Foreign Traveler help

[TinaLala]

So I don't know where to put this so moderators please move.

I have a friend whose parents have been here from China and she wants to send them alone to Disney for a few days in May, however they don't speak English. What would you recommend she do for them?

She can't afford a guided tour or a translator.

 

[livndisney]

So I don't know where to put this so moderators please move.

I have a friend whose parents have been here from China and she wants to send them alone to Disney for a few days in May, however they don't speak English. What would you recommend she do for them?

She can't afford a guided tour or a translator.

She can look into renting headset translators at Guest Service at each park. Also GS at each park is staffed with CM's from other Nations, so if a guest has a question GS may be able to track down the answer in their native language. China in WorldShowcase is also staffed with CM's from various parts of China and from what I have seen they love to speak to guests from "home". We are seeing more and more CM's in the various parks from China. So they may be able to find someone who speaks Chinese in the parks.

 

[NotUrsula]

Chinese is a little tricky. There are a lot of Chinese nationals in the US now, but creating guide materials for them can be kind of complicated because there are so many regional dialect variations in the way that things are written. (I work in a place that has a lot of official visitors from China, so we deal with this often.)

I think that a lot of the attractions at WDW can be appreciated even if you don't speak English at all. The trickiest part of it for them is probably going to be just getting there and getting situated at their hotel. I think it would probably help if your friend looked into Chinese tour operators that do trips to WDW, and have her parents possibly stay where they stay, or even take one of their tours if possible. Onsite has advantages, too, because they would be able to take ME and not have to deal with local transportation.

It also might be nice if she made them some Disney-specific phrase cards, with the phrase written on one side in Chinese, and in English on the other, so that they can show the cards to CM's if they need assistance in the parks or at their resorts. That way, though there are no Chinese park maps, at least they can have a CM mark the spot on the English park map so that they can find it. (Their daughter could also make them some custom maps from home and translate the information for them.)