Accesibility at Universal?

[DJBounce]

We are planning our next trip down to the land of joy and wonder and we wanted to know if any of you dissers have been to Universal Orlando. How were they in terms of wheelchair accesibility and accomodation of those woth special needs?
I have a 7 year old daughter with CP and wanted to know if we had to plan ahead for any rough spots in the road so to speak. We are doing 5 days at WDW and 3 at Universal in Dec 2003, calling it Holidays in Orlando 2003. We have never been there during the holiday season so we are very excited. Thanks a bunch!!!

 

[Wheelsie]

Hi Drew.. I HIGHLY reccomend Universal...greatly accessible and IMO...The staff is much more accomidating

Now when I say greatly asseccible bear in mind I mean Universal...NOT Islands of Adventure. While Suesslanding @ IOA completely rocks fr access, there is lillt more a chair using individual can unless they can get out of there chair. Any more questions just ask

 

[nancycels]

what i want to know is why the staff at IOA are so UNFRIENDLY! Never met a bunch who were less willing to assist! granted, we went two yrs ago, and they probably have a new crew now but it was terrible! they actually had me in tears at one point! not to mention dumping me over with a trash dumpster! they just slammed it into me! major ouch!!!!! yet the other park was fine... smiling staff, helpful, warned if ecv accessible or not..IOA hasn't made the park ECV accessible, so even rides that wd be fine with a few modifications aren't, plus staff don't warn u u'll get killed if u take an ecv in, and don't direct you to pull in facing the exit, so u get killed by people rushing for exits! and u still have to turn around! IOA not very user friendly!!!

 

[Wheelsie]

I do agree that IOA's CMs are not as nice as their counterparts @ Universal next door...and you think since they work at the same place they would have the same dispositions

 

[oliviaT]

We went to US and IOA last year with our son. He looks ok but has many problems which mean we are limited in the time we can spend in the parks and also we cannot wait in queues.
Both parks were terrible.
We did get some sort of GAC which only allowed him plus one other to wait in the baby swap area. Effectively this meant he could use their fastpass.
However, it simply was insufficent as there were four of us. Not a huge party!
We went back to our hotel after a couple of hours as usual, and hardly did anything.
They have no problems with on site guests using fastpass so I cannot understand why they could not give one to handicapped.
I would be interested to know if others got a GAC allowing more than 2.

 

[figment27]

We just visited US/IOA the first week in January.
There were three in our party. We were not onsite resort guests.
Most attractions in both US/IOA allowed us to use the "fastpass" entrance. But I have to admit the CM's knowledge of GAC was inconsistent at best.

I am legally blind. The GAC was stamped to allow me close to the front in shows/attractions.
Many CM's directed us to the "fastpass" entrance.
At one of the attraction the CM was rude. The attraction had many stairs to climb to access the attraction. Stairs are difficult for me.
This CM would not allow us to use the "fastpass" entrance. Even when we explained the dilemma. We opted not to ride the attraction.
The next day we went to guest services to explain what had happened, she stated that NONE of their attractions had stairs.
Guess we must have been somewhere other than US/IOA (LOL)!
Figment

 

[SueM in MN]

We haven't been to Universal in about 7 years - so keep that in mind when reading my comments.
We found, that for someone who needed a wheelchair and did not need any other accomidation, Universal was probably very good. Although, one poster had enough problems with a power wheelchair that he left the park after a short time. He actually waited in lines, was boarded and then they decided a power wheelchair could not go on the ride (according to what I remember of what he posted).
We had a lot of problems since DD has other invisible needs besides using a wheelchair. Waiting in line is very difficult for her and she has problems with being out in the sun for long periods. We asked at several rides about having the rest of our party wait in line and have her (plus one other person) join up with them later when they got to the front of the line. We were repeatedly told that all their lines "are wheelchair accessible and that's all the ADA says we have to provide" (or very similar words). Guest Services were unhelpful. They gave the same "all our lines are fully wheelchair accessible. When I asked about waiting out of the sun (since some of their lines were in the sun), the suggestion was basically to wait to go in those rides until the line was out of the sun. We felt Universal was such an unfriendly place that after 2 trips, we have never been back. Not to say we wouldn't want to go. We all enjoyed the ET ride greatly and Back to the Future was amazing. But, we haven't been and we saw no need to try our luck with IOA.

 

[nancycels]

Island of Adventure told us they are required only to be wheelchair accessible,not ecv accessible. Just a word to the wise! They are not ecv accessible at all!!

 

[SandraC]

We went to Universal in 1998 thru Make a Wish Foundation. The GAC type pass was excellent. We didn't stay long, we were all getting over the flu. Hard Rock Cafe's washroom was in the basement and hard to get to ~ that's really my only complaint.

My friend's son is severely autistic, non-verbal, non-communiating and always moving. She was extremely impressed with Universal's treatment of her son and the GAC pass. She didn't get anywhere with Disney and a GAC. S

 

[SueM in MN]

When you go with Make A Wish, it's not really a typical GAC. The CMs know that you are on a wish trip and they make a big effort to make it a special trip - whether WDW, Universal, or even Minnesota. It was big news here a few weeks ago that a little boy from Florida had a WISH trip granted to come to Minnesota during the Winter Carnival to get a look at ssnow. Since our major snow haadn't arrived yet, they even trucked in some snow for him so he could make snow angels and throw some snowballs.