Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust - Part Two!

KPeveler

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 17, 2006
Messages
4,366
Eight years ago, I started a thread where people could share their happy stories of visiting Disney parks with a disability. There is a lot of negativity and stigma and fear attached to disability and chronic illness in the world, and I wanted a way to show the beautiful things in life - even and especially a life with a disability.

So many people come to this forum with questions and fears about going to Disney with a disability, especially a new one. Even with the great advice they receive here, there is still some trepidation. There is concern about how others will perceive them, either their family and friends, or complete strangers. They are worried that they will not be able to enjoy the parks, that they will hold their family back.

So let's post our favorite stories about Disney with disability. Let's celebrate the happy memories. We all sometimes need a place filled with joy. Let's make this ours. :tinker:


See the original thread here: http://www.disboards.com/threads/faith-hope-trust-and-pixie-dust.1874043/
 
My mom was 88 for her first trip to Disney World. She was wheelchair bound and she had Alzheimer's at the time.

I had made a sign for her wheelchair proclaiming her first visit there.

We were in MK getting ready to go into Buzz Lightyear. A cast member asked us to wait while she went to get us something. It took about 5 minutes, but she came back with a fastpass for us, a special button, and a certificate good for for a free ice cream for all of us.

She told us it was because of my Mom's first visit there. I made a big deal of this with my mom and she was so proud of the moment.

I'll never forget that special time.
 
I love the Jungle Cruise, in both Disneyland and Disney World. I rode it every single one of my first 500+ visits to Disneyland park. I may have been obsessed.

And I had no idea how much I missed.

After learning sign language for most of a year, I discovered the existence of ASL interpreters in Disney parks. They are there every week for certain shows on a set schedule. I decided to go see them, and the first thing I saw interpreted was Jungle Cruise.

WOW.

I don't know if it is my ears or how my brain perceives sound (tests are upcoming), but anytime there is a poor sound system (like when Skippers try to swallow the mic when speaking) or when there is a lot of background noise (like people talking and a boat motor), I miss many things. And for the first time, between what I could hear and the ASL interpreter, I didn't miss a thing.

And for the better part of a year, I went on the Jungle Cruise every Saturday it was interpreted.

I then created a Facebook group for others to learn about the Disneyland interpreters to help others know they have this option.

When I move to Florida in a week (as long as I do not work for Disney), I am planning on creating a similar group for the Florida interpreters.
 
well I have a few stories I can tell but one that happened recently. On my Bday trip at the end of April I was staying at all stars sports. I had got the the year before and the cheerleader was there but they never bothered me so I did not think any thing of them this year, boy was I wrong from 12pm to 5 am I had to call the from desk 5 or 6 time the same CM would pick up and I would let her know that there was people yelling out my room. I was on the ground floor corner room so 5 minutes or so I would hear the garf cart pull up and someone talking to whom ever it was ( about half the time I could hear them talking) need less to say that night I got no sleep at all. The next morning I had to get up for a tour so there was no sleeping in for me after the tour evened around 4 pm I want to the first aid station since I was not feeling good to lie down I started to have some medical problems and then I want down hill very quickly I let the nurse know what was going on ( there was one other guest in the back so it was slow) I know I may need help because of where I was medical the nurse runs out of the room to get a nurse that was on her break to come help, it took me about an hour to get stable were I felt like I could go back to the resort to rest. on the buss ride back I kept thinking of the night before and that it might be bast to just cancel the rest of my trip ( I was there for 6 days). so I got back to the hotel and ask to speak to a manager the CM ask why I just said I need to speak with a manager so a manager came up to me and asked what I needed ( or something like this) I asked if I could cancel my trip and explained what had happened I was in tears after I asked him this. he looked at me and said would you like to go not a room back stage for some privacy were I can talk to you some I said sure so he joined to a door and said meet me over there where he let me in a room he said he would be right back after maybe 10 minutes he come in the room and long story short he found me a room in anima kingdom loge with a safare view for the rest of my trip then he said do not worry about the price it is on Mickey I walked in to AKL and started to cry all over again it was amazing so quiet too
 

The first time we went to Disney World was October 2010. I got married at the YC pavilion on 10/10.
by 10/11, My son, my husband and I were all sat on a wall in AK crying.
DS couldn't do anything more. He is autistic (he was not quite diagnosed then, and we didn't know what to do, we thought we had taken hm to the happiest place in the world, and he was HATING it. What horrible parents we were)
So we explained our problem to the guest relations staff. Once we were rounded up.
They gave us a GAC and explained how to use it. It changed our WHOLE TRIP.
We could ride the things he wanted with less of the standing near to lots of other people, without all the noise and the colours bothering him, without the people bumping him (unintentionally) freaking him out. When the general crowding got too much we could get him to hold out by promising him a ride on x and know we could do it.
We explained him many times, not just because of the GAC, and we got so much support. We rode round and round on the People Mover one day, because, it was ALL he wanted to do, and the CM just let us do it, without even getting off in between rides.
We explained him in restaurants, and they brought him his food presented in a way he could cope with.
it was the CMs who made his Disney holiday wonderful and memorable, when I could only take him there and freak him out, and make him sad.
It was SUCH a wake up to who he is and how life would be for all of us, but it was SO wonderful that they could help him so much.
 
My mom and I went in 2002 - just a couple months after 9/11 so heightened security was still a really new thing. Mom was newly diagnosed at the time as a diabetic and pre-trip she and I were both stressing out about whether or not she'd have a problem getting her insulin needles into the park. Fast forward to our trip and our first trip through MK security bag check she pulls out her kit and opens it all prepared to go into a spiel about how she takes insulin, etc, etc. But the security guard didn't even pause over it, he just smiled and asked us if we knew that there a first aid station if we needed it. He was SO pleasant and earnestly wanting to be helpful it instantly alleviated any of our concerns. He wasn't the first security guard to mention first aid was available that trip but he will always stick out in my mind. It wasn't "magic" or an "extra" but it was something that really helped to set the mood for our whole WDW experience.
 
My mom and I went in 2002 - just a couple months after 9/11 so heightened security was still a really new thing. Mom was newly diagnosed at the time as a diabetic and pre-trip she and I were both stressing out about whether or not she'd have a problem getting her insulin needles into the park. Fast forward to our trip and our first trip through MK security bag check she pulls out her kit and opens it all prepared to go into a spiel about how she takes insulin, etc, etc. But the security guard didn't even pause over it, he just smiled and asked us if we knew that there a first aid station if we needed it. He was SO pleasant and earnestly wanting to be helpful it instantly alleviated any of our concerns. He wasn't the first security guard to mention first aid was available that trip but he will always stick out in my mind. It wasn't "magic" or an "extra" but it was something that really helped to set the mood for our whole WDW experience.
I think some times the very simple can meant the world to someone I am glade you had a great time and your worries was wiped out right away
 












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