Ride access questions

[Smuggs]

Hi Board People,

My mom asked for permission for me to post questions, and the DIS moderators were kind enough to allow it.

I am doing my senior project on handicap accessibility at WDW. Our senior class trip will be to Orlando, and one of our friends was hurt in an accident and is in a wheelchair. We want him to have fun too!

For my project I am building a site on our schools network that will list the rides and the accessability for him. I bought the Passporter book and have some information and reading here has given me a lot more. But since the search doesnt work so good, would ya mind answering a few questions here and there? I will try not to be a pain.

Can anyone tell me how the following rides are for wheelchair people to get on?

Dinosaur
Primeval Whirl
TriceraTop Spin
Kali River Rapids

and is there anything accessible in the Boneyard if you cannot get out of your chair?

thanks!

 

[WildGrits]

MAINSTREAM QUEUES

The WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort strives to provide mainstream access whenever possible; that is, all Guests utilize the main entrance to the attraction. However, accessibility varies from attraction to attraction within our Parks. The Guidebook for Guests with Disabilities and Park guidemaps use symbols to indicate boarding procedures for each attraction. In addition, Guests should contact a host or hostess at each attraction before entering.

Attractions providing mainstream queue access include:

MAGIC KINGDOM

Pirates of the Caribbean
The Enchanted Tiki Room
Splash Mountain
The Hall of Presidents
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Donald's Boat
Mickey's Country House
Minnie's Country House
Toontown Hall of Fame
The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacres Farm
Astro Orbiter
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Stitch's Great Escape
Tomorrowland Indy Speedway
Space Mountain
Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress

Epcot

FUTURE WORLD
Wonders of Life -- All Attractions
Imagination! Pavilion
Universe of Energy
The Living Seas
Test Track
The Land Pavilion
Innoventions

WORLD SHOWCASE

Norway -- Maelstrom
FriendShip Boats
The American Adventure
Impressions de France
Reflections of China



Disney-MGM Studios
The Great Movie Ride
Muppet*Vision 3D
Star Tours
Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour
The Magic of Disney Animation
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
"The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror"
Fantasmic!
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
Lights Motors Action Extreme Stunt Show
Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Play It!
Playhouse Disney
Sounds Dangerous
Walt Disney: One Man's Dream


Animal Kingdom

It's Tough To Be A Bug
Festival of the Lion King
Grandmother Willow's Grove: Pocahontas and her Forest Friends
Dinosaur
The Boneyard
Theater in the Wild
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Caravan Stage: Flights of Wonder
Primeval Whirl
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Kali River Rapids
TriceraTop Spin

ATTRACTION ACCESSIBILITY LIST

MAGIC KINGDOM

Guests may enter and enjoy these attractions in a wheelchair or ECV:

Castle Forecourt Stage: Cinderellabration
Fairytale Garden: Storytime with Belle
The Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management
Shrunken Ned's Jungle Boats
Country Bear Jamboree
Frontierland Shooting Arcade
Hall of Presidents
Liberty Belle Riverboat
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Ariel's Grotto
Mickey's Country House
Minnie's Country House
Donald's Boat
Toontown Hall of Fame/Judge's Tent
Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress
Tomorrowland Arcade
Galaxy Palace Theater

NOTE: Swiss Family Treehouse is a walk-through, with lots of stairs to climb. You must be ambulatory to visit the treehouse.

Guests in motorized vehicles, ECVs, must transfer into an available wheelchair at these attractions:

"It's a Small World" (though there are some vehicles that accommodate wheelchairs)
Magic Carpets of Aladdin (though there are some vehicles that accommodate wheelchairs)
WALT DISNEY WORLD Railroad
Stitch's Great Escape (you may stay seated in wheelchair to view show)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (some wheelchair accessible hunnypots available)
Tom Sawyer Island (may not be able to ride raft due to water levels)
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (though there are some vehicles that accommodate wheelchairs)

These attractions require Guests to transfer from a wheelchair to a ride vehicle:

Main Street Vehicles
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Caribbean--Guest must transfer from ECV to a standard wheelchair to negotiate the queue.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad--Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
Splash Mountain--Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
Tom Sawyer Island
The Haunted Mansion
Cinderella's Golden Carrousel
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Mad Tea Party
Peter Pan's Flight
Snow White's Scary Adventure's
Astro Orbiter
Tomorrowland Indy Speedway
Space Mountain--Guests must transfer from ECV to a standard wheelchair to negotiate the queue. Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacres Farm--Guests must transfer from ECV to a standard wheelchair to negotiate the queue. Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.

Epcot

These attractions require Guests to transfer from a wheelchair to a ride vehicle:

Spaceship Earth
Body Wars--Guests must transfer from ECV to a standard wheelchair to negotiate the queue. Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
Test Track--Health, age, and size are important
considerations at this attraction.
Maelstrom--Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
Mission Space -- Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction
Soarin' -- Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction

Guests in motorized vehicles, ECVs, must transfer into an available wheelchair at these attractions :

"Ellen's Energy Adventure"
Living with the Land in The Land
El Rio del Tiempo in Mexico

Guests may enter and enjoy these attractions in a wheelchair or ECV:

Cranium Command in Wonders of Life
"The Making of Me" in Wonders of Life
AnaComical Players in Wonders of Life
"Goofy about Health" in Wonders of Life
Innoventions
The Living Seas
The Circle of Life in The Land
"Honey, I Shrunk the Audience"
Art of Mexico Gallery in Mexico
Stave Church Gallery in Norway
Reflections of China
The American Adventure
The America Gardens Theater
Bijutsu-kan gallery in Japan
"Treasure of Morocco" exhibit in Morocco
"Impressions de France" in France
O Canada! in Canada


Disney-MGM Studios

These attractions require Guests to transfer from a wheelchair to a ride vehicle:

Star Tours--Guests must transfer from ECV to a
standard wheelchair to negotiate the queue. Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith--Guests must transfer from ECV to a standard wheelchair to negotiate the queue. Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror--Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.

Guests in motorized vehicles, ECVs, must transfer into
an available wheelchair at these attractions:

The Great Movie Ride
The Magic of Disney Animation

Guests may enter and enjoy these attractions in a wheelchair or ECV:

"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" Movie Set Adventure
Muppet*Vision 3D
Sounds Dangerous
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
The American Film Institute Showcase
Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
"Beauty and the Beast" at the Theater of the Stars
Playhouse Disney
Fantasmic!
Lights Motors Action Extreme Stunt Show
Walt Disney: One Man's Dream
Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Play It!

Animal Kingdom

This attraction requires Guests to transfer from a wheelchair to a ride vehicle:

Dinosaur-- Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
Kali River Rapids -- Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
Primeval Whirl -- Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.

Guests in motorized vehicles, ECVs, must transfer into an available wheelchair at this attraction:

Kilimanjaro Safaris-- Health, age, and size are important considerations at this attraction.
Affection Section
TriceraTop Spin -- some ride vehicles accommodate wheelchairs

Guests may enter and enjoy these attractions in a wheelchair or ECV:

The Tree of Life Garden
Discovery Island Trails
It's Tough To Be A Bug
Grandmother Willow's Grove: Pocahontas and her Forest Friends
The Boneyard
Cretaceous Trail
Lion King Theater: Festival of the Lion King
Fossil Preparation Lab
Pangani Forest Exploration Trail
Wildlife Express
Caravan Stage: Flights of Wonder
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Conservation Station
Theater in the Wild
Fossil Fun Games

This information was adapted from the WDW Disabilities Guidebook

 

[SueM in MN]

Glad to see you here.

Most of the information posted is in the WDW Guidebooks for Guests with Disabilities. There is a link in the disABILITIES FAQs thread to download the text from the WDW website. The DIS site also has a similar page of information regarding disability information.
One very good thing Deb Wills site has is pictures of the ride cars:
Attraction Vehicle Photos. Many of them were taken from the standpoint of larger people being able to fit into the seat, so sometimes they don't show things like the floor and the distance you would need to transfer someone. They are still very helpful though.
My daughter has been on all the rides you asked specifically about. I can tell you some things about how we get our daughter on. She is about 5 feet tall, 90 pounds and can't help us a lot with transfers, although she can stand up if we hold her up, so we do a lot of lifting. Other people will add their experiences:
Dinosaur
For Dinosaur, wheelchair users enter thru the regular line and go thru the preshow. At the end of the preshow (a movie that talks about the 'time travel machines', doors open on the right side of the room to get to the boarding area. Right after goint thru, there is an elevator on the left that will take guests with wheelchairs down an elevator to get to the boarding area. You will board on the exit side and leave the wheelchair there. You can see from the pictures of ride cars that the ride seats are kind of a firm plastic with a seat belt. There isn't a lot of leg room to get in, but it doesn't seem to us to be much harder to get into that a car. You will transfer in to the right and out at the smae place, but to the left.
Dinosaur is a very rough ride and if he doesn't have good sitting balance, he will get moved around a lot. Whoever sits next to my daughter gets quite a workout helping her stay in place. She also gets extension patterns (her arms and legs straighten out when she gets excited); that's something to think about for your friend too if he has anthing like that.
Primeval Whirl
I would not recommend this one at all. It's like the teacups and a roller coaster put together. From the ground, it looks really tame, but inside, it can be VERY rough because it spins and goes up and down. There are quite a few pictures of it on this page. It's towards the middle. We watched it for a while and thought it was tame enough for our daughter to get on. By the time the ride finished, she was almost out of her seat. My older daughter (who is not disabled) said you need to be able to brace with your feet and hang on to the bar with your hands and even then, you might get bounced around a lot.
TriceraTop Spin
A wheelchair can be loaded right on this one. Most wheelchairs will fit; some that are wider or longer than usual may not.
Kali River Rapids
I don't have time to write much (I need to stop writing and go to work).
There are prictures of this on the allearsnet vehicle photo page (the white things in the picture are covers that are not on while you ride. I have some of the wheelchair boarding area I can send you.
For wheelchair boarding, they have a place that traps the ride boat so that it doesn't move around. It's not a real easy transfer; you have to fit thru a small door at the side and step down into the boat. There are 2 seats next to each other and they share a seatbelt.
It's possible to get a little wet or TOTALLY SOAKED on this ride. Since the boats twirl and twsit during the trip down the rapids, you can never tell on each drop which seats will be getting drenched. There is a bar above the bottom of the boat to put your feet on so they don't sit in the water trapped in the bottom of the boat. My daughter has ridden this about 6 times and haas been lucky to never get soaked, but since she can't keep her feet on the bar above the bottom of the boat, her shoes and socks always get wet.