We finally made it to Disneyland after almost four years of waiting. Stephenie had originally planned our trip for April 2020, and then the COVID pandemic hit. The stay home for two weeks turned in to stay home for two years plus and we just held on to the tickets. It just so happened that our rescheduled trip coincided with the 70th anniversary of the opening of Disneyland.
During that waiting between 2020 and 2025, we got our official disabled veteran ID cards which allowed us access to the Disney military discounts for the tickets and resort hotel! While this was pretty expensive to stay at the Grand Californian, it definitely made it a lot easier to get between both Disneyland and the California Adventure parks. Our accommodations there were very nice and handicap accessible.
We did a four day stay at the hotel and alternated between Disneyland and California Adventure each day. This is the first major travel that we have done with all of my gear including the scooter, which allowed me to get around the parks pretty easily, as well as a walker and cane for short duration transfers. Plane travel is a little challenging for me because the seats are so narrow and walking on to the plane is a challenge. I did pretty good on both air travel events being able to take advantage of the early boarding process to get to our seats. We had booked seats in the premium section which gives a little bit of extra legroom and is closer to the front of the plane right behind first class. I basically drove my scooter to the gate and down the ramp to the plane and used my cane to walk the rest of the distance to my seat.
We did a lot with the first day at Disneyland. On this trip, Samantha got to bring her best friend along with us and the two of them went on a lot more rides and covered a lot more ground than Stephenie and I. I was able to go on about 8 rides while we were there and the Disneyland staff were really great in recognizing I needed special accommodations for access as well as stopping rides completely to allow me to enter and exit as needed. There was only one ride in particular that was challenging for me to access because of the winding and dark access lines. My vision has problems going from light to dark so when that happens Stephanie had to guide me so I didn’t run into people and things.
The second day of our adventure was California Adventure and I was very tired that day. We did a little bit of California Adventure in the morning and came back to the room, the girls wanted to go swimming so they did that while I took a pretty good nap. Samantha and her best friend really liked the roller coaster at California Adventure and went on it to multiple times during our stay. The next day was Disneyland again and during the first half of the day we went on multiple rides a few of them were probably a bad idea for me. The ride where you fly around in the Millennium Falcon was particularly jerky and it definitely beat me up. A little later on we went on the Cars ride in California Adventure where I had a little bit of a mishap falling into the car while trying to navigate to the step down. I landed pretty hard and bruised myself. The ride itself was pretty fast and fun but I was disheartened by that point. I had Stephenie take me back to the hotel where they had a large fireplace in the lobby and I set up there. I took a nap in one of their large lounge chairs while the girls went back and did more rides.
The food was a highlight at Disneyland and at the resort too. One day we got to eat lunch at the Blue Bayou inside of Disneyland with steak, shrimp gumbo and monte cristo sandwiches. At the Disneyland resort there are 3 restaurants that were used and all the food was great. We did go to a character breakfast at the Storybook Cafe in the Grand Californian. We saw Mickey, Minnie and some of the other characters, the food was buffet style and really good. We got a little bit of everything as well as a few omelettes.
By the third day, we had done a lot of walking around and I’m sure the girl’s feet were very tired and sore but I was doing great because I was riding in style on my scooter. We definitely tested the range of the battery on that scooter because it died when we were on our way from Disneyland back to the hotel. Stephenie had to push me back to the hotel while it was dark and I was trying not to run into people. I went back to the room a little bit early and the girls went out to do more rides and watch the Fantasia presentation. I wish I would have had the stamina to be able to do all of those things but I was wiped out.
From Disneyland, we transitioned up to the high desert in Hesperia near Stephenie’s mom’s house, staying at a local Marriott property for the next 6 days. The sleeping arrangements at the Marriott were a little less comfortable but I was pretty tired so I was able to sleep decently. We got to hang out and spend time with Stephenie’s Mom, brother and his family as well as go on a little adventure to one of Stephenie’s cousins house in Yorba Linda CA. On Sunday, it was my brother’s birthday so we got to meet up with my brother and sister and go to a restaurant for dinner. The following day, they came up to Stephenie’s mom’s house and we hung out some more. It was great to see all the family and catch up with them on life and plans for the future.
The whole Disneyland trip was great and I’m glad that we got to do it but there was 1 aspect that was a challenge and turned me into a mean person for about 30 seconds. As a person in a mobility scooter, I am apparently invisible to people in a crowd until they get right up on me coming the other way. At that a moment, when they see me they have to make a decision to go left or right or to keep coming or go around my path. Too often at crucial junctures, the park people decided that they wanted to keep walking 5 or 6 people abreast down the middle of the path and that they weren’t going to move no matter who was coming. During the first few hours of driving around the park, I would slow down or stop or try to avoid being in their way. By lunch of the first day, I was over that and I was going straight and you better get out of the way or I’m gonna run you over. One other thing that was a huge annoyance was people jumping across my path and usually they were pulling a kid in tow and the kid wouldn’t make it. I don’t know how many ankles I broke or toes I ran over but it was a significant number. I should have started counting so I could have a good estimate of the number of road rage points I racked up at Disneyland on my scooter. The third day we were at Disneyland again and at that point I didn’t care about people’s feelings and I was really starting to not be a nice person so I had to remind myself not to be the mean old dude on the scooter given every disabled person a bad Rep because I was tired of being nice. There were however a few rude and insistent people who wouldn’t move out of the way and I just kept moving forward until they decided they didn’t want to get run over.
One other thing I noticed about being in the scooter or any mobility device is your perspective of the world and of people around you is different. In most cases, in a crowd, I am at about waist high with my eyeballs so I have to look up at everybody and that puts a significant strain on my shoulders and neck. That was uncomfortable after the second day or so of driving around in the scooter, making me pretty tired and making it more difficult to handle the scooter.
Overall though the whole trip was a success and I hope we can do it again in the near future. Stephenie will be providing some photos from our trip that I will add to this article as soon as I get them from her.
