ECV and Fastpass at Disneyland

[Eeee-va]

My mom uses an ECV at the parks. On Fastpass rides with non-mainstreamed queues (particularly Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain), would she be able to use a FP to any advantage? Or does she have to wait in the regular alternate line no matter what?
I want to ride with her, but I'd prefer to minimize wait times for both of us and not wait in a lengthy alternate line if there's a legitimate way around it. She has a lot of trouble getting to the parks early, so we probably can't avoid the lines that way.

Thank you!

 

[nikkislaght]

I know Space mountain has a wheelchair entrance.. near the exit.. get your Fastpast.. and then come back at the right time.. if you are the only one in line then it shouldnt be too long a wait.. if there are people ahead of you the nice thing about S/M is that there is a bench you can sit on to wait... cant answer for BTM as I have never been on it.. .. will be going on it this trip though...

 

[Eeee-va]

Thank you! Does that mean that if we come back to Space Mountain with a Fastpass, we'd go ahead of others who did not have a Fastpass (or maybe a DAS)? Or do they normally give wheelchair return passes so the line (if it exists) is just people who have already virtually waited in some way? I know in past visits, the alternate line for Space Mountain was probably as long or longer than standby, but I haven't been to Disneyland Park since 2012. (They gave us priority with a Fastpass then, but also seemed a bit confused as to what to do with us.)

It is great that they have seating in the queue! But, my mom can sit in her ECV and I'm not disabled, so unless there is NO ONE there, I'll probably be standing anyway.

 

[nikkislaght]

When I went last year they had us wait in the line with the others.. so if someone was there ahead of us. they went first.. Pirates is the same.. but with a much longer line.. ugh.. we have left and come back because the lines were crazy.. they can give you as a wheelchair user a return time if the lines are too crazy.. I use the Das , so thats why I got the fast past.. but can still use the wheelchair entrance ...

 

[SMD]

They give wheelchair return times. Then when you return the line is the line for both WC/ECV and DAS returns. I had heard before they started giving returns that Space was running a test with FP, I have no idea what came of that. The issue is how many guests with mobility issues can be on the ride at once. At Space they can only pull out a single vehicle, so it has to cycle through. Before they can unload no load again. But the return times have made the really long return lines, like Space and Pirates shorter.

 

[Eeee-va]

Thanks for the help, everyone! So, it sounds like the plan is to show up with my mom and see what they do with us.

Thanks again!

 

[DG24]

Don't know if this is to late since I'm new. I have been to DL with EVC many times and space mountain is a real trick. It seems there is no rhyme or reason, it depends on who is working and can be different every hour.

Last summer with a fast pass, we went up and had to wait about 10 minutes in a line of people, when the line moved they let about 12 people down, 4 w/c and then who was with them.

Last summer with a DAS card we continued to just go down,the minute we got to the area.

One carveat I will say, is I almost always do space mountain first thing in morning when it is not very crowded, but have done it in later afternoon.

In jan when we went. FP was the same the first day, but the two other days we had to wait in a line for at least 25 minutes to get on. They supposedly had two seperate lines, one for FP and DAS, the other for walk ups. Problem is you go to the CM show what you have and she told you what line, but once people figured out that the lines where different and one moved faster, they all jumped into that line and she never rechecked your DAS or fastpass again. Which I found odd. Again, when it moved she allowed a lot of people down, 12 or so.

My opinion is the earlier you get there the better.

On BTM I would say get a FP or DAS. Then go to enterence. Once there you have a line to one side. They let one party group on each of the trains, but it has to be a train that comes and goes from the same dock, which if you watch for a while they do not all start and stop at the same dock, so they might let a group go every train for three trains and then not for two trains, then again for three trains. But the wait is usually very short no matter what time of day, at least when we go, which is when the parks are usually a level 6 or below.

Hope that helps you.

 

[SMD]

Don't know if this is to late since I'm new. I have been to DL with EVC many times and space mountain is a real trick. It seems there is no rhyme or reason, it depends on who is working and can be different every hour.

Last summer with a fast pass, we went up and had to wait about 10 minutes in a line of people, when the line moved they let about 12 people down, 4 w/c and then who was with them.

Last summer with a DAS card we continued to just go down,the minute we got to the area.

One carveat I will say, is I almost always do space mountain first thing in morning when it is not very crowded, but have done it in later afternoon.

If you look at the way Space loads wheelchairs, it makes sense why you wait so long. To load from the alternate area you have to use the extra ramp to cross the tracks. They pass an empty car that holds 12 people through the loading area and pull it off to the left. But the accessible loading area is way too small for 12 people, especially if you add in wheelchairs and the extra space to load someone in and out of a wheelchair. In January I was pulled out of row 1 of the regular ride to fill a car that already had the wheelchair party loaded. We waited for 1-2 cars to pass us, then another empty car has to pass through to swap with us before we were put back on the track. Then we rode, passed through the loading area, and were pulled out again to the same loading side. Now, this car only has 1 wheelchair party, but they left them out first. They took up so much room on the platform that 2 rows had to wait while they unloaded because the wheelchair blocked us. If those 2 rows had wheelchair users the wait would be even longer because they would also need the extra time and space to unload. (I was pretty pissed by the end of this, the woman in the wheelchair was blocking us in our seats telling her companion to get her ears out of her bag and her tiara and sunglasses before she would agree to be wheeled away. We could have been off the ride and ridden a second time in the extra time this took! Plus, we had our race medals and wanted to sit in row 1 to buy the picture. Instead she threw up her arms and I wasn't even visible!) By the time we made it back out, I figure 5-6 cars passed us in the station. Then when we exited they sent down 2 more wheelchairs parties that were waiting outside. So you figure 1 ride cycle for the parties to ride and at least another for loading and unloading, with a maximum of 12 people getting to ride from the accessible line each time they load. It would be nice if they could maybe have another car waiting to go, but I understand that there are safety/security issues with having guests sitting in stopped vehicles waiting. Plus, I don't think there's any more room to be had for another loading area. They can't even have people waiting to load because the 12 people unloading barely fit on that tiny platform.

 

[Eeee-va]

Thanks again! Our trip isn't for a few weeks, so any info is appreciated. And even if it were too late, it might help someone else!

My situation is a bit more tricky because I'm going with my mom and my friend. My mom has 2 days in the parks; my friend and I have 3.

My mom definitely wants to ride Space Mountain (as do I). But my friend will not ride Space Mountain (from what she's told me about potential triggers, it sounds to me like she might not want to even spend any significant amount of time in most of Tomorrowland!). My friend doesn't mind shopping alone; she can literally spend hours at the mall alone, so I think that's OK. But I am thinking that she'll likely want to shop away from Tomorrowland, so that's not super convenient.

I'll be meeting with my travel companions tomorrow to try to figure this all out.

So anyway, of course I don't want to wait in a long line if it's avoidable (I am human) but if at all possible, I'd prefer to get through Space Mountain in particular as quickly as possible. I will stress to my mom that it's ideal to get there as early as possible, but I'm not sure she'll arrive before 10 AM.

It does sound like BTMRR won't be much of a problem, at least. Whew! I think our crowd levels are more than a 6, but all 3 of us can ride that one (in fact, that is the ONE RIDE that is on all 3 of our "top 6 rides" list!). So even if we have to wait in line for a while, I think that's OK.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[SMD]

Well there's one thing I just realized will be an issue with linking DAS and WC return times to tickets. If you knew for sure that you wouldn't need the tickets at Space your friend could always go get FP for something else. What about single rider on Matterhorn or getting photos with the princesses. Both are close to the exits of TL, and you could always ride Matterhorn or get more pictures together again later in the day.

 

[Eeee-va]

Matterhorn will be down for our trip. She might consider meeting the princesses or Tinkerbell; good thoughts. I hadn't considered the possibility of character meets for her (I will do them with her too at other times). Thanks!

I am not sure she will ride anything alone. If she will, Autopia is certainly an option, as she was quite excited to ride that. Otherwise, she really does adore shopping/browsing (rather more than I do) so even though there are a couple other rides that were on my/my mom's top 6 that she won't ride, hopefully it will all work out.

 

[Eeee-va]

OK, it sounds like things will work out fine as far as splitting up, anyway. The main reason my friend did not want to ride/do things alone is because she didn't want to do them alone if we wanted to do them. That is extremely thoughtful of her, but I explained to her that no, it is perfectly fine with me if she rides Autopia without me (and my mom won't ride Autopia anyway). The list of rides we all want to ride is actually not huge, especially in Disneyland, so I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll all manage to have a good time, even if we have to wait in a few alternate access lines.

Thanks again, everyone!

 

[DG24]

Something else to just throw out there for you. Tomorrowland has the monorail in it. So say you and mom have a DAS pass, and you want space twice, and start your and the subs in observation tower, and buzz or whatever, your friend can start down at DtD and then ride the monorail in to meet you all. With cell phones she can go shop you ride all you want till hearts content then text and tell her your on the last ride and she can catch the monorail in and meet you all at autotopia or the subs. Just a thought.

 

[Eeee-va]

Thank you! Given how much my friend loves shopping, I can definitely see the appeal of her taking the monorail to Downtown Disney! Fortunately, we should have some time on arrival day and departure day to explore Downtown Disney...not sure if she'll be tired of the shops inside of the parks before we leave. (Either way, I'd rather not have her leave the parks alone, but she is an adult so we'll see. )

 

[Eeee-va]

So we managed to ride the coasters Mom wanted to; thank you for the help!

My mom wasn't feeling well on her first day and it was really hot and quite crowded and she got there late, so she only stayed a couple hours before she had to leave. But she had a beach/alone day to recharge, and then on her other/last day, she heeded my plea to get to the parks right around park open. She enjoyed the pretty lighting conditions and better atmosphere with fewer people, but unfortunately, we belatedly discovered that Space Mountain was offline. Instead, we rode Big Thunder Mountain through the alternate exit. Eventually we got back to Space Mountain when it was just coming back online. There were 2 parties ahead of us, so we had to wait a little while, but we got to ride, first row!

SMD, I remembered your story, so I asked the people behind us if they wanted to buy their picture, since we had Photopass+ and I had suggested to my mom that she put her hands up so we could show her physical therapist. The people behind us assured us they were not going to buy theirs, and Mom thought that was very kind of me to ask. So thanks for making me think of that problem. I came out looking a lot more thoughtful than I would have been otherwise.

We actually didn't do any wheelchair return times because we made it to the headliners in DL early enough and I ran and got a FP for Radiator Springs Racers. But overall we did almost everything my mom wanted to do even though she only had about about 10-12 hours in the parks. It was very difficult to balance my mom's wants, my friend's wants and needs, and my own wants. (It was even more difficult when I found out about several other of my friend's needs and wants well after we arrived, and also I learned that I myself need some alone time in a trip or I will actually crack.) But my friend came away happy and I only broke down a couple times myself so overall it was a successful trip!

As an aside, my other friend has some disabilities and the Cast Members were generally very patient and helpful with her, even when she misplaced things. At least 3 attractions CMs helped us out tremendously when we had some issues. (In retrospect, I probably should have checked more carefully to make sure everyone was handing the correct FP to the person taking them in busy and/or dark situations, but it hadn't crossed my mind at the time. Well, now I know.)

There really is something special about Disneyland for people with all sorts of disabilities. (Even mild social anxiety issues like I have. )

Thank you again for the help, everyone!