Bathrooms

[tlpbupu]

Hi, my family will be traveling to WDW in Oct. with my 7 year old daughter who has Aspergers. If I remember correctly the toilets in the parks all have automatic flush systems. Even with tape, post it's etc. they really freak my daughter out. The last time we were there (3 years ago) she had such big meltdowns everytime that I took her to the restroom I was afraid someone was going to call security on us. My question is this, are there any bathrooms that have a manual flush? She will still have a hard time with it being a public bathroom, but I will have an easier time talking her into using it if I can find one.

 

[dawnball]

You might find one at babycare.

My daughter's answer is not to use the restrooms in the parks. Or at school. We take an afternoon break instead.

 

[tlpbupu]

Thanks, I was thinking baby care might have one. I'll check with guest services. My daughter is the same way and we will be taking an afternoon break each day, but sometimes....

 

[Sparkly]

I would bring post it notes or stickers for the sensors. I always seemed to get the overzealous ones last trip! Wished I had asked for some stickers because it made using the bathroom difficult.

 

[SueM in MN]

Guest Relations will probably not know because there are so many restrooms in the parks.
Most, if not all, have auto flush toilets and some that didn't may have been changed by the time you go. The ones that were least likely (at least in the past) to have auto flush were some of the small restrooms in restaurants.

Besides Baby Care, you can also go to First Aid in each park. You do have to sign in - they need to track visits, but it's just a time, name and general reason.
Just let them know that you need to use the bathroom in there. They won't know or care if it is for sensory issues or because you need to do some procedure in there.

 

[lanejudy]

Would she do ok using the family/companion restroom rather than the regular one? Even with an automatic flush, it's only "your" toilet to worry about and not all the other sounds in the full restroom. Despite covering the sensor, my DD still freaks when toilets flush from another stall, so we have found the companion restrooms eliminate a lot of that extra noise.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[ibcrazie4dizney]

if you do end up having to use auto flush and don't have post it or stickers, my dgd had the same problem, so my dd would go in first and wrap toilet paper around to cover sensor before dgd would go in.

 

[tlpbupu]

Thanks everyone. Post it's, stickers and tape don't mean anything to her. Once she sees the automatic flush all reason shuts down and the crying and physically trying to run begin. We always use a family restroom when available but that still involves many tears and me actually holding her ears and trying to calm her. She is excited to play "find Pascale" outside the new Rapunzel restrooms so I may have to bribe her with that!

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

This may be a crazy idea, but could you sew a "cover" to go over the mechanism?

Here is what I'm thinking - you tell her you need to go in the stall first and see if it is clean. You take the cover in with you and slip it on the flushing part. Maybe if you sewed something on/in the cover to make it look like there was a handle or it was covering a handle she wouldn't be so focused on it? Obviously the cover would have to be big enough to slip on and off quickly and to accommodate different sized mechanisms. Then she can come in, use the restroom, and as she walks in you can take the cover off and let it flush.

Like I said its probably a crazy idea. I'm just trying to think if some creative method to give you more bathroom flexibility.

 

[dawnball]

Thanks, I was thinking baby care might have one. I'll check with guest services. My daughter is the same way and we will be taking an afternoon break each day, but sometimes....

Yup. Been there, done that. You have my sympathy. Now I have a third grader who doesn't use the restroom at school. Or airports, or the rec center.. or, really, anywhere else! We just pushed through each trip and tried our best not to make it be pivotal.

 

[SueM in MN]

The Companion Restrooms have whatever kind of flushers are in the other restrooms in the area. Most of them do have the auto flushers.

We do cover them, but my wiggly girl with cerebral palsy who has trouble balancing can often still make them go off somehow, even with them covered.

A couple of other things to for people to think about with the Companion Restrooms.

They do have only the one toilet, so if you cover the auto flush sensor, you are in control of when that one flushes. In some of them, you CAN hear the flushing of the toilets in the nearby regular bathrooms. It ill be muffled, but my still be n issue for some people.

Some of them are noisy, in a different way. For example,
- the one by Space Mountain in MK is very close to the Peoplemover track. That means that each time the Peoplemover train goes over and triggers the the audio that goes with that portion of the track, you will hear it in the bathroom.

- the one in Harambe Village at AK has loud piped in music. If the band is plating outside, you can hear both the piped in music and that music. Loud and a lot of sensory input.

- a few have lights that automatically go on when the door is opened and go off if there is no movement in the room for a while (two i remember are the one by Space Mountain and the one by Pinocchio at MK). The lights will go on again if you move around, but it did kind of freak me out the first time it happened.

- not all have anything on the outside of the door that says it is occupied, and people miss it even when there is a sign. So, expect you may get people knocking on the door or trying to open the door.
It is helpful to have a member of your party outside to let people know it is occupied.

 

[livndisney]

Thanks everyone. Post it's, stickers and tape don't mean anything to her. Once she sees the automatic flush all reason shuts down and the crying and physically trying to run begin. We always use a family restroom when available but that still involves many tears and me actually holding her ears and trying to calm her. She is excited to play "find Pascale" outside the new Rapunzel restrooms so I may have to bribe her with that!

I used to have a list of all the "safe" restrooms in the parks. I think the babycare center in MK has the regular flush handle toilets. If it would help I can see if I can find it-or even check the parks to see if the ones I remember are still flush handle toilets.

I confirmed today the First Aid in DHS has a flush handle toilet. I will update when I have more locations.