Knowing that I would need to do minimal walking on my trip, I went over to DISBOARDS.COM and posted my question to my fellow Disney friends: I'll be visiting Disneyland with a healing ankle and a walking boot...what should I do???
After reading a few responses, the answer was pretty clear: I should rent an ECV scooter.
After getting some recommendations and going over various price quotes, I settled on a rental. I went with Deckert's Rentals, which quoted me $135 for a Saturday thru Wednesday rental. They would deliver the scooter to my hotel (I was staying at a hotel near Katella Ave & Harbor Blvd). There was no delivery charge or any deposits required. When I arrived at my hotel, the scooter was already delivered and waiting for me. The hotel I was staying at told me that when I was done with the scooter for the day, that I could leave the scooter at the front desk and they would store the scooter and charge it over-night for me. This way, the scooter did not take up any space in my hotel room. When I was ready to head to Disneyland every morning, I would just head to the front desk, ask for my scooter and head out to the parks.
I would ride the scooter to Disneyland from my hotel, go through security, go through the ticket turnstiles and roam around the park. Here is video of me heading out to the parks one morning:
Once I decided what area I was planning to tour, I would park the scooter with the other parked scooters and wheelchairs or in some hidden corner away from the crowds. I would walk to the attractions I wanted to ride and stand in lines if I needed to. If I got tried from walking or standing, or if I was done with a certain area, then I would get back onto the scooter, ride to another part of the part and repeat my routine. I would leave the scooter unattended for a few hours. And every time I came back for the ECV, it would be OK. I think a couple times the ECV was moved to a location away from crowds or the attraction I was visiting. The scooter worked out GREAT. This made touring Disneyland so easy for me. Using an ECV scooter at Disneyland SAVED my trip.
Not only did using an ECV scooter help me with getting around the parks with minimum walking, but I was able to take advantage of certain perks that comes with using a scooter at Disneyland. I was able to get special Fast Passes that allowed me to skip waiting in long lines at the most popular rides. The basic procedure was that I would go to the exit area of the attraction I was interested in riding, say Peter Pan's Flight in Fantasyland, go to the Cast Member working the attraction, show them my scooter or my foot in the walking boot, and get issued a hand-written Fast Pass with a designated time to return to the attraction. For the most part, the wait time to ride would be for a short period. Maybe no more than 30 minutes. The following is the Fast Pass I got when I wanted to ride Peter Pan's Flight.
As you can see, the posted stand-by wait time for Peter Pan's Flight was 35 minutes. However, I could return back to the attraction in 25 minutes. This gave me enough time to park my scooter, walk back to the attraction and wait for my turn.
In the Fast Pass I got for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the posted stand-by wait time was 1 hour, 10 minutes. I just had to wait 15 MINUTES before it was my time to ride. I'm sure the wait times are based on certain criteria like crowd levels, time of day, popularity of the ride. Or maybe it's just random depending on how many people are requesting the special Fast Passes that day. In the case with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, I was able to ride the attraction 3 times by skipping the stand-by line. When an attraction had no special accommodation for people in wheelchairs, I would just get a regular, computer-issue Fast Pass if they were available.
For the 5 days I was touring Disneyland, I might have used these special Fast Passes a handful of times. Lucky for me, I was able to use the regular Fast Passes to avoid waiting in any long lines. But to know that I could avoid some major lines on the popular attractions was a great comfort and relief. Plus knowing that I was using an ECV on this trip and that it was my umpteenth visit to Disneyland, I knew this was gonna be a very low-key, non-aggressive trip. I didn't have to ride EVERY attraction on this trip, just my faves. I think I even skipped riding Toy Story Midway Mania on this trip. Actually I think I only spent one day at Disney California Adventure and the other four days at Disneyland.
So all in all, I am very grateful that I was able to enjoy my Disneyland trip despite traveling with a walking boot and using a ECV scooter. Every day I used the scooter, I would use it to move around the parks. I actually did walk a bit, going from attraction to attraction within a certain area. Even thou I would be at the parks from opening to closing, maybe taking mid-day breaks or taking my time with my dining plans, the scooter hardly lost a charge. The scooter was always 100% charged whenever I got back on it. So if you end up with a fractured ankle and need to use a wheelchair or scooter to tour Disneyland, I highly recommend that you do. You'll be glad you did!
John
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