Hi, am going in September with my 2 kids, both have autism. Would like to know if i buy dream passes for them, would their dad and i get in free. I know we will get in free if we buy a day ticket or even a 2 or 3 day ticket but can't find out about annual passes. Trying to budget so would like to know, TIA.
Only if the AP has the wheel chair sign on them, and you have the Easy Acces Card.
Me, Mam and little foster bro have Dreams passes, little bro has autism and severe global difficulties so he gets an green pass. We take little bro, his Dreams pass and his green access pass to the disability window and get a free carer ticket for whoever was willing to come help us with him each day we are there. Sucks as we don't stay in a Disney hotel so we have to go the window every day to get the carer ticket, and the window doesn't open until 0930 so we miss EMH :( If you stay at a Disney hotel, they will give you a carer ticket for your entire stay.
Hi thanks very much for posting. So I'll only have to buy 2 passes and not 4 so. Wow, that will be great, give me a few more bob for spoiling my 2 over there.
Its great that carers go free cos in florida, they dont even give the disabled a discount.
Thanks again.
Happy to help!
Urgh, don't want to even talk about Florida. We are going there in a few weeks and it has been beyond stressful knowing we have to plan everything and get times to return for each ride. Would like a list of names of people who were "hiring" disabled people to pretend to be their friend. I'd make them all have little bro for half an hour, see how they would actually cope!!
Quote from: twentythingamabobs on July 06, 2015, 10:03:21 AM
Me, Mam and little foster bro have Dreams passes, little bro has autism and severe global difficulties so he gets an green pass. We take little bro, his Dreams pass and his green access pass to the disability window and get a free carer ticket for whoever was willing to come help us with him each day we are there. Sucks as we don't stay in a Disney hotel so we have to go the window every day to get the carer ticket, and the window doesn't open until 0930 so we miss EMH :( If you stay at a Disney hotel, they will give you a carer ticket for your entire stay.
Does his AP have the wheelchair sign? i didn't realise that existed or was necessary until I read the post above to get the carer ticket free when showing your AP. Slightly worried i'll have issues for my trip now as just have a regular Francilien as read nothing about disabled ones on the form when I applied
Quote from: twentythingamabobs on July 09, 2015, 09:55:14 AM
Happy to help!
Urgh, don't want to even talk about Florida. We are going there in a few weeks and it has been beyond stressful knowing we have to plan everything and get times to return for each ride. Would like a list of names of people who were "hiring" disabled people to pretend to be their friend. I'd make them all have little bro for half an hour, see how they would actually cope!!
Seriously? That's how Florida works? I've always wanted to take my son but there's no way he'd cope with that system I may aswell stick to DLP :)
I cannot believe people actually ruin it for the people that really need it. I wish my son could que! I wish he could walk, talk and do all other kids his age do. It's disgusting people would "hire" someone to jump the que when they don't need too.
We will never ever go back to WDW as long as this system is in place, was a bad experience all round. They refuse to look at any medical evidence so absolutely anyone can walk into guest services and get a disabled pass. When you get to an attraction , they look at the queue times (which in August were 100-200 minutes for many of them) and take 10 mins off that which gives your return time. What we were expected to do for 200 minutes in the boiling sun is beyond me. There was only so many times we could watch Philharmagic or look in shops with a confused and hyper lad. You can only have 1 attraction wait time at a time as well so once you've waited for that attractuon you've then got another loooong wait for the next one. The pass didn't work for characters either so we did not get to meet a single one. Miserable experience to be honest!! On the plus side, it has made us appreciate DLP so much more.
Quote from: Bear84 on September 06, 2015, 05:24:25 PM
Quote from: twentythingamabobs on July 06, 2015, 10:03:21 AM
Does his AP have the wheelchair sign? i didn't realise that existed or was necessary until I read the post above to get the carer ticket free when showing your AP. Slightly worried i'll have issues for my trip now as just have a regular Francilien as read nothing about disabled ones on the form when I applied
Hi, yes his AP has a wheelchair sign on it. Sorry I've no experience with the Francilien passes :( I hope you can get something sorted!
My god! I'm shocked :o I don't understand why they won't look at any medical evidence?! I mean it's no surprise people are abusing the system!
I'm sure they can't continue like this? Doesn't sound very inclusive to me....
Quote from: littlebitofpixiedust on September 07, 2015, 03:47:03 AM
My god! I'm shocked :o I don't understand why they won't look at any medical evidence?! I mean it's no surprise people are abusing the system!
I'm sure they can't continue like this? Doesn't sound very inclusive to me....
I read somewhere that they ran into legal difficulties with the Americans with Disabilities Act in what they could ask for. And yes, folks were hiring disabled people to act as a relative, as up to 4 "family members" got front of line privileges with the disabled person. That had to stop.
Unfortunately this falls hard on some groups, but folks will just have to learn to wait like everyone else does I'm afraid. The current method allows the waiting to take place other than in the queueing area – perhaps you could structure the longest waits to include mealtimes? It's sad that it can't be done any other way.
Yeah, we ate quite a lot just for something to do. I would love for my little brother to be able to learn how to wait (or just be a typical child and wait like everyone else) but unfortunately that is not going to happen. It was horrible, the worst experience we've had at any theme park in any country. Forgot to add, when you get your return time, you just join the fast pass queue so there was sometimes 20 minutes wait there too. We frequently had to take him out of those queues and miss the ride all together as he had meltdowns. We are going to California next March and only scheduling 1 day at Disney just for the parades and shows.
It's privacy protection in America, it's also to not put the people with a medical condition in a corner to let them crawl up in themselves and not being able to do absolutely nothing.
Some mental issues can be fit perfectly into every-day-life / work, and that's another thing they wanna protect.
In Belgium I get discriminated for having psycological issues finding a job, I wouldn't have that problem in the US.
Therefore they are not allowed to look at anything private like a doctor's note stating your condition.
[what I have been told by my friend in the US when I visited there last year and went to WDW]
They had to change their system, because of all the fraud that had been going on with it.
Even DLRP usually with the green card uses time slots when you need to come back and do the ride, so it's not all that different.
I understand about the data protection laws, and it will be better for a lot of people. We have only ever been given return times a couple of times for PoC, and even then you still went on via exit you did not have to join the regular fast pass queue. I'm just having a bit of a whinge as we had so been looking forward to it and my little brother was distressed quite a lot :( which is hard for us to witness and even harder for him to have to go through.
I understand. I used to babysit a friend's ASD kid and she just does not get anything going any differently to her way. Disney has to consider all guests though and the principle is equality so they must have felt the existing method was unfair to non-disabled guests.
I quite like the handicapped system at DLP, I feel that they really do their best to make sure that people with a disability (be it mental or physical) get to get the most out of their stay.
It's not perfect, but nothing is. In any case, with some meticulous planning and clever time management, I can do everything I want to do during my stay (provided nothing is suddenly closed of course) so I'm really glad for that handicapped card :)
@twenty, I'm sorry to hear you went through such a terrible ordeal at WDW, I really feel for your poor little brother :(
I think for a lot of people the DAS at WDW works great for them if they have kids who are high functioning as they can like knowing the order and structure of the day. Just didn't suit us unfortunately! DLP has spoiled us as it really is perfect for the little one, the one place he is truly happy :D
I would advise against Tokyo Disney too I think (if you were ever considering this), because from what I understand, if you have a disability pass and want to do a certain ride, they leave you to wait for the duration of the queue when you arrive in a separate cozy waiting area.
So you've got to wait as long as everyone else, just not inside the queue.
Which is also a system for people that have a physical disability or a high functioning mental one, but I can see how it would be bothersome for others.
I don't know in how far they can/do issue return tickets like fast-pass but that would still leave you with the same problem as WDS I suppose.
If I hear about all the different systems around the globe, I do have to agree that DLP spoils us rotten. I find that it's generally very practical.