Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Disney should just install one long, continuous Omnimover. Guests would board at the turnstiles and from there, their DisneyBuggy would travel through each and every attraction, show, shop and restaurant. No one bumps into anyone else. No more waiting in those long lines. No one saving spaces in line for their friends who somehow are running 20 minutes behind them and now have to squeeze and shove their way through the queue upsetting everyone. You'd spend no more than perhaps 6 hours and you'd have done it all. Plus, you'll be relaxed and comfortable the entire time, and enjoying tasty snacks and beverages as well. At the end of your visit, you are offloaded at the exit gates, where a PeopleMover whisks you off to your car.
Originally Posted By barboy2 ///barboy,if you don't mind me asking where in the world are you?/// I was just in Taipei, Taiwan(AKA 'Formosa') for some recreation and fun....... ..........ironically Taipei looks like the scooter(as in two wheels, 'Moped'/motorcycle style)capital of the world. SCOOTERS WERE EVERYWHERE and seemed to easily outnumber autos. I usually hang out in the Philippine islands but right at this very moment I am in the East Bay Area of California. I hang out in Mexico fairly often too. And I can guarantee you that if you ever visit Hong Kong Dl, Tokyo Dis. Resort or Dl Paris Resort that you will not see many strollers, wheel chairs or motorized chairs----- good luck seeing many huge people as well. And if you do see huge people there is a higher chance ---MUCH HIGHER--- that it will be in Paris compared to East Asia. Westerners, especially USAers, eat big and move their bodies least.
Originally Posted By fkurucz "eat big and move their bodies least." Or as comedian Jim Gaffigan says about why he likes having food delivered to his house, because "my two favorite things are eating and not moving".
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Parts of three days in the last 10 at HKDL (only one full, one just an hour for fireworks/shopping) ... saw many things ... but not ONE single ECV. None. zero. So ... either China simply makes disabled folks disappear (not likely, sorry) or we just have a huge amount of lazy, morbidly obese, entitlement mentality Americans riding thru WDW and over anything or anyone in their path. I don't want to hear disability BS ... including the famous 'you can't tell just by looking' line ... I'll tell you what a lifetime of being an observer (including being paid to watch people and how they act) has taught me: a good 80-90% of ECV users have no 'need' for them. Just a desire to have one.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb You just have to look at the massive increase in wheelchair/ECV usage increase over the last 15-20 years. Back in my married years, the '90s, my husband and I were frequent visitors to Disneyland and there were very few guests in wheelchairs on any given visit. And most of the people riding in them were elderly, wearing casts or clearly disabled. Since I started taking my son to the parks (East coast and West) we still see very few wheelchairs, but ECV usage has gone from a few people here and there to one or two every direction you look, more during parades. Has the percentage of disabled people visiting Disney increased so much over the years? Not likely. America is just getting lazier and lazier. It's actually a very sad statement on U.S. citizens. If women could do a day at Disney in their Sunday best, including heals, back in the 50s and 60s there's no reason we can't strap on a pair of sneakers and haul our over-sized back ends around the parks now.
Originally Posted By MinnieSummer Scooters and the mob scenes are the very reason that I will never do the Osborn Family spectacle of dancing lights again. Way to crowded and the scooters were running into everyone. I was terrified my DD was going to get run over.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 I can't believe I'm making excuses for lazy people.... but if you're only at the parks for a few hours, I see no need for the ECV for non-handicapped people, but if you're there for 10+ hours then it's easy to see people getting tired and needing one. But cheap person that I am, that's a lot of money to spend. Same goes for strollers. My grandson, 5, was fine all day long, but my daughter would have loved a stroller from the time they decided to leave the park until they got back to the hotel.
Originally Posted By fkurucz It pains me to see how we have become a nation of land whales. Morbid obesity seems to be on the rise. I have a bad right knee, but I'll be damned if I'll ever use a scooter or wheelchair to get around a theme park.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 if you're at the park and you get tired- that's a clear signal to go back to the hotel for a while and rest. That's what makes sense to me, not jump on a scooter and be cranky because you're still tired- just more mobile
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb I am over weight (not morbidly obese) have asthma, an occasional heart rhythm issue, which hit hard my last trip, bad knees, back problems and even hurt my ribs on a water slide at the beginning of a WDW trip. I have done the parks injured, exhausted, in pain and even on crutches, but I have managed to avoid the ECV. If my mother is ever physically well enough for a trip to WDW we will need to rent one for her, but she has genuine mobility issues and if she ran into someone or over their foot, she would be quite apologetic. Laziness is no good reason for using one.
Originally Posted By mele I am the same way. I had major surgery less than 2 weeks before going to an outdoor concert at the zoo. We rented a wheelchair but I refused to use it. Sat on the ground instead. I couldn't get out of bed the next day but there was no way I was going to use that chair. (Honestly, I was really overweight at the time and that was the biggest reason why I DIDN'T use it. I didn't want anyone to think that was why I was using the chair. Sometimes pride isn't such a bad thing.)
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt << but my daughter would have loved a stroller from the time they decided to leave the park until they got back to the hotel.>> it stinks when they fall asleep on the monorail!
Originally Posted By Bobwelbaum I've just read thru this thread, and I have to tell you this story -- I was in Japan with a group from the US a couple of years ago. Our tour included a visit to a Buddhist temple. I'm currently working as a substitute teacher, and I always take some video or extra material along in case we run out of work. I was teaching at a middle school and they happened to be studying Buddhism. Fortunately I had some video I had taken at that temple. When I showed it, one boy asked. "I thought all Japanese people were thin. Where did all those fat people come from?" The people he was talking about were all Americans in our group.
Originally Posted By Longhorn12 ^ That's awesome My mom split her knee the first time we went to Disney World and was offered an ECV, but she declined saying she wouldn't become "one of those people" so I got to wheel her around in a wheelchair.
Originally Posted By MousDad I was at the grocery yesterday, and a guy in an ECV was doing a 3-point turn at the end of the aisle, to turn around and go back to the aisle behind him. I was coming from that direction, so I waited while he backed up. While he was still backing up and there became room, I pushed my cart in front of him and gave him a friendly nod as I walked past. His response was "I didn't give you the signal that you could go by."
