I think it's a good policy, especially being given a time to come back. My dad is out of shape, and overweight. He rented a
scooter when we went to WDW in November, but I made sure he parked it before we entered an attraction -
there is no reason why we should go to the front of the line. I'm sure many rent them for the same reason (no need for them to have heart attacks keeping up with their families), but take advantage of the system.
Just to be clear, renting a wheelchair or
ECV at WDW or
Disneyland and using it in lines does
not get you to the front of the line.
I'm sorry, but separating a party to have a wheelchair bound person waiting alone is not equal treatment and access, unless they separate ALL parties. There really is very little of the original Knott's left, most of the old historic stuff was torn out when Cedar Fair/Cedar Point took over park operations from the Knott family years ago. And any NEW attraction should already be able to handle wheelchairs in the queue lines. If not, then they were extremely poorly and cheaply designed.
You are right.
Separating a party to have the disabled person and one member of their party wait
alone while the rest of their party waits in line is NOT equal treatment. And, what about the group of 3 - 1 person has to wait alone?
Or, what about a group of 4 where the needs of the person with a disability means they need to keep their party together - do they have to separate anyway?
If they are going to give a "COME BACK" time, it needs to take into account things like 'extra wait' for an accessible car or for not being able to board because there were already as many people with special needs on the attraction as are allowed for evacuation safety or space.
We have already returned for our Fastpass return time and not been able to go on the attraction because all the accessible seats were already taken. We had to wait for the next show, even though they were still letting in people with Fastpasses for that show
and were also taking people from the Standby line. Equal treatment? No way!
Most attractions built in any theme park since the ADA came into being in 1990
should have accessible lines. The older parks (especially Disneyland) were built way before there was any thought of making things accessible.
Lines in older parks were designed for one purpose - getting a steady line of people 'delivered' to the attraction (hopefully in a single file line for easier 'loading') as quickly as possible. The exit was designed to get people unloaded and out of the area as quickly and efficiently as possible to keep the steady line of passengers going.
Guests using wheelchairs,
ECVs and with any types of disabilities were not considered in those kinds of designs. Some of the attractions
had to board people with disabilities at the exit because the regular boarding area was far from the entrance, was on the opposite side of the ride track or was in-accessible in some other way.
Newer lines are wheelchair accessible and people with wheelchairs or ECVs wait in the same line with everyone else (these are called "Mainstream Lines").
As was already mentioned, after waiting in the "Mainstream Line", if you need a wheelchair accessible car, there is an extra wait. For example, when we rode the Nemo ride at Epcot in April, we went in the regular line and waited with everyone else. When we got to the front of the line and told the CM we needed the wheelchair accessible car, we were told to stand off to the side and they would call us when the car came around for us to board.
If we could have gotten into any car or if the wheelchair car would have been the next car, we would have waited the same time as everyone else (after all, we had already waited in line with everyone else). As it was, we had to wait for one entire ride cycle for the wheelchair car to come thru. I believe the ride itself is about 5 minutes. If each ride car normally seats 2-3 people, that means we let 2-3 people ahead of us for each clamshell ride car that passed us.
In 5 minutes, a heck of a lot of cars passed us (Wikipedia says that the capacity of the ride is 2,200 guests per hour (similar to Haunted Mansion), 36.67 people per minute. So, in a 5 minute wait, we let 183 people ahead of us.
How is that equal treatment?
AK and Disney's Hollywood Studio were built with all Mainstream Lines, so there are no separate wheelchair entrances at those parks. Epcot and MK had newer attractions built with Mainstream Lines and older attractions were renovated to be Mainstream if possible.
from the
The WDW Guidebook for Guests with Disabilities lists Mainstream Attractions and also includes this information about the attractions that do not have Mainstream lines
"Some attractions have auxiliary entrances for Guests with disabilities. These are intended to offer Guests in wheelchairs or with service animals a more convenient entrance to the attraction. Auxiliary entrances are not intended to bypass waiting lines. Guests with disabilities and up to five members of their party may enter through these entrances. The rest of the party should use the main entrance."
Attractions providing mainstream queue access include:
Magic Kingdom® Park
• Ariel's Grotto
• Astro Orbiter
• Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
• Donald's Boat
• Judge's Tent
• Mickey's Country House
• Mickey's PhilharMagic
• Minnie's Country House
• Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Space Mountain®
• Splash Mountain®
• Stitch's Great Escape!™
• "The Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management"
• The Hall of Presidents
• The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Tomorrowland® Indy Speedway
• Toontown Hall of Fame
• Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (seasonal)
Epcot®
• FUTURE WORLD
• Imagination!: All Attractions
• Innoventions East
• Innoventions West
• Mission: SPACE
• Test Track
• The Seas with Nemo & Friends: All Attractions
• The Land: All Attractions
• Universe of Energy: "Ellen's Energy Adventure"
•
• WORLD SHOWCASE
• China: "Reflections of China"
• France: "Impressions de France"
• FriendShip Boats
• Norway: Maelstrom
• The American Adventure: "The American Adventure"
Disney's Hollywood Studios™
• Disney's Hollywood Studios™ Backlot Tour
• Fantasmic!
• Lights, Motors, Action!™ Extreme Stunt Show
• Muppet*Vision 3D
• Playhouse Disney - Live On Stage!
• Rock 'n' Roller Coaster® Starring Aerosmith
• Sounds Dangerous - Starring Drew Carey
• Star Tours
• The Great Movie Ride
• The Magic of Disney Animation
• "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™"
• *Voyage of the Little Mermaid
• Walt Disney: One Man's Dream
Disney's Animal Kingdom® Theme Park
• Caravan Stage: "Flights of Wonder"
• DINOSAUR
• Expedition Everest™
• Finding Nemo - The Musical
• Grandmother Willow's Grove: "Pocahontas and Her forest friends"
• It's Tough To Be A Bug
• Kali River Rapids
• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Lion King Theater: "Festival of the Lion King"
• Maharajah Jungle Trek
• Primeval Whirl
• The Boneyard
• TriceraTop Spin
Many people have complained about wheelchair/ECV users
until they had to use a wheelchair or ECV because of a temporary injury. Somehow, actually using a wheelchair or ECV is a lot different than seeing people using one and many people say that once they have to 'live' it, they get it.
us over pointing out that it happend, frequently at least to us. If there is a 6 person policy in place at Disney and my party of 5 was traveling with your party of 4, being the rule abiding person that I am, my party of 5 would plan to meet up with you later at the parks/hotels and wait in the hour long line for the bus. Worst case, I'd allow you to take two of mine and the remaining 3 of us would plan to meet you later. If you seriously had a problem with this plan then I would invite you to wait at the accessible entrance the hour until my party made it to the front of the line.
What was in your Wheaties this morning? Why don't you take your own advice and not tell me or anyone else what we saw. 
. The next party that gets in line gets another special pass signifying the ride attendant to call upon the other waiting party.
. Since I use an 
