Do you feel like someone who is going to Disney with you needs a mobility scooter for the vacation but can’t convince them?  Here are some facts to help you convince them:

• It is estimated that the average miles of walking a day at Disney World is 13 miles, yes 13 miles.
• Disney resorts are huge!  It can be a 15 minute walk just to get to the buses to get to a theme park.
• All Orlando resorts are huge ranging upwards to 20,000 rooms!
• the average temperature in Jan is 72 degrees, nice, but anywhere starting in April through October you can be in the high 80’s or 90’s with 100% humidity!

There is no shame in utilizing a mobility scooter for a Disney World, Sea World, Universal Florida Orlando Vacation.  The best thing to do is to arrange to have one delivered to your hotel, resort, timeshare, or private home and be able to use it anywhere, anytime.  Prices start as low as $25 a day and there are both scooters that can fit in a car trunk if you are commuting to the theme parks or specialty models that can only be transported via buses such as the Disney on-property transportation.

The scooter no longer look like they are for old-people and invalids.  There are now models which are sporty looking and not so bulky and the 3-wheeled version are best for maneuverability and speed.

When renting a mobility scooter, if you are not sure that the fleet of scooters your rental company is renting are ALL newer models, new technology scooters, that fully charge quickly (around 5 hours) you might want to confirm something as simple as the size of the battery charger.  The battery charger is what you use to plug in your scooter at night to re-charge the batteries. Some of the older fleet rental scooters have chargers the size of car batteries!  Yes, car batteries.  You might have seen one and not even known what you saw… unfortunately they have been seen frequently on Walt Disney World rental mobility scooters from external rental companies that are using older scooters in their fleet and the riders have to carry around their “car-size” rental battery charger even with them while in the park which only leads you to believe the battery life of the scooter to begin with may not have been enough for a full day without plugging in or since these are older scooters and chargers, they take a LONG time to fully re-charge and the rider was not able to get a full-charge in overnight and therefore had to take their charger with them.  Ask the right questions, make sure you get a newer scooter, new technology, and a guaranteed quick-charge, small (smaller than a brick and much lighter weight) battery charger.

There are several times a year that are peak scooter (mobility scooter, electric wheelchair, electronic convenience vehicle, ECV) rental times and therefore you should reserve your scooter as far in advance as possible to get your choice of scooter type and company:

• February around President’s Day weekend
• March-April for spring break
• May Memorial Day and school summer vacations begin
• June & July for summer family vacations
• August until school resumes
• October & November
• December from the second week through the first week in January

During these peak times scooters get sold out everywhere…from external companies as well as on-site at the theme parks.  Most external companies provide a cancellation policy of 48 hours without penalty, so it is best to go ahead and reserve in advance and cancel if you need to at the last minute.  This way you ENSURE you get the best scooter, one that fits your individual needs and preferences and you can get it from the company of your choice, with a large fleet and many model choices and excellent service commitments such as:

• Long operating hours – should open early in the morning, prior to theme park opening and till park closing

• Service commitment guaranty for maintenance, repair and/or replacement of 2-4 hours

• Ability to service you inside a theme park (not make you come to them)
• A variety of scooter models, just in case you find the one you selected does not meet your needs

Don’t be one of the many that think about it, try to go without one and then ruin your vacation because you decide at the last minute you really would like to rent a scooter for Disney touring but now they are all sold-out.  If you do find yourself in this last minute situation and have to settle for what might be left to rent, do your best to find out:

• how old the scooter is,
• how large the battery charger is,
• what condition the seat is in and is it cloth (they get wet and then you are stuck with a wet seat the whole time) or vinyl, and so forth.

Unfortunately during peak busy times many rental companies pull out their old units that should be retired just to have something to rent to you.  While you may have to settle for one, do your best to find the best from what is left.