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[SheHen23]

Hi, My 12 year old daughter has a heart condition   :sick:  so she was entitled to a form which means she could wait outside the queue. This usually means entering through the exit and a much shorter wait. The pros are obvious but there were a couple of cons. i.e: skipping the queue means missing the build-up & the atmosphere. And also, we are a family of 5 & the max number of family members on the form is 4, meaning at least 1 of us would sometimes miss out (though the maj. of 'cast members' would overlook that point if we smiled & asked nicely). What I would like to know is, how does everyone else feel about this?   We definately detected a number of funny looks while we were waiting in the designated area. Do those who queue for an hour resent  [-X disabled guests, special privaleges? I would be most interested to know the answer. :?: I would like to imagine that everyone was understanding, but who knows?

[Angela]

For me it ain't no problem if a handicapped person goes first... it is a minority in the park I think... the lines there are not really an hour long I think... so that would be cool...

Only I thought I heared somewhere that Disney would try to integrate the handicapped as much into the lines as possible.. so the handicapped person and 1 other could go wait in the special line and the other persons of the family has to stand in the real line and when they got in front to ride the ride (nice saying... lol) the whole family goes in at the same time.. but I do not know if this is working at the moment in Disney. Anyone else heared about this of is it me hearing little voices?

[SheHen23]

Actually, that is what I was told at city Hall would happen but I don't think it is working out that way. You know, I would be happy if they just provided a bench at intervals along the queue line for the disabled to rest but I suppose that isn't very practical. Some rides are better than others at providing access. The worst experience was for Armeggedon for which even when you get to the front you have to stand in some kind of holding pen. Still, I'm glad you're ok with the situation, as it makes a huge difference to how we enjoy the whole experience as a family.
Hey, I've just noticed we could have been there at the same time. I was in DLRP on 25, 26 & 28 June.

[Soap]

I can relate to that feeling SheHen. I also have someone in my family who is disabled and somtimes people don't seem to understand.
I don't think it's a good idea to make queu lines disabled proof, cause some people who are disabled just can't wait.

[Angela]

sehen.. I arrived at the 1st of July.. so I just missed you... I returned home the 6th... and well... cannot wait to go back again.. but have to do a little bit of saving first again...

[ailsa]

My sister's severly disabled and we have the same problems because she cannot queue she's can't sit for an hour in a queue. They are making alot queues have wheelchair access which mean my sister misses out on alot of rides. It'n not that bad on DLRP but in the US ones you get people faking it all the time!

I suppose I've grown up with a disabled sister so I'm used to looking for disabled access stuff.

[speedpacket]

Personally,  I have no problem whatsoever with a disabled person to go on the rides taking the shortcut.  After all, we also have VIP fastpasses, which is worse if you get the picture as these people actually pay to be able to ésueue jump" faster (they stay in the quites or castle club which is more expensive)

I don't have a problem with that either, since we have done that in the past as well.

I'm currently in Disney (writing this from my wireless in Holiday Inn), and I must say however that I hate the fact how SOME disabled people take it for granted that their entire family including themselves can actually benefit from these privileges, and don't seem to understand that they too have rules.

For instance, yesterday evening, we were waiting one hour and longer for the Fantillusion parade (which sucked, by the way, I'll write another report about that later), and right before the parade started, there was a family wading through the crowds telling guests to moveout of their way because they were to go to the designated area.

My point is - I have no problem at all with providing access to them and designate specific viewing areas as well, BUT they too could have come a lot sooner so they were there BEFORE the parade started, ane before crowds started filling up the space...

So I guess my point is that I think it is normal Disney tries to make sure a disabled person too can join the many rides.  On the other hand, I also believe it is normal for Disney to try and integrate disabled visitors in regular queue lines as much as possible, and only allowing a number of friends/families to join the disabled person from the exit entries...

Unfortunately I have seen that - especially parents with disabled children - use their own children as a VIP ticket to get on the rides much faster, which I feel is very sad.

I hope I did not offend anyone, but I'm sure many of you will understand.  I once visited with my grandmother in a wheelchair, and I must say I hated it, as you do get looked at all the time, and sometimes Disney does make it too obvious that you get priority access.  We didn't really want to be treated any differently...

[disney_donutter]

I think it's absolutely fine to queue jump!  there isn't any problem with that at all!

[Alexander]

I don't see a problem either. Only I'm curious: Which rides with long queues can you ride with a heart condition?

[SheHen23]

Alexander, Thank you (& everyone else) for your reply. I am glad you are ok with it in principal and to answer your curiosity, Snow white, pinnochio, P of the C, studo tram tour and peter pan are all examples of suitable rides that can have long queues.  There is a lot of misconception about congental heart conditions. A little mild excitement or spookieness is not going to do my daughter any harm, as long as she hasn't had the stress & exhaustion beforehand of standing in a queue for a long time.  The kind of rides that would not be suitable are those which are fast or jerky, such as the roller coasters.  In these cases my other children would queue up separately, whilst my daughter went on rides better suited to her.

[Alexander]

Thank you for elaborating. It's been some time since we've been there, and (as usual, only the good memories stay) I cannot remember waiting times on most attractions.

As I said before, a totally acceptable situation.

[Mathizsias]

My family and me are in the same position, we have a disabled person in the family and we always try to act as regular guests as much as possible, for example with parades we get to the disignated areas a long time before the parade starts, do queues with decent wait times and easy ways out.

Admittedly tho, we do go on rides the disabled person can do as a whole family and I think that's the essence of allowing 4 extra people to ride with the disabled person, DLRP is afterall a family resort and in some cases disabled persons cannot even ride the attraction without supervision.

[ailsa]

Yeh it doesn't affect us with the parades becaue my sisters pratically blind so the parades scare her. I think it's good that we can ride the attraction with her cos my sister needs a person either side of her as she can't keep herself upright.

However we act as regular guests most the time plus my sister can't go on alot of rides anyway so we just queue regularly.

[fabfaces]

Hi , I have just read this thread with interest.
My son , aged 5 has Downs Syndrome. I also have a 4 year old.
We have been to DLP a couple of times. Without the special pass for people with disabilities we simply would not be able to go. My son has a very short concentration span and would not be able to q for any length of time. I appreciate that to some extent all children have this problem but it is different for a child with a disability. My 4 year old would have no problem queuing in the normal line, somrthing my 5 year old wouldn't manage. Making the rides  accessable to the disabled would only work for physical disabilities, (which my son also has.)
It has been nice to read a tread like this where abled bodied  people don't object to the privaleges given to disabled people, after all most disabled people have far more to contend with in every day life.

[smurfy74]

Its fine as long as people dont abuse it like some people do with the blue parking badges here in Britain. If it makes someones visit magical then it can only be a good thing. Those that moan need to remind themselves that if they were in that situation where they needed priority access then they would expect it to be available. Like I said earlier its the exception and I hope people dont spoil it and abuse it.