Travelling to DW from Spain

[alfgut]

Hello,

I have a question that I can't get solved anywhere so if you'd be able to help me it would be great! I am travelling from Spain to Disney World with my parents next december. The problem is that my father has mobility problems as a result of a stroke that he suffered several years ago. As a consequence, he needs a wheelchair to move around. We are going to take his electric powered wheelchair with us and we'll rent a car there. Now, here at Madrid we need a special permission to hace the right to park at the disabled places our car. I know that at the U.S.A. you have a similar permission. Shall it be enough with our Spanish permission or should we get another one there? Should we get it at the car rental office? All the information you could give me would be great cause I have not been able to get it from anywhere.

Thank you very much, indeed.

 

[Sarahsmom85]

Hi
i don't have the answers but I will see what I can find out.
Please answer some questions for me.
The permission you what form is it? DO you have plates or somepeeople call them tags. Or do you have a little plastic hanger that goes over the rear vier mirror, or just a sticker?
Is it removerable?
Also are you renting a car or van? Is it from a car rental or a speciality car rental?

Is the power chair able to get into a car or is it a EVC?
In other words is it power chair or a scooter?

I'm renting a wheelchair van in May, because our power chair cannot go into a trunk. I have not found any car rental other than speciality dealers that rent them. If you found someplace else that rents them please let me know.

I'll let you know what I find out.

 

[Sarahsmom85]

Just talked to Ira at Medical Travel, He said to take a photo of your lience plate and keep your id close. He said bring whatever you use at home.
Other than that I would ask the car rental people.

 

[alfgut]

The form of the permission is a paper piece (A4 size) with my father's name and the numbers of our authorized cars plates. It has an hologram of the European Union on it and it is supposed to be standard for all the Union. It comes inside a transparent plastic envelope so you leave it on the car glass so the police can see it. It is removerable so we will take it with us.

We rented the car (it is a SUV, not a van) at Budget thanks to a Hotwire special offer. Here at Spain we have a Volvo V70 XC (kind a station wagon). Our power chair (it is a wheelchair, not a scooter) comes apart, so we put it into the car's trunk in separated pieces. That way we don't need a special vehicle to transport the chair.

I've seen several rental companies of special adapted vans through the net, cause we thought at the beginning about renting a chair at Orlando, but finally we decided to take our own chair cause it's cheaper for us and more comfortable. I have observed that the concept on electric powered wheelchairs is different here in Europe. On the U.S.A. wheelchairs are more powerful but also heavier than here, so you need special vehicles (normally big ones). Here, we have lack of parking space so chairs manufacturers tried to make wheelchairs suitable on practically any car. The chair my father uses is the Sunrise Medical Powertec F40 (www.sunrisemedical.com). There is a smaller one, the F35. You make take a look at them and tell me what do you think about.

Thank you very much for your help, indeed. If you need anything my e-mail is alfgut2002@yahoo.es.

Best regards.

 

[Sarahsmom85]

My husbands chair is very heavy, his has a tilting seat.
It does not come apart. Also he does not walk at all so he stays in the chair while in the van. It is easier that way then to transfer him to a seat and then out again. Although I did do that back years ago when we only had a car.
A van rental will be one of our biggest expense on our trip but it will make life easier. We will be able to come and go as we please.

When we where on vacation before and we didn't have our plates, we got a sticker with the wheelchair symbol on it and I just layed it on the dash. Anytime I went anywhere where there was a gate I just pointed to it and they showed us to handicap parking.
But I would only do that at private parking lots like Disney, at the Mall you would still get a ticket, with just a sticker.
But you should be fine with what your father has just keep it on the dash.


The

 

[alfgut]

Ok, we will follow your advices. Thank you very much again for all your helpful comments. Very much of our fun at Disney will be thanks to you and people like you that helped us planning our trip. I hope there is good weather when we get there to make things perfect

Best regards.

Alfredo.