The Highly Coveted ECV Run

ME: "Animal Kingdom Strollers, this is Patrick!"

CAST MEMBER: "Hey, this is Ashley over at Expedition: Everest and we have a broken down ECV."

Yes.

Every so often, the phone in the stroller warehouse will ring and one will be fortunate enough to have a conversation like this. It is a conversation that many love to have and one that Cast Members will even fight for. What does this phone conversation mean for the lucky CM who picks up? ECV Run.

But first, what's an ECV?

An ECV, according to Disney, stands for Electric Comfort Vehicle. Of course, the average guest usually just asks for the "Electric wheelchair".

A Disney ECV (a Disney ECV)

As you can see, you'll be riding in style if you ever decide to rent an ECV from us. A large percentage of the people who rent these vehicles are either elderly or people with broken legs. There's another "large" percentage of people who rent our ECVs, but I'll leave their description to your imagination. 

Let me tell you about an ECV run I did not too long ago.

Blurry, but you get the idea.

The phone rang in the stroller warehouse and I was lucky enough to be stacking strollers nearby. I picked up the phone and was quickly told about the broken down ECV at Kilimanjaro Safaris. After writing down some info in the ECV log, I made my way back to the ECVs to ready the Tow ECV. That's right. We have an ECV whose sole purpose is to tow other ECVs. After positioning another charged ECV behind the Tow, I pushed a button and slowly lifted up the new ECV. After switching on the piercing, orange, flashing light, I was ready to go. 

You can also tow wheelchairs...

I pulled out of the warehouse already a hero in my co-workers eyes as they all asked me the same question: "How far?" Happily, I was able to tell them Kilimanjaro Safaris, one of the furthest points in the park to do an ECV run.

My route

The trip to the destination is always the best part of an ECV run. I love getting to see parts of the park that I normally don't get to see during my shift, like the beautiful Tree of Life or the monumental Everest. Traveling at a whopping 5 MPH also provides a great laugh for many Guests as I pass by and also for myself as I picture how ridiculous I look. Many Cast Members shout out funny things to me (recently I got "The struggle is real!" as I barely made it over a hill), usually voicing their jealously towards my easy and time-consuming task. The ride there culminates in finding the Guests, which sometimes is a task in itself.

On this particular trip, I was welcomed by the CM's outside of the Safari's queue and was instructed that the Guest was broken down inside the queue itself. I parked the Tow and replacement outside and walked inside to find the Guest. I approached an early-30's man with sunglasses on who was standing next to his broken-down ECV. As I began to ask him questions, he quickly informed me that, "No speak English." Challenge accepted. As I plopped down on his ECV, I asked him what wasn't working, his answer being, "Broken." I slipped in my key, watched the charge meter jump into the green zone (meaning it is charged), and gave a little push of the lever. The ECV slid forward an inch and the man jumped back in surprise. 

Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens much too often. The ECV's have a censor in both the seat you sit on and the backrest and if they are not triggered by enough weight, the ECV will not run; a smart safety feature that does more harm then good.

I began to explain to the Guest that he had to really sit down in the seat to make sure he was activating the censor. Due to the language barrier, I spent more of my explanation using physical movements to show him what I meant. This featured myself bouncing my butt up and down on the seat, over and over, trying to show him how to really sit down. After two minutes of this, I couldn't help but laugh at myself. 

Eventually, I switched out the ECV to make the Guest happy and I began my return trek back to Strollers. While the journey back isn't as exciting as the journey out, it is still filled with wonderful sights and moments, with my favorite thing to say to Guests being, "You got to see the second parade today!"

Thanks for reading! I'm going to try and crank out a couple more posts before my program is over (May 30! I can't believe it's almost done.)

See ya,

P.W.