getting on and off rides with cast

[huckster]

my son 29 has broken his dome bone in his foot .no weight bearing. if i can talk him into a scooter to rent , how will he get on to rides like haunted mansion etc with the moving walk way ? do they stop it he will have crutches to move about when not in chair for short distances?/

 

[DeeDeeDis]

I've been on the hm, spaceship earth, figment, etc.. many times when they have stopped for brief periods, i've always assumed they were stopped to let someone who was in a wheelchair to get on or off the ride so i would assume they would do the same if you were on crutches.

 

[huckster]

any one experence this?

 

[KPmom]

They do stop the ride, but you will need a Guest Assistance Pass. Simply bring a note from your doctor to the Town Hall in MK and they will issue a pass that will allow him to skip long ques and have people moving rides stopped for him to board. I went after foot surgery last year and they were really great about it. The only place that could not help was POTC as the que is uneven and bumpy, and there is no "handicap entrance" most other rides have them. ~Mandy

 

[disnut8]

Trust me, don't talk him into getting a scooter or a wheelchair. Get him one. My husband had a brief flare up of a medical problem just two days before a Disney World trip. He could hobble but barely (his ankle and knee looked like a couple of footballs). We called and got him a manual wheelchair that was delivered to our offsite hotel before we arrived. That thing saved the trip.

All the Cast Members were great with the chair. We used the normal queues if we could. The boarding Cast Members would always ask if the husband could get in and out of the vehicle on his own. He could but at least they asked.

Tell your son no one is going to look at him like he has two heads if he's in a wheelchair. From all outside appearances, my husband looked fine. If it makes your son feel better, make up a sign that says, "I'm 29 years old and I was stupid enough to break my foot but Disney World called". Or something similar. We did that and pinned it to the back of the wheelchair. You can have some fun with the situation.

 

[SueM in MN]

You don't need a Guest Assistance Card (GAC) if you have a wheelchair or scooter. GACs are basically a tool for Cast Members so they can tell what assistance is needed by people with invisible disabilities or people who have needs besides just having a wheelchair accessible access. You don't need a doctor's letter to get a GAC. With crutches, a wheelchair or ECV, they can see that he needs to use the accessible entrances.

In most cases, wheelchair or ecv users wait in the regular lines with everyone else because many lines are wheelchair/ecv accessible. These are called Mainstream lines; all the Fastpass lines, all the regular lines at the Studio and AK are Mainstream. The newer and recently renovated attractions at MK and Epcot have mostly been updated to be Mainstream. There are some that are not possible to do this to (Spaceship Earth is an example of one), so those few attractions have a separate wheelchair entrance. There are some rides where wheelchair/ecv or special needs guest have to board at the exit; in most cases, you will wait in the regular line until just before the line enters the regular boarding area. At that point, your party (of up to 6 people) will be pulled off to the exit to board. Your actual wait is usually going to be similar to the "normal" wait. If you have a wheelchair or ecv, you don't need a GAC to use those entrances.

Use Fastpass if you want to shorten your wait in line. You can send one member of your party ahead to get Fastpasses for your whole party - they just have to bring everyone's park pass to insert into the Fastpass machine.;

You can follow the link in my signature to the disABILITIES Board and then check out the disABILITIES FAQs thread for information on renting ECVs and wheelchairs. You would be best off to rent one from an off-site rental company for him. In that thread, there also a link to the WDW Guidebooks for Guest with Disabilities and there is a link to a past thread about boarding rides (specifically the rides with moving walkways).

The rides with moving walkways can be stopped. Usually, the CM will slow them down for you to board; they don't usually stop them entirely unless you ask for that (mostly because most people can board with them with it just being slowed). The one rids that can't be stopped is Peter Pan.
If you need the ride completely stopped, you may need to wait a bit longer; some rides can only be stopped on a certain car and they also limit the number of times they stop per hour. In most cases, a wheelchair can be driven very close to the ride car so that it isn't very many steps to the ride car.