My 15yo can't handle those mob waiting areas. Here's how we handle those attractions.
Haunted Mansion: I make sure that HM is in our touring plan early enough in the day that the stretching room is only maybe half full at the most. We keep her to one side while the other 3 of us stand on the other sides of her creating a barrier with enough space. Later in the day it would just be too crammed. Generally, that means before 10:30am when there's a 9am opening and not an an EMH day.
That's a good suggestion.
HM has 2 sort of preshow rooms - the one right away where you enter the building is the 'Portrait Room' and has a portrait that ages. Guests don't stay in that room very long. It's basically a holding area for the next room.
The Portrait Room opens into the 'Stretching Room' which is the one that clanmcculloch is describing.
Previously, the line had a chained bypass gate at the point where you can see a hearse by the right side of the line. That bypass was marked with a wheelchair symbol and was where guests with mobility devices or special needs could exit so they would not go thru the Portrait and Stretching Rooms. That area was staffed so that a CM would come out every few minutes to lead waiting guests into the exit courtyard and to the exit to board.
During the last renovation, they got rid of that bypass, so there is no gate there. Once guests enter the line, there is no longer a way to get through the exit without going into the area by the Portrait Room.
You
may be able to get a CM to let you enter the exit courtyard thru the exit gate with the correct GAC, but since neither the entrance or exit are staffed for that, it is difficult to do (For a CM to let you do it, they would have to leave their assigned place from what I have heard).
If you get all the way to the door that enters the building, you will have no choice but to go in, since there is not a pathway from the outside of the building on that side to the outside of the exit side. The CM
may be able to let you go out the door of the Portrait room area to the exit, but again, it may depend on staffing, number of people and time - they have limited time once the Portrait room 'show' begins to get guests from there into the stretching room and situated before the Stretching Room 'show' begins. When there are less guests, they have more 'free' time (the time allowed is the same, but less bodies = room settled faster), so may be able to do more accommodation.
Philharmagic: We user our GAC to wait with those in wheelchairs. We go when crowds are low enough that we would get into the same show regardless of where we wait. This one can be done pretty much any time before lunch without crowds getting so big that you'd have to wait for a second show.
I don't have any pictures posted of this, but have some I can look for on my computer. It's hard to get pictures though because if there are not many guests, the line is moving and it is a bit dim.
There used to be a wheelchair line all the way from the entrance to the waiting room before the show. When we have gone recently, the wheelchair area was only in the last area, after going thru the regular line with everyone else. Be aware that the path for getting to the less crowded waiting area does require you to cross over the back part of the main waiting area.
The purpose of the wheelchair line is to make sure they did not let more guests with wheelchairs into the show than there are wheelchair spaces.
It is also used for anyone who needs more time to get in, a special seating spot inside the show or more space from the crowds.
It is basically a separated off area from the rest of the guests who are waiting for the show. There is a separate set of doors into the theater from that area and the doors open about 45 seconds to a minute before the other doors to the theater open.
Monster's Inc Laugh Floor: The queue area of this attraction is pretty wide so she's able to cope with the queue. When we go inside we use our GAC to wait in the wheelchair area. It's got clearly defined boundaries on the sides and by having one of us in front of her and one of us behind her she's got enough room around her that she can cope. She'll sometimes sit down and press her back against the wall and legs against the floor providing her with some sensory inputs that sooth her. There's no way she could do that in the mob area.
I don't have any pictures of 'the mob', but do have a picture that shows the waiting area.
The less crowded waiting area is on the right of the picture and the main waiting area is on the left.
The reason for the waiting area is again to separate out guests with mobility devices or who need a little extra space, time or a specific area to sit.
This attraction also used to have a handicapped line all the way from the entrance, but on our last trip in April, it was all one line until that last room. That room also has a preshow.
Little Mermaid: This one has been tough. We went several years without seeing it because she just couldn't cope with the waiting area and there was no alternative. A couple trips ago we decided to try to go to the first show and ask if we could just wait outside the room but through the turnstiles so they would have is in their count. Since the show wasn't going to fill up anyway, the CM allowed it. I did show our GAC so the CM would know we had reason for asking. I'm not sure if we could have done this if the show would have filled up.
That room is problematic for many people. It is dim, with a fairly low ceiling and dark colored wooden walls and floor. Here's a picture of it from allearsnet.com
Guests with mobility devices are told to follow the black line on the floor because they need to be in the back row for the show. This picture shows the view when coming in the door of the building. The black line on the floor actually makes a 90 degree turn toward the top of this picture and the doors to enter the show are off the picture to the right.
If you go straight all the way across to the wall from the viewpoint of this picture, there is a tiny alcove where you would be able to be against the wall with no one on one side. But, the crowd will be coming in , walking toward you and then turning, so even if there are not many people in that part of the room, it can still feel kind of claustrophobic.
Turtle Talk with Crush: When the show first came out, we would show our GAC and we'd wait in a small room right outside the doors. This did work well but it's pretty boring. Now I make sure that we'll be in the first show of the day when it won't be crowded and we just wait in the regular area. They have some computerized quizes that distract and when not using those, she just sits down on the floor beside one of the tanks and stares at the fish. It's unbelievably soothing to watch them. We just make sure that we stand around her so that people can't get too close and so that she doesn't get stepped on. We wait by the tank right up near the door to the entrance while people are still milling about. Because we're at the front, when people start crowding in they're behind us rather than all around us.
Boring is a very good way to describe that room. It's hard to atke pictures of because it is not very large. It is a white room with white jellyfish-like sculptures on the ceiling. You could be waiting there all alone or it might be filled. THe most people we have seen in there was around 30, which made it kind of tight for the people who were in there for a less crowded place to wait.
Boy am I glad that Test Track no longer has a "staging" type of area before you head to the cars. At least it was gone when we were there last February. Hopefully that's permanent rather than them having technical difficulties.
It was still gone in April and the line actually moved relatively quickly - at least it was always moving and there was no one place where we were standing in an area where guests were not being directed by rails.
It's Tough To Be A Bug: When we still didn't know much about touring, we would wait in the wheelchair area. Now, we go before lunch and it's not all that crowded so there's enough room in that waiting room so that we've got lots of space around us.
The area for guests with wheelchairs is just a roped off area of the regular waiting area. Guests with wheelchairs and mobility devices need to wait in that are because it has the only doors that lead directly to the wheelchair accessible area inside the theater.
The waiting area is small compared to the number of guests with wheelchairs who can fit into the show. It does tend to fill up, at least in our experience, so may not be a good place for someone who needs separation from other guests (at least in our experience). One more than one occasion, we have been asked to split our party and have only one person wait in that area with our daughter in her wheelchair since it was no full.
I'm blanking on any others. If there's a particular attraction you have a question about, feel free to ask. We'll try to offer suggestions, advice and info from our own past history with it.
Go to Guest Relations and explain the issue. You might be given a GAC that will help at some of the shows.
Can;t remember if this was mentioned, but post 6 of the disABILITIES FAQs thread is about GACs. That thread is near the top of this board or you can follow the link in my signature.
Just want to point out that Cast Members are not expected and should not give their last names to guests. That is a MAJOR privacy issue. I'd recommend getting the hometown on the name tag instead. The name, hometown and location of the cast member will be sufficient for their leadership.
:thumbsup:
OP when are you going and how old is your son? I find I rarely end up in crowded preshow rooms and I think its because of when I go. My past 2 trips have been in January and September. Also trying to hit those attractions when there's not a long line will mitigate those crowded rooms.
There's also different types of preshows, or at least different types of waiting areas. In something like Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, the "room" itself is very large are there is the "alternate" wait area which is the roped off portion of the room. This just doesn't exist in things like HM where you have to stay clear of the walls, or ToT. In those cases, you can still sort of block your kid off. At HM, if he were to stand on the marked line and you and your husband stood sort of around him, he'd be blocked from the large part of the crowd. Somewhere there's a thing that tells you where the door is, under which portrait, so if you can find that answer Id say stand opposite of it, on the far side, that way you can avoid being in the push towards the loading room. In something like ToT, if you can get to a corner and sort of block him off, or even get to the other door there's a bit of space there, you could do the same thing there. Unfortunately a lot of this just depends on how busy the attraction is at the time.
I don't know if there is a set GAC for this but it never hurts to ask. It's all in how you put it to them. Perhaps its a matter of saying that being in a small dark crowded room is hard, is there a way to wait outside the preshow room then proceed through with the same group once the preshow is done.
Under the painting of the lady with the parasol
