airlines do but jetblue one is a nice setup with lots of options and info and let you know if you do need to call or not. I think only one or two you might need to call to let them know but if your not hewing jetblue it won't matter and if you are yu can go online and use the form and it say clearly if you have to call and give you the number.

 

[WheeledTraveler]

You do not need to pre-notify the airline for anything. Even if you want assistance in the airport, you can do that when you arrive. Some people pre-notify if they need to use an aisle chair or have a powerchair/scooter for their own peace of mind, but they don't have to. I sometimes call for airlines with assigned seating to try to get a seat that fits my needs, but I've actually had times where that cause more problems than getting the seats changed while checking in (once my reservation is flagged with the wheelchair, airline employees seem to want to move me to the seats they think work best for me, even if I've already called to arrange the seat I need). It tends to depend on how much I have to go out of my way to give notification. Southwest gets notified more now than they did because it's now a question they ask everyone when booking online. When it was a separate form to fill out, I usually didn't bother. I remember my mother calling once for *her* peace of mind and pretty much being told that there was no point in my pre-notifying.

As Sue said, the only reason you absolutely need to contact WDW is if you need to change to an accessible room or are in a resort without elevators (so would need to request a first floor room and specify that it is for medical reasons). If the person can handle the steps on a regular DME bus, then you don't necessarily have to notify as they can put the wheelchair under the bus. If you'll need an accessible DME bus, you'll probably want to call ahead of time. You don't absolutely have to, but then you run the risk of having to wait quite a while (possibly over an hour) for an accessible bus.