I have found this to be an interesting read. I am in the newbie-repeat stages of training. Both of my boys are Autistic, my oldest being the most severe (wonders off, melts, anxiety issues, etc). I say repeat because we have been in this path a while now. The first dog did not pass. Long story short he began to show agression and behaviors that could not be broken. We would have handed him to us in Dec. Were back in training now.
I have a few questions as this has stirred my own mind. We will be taking our dog to Disney so one of these trips, if not the first couple will be new. There is no where here like Disney to even help in that area. We already plan to take extra hands with us. We go off season, before the March madness and before the Christmas rush. We never go in the summer or such. Do they still need boots? Our agency has not recommended or mentioned these to us and I know the last dog was not trained.
I think the more you can expose your dog to, the better off you'll be. Loud noises, big crowds, that sort of thing. I don't think even "normal" theme parks compare to Disney and our dogs never went to anything other than like, local festivals. That being said, noise stimulation was part of their training and there were certain things our dogs reacted to at Disney, but they were well trained enough to know it wasn't going to hurt them. I don't think shoes are necessary, but you may want to look into paw wax. Some dogs just won't walk with things on their feet unless they're trained to from an early age, but the wax will provide some protection. We always went in the off season and honestly never found the pavement to be a huge issue. We would sometimes pour some water over their paws or let them walk through puddles if it was warm out.
Second, someone mentioned never leaving the dog in the Disney room. May I ask why, besides the obvious. There will be times the dog may be left in our house (pool etc) and I know as they rotate through the other dogs they are left with fosters who work. Housebroken indeed and trust worthy. Is this a Disney thing? I ask because sometimes we go to the pool, or rent the boats on the DVC resorts. I would think the dog could not do these and would be better off in the room.
I believe the issue of leaving a dog in a hotel room is partly a safety issue. The dog would be left alone in unfamiliar settings and if someone from housekeeping were to enter the room without the owner there, the dog could react in a negative way (aggressive, territorial, scared). If someone entered the room, the dog could bolt. The other issue is if the dog were to be destructive. It may not be at home, but again, you're putting the dog in a totally foreign environment and if you aren't there, you have no way to know what the dog will do. All hotels will charge you for damage to a room caused by a dog and it being a service animal does not exempt you from it. We always took our dogs with us to the pool and someone just sat out. Sometimes you just have to deal with the fact that you can't do everything like everyone else.
Has anyone ever had issues with the petting even when they are wearing a patch. I can see the child reaching etc... but a problem?
As service dogs got more prevelent, I feel like petting problems trickled off, but they certainly exist. When I was young, I heard "of course, little Johnny, you can go pet the dog!" or "Leave it alone, it'll bite you!". Rarely did anyone tell their kid "That's a guide dog, it's working" or anthing like that. As the years went on, I heard that more than anything else. From the other side of the coin, it can be very hard to explain to a 3 year old they can't touch the pretty puppy. You do have to have some tolerance especially while in line that someone will brush against your dog, or a little kid may give it a pat, but I would always ask someone to stop if it were any more than that. I've gone as far as being very mean about it when people wouldn't listen to "Please stop petting the dog, he's working" then "Please stop" then "Stop now" then "If you put your hand on that dog again, we're gonna have problems" The only exception we ever made on this was if it was someone who was mentally handicapped, particularly if it were a child. That happend very rarely though, and almost never at Disney. Usually the parent or guardian would thank us and distract their charge with someone else so everyone could move along, but it was always mutally appreciated that we understood they just didn't know any better (but they'd get so much pleasure from it) and that the other person wouldn't take up too much of our time. I find that any dog I see that has a sign or patch that says "I'm working, please don't touch me", usually someone is reading the sign while they pet the dog.
I spoke with Disney just last week about the moving sidewalks. Boots are not required and hair must be trimmed on the dogs. Which I knew this. Most of the CMs said sidewalks can be stopped like they would for a wheelchair issue or slowed to a crawl. We have seen many dogs at Disney on our trips over the years and never saw boots and saw them on rides with moving sidewalk entrances. Curious to anyones experience here.
Again I think this is an exposure thing. I would take your dog on as many of these as you can before you go to Disney so that they know what the deal is. We had labs, so fur length was never an issue, and our second dog would kind of, well...hop...over the end of the moving side walk. The CMs seemed to slow down the moving platforms without us asking, but if they don't you can certainly ask.
I actually can not wait to finally be done with training. We travel every month out of state for this and the bond and impact on my son(s) are amazing.
Service Dogs are amazing, how they help people are a blessing. Education is key and I am thankful for threads like this.
. I usually had to take the last few chunks of food out and let the dogs eat out of my hand to finish up though. We'd usually take breaks near a restroom in a CS restaurant or by a bench outside and I'd just go into the bathroom to wash the bowls out after the dog was done. You can get cold water for them from the CS locations too, just don't let your dog drink it too quickly because the cold can kind of overwhelm their system. We've had TS restaurants offer to get the dog water too, but never have taken them up on it and they are not obligated to provide anything for the dog. You can also let your dog have an ice cube or two just to kind of wet their whistle but again, not a lot because of the cold. 
