Disney takes good care of its handicapped visitors...

enwar3

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2005
1,086
0
0
I never noticed, not being handicapped myself or having anyone like that in the family. But on vacation over winter break, my bro hurt his foot in Japan and was stuck in a wheelchair for most of vacation. Our tour stopped by DisneySea, and I was amazed at how well the park was built to accomodate those in wheelchairs.

I don't know if the parks in the US are similar, because I never noticed, but man I was amazed at DisneySea. There was always a ramp-ALWAYS. I don't think it's a law in Japan to make everything handicapped-accessible like it is in America. But they always had ramps and elevators, and you know how complex Disney makes their themeparks. Additionally, my brother recieved this card that allowed him to check in at a ride, then wander off and explore until the current wait time for when he checked in was up. Then he could return to the ride and board with no waiting time. This made it a lot easier for him to get around the park, since wheelchairs are already much, much slower and more inconvenient than walking.

Nor did we have to ask for these services either. Disney employees would see us standing in line and offer my brother and our family the same service. I was especially amazed when, before the closing fireworks, a Disney employee asked if we would like to be ushered to a wheelchair-only viewing area. It was obvious that this area was built for that specific need in mind, because even the fences had hinges that allowed the top to fold down to eye-level of a person in a wheelchair.

Anyhow, I just wanted to let you all know that Disney seems to take great thought with its handicapped visitors - much more so than I have ever seen at any similar facility. I'm not saying that Disney is able to completely make up for somebody's disabilities, but they tried their best to give my brother a good time and it definitely made a difference.
 

Epic Fail

Diamond Member
May 10, 2005
6,252
2
0
Yes, it would be nice if the system works as intended.

Last time I was at Disney World, the only people I saw using wheelchair/motorchair were obese people who were simply too fat to walk. They were definitely not crippled because when they skip the hour wait line using the handicap entrance, they were all able to walk onto the rides and promptly take up two seats. The most unfair part was the fat ass's family can skip the lines too.
 

Injury

Lifer
Jul 19, 2004
13,066
2
81
Originally posted by: yamadakun
Yes, it would be nice if the system works as intended.

Last time I was at Disney World, the only people I saw using wheelchair/motorchair were obese people who were simply too fat to walk. They were definitely not crippled because when they skip the hour wait line using the handicap entrance, they were all able to walk onto the rides and promptly take up two seats. The most unfair part was the fat ass's family can skip the lines too.

This actually makes sense though, because an obese person must see the world twice as fast as other people because they'll only live half as long. Take solace in the fact that they are probably miserable and have only themselves to blame.
 

alkemyst

No Lifer
Feb 13, 2001
83,769
19
81
Disney and most theme parks are very accomodating to all guests. Unfortunately the latest trick is to just get a wheelchair and basically get special treatement. I know in the past that Disney would allow the handicapped to bypass many lines, someone said now the will allow the handicapped person to wait up front but have another from their party have to travel the line.

The biggest problem with all the wheelchair bound people that don't need to be is since they have no practice at it, it takes them a long time to get from wheelchair to ride and back out believeably.

During two days in both parks we saw people in wheelchairs that also were flying around briskly at other points.
 

Leros

Lifer
Jul 11, 2004
21,867
7
81
I was amazed when I was at a Disney park at just how well they ran the place. They had crowd control all over the place. Even with a ton of people in the place, they kept it walkable without traffic jams. There were employees cleaning up all day long. The place was spotless, no trash anywhere. Just a bunch of things like that that made the experience much better than most theme parks.
 

blackdogdeek

Lifer
Mar 14, 2003
14,453
10
81
disney world in orlando has that fastpass system whereby you can get a ticket from a machine that gives you a return time for that specific ride. instead of waiting in line, you go around and do whatever then just return to the ride at your appointed time and get on a much shorter, higher priority line for about a minute.

this worked out very well. we could get the fastpass ticket for say the peter pan ride, then go to our character lunch and get the princess autographs for my daughters (and have all you can eat prime rib for daddies and mommies) then come back and get right on a ride.
 

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
Aug 24, 2001
31,796
2
0
Originally posted by: yamadakun
Yes, it would be nice if the system works as intended.

Last time I was at Disney World, the only people I saw using wheelchair/motorchair were obese people who were simply too fat to walk. They were definitely not crippled because when they skip the hour wait line using the handicap entrance, they were all able to walk onto the rides and promptly take up two seats. The most unfair part was the fat ass's family can skip the lines too.

Yeah, I've seen that as well. My brother, his wife, sister, mom, nephew, and niece went to Disney World in December and they actually had to rent a wheelchair for my mom. She couldn't keep up with all the walking in Magic Kingdom and was worn out (little old woman....not obese). They didn't abuse the handicap entrance though.

You'd think it would be good for some of those obese people to get out of their wheelchairs/scooters though and lose some lbs.
 

ghostman

Golden Member
Jul 12, 2000
1,819
1
76
I was in Disney World recently and I did notice how they accomodated the handicapped. In fact, I joked with my sister that we break her legs to skip the lines. I think it's great that Disney is so accomodating, but I'm pretty certain a good number of those ladies on motorized wheelchairs did not need those wheelchairs.

And since someone mentioned obesity earlier, I have to admit I was rather surprised to see that many obese people. I heard America has a weight issue, but I hadn't witnessed it until that vacation. It might have been exaggerated since I went during the period when Disney offered the meal plan for free (which is a excellent deal!).

Additionally, my brother recieved this card that allowed him to check in at a ride, then wander off and explore until the current wait time for when he checked in was up. Then he could return to the ride and board with no waiting time. This made it a lot easier for him to get around the park, since wheelchairs are already much, much slower and more inconvenient than walking.

This is called FastPass and is available to everyone, not just the handicapped. It's an amazing time saver and I'm surprised that more people don't use it. Universal Orlando had this feature, but they opted to turn it into a VIP service for more money.
 

enwar3

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2005
1,086
0
0
Originally posted by: ghostman

Additionally, my brother recieved this card that allowed him to check in at a ride, then wander off and explore until the current wait time for when he checked in was up. Then he could return to the ride and board with no waiting time. This made it a lot easier for him to get around the park, since wheelchairs are already much, much slower and more inconvenient than walking.

This is called FastPass and is available to everyone, not just the handicapped. It's an amazing time saver and I'm surprised that more people don't use it. Universal Orlando had this feature, but they opted to turn it into a VIP service for more money.

No it wasn't FastPass.. we had those too. Disney rides are set up so the standby wait time might be 80 minutes, and the FastPass might be usable about 120-180 minutes after you get it. My brother would get his card signed, and then he could come back and ride the ride after the standby wait, which is normally much shorter than the FastPass wait. Also, he could get his card signed at a number of rides at once, whereas FastPass holds you to a time limit.