People have posted information from Rolling With the Magic blog before and, I agree, she does do a good job.
One thing you will find out as you are on this board, many people have experience and pictures and if you ask questions about specific attractions, you are likely to get both.
I enjoyed reading your perspective; I’m glad your dad had a good time, but sad to hear it may be his last. I wish you many good memories.
I have some comments about your suggestions:
Navi River journey, the People Mover, Buzz light-year, Peter Pan, Haunted mansion.. Basically any slow moving non thrill ride should have a car or two available for Wheelchairs.
Although, it may seem like all slow moving attractions should be able to have a wheelchair accessible ride car, most of those that don’t have a good reason why they don’t.
Buzz Lightyear actually does have a wheelchair accessible ride car with an integrated ramp that folds down from the back of the ride car. My daughter has ridden in it many times. It may be that the car was out of order when you went or the size/weight of the power wheelchair could not be accommodated.
Navi River Journey - I have heard that the boat is too small, both too narrow and too short to have a wheelchair accessible ride car. Having ridden it several times, I do feel that is true. Because it’s a water ride, they could not do the same type of fold down ramp that is used on some of the ‘dry’ rides like Toy Story Mania. I had heard rumors they were working on some type of accessible boat that would still require a transfer - probably a seat the extends out for transfer and then goes back into the boat. I do not know if it was ever more than rumor stage.
People Mover is one we really miss. When my daughter was little, it was a favorite. Once she got too big for us to carry her up there, she could no longer ride it. There are main 2 issues with having a wheelchair accessible ride car. The most important is that the boarding and unload area is about 20 feet above ground level. Access is via a very steep moving ramp (like an escalator without steps). If there was a way to get wheelchairs up/down, there would still need to be modifications to the boarding and unload area to be able to load a wheelchair.
Peter Pan has a moving walkway that can’t be stopped except emergency, so it would be hard to get a wheelchair into an accessible ship. Since the ride is suspended, weight would be a consideration and securing a wheelchair well enough to be safe would be very difficult.
Haunted Mansion has a section where the doombuggy goes backwards. I think that might cause an issue if there was a wheelchair accessible ride car.
There are other things that I suspect might make a difference. The attractions that have wheelchair accessible ride vehicles all have flat tracks/ride paths. I think that securement of wheelchairs and emergency evacuations would be much more difficult for attractions with ‘hills’ like Haunted Mansion, Spaceship Earth and Frozen.
And they way Toy Story was designed made it perfect because we were not holding up the rest of the line in any way while they loaded and secured the wheelchair into the cart.
I love the Toy Story Mania separate loading area.
I love it even more now, after the attraction queue and entrance changed. When it first opened, using that area was the only to avoid the stairs. That meant it was always busy there and we often waited as long as 45 minutes. There is now another section of the queue that bypasses the stairs. Guests who can’t climb the stairs or have a wheelchair, but can transfer csn use that line. That frees up the accessible boarding area for use by people who need the wheelchair accessible ride car.
A couple suggestions with rides, any ride that has sperate cars (especially coaster type rides), seems like it could have a sperate, modified car that is easier to get in and out of. The mine train had a spot at the back, for example, that the wall moved to make sliding in and out easier. But in addition, many of these rides would benefit from having this modified car on a separate side track (like in toy story), where a disabled person could take their time transferring without slowing down the rest of the ride.
Many of the attractions that require a transfer DO have an an accessible ride car where the side opens wider for an easier transfer. If guests ask for the ADA car, the CMs will direct you to wait for it. We’ve only gotten it when we’ve asked for it; the CMs should be more aware of offering it to guests who might benefit from using it.
The separate tracks are wonderful, but unfortunately, putting them in would require a major reconstruction of the queues and room that most font have.
