Disney Tips Your Guide To A Great Disney Vacation
Guests visiting the various Disney Parks properties expect a certain level of safety during their magical experience. While the Walt Disney Company has gone as far as to hire FBI agents for its security and safety departments, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the greatest threat to Disney Park guests insidiously exists within the park experience itself.
Forget construction disguised as pixie dust; guests see the real bulldozers as the ECVs at Disney.
Credit: Theme Park Tourist/ Flickr
Related: Have Disney’s Cast Member Attitudes Changed for the Worst?
ECV stands for Electric Conveyance Vehicle, AKA a motorized scooter many guests with mobility challenges can rent to get around a theme park more easily. While it’s great that Disney strives to provide an inclusive and accessible experience for all guests, things have definitely gotten out of hand!
Anyone who’s tried to walk down Magic Kingdom’s Main Street, U.S.A., on any given day knows the greatest safety risk to their family at that moment is an ECV-related injury. Just here at Disney Dining, we’ve covered drivers running over other guests, drinking and driving incidents, costly injuries, near misses with children, and more!
Credit: Rob Bixby/ Flickr
Related: Could Thousands of Disney Guests Be in Danger of Being Banned for Rudeness?
I wish we could write off these incidents as true accidents and unfortunate rarities, but the truth is that entitlement fuels these issues, not incompetence. Some guests feel a certain sense of unearned priority when driving through a busy Disney Park crowd, wailing on the horn as if in traffic or carelessly sideswiping people in their way.
I have personally seen an ECV drive OVER another guest who was sitting in the fireworks viewing spot they wanted. Like their whole body! A screaming match ensued, and Cast Members did their best to settle it…but the audacity! Many guests dread interacting with ECV scooters for reasons way better than this. As far as we can tell, Disney has no real way of dealing with this issue.
Credit: Golden Mobility Scooter
Related: Disney Guest Gets “Revenge” For Rude Behavior on Popular Dark Ride
No one will look down on you if you need a mobility scooter to get around the park. They will, however, judge the heck out of you for using those ECVs at Disney to willingly run over their children.
Have you had or seen a crazy run-in with an electric scooter at a Disney theme park? We want the tea in the comments.
This post Disney’s Scooter Fiasco: Guests Injured, Outraged Over Safety Concerns appeared first on Disney Dining.
My husband and I use EVVs every time we’re at WDW. I can’t believe anyone on a Disney ECV could run over a whole body as stated in your article because they have a limiter on them restricting full speed. People will do whatever they can to get ahead of a scooter. Some scooters don’t stop immediately in these cases. Many people are rude to scooter operators just to get ahead. It’s all about getting ahead instead of waiting your turn. And the adults are the worst offenders!
After an ankle injury, I needed to rent an ECV. I found many times the opposite to be true. People would walk right in front of me requiring me to make an immediate stop. They would also walk in front of me and stop completely. I found it very difficult to maneuver around the parks in a scooter. I have developed a new tolerance for those who are required to use one regularly. Many are using them, though, for the first time so they can enjoy the parks. It takes an entirely different skill set to use one safely and well. I cannot reply about the circumstances you mentioned, but my guess is it was a result of an inexperienced, possibly confused driver unable to operate the ECV correctly.
I had to use an ECV at Disney World in 2022 due to bone-on-bone Osteoarthritis in both of my knees. I found that you DO have to be careful not to hit someone with the ECV but there also was a problem with kids running in front of me instead of yielding to me so I didn’t need to “stop on a dime”. Another BIG problem was people walking, not watching where they were going with their face buried in their cell phone,
I have been using a ECV for the last two years after a car accident left my back injured and I can’t walk for more than an hour without the pain setting in. As Frank and Madelyn said above the two big issues I have are the children dashing in front of you and people stopping right in front of you. The phone issue, I have come to a dead stop, honked my horn, and yelled look up but still have had people walk right into me because of their head was in their phone. I understand that phones are part of the Disney culture now with having to look at the app for things, but some people are really tuned into their phones. I keep my ECV on half speed as I find this is the flow of most walkers and it saves my battery. I personal have run over a ladies foot, I was driving down Main St. and she stepped right off of the curb, there was no “stopping on a dime” she did start yelling at me until her friend pointed out to her that she stepped right in my path. On the other side I have scene the crazy ECV drivers and myself was “rear-ended” once, no apology, they just backed up a little and zoomed off.
I don’t understanding why you have to have the ECV drive so fast I have my own and it goes 1/2 the speed as the ones dosney rents out
I have cancer so I can’t walk around without getting super tired. I have used a scooter for the past
Two years at Disney. The problem is no one pays attention to their surroundings. Run in front of you allowing children to run loose. Parents not paying attention to their children. I have to continue to brake to keep from
Hitting a child. Adults are no better.
I have never used an ECV at Disney World. I did try to rent one for my wife who had double knee replacement surgery but the last three available ECVs were rented to a morbidly obese family. I also have never witnessed any blatant use of an ECV to intentionally run into or hurt another guest. I have used wheelchairs on many occasions to push my wife around Disney World. During those times I did run into, and probably injured, quite a few other guests. Not on purpose, but because people were not being aware of their surroundings. Wheelchairs do not have brakes; I had to rely totally on my reflexes and upper body strength to control/steer/stop it.