Customer service fail

[UNIrd]

I cannot begin to tell you how many of the courtesy wheelchairs end up stolen (And people are brazen. When I worked at Universal I must have had at least 12 come through with "Magic Kingdom" displayed prominently on the back). Also, any attraction that accommodates wheelchairs but not ECVs has an easier way for them to get in (usually via the exit). Some rides will require the guest to transfer from the ECV to a standard wheelchair to ride. Those are clearly marked.

Yep, I've seen MK wheelchairs at Legoland, MCO airport and various other places all over the Central Florida area. Had a friend one time send me a photo of one at an airport in another city.

 

[IzzyB]

Also, you note they "made her walk" - well obviously she was capable of doing so. Waiting for a transfer chair was always an option.

The truth is that extremely few people riding on ECVs are incapable of walking short distances.

Your friend had a temporary mobility impairment. This is not remotely comparable to someone with a real disability relating to mobility.

People with those types of disabilities bring their own wheelchairs (which they move under their own power - no cries that their children can't push them) and are universally well accommodated across the parks and resorts with a few exceptions.

You don't go to the Grand Canyon in a leg cast and ride a hover round and then complain you didn't get to explore everything. Step one foot outside he US (or one scooter wheel) and the level of accommodation even for wheelchairs drops dramatically. Using scooters as your friend did is relatively unheard of and frowned upon - often a caricature of American excess and gluttony when even depicted.

Do we sympathize when guests go to the parks and are confused about which ride is in which park? Do we sympathize when they go in and expect a short wait for something popular? How about the folks who expect to eat in Conderella castle without a reservation or that Mickey Mouse will come to their hotel room?

We always say they should read and research where they are going and plan accordingly. Guides for guests with disabilities - temporary or otherwise - clearly spell out what to expect and what is offered. There's no surprises. This is all known.

Your friend had a bad experience because she made a lot of uninformed assumptions and suffered the results thereof.

I agree, poor planning equals bad choices. But as I stated in another post she did call and get the information needed. However Universal guest services never told her she was not able to take it certain places or how she would get from the garage to the park.

She is able to walk very short distances. The doctor would like her walking as few steps as possible since the bone is healing very slowly. He wrote her a doctor note stating that. She also did all the research because she considering canceling, but after getting info determined ECV would work and be better than trying to work with her ex to change her week as he is not being very nice.

I think she would have been better about everything if she was told when she called and had a conversation with guest services. She knew what to expect at MK and Epcot. We both went in flying blind and depending on a very poor website and the information guest services provided when she called.

 

[Blue_]

I promise you most if not all rides at universal are ECV accessible right up to the loading area. There's typically 2 lines at every attraction-- the standby and the express/accommodation line. If you had an orange disability pass you would be admitted to every express line, which always has an elevator if there are stairs (most of the time with an ECV you don't even need the pass, but that depends on the attendant). I know for a fact the hogwarts express has accommodation lines (they even have a specific ADA cabin if you have to ride on the ECV), as well as kang and kodos, forbidden journey, escape from gringotts (they send you trough the exit), men in black... These are just the rides I've personally seen ECVs access. Next time you go ask guest services for a Riders Guide, those have all the info you'll need for accessing rides with an ECV

 

[IzzyB]

I promise you most if not all rides at universal are ECV accessible right up to the loading area. There's typically 2 lines at every attraction-- the standby and the express/accommodation line. If you had an orange disability pass you would be admitted to every express line, which always has an elevator if there are stairs (most of the time with an ECV you don't even need the pass, but that depends on the attendant). I know for a fact the hogwarts express has accommodation lines (they even have a specific ADA cabin if you have to ride on the ECV), as well as kang and kodos, forbidden journey, escape from gringotts (they send you trough the exit), men in black... These are just the rides I've personally seen ECVs access. Next time you go ask guest services for a Riders Guide, those have all the info you'll need for accessing rides with an ECV

The only one that did the special access was gringotts because they didn't have transfer wheelchairs available at the time. So they took us a back way and we missed all the pre stuff. If they had transfer available it would have been transfer and regular line. Mummy did transfer into push and express because elevator is in express. MIB, T2, Shrek, and Make up show all allowed ECV in. ET, transformers, and Minions required transfer and regular line. I guess maybe if we went to Guest services we would have gotten a pass? But again when she called and gave her information they never told her to go to Guest services.

 

[IzzyB]

We are going to IOA tomorrow I will go to Guest services and ask. We are having our youngest go to daycare and my mom is watching her at night so that we have one less kid to worry about. If I had known what it would have been like on Monday I probably would have done that for monday. But my youngest loves the parks so we took her. I called my mom today and asked if she would watch her tomorrow.

 

[sparky]

The only one that did the special access was gringotts because they didn't have transfer wheelchairs available at the time. So they took us a back way and we missed all the pre stuff. If they had transfer available it would have been transfer and regular line. Mummy did transfer into push and express because elevator is in express. MIB, T2, Shrek, and Make up show all allowed ECV in. ET, transformers, and Minions required transfer and regular line. I guess maybe if we went to Guest services we would have gotten a pass? But again when she called and gave her information they never told her to go to Guest services.

You have used the disability card before? I'm really surprised you didnt advise her to get the pass. I think everyone knows that calling into customer service isnt best for complicated issues.
Ive had issues in the past, and found the email option is best. They always call back with a person who has the info I need.
All of this is a learning opportunity. Things Universal could have done better, and things you could have done better.

 

[IzzyB]

You have used the disability card before? I'm really surprised you didnt advise her to get the pass. I think everyone knows that calling into customer service isnt best for complicated issues.
Ive had issues in the past, and found the email option is best. They always call back with a person who has the info I need.
All of this is a learning opportunity. Things Universal could have done better, and things you could have done better.

The pass I had was to skip lines because my son could not be in the heat too long and because we had to do many medical things outside of lines that we would never get to go on anything if we had to wait in lines. We were not looking to skip lines so honestly I didn't go to Guest services. We didn't need to at Disney and the lady on the phone never mentioned anything. So we skipped the 3rd long line to get some very bored kids on a ride. We didn't realize the ECV would be an issue in lines.

You are right it was a learning experience, but it put a bad taste in my friends mouth. Which I feel is a real loss because she has perfect age kids for Uni and her one child loves Harry Potter and the other is starting to read them. I guess that is my frustration with Uni and customer service. They put bad taste in people's mouth. My one friend did the split vacation too, again walking in not as a Disney fan, but as a the kids want to go to Orlando person. They live in California but wanted to do the whole HP experience since their kids are fans. They stayed on site. And while they enjoyed the hotel and express, several times they mentioned that Disney customer service was better and they liked Disney better. These are just regular people. I just wish Universal would improve in this area, I think it could help a ton. I also witnessed it with my son many times. Things very easy at Disney were way more difficult at Universal. It is actually when my husband stopped liking Universal and wanting to go to Disney more to be honest with you. He was never a Disney freak.

 

[maxairmike]

Unless you have a Smart Car, or just a small car with lots of people and stuff, you should be able to easily fit a rented ECV from a place like Apple Scooters in your car/trunk. The catch is you just have to spend a few minutes removing a few pieces and then putting them back together. Not much different than collapsing large strollers, really. I have a Sentra and easily fit even the large ECV one of my in-laws has in our trunk with some room to spare, without removing what was already in the trunk. I don't know if Apple tells you not to "disassemble" their scooters when you rent them, but really all you're doing is removing the seat, folding down the steering column onto the platform, and if you need to make the platform lighter, removing the battery. Obviously if you happen to get one of the park style ECVs from a rental place you can't quite do this, but I rarely see those kinds from Apple.

 

[IzzyB]

I barely fit the stroller in the back of my SUV with 7 people in my car lol

 

[maxairmike]

I barely fit the stroller in the back of my SUV with 7 people in my car lol

Ahhh 7 people. Yeah, that doesn't leave much room for cargo.

 

[IzzyB]

Ahhh 7 people. Yeah, that doesn't leave much room for cargo.

Yep, my friend and her two kids, plus my husband and I and our 2 kids.

Today they had no ECVs so we pushed the whole day. Thank goodness we left the youngest behind. It worked out fine today. Again, I think knowing what to expect ahead of time makes it a better experience.

We are all tired and part of me is glad that this is the last friend/family visit for a long time lol. We got hit with a visit in April, May, and June. A bit much and I am sick of doing parks from open to close lol

 

[Buckimion]

Apologies for thread jacking, but...

I am curious about the condition of transfer chairs where applicable. I normally travel with my own ecv, but as mentioned, ran into numerous places on my last trip to the MK where we needed to transfer me to a regular wheelchair. We have never encountered such piles of :censored: junk before in our lives. Chairs without rubber on the wheels (or on only one wheel), broken seats and the like. After my wife received help in getting me though the line at SM, we finally swore off transfer rides.

 

[IzzyB]

Apologies for thread jacking, but...

I am curious about the condition of transfer chairs where applicable. I normally travel with my own ecv, but as mentioned, ran into numerous places on my last trip to the MK where we needed to transfer me to a regular wheelchair. We have never encountered such piles of :censored: junk before in our lives. Chairs without rubber on the wheels (or on only one wheel), broken seats and the like. After my wife received help in getting me though the line at SM, we finally swore off transfer rides.

The condition seemed fine.

That is odd they had you transfer at Space Mountain, my understanding is she took the ECV thru that line. Now was this a transfer to get on the ride itself? Because she didn't have to do that, she was able to walk from the wheelchair to the ride since she is able to walk short distances.

 

[Buckimion]

Yup, we had to take the wheelchair the entire length from outside. A gent right behind us figured out that the fastest way though was to help my pooped-out wife with pushing. I will say that in multiple trips, Disney has been consistent in its inconsistency. (Ok, for that matter, last time I was at US/IOA I never had to transfer either, but that was 5+ years ago.)

 

[IzzyB]

Yup, we had to take the wheelchair the entire length from outside. A gent right behind us figured out that the fastest way though was to help my pooped-out wife with pushing. I will say that in multiple trips, Disney has been consistent in its inconsistency. (Ok, for that matter, last time I was at US/IOA I never had to transfer either, but that was 5+ years ago.)

Interesting how it keeps changing. We had to transfer 60% of the time at Universal and my friend didn't have to transfer at all at Disney lol Seems like both parks may be a little inconsistent with things. I know with my son the parks were inconsistent in how they dealt with stuff. Like Small world they let his stroller on, but Mexico once they pitched a fit even though the boats are the same. After about 3 months we no longer needed to take the stroller on, so we didn't do it enough for me to really see a pattern. They all were consistent with one thing when using his stroller, my daughter had to get out of the stroller, only he was allowed in it. Universal really was not used to a stroller being a wheelchair and the employees pitched fits many times about various things.

 

[Mad Dog]

Yep, my friend and her two kids, plus my husband and I and our 2 kids.

Today they had no ECVs so we pushed the whole day. Thank goodness we left the youngest behind. It worked out fine today. Again, I think knowing what to expect ahead of time makes it a better experience.

We are all tired and part of me is glad that this is the last friend/family visit for a long time lol. We got hit with a visit in April, May, and June. A bit much and I am sick of doing parks from open to close lol

Doing commando touring is no fun.