mattsdragon said:
Oh, and the only problem I have with the wheelchair bound is that they get head of the line for rides and busses. They should have to wait for a certain amount of time before they actually can board anything (like if a ride wait is 45 minutes, then they should wait at least 30 minutes instead of going in backwards and jumping in the first available. . .it might deter the fakers)
Most of the lines at WDW are
Mainstream Access, which means that the lines are wheelchair accessible and wheelchair users wait in line with everyone else. If you see someone "disappear" from the line and assume they are getting "front of the line treatment, you will be wrong most of the time. What you can't see is that most of the time, the people you saw disappear don't get on right away; they go somewhere else to wait.
AK and MGM were built with Mainstream Access; there are no special "handicapped lines" or front of line access for people with disabilities just because they use a wheelchair.
MK and Ecpot were not built with Mainstream Access, but as much as possible, it was added as rides/attractions were added or renovated.
If you actually talk to people who use wheelchairs rather than people who have seen people who use wheelchairs, you get a different picture.
So what is happening?
For some rides, wheelchair users can't board at the regular boarding spot and need to be routed to the exit or another spot for boarding. Usually, they are waiting in the regular line until just before boarding. If my family were maybe 5 people behind you in line for Buzz Lightyear, you may not see that we were waiting until the final turn before the regular line goes to the boarding area. At that point, we are pulled out of the line to go to the exit. You might see us go by you and think we did not wait because you didn't notice us behind you. So, later on, you tell your friends that you saw someone "go to the front of the line" in Buzz Lightyear. Besides not seeing us waiting in line, you don't see that once we get to the exit, we have to wait for the wheelchair boarding car or for a CM to be available to help us board. You may have already finished riding by the time we get on (while we are waiting, we often see people getting off who were right ahead of us in line.)
Also, since we board at the exit, that means we ride the car around as it goes thru the normal boarding area. People who are waiting in line to board see us sitting in those cars. Since they didn't see us in line, they assume, we got in thru a back door or something and were taken to the front of the line.
Another thing that happens is people with wheelchairs may come to an attraction, but are told when they get there that there are already too many people with special needs waiting to get on. They are usually given a slip of paper (sort of an imprompto FastPass) with a time to return. In our experience, the return time is usually equal to the current time people are waiting in the standby (regular) line.
This also occurs in lines where the FastPass line is wheelchair accessible, but the regular line isn't. If I come to the attraction without a FastPass, I don't have the option of waiting in the regular line, because it's not accessible. So, the CM gives me a return time. When I come back, some people who are in line see me and assume I am "going to the front of the line with a wheelchair." Sometimes, the standby line is a short wait and the CM will let the wheelchair party enter the Fastpass line right away if the standby line is not wheelchair accessible.
Note: In situations where the regular line is wheelchair accessible, people with wheelchairs or
ECVs are usually going to be told they must use the regular line or get a Fastpass, just like everyone else.
Another situation is FastPass. Many people who are waiting in the standby (regular) line don't really understand Fastpass. They assume people "did" something to get on the ride using the Fastpass line. So, they see a family with a wheelchair user who had gotten Fastpasses using that Fastpass line and they assume they are in the line and "going to the front of the line" because they have a wheelchair. If there are other people with Fastpasses who are close to the person using the wheelchair party, the groups blend together and it looks like a "large group going to the front of the line with a wheelchair."
There are a few rides that were not able to be made wheelchair accessible. Most are in MK. For those few rides, the only way for someone who can't walk in line to go on them is to use an alternate boarding area. For those boarding areas, the party size is 6 (5 plus the person with a disability).
For shows, they do often seat the wheelchair parties first. That's because there are limited numbers of wheelchair spots and it's easier to seat the wheelchair parties without having to deal with the crowds of people who will be walking in.
But, the limited number of wheelchair spots means it is possible to arrive for a show such as Festival of the Lion King and not have any more wheelchair spots available, even though there are "regular" spots still available. This happens even if you have a FastPass; we have arrived at Bug's Life and at Little Mermaid for our FastPass return time, but had to wait for the next show because all the wheelchair spots were already taken for that show (even though people in the standby line were being seated).
Plus, you don't get to choose where you sit. In most shows, the wheelchair seating is in the very back row.
So, the reality is often different than what someone sees (or thinks they see). Anyone who thinks there are all kinds of great "perks" to using a wheelchair is invited to follow us around on our next trip. We'll be there in March.
