Just back--rides/bus updates

[MarieS]

We arrived home yesterday and had a great trip with my sister's family. I wanted to pass along a few things we experienced.

I was a bit nervous about using the busses after some recent reports, but everything went very smoothly for us. We stayed at Pop Century. The drivers we had were courteous and helpful. Leaving the parks one night the busses were all Mears busses without lifts, but the driver called and had a lift bus sent for us. Each driver seemed to have his own procedure for doing the tie downs though. Magical Express also worked out well for us.

My son needs to stay in his chair for rides. To minimize waits we used the early morning EMH and fastpass. For Toy Story Mania we went right at park opening, rode, then got a fastpass for later. Within 2 hours all the fatpasses were gone for the day and waits were over an hour. While my son liked the ride, it was rather jerky and may not be good for some riders. Also, I don't like the way the lines are set up. The waits in the accessible line were much longer ( I was keeping track) and there was only 1 accessible car in use. While I knew this in advance, I still feel this wasn't thought out well.

Has anyone rode the Magic Carpets ride lately? We were refused at the entrance because my son cannot ride in a WDW park wheelchair which I was told is the only wc allowed on the ride. This was very disappointing since it says it's a wc ride.

All in all, a great trip for us. Hope this helps!

Marie

 

[Carnator]

thanks for the update

overall sounds like a good trip

 

[SueM in MN]

Has anyone rode the Magic Carpets ride lately? We were refused at the entrance because my son cannot ride in a WDW park wheelchair which I was told is the only wc allowed on the ride. This was very disappointing since it says it's a wc ride.

All in all, a great trip for us. Hope this helps!

Marie

What kind of wheelchair does your son have?
My DD has ridden in the Magic Carpets in her own manual wheelchair many times.
The problem with the Magic Carpets is that there is a very large bump in the bottom of the ride car after they remove the seat to make room for the wheelchair. Some wheelchairs don't fit in the car because of the bump.

 

[MarieS]

What kind of wheelchair does your son have?
My DD has ridden in the Magic Carpets in her own manual wheelchair many times.
The problem with the Magic Carpets is that there is a very large bump in the bottom of the ride car after they remove the seat to make room for the wheelchair. Some wheelchairs don't fit in the car because of the bump.

He has a pediatric size ( he's 10) manual wheelchair by Freedom Designs. I remembered you saying your DD had ridden this ride so we wanted to try it. The CM was very firm about they only allow the park wheelchairs to ride in it and that you had to transfer to the park wh chair. The park wheelchairs are wider than my son's chair too. He told me he checked with a supervisor and was told the same thing. We were there in the evening and there was no line at all. We weren't the only family who was told no. There was another family we had met while waiting for the parade with a younger child in a wheelchair and they were told no as well. Maybe it was that CM, I don't know.

 

[ireland_nicole]

Marie;
Sorry about the carpets, hopefully that will get sorted out. I'm so glad you had a great time otherwise, though!

 

[DisneyWheeler]

When DH and I went to Disney World with my mom and my brother's family about three years ago, my niece and nephew (who were about 8 and 10 at the time) wanted to ride the Magic Carpet ride. So, DH and I rode it with them. We were asked by a CM if I could transfer into a regular ride car because they thought that my manual wheelchair would be too big, both lengthwise and width wise for the wheelchair car.

I think they were referring to the extension handle that is attached to the push handles of my manual wheelchair that curves upward and sticks out a bit. It's a Quickie 2 manual wheelchair, and very easy to handle. I'm not sure why it wouldn't fit widthwise because my seat width is 18". Seat depth is 16". The rear wheels are 26".

Samantha

 

[SueM in MN]

He has a pediatric size ( he's 10) manual wheelchair by Freedom Designs. I remembered you saying your DD had ridden this ride so we wanted to try it. The CM was very firm about they only allow the park wheelchairs to ride in it and that you had to transfer to the park wh chair. The park wheelchairs are wider than my son's chair too. He told me he checked with a supervisor and was told the same thing. We were there in the evening and there was no line at all. We weren't the only family who was told no. There was another family we had met while waiting for the parade with a younger child in a wheelchair and they were told no as well. Maybe it was that CM, I don't know.

Unless your child's wheelchair has the same 'stroller' type pushbar that DisneyWheeler mentioned, I think you got a mis-informed CM.
It is a rather tight fit, and at times we have had to take DD's backpack off of her wheelchair to make it fit. She did not ride Aladdin on our recent trip (she was going to, but it started to rain and we decided not to ride). She usually rides Aladdin 2-3 times in her own wheelchair though on our other trips and did ride several times in April.
Because of how the ride loads, there is not a way to get good pictures of the Aladdin carpets. Here's kind of my best shot with DD in the carpet. I just measured her wheelchair and from the tips of her toes to the back of her wheels, it's just short of 43 inches. Her wheelchair is pretty narrow. I didn't measure it, but I think it's about 24 inches wide .

The dinos on Triceraptop Spin are very similar to the carpets - they also have a very easy spot for me to take pictures. Here's the dino with the seat that is normally there removed. You can see the kind of big bump on the ramp and the steep ramp. A wheelchair that is too narrow might not be able to make it over the bump.

Here's DD's wheelchair on the ride car. You can see where the ramp will hinge up to make the back of the wheelchair space. There is a bit more space 'left over' with DD's wheelchair than there is for the carpets,
but.........

this picture shows what happened when they closed the 'door' - DD's wheelchair hit it, so they opened the door again and had DH take the bag off.

 

[SueM in MN]

When DH and I went to Disney World with my mom and my brother's family about three years ago, my niece and nephew (who were about 8 and 10 at the time) wanted to ride the Magic Carpet ride. So, DH and I rode it with them. We were asked by a CM if I could transfer into a regular ride car because they thought that my manual wheelchair would be too big, both lengthwise and width wise for the wheelchair car.

I think they were referring to the extension handle that is attached to the push handles of my manual wheelchair that curves upward and sticks out a bit. It's a Quickie 2 manual wheelchair, and very easy to handle. I'm not sure why it wouldn't fit widthwise because my seat width is 18". Seat depth is 16". The rear wheels are 26".

Samantha

My DD has a Quickie GP (rigid frame) wheelchair with low push handles.
Her seat width is 14 inches and her seat depth is 18 inches (she is very thin with long legs).
Her wheelchair wheels are canted out at the bottom, so the tires are farther apart at the bottom than they are close to the seat. The tires are 26.5 inches wide at the bottom, but only 22 inches wide at the top.

 

[mrsksomeday]

Sue, thank you so much for the pictures. Bill's power chair wouldn't be able to do either of those rides and he doesn't feel comfortable in a manual chair so we will skip those rides.