?bad knees and rides with moving walkways

[family3indisney]

Forgive me if this has been asked before...we are traveling to WDW with my mother in law who has two bad knees. She does well walking but concerned for her on rides like haunted mansion or people mover...that have the moving walkways before you get in the ride, we dont feel she can do these safely, will they pause the moving walkways for her. She has never been and is really excited to ride haunted mansion but we want we her to be safe . Thanks for any advice.

 

[disney david]

They can't stop the people mover or Peter Pan te rest hen can slow or stop the walk ways

 

[PatsMom]

If she is in a wheelchair or scooter, they will warn her at Peter Pan that they cannot slow or stop the belt. You can watch to determine if you think she can manage the transfer. It is fairly slow moving already so she might be OK doing it. Wait and see on that one is a good approach!

The Peoplemover you cannot even get in line for in a chair. Again, it is not a bad transfer. There is a belt conveyor going up to the ride, then a moving platform to negotiate. You would have to go look yourself if you wanted to scope it out in advance.

The Haunted Mansion they will divert you after the stretch room to a little hallway. When the host or hostess meets you, he or she will ask if you can deal with the moving belt, how far you can walk, etc. If she is ambulatory at all they seem to prefer that you park the chair outside by the gravestones at the exit and walk to where you board (at the ride exit). There is limited space in the exit area and I think they like to save it for those who truly cannot walk a short distance. They can stop the belt or slow it down - whichever you need.

If she is walking (you mentioned that she does OK) the issue at the Mansion will be that she won't be diverted to the alternate entrance. As far as I know, Disney does not have a GAC for stamina issues - the answer to that is a chair. So that is something to consider. She doesn't have to ride full time - if you have a manual chair, it is pretty easy for her to switch off riding/walking depending on how she feels. I used mine like a walker quite a few times on my last trip! We also used it to corral kids at the end of the day. You will get some odd looks from those who believe that you get some advantage from having a wheelchair and you are "faking" but just ignore them and go on. You know the truth and that is what matters!

 

[SueM in MN]

If you have not checked out the disABILITIES FAQs thread, you will want to.
Post 28 on page 2 of that thread has information about attractions with moving walkways.
Posts 18-22 has information about boarding rides and which have steps in or out that may be difficult.

Even though she generally does well with walking, it's important to be aware of how much walking is involved in a day at WDW. In her daily life, she probably does not walk that much. The average person at WDW walks between 3 and 6 miles per day. My FIL felt he did not need to rent a scooter at WDW, but by the end of every day, he needed pain medication and ice for his aching knees. The first day rented an ECV was the first day he did not end in pain. So, even though she may not want one, its a good idea to take long the phone numbers for at least one of the ECV/ wheelchair rental companies.

 

[family3indisney]

Thanks for the info. We are currently trying to convince her to let us rent her a wheelchair but her pride gets in the way. I hope that her physical therapist can convince her. I would rather have one avail and not need it, then have her laid up and lame without one,would be money well spent if it meant she could see the parks with her grandkids. I just worry about those moving walkways, she fell getting on a mall escalator recently. Will check out the FAQ page.

 

[BonnieA]

They will slow a belt down if someone needs more time. Maybe not everywhere but definitely at Nemo's ride in the Seas, Spaceship Earth and Haunted Mansion. My friend has a hard time dealing with moving belts so they had to slow it for her.

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for the info. We are currently trying to convince her to let us rent her a wheelchair but her pride gets in the way. I hope that her physical therapist can convince her. I would rather have one avail and not need it, then have her laid up and lame without one,would be money well spent if it meant she could see the parks with her grandkids. I just worry about those moving walkways, she fell getting on a mall escalator recently. Will check out the FAQ page.

One suggestion that has convinced a lot of people -
Choose a place she knows quite well that is about 1and 1/2 to 2 miles from her house and ask if she could walk there.
She will probably think you are being silly and say of course she could not walk there.

If she thinks she could, ask if she could walk there and back in the same day. She will probably say no, but if she says yes, ask if she could do it every day for as many times as you plan to spend days in the parks.

At that point, you would tell her what the distance to the place is and point out that almost everyone walks more than 3 miles a day at WDW and it is not unusual to walk more than 5 or 6.

She may be afraid to drive an ECV - They are not the right choice for everyone.

I can tell you that seeing my FIL in pain was painful for everyone. We knew he was missing out and my kids would much rather have him there than have him too tired and in pain to do anything.

 

[KPeveler]

I have no problem guilt tripping people into doing what they need - Remind her that the trip is about the grandkids, not her, and does she really want to limit their vacation and fun because she is stuck on a bench the whole time? Either the kids will be annoyed at missing stuff because they were waiting for Grandma, or they will go have fun anyway, and she will miss so many great Disney moments!

 

[rewardsinlife]

Haunted mansion moving belt can be slowed to half the speed or completely stopped. Personally..I have had a lot of difficulty with communicating with the cast member even while trying different methods to say the belt needed to be slowed down.

Ex. 1st try...went with everyone else down the hall and tried to tell the person on the belt to slow it down by shouting and pointing to the belt. People behind me got angry with the hold up and CM didn't seem to understand which led to getting pushed out on the belt at regular speed and me stumbling and nearly falling into a buggy.

Ex. 2nd try...had GAC told CMs outside, inside, and at the ride entrance I needed it slowed down. Held up GAC so it could be seen and the belt was slowed down when I got on..however..the buggy I got in wasn't marked and when I got out at end of ride the belt was full speed and nearly fell but caught by family member.

One day I wasn't doing well and had to go in the wheechair...took alternate entrance and the ride was successfully stopped in the beginning and end.

In conclusion....well...make your needs known and do what works best for you... Remind CMs , don't be afraid to get a GAC if you need it, and most of all have a good time!

P.s. if you had a GAC before..and it has expired..just take it back in if your needs have not changed. A CM told me this one time. this way you don't get the third degree of why you need it as they already know that it has been determined you do need these accommodations. Also it is faster for them..they just copy the paper to a new one and if you ask they might be able to give you a 2 month pass instead of one day if your trip is more than one day!

 

[SueM in MN]

Haunted mansion moving belt can be slowed to half the speed or completely stopped. Personally..I have had a lot of difficulty with communicating with the cast member even while trying different methods to say the belt needed to be slowed down.

Ex. 1st try...went with everyone else down the hall and tried to tell the person on the belt to slow it down by shouting and pointing to the belt. People behind me got angry with the hold up and CM didn't seem to understand which led to getting pushed out on the belt at regular speed and me stumbling and nearly falling into a buggy.

Ex. 2nd try...had GAC told CMs outside, inside, and at the ride entrance I needed it slowed down. Held up GAC so it could be seen and the belt was slowed down when I got on..however..the buggy I got in wasn't marked and when I got out at end of ride the belt was full speed and nearly fell but caught by family member.

One day I wasn't doing well and had to go in the wheechair...took alternate entrance and the ride was successfully stopped in the beginning and end.

In conclusion....well...make your needs known and do what works best for you... Remind CMs , don't be afraid to get a GAC if you need it, and most of all have a good time!

P.s. if you had a GAC before..and it has expired..just take it back in if your needs have not changed. A CM told me this one time. this way you don't get the third degree of why you need it as they already know that it has been determined you do need these accommodations. Also it is faster for them..they just copy the paper to a new one and if you ask they might be able to give you a 2 month pass instead of one day if your trip is more than one day!

The issue that I can see for you is that guests who need it stopped need to board at the exit.

When you boarded at the regular boarding area, they basically can do an urgent stop, but not just stop it when asked.

Even at the exit, they can only completely stop it on a certain ride car - here's a picture of the ADA doombuggy, which is one it can be stopped on.

They need to track which car was stopped to board so they can stop it again to unload.
If they stopped it for some reason at the regular boarding area, that won't necessarily be communicated to the CMs at the unload area.