Inthefastlane
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2016
- Messages
- 3
This is my first post on any of the DIS boards, but as we just returned from our trip with my dad who is dealing with a very fast and progressive form of Atypical Parkinsonism, I thought some of our experiences and observations my be helpful to others planning trips.
We were last at Disney a year and a half ago with my parents and my dad was just starting to show some symptoms of his disease, but we didn't know it yet. He fell once getting out of the tea cups..... But really, that can't be that unusual. But for the most part, that trip we experienced as a group of completely able bodied people.
A year and a half later, and my dad gets around, most of the time, with the help of a rollator/walker, and needs significant help with most mobility related tasks. So this was quite a different trip for us and I hope he had fun, I know we did. But there were challenges that were new to us. For this trip my dad rented a scooter, but we also pushed his rollator. Since he can stand and walk, but only safely with the rollator, he ended up using a combination of scooter for getting around long distances and the rollator for shorter distances, navigating lines, restaurants, ect. The reality is that we don't know how fast this disease will continue to take things from my dad and he and all of us, wanted to make sure he could experience whatever he wanted to, but safely.
First some positives:
1. On almost all rides the cast members were VERY helpful. We would usually ask at the front of the line what to expect and then, depending on the line we would use the regular line (almost always with fast passes), and were sometimes diverted if there were stairs.
2. The cast members at the actual ride loading area were also very helpful but would sometimes try to take the rollator before my dad was loaded, but if we told them he needed it all they way to the boat/car whatever, they would always accommodate that. Some of the lines had double hand rails separating the entrance to the ride so we were able to only use the rollator to that point.
3. It always took at least one of us to ensure he was in the ride safely, and this would take some time. I appreciated that we didn't feel rushed and at several rides, we were actually told to "take your time" getting in and out.
Some challenges:
1. Moving walkways. We started avoiding them to be honest. He just wasn't quick enough and feeling like he needed to move quicker always made things worse. Some of the moving walkways were just a challenge (buzz Lightyear, spaceship earth - they ended up slowing these down, but that still almost wasn't enough). The exit of Space Mountain was almost really bad. This was at the beginning of our trip and he used the provided wheelchair we were told he had to use, the exit has really steep up and down hills on the moving walkway, which was hard enough to be the person pushing the wheelchair. But at the very end, one of the front wheels of the chair got stuck and I could not get him off of the moving walkway. People were pushing on us from behind because they couldn't stop, and there were even some kids who went by us on the moving handrail. I thought we were going to tip and everyone was going to fall on top of us. Finally a man in the store, rushed forward and pulled the front of the wheelchair out. I know he prevented a lot of people from getting hurt. My dad ended up making a report to a relative who works for Disney and he forwarded it to someone else. Who ended up calling and talking to my dad about this experience and they were going to be looking at this exit closely.
1.5 the space mountain ride itself is also very difficult to get in and out of with mobility issues. Having to climb in and back out with limited leg room was not easy. This was probably the most difficult ride we went on and we did not try it a 2nd time during our 8 day trip.
2. Bus transportation, getting scooters on and off busses is slow. I know that before we were always slightly annoyed when scooters got on our busses because of the extra time it added to our trip. Also, bus drivers varied widely in their helpfulness in navigating on and off the bus. My favorite (I wished I had his name) was the one who pushed the scooter himself down the ramp so my dad didn't have to figure out the turn down the ramp. In fact, we did have one accident where the scooter tipped when my dad tried to turn as he was coming down the ramp because there wasn't that much space to go straight ahead. This also could have been really bad, but it was slow, and he, luckily ended up with only a small cut on his head. They did call the medics FAST. and they made sure he was good to go and he even went on Everest after that. Probably his pride wounded more than his body.
3. Boats - we stayed at wilderness lodge and they have two kinds of boats that go to MK. The smaller ones do not accommodate scooters, so sometimes we had to wait for two boats to get there, or back.
4. Crowds, the crowds tend to ignore scooters (but were more careful when he was using the rollator). Sometimes it was easier to use the rollator to go into shows for that reason, because the crowds for shows are never in lines. Also, it became easier, once my dad knew his way around, for him to find his own route with the scooter than for him to try to follow the rest of us, even when we tried to blaze a trail.
All in all, it was a good trip and we enjoyed it.
We never used the DAS system as most of the time our fast passes worked just fine, or the line was short enough to use the rollator.
My biggest tip for anyone, with disabilities or not, is to ask questions, at every ride, ask. The cast members we met were all extremely helpful and willing to help.
We also realize that it is probably impossible to meet everyone's needs in a way that allows everyone to do everything. But were WERE able to do almost everything we wanted to.
We were last at Disney a year and a half ago with my parents and my dad was just starting to show some symptoms of his disease, but we didn't know it yet. He fell once getting out of the tea cups..... But really, that can't be that unusual. But for the most part, that trip we experienced as a group of completely able bodied people.
A year and a half later, and my dad gets around, most of the time, with the help of a rollator/walker, and needs significant help with most mobility related tasks. So this was quite a different trip for us and I hope he had fun, I know we did. But there were challenges that were new to us. For this trip my dad rented a scooter, but we also pushed his rollator. Since he can stand and walk, but only safely with the rollator, he ended up using a combination of scooter for getting around long distances and the rollator for shorter distances, navigating lines, restaurants, ect. The reality is that we don't know how fast this disease will continue to take things from my dad and he and all of us, wanted to make sure he could experience whatever he wanted to, but safely.
First some positives:
1. On almost all rides the cast members were VERY helpful. We would usually ask at the front of the line what to expect and then, depending on the line we would use the regular line (almost always with fast passes), and were sometimes diverted if there were stairs.
2. The cast members at the actual ride loading area were also very helpful but would sometimes try to take the rollator before my dad was loaded, but if we told them he needed it all they way to the boat/car whatever, they would always accommodate that. Some of the lines had double hand rails separating the entrance to the ride so we were able to only use the rollator to that point.
3. It always took at least one of us to ensure he was in the ride safely, and this would take some time. I appreciated that we didn't feel rushed and at several rides, we were actually told to "take your time" getting in and out.
Some challenges:
1. Moving walkways. We started avoiding them to be honest. He just wasn't quick enough and feeling like he needed to move quicker always made things worse. Some of the moving walkways were just a challenge (buzz Lightyear, spaceship earth - they ended up slowing these down, but that still almost wasn't enough). The exit of Space Mountain was almost really bad. This was at the beginning of our trip and he used the provided wheelchair we were told he had to use, the exit has really steep up and down hills on the moving walkway, which was hard enough to be the person pushing the wheelchair. But at the very end, one of the front wheels of the chair got stuck and I could not get him off of the moving walkway. People were pushing on us from behind because they couldn't stop, and there were even some kids who went by us on the moving handrail. I thought we were going to tip and everyone was going to fall on top of us. Finally a man in the store, rushed forward and pulled the front of the wheelchair out. I know he prevented a lot of people from getting hurt. My dad ended up making a report to a relative who works for Disney and he forwarded it to someone else. Who ended up calling and talking to my dad about this experience and they were going to be looking at this exit closely.
1.5 the space mountain ride itself is also very difficult to get in and out of with mobility issues. Having to climb in and back out with limited leg room was not easy. This was probably the most difficult ride we went on and we did not try it a 2nd time during our 8 day trip.
2. Bus transportation, getting scooters on and off busses is slow. I know that before we were always slightly annoyed when scooters got on our busses because of the extra time it added to our trip. Also, bus drivers varied widely in their helpfulness in navigating on and off the bus. My favorite (I wished I had his name) was the one who pushed the scooter himself down the ramp so my dad didn't have to figure out the turn down the ramp. In fact, we did have one accident where the scooter tipped when my dad tried to turn as he was coming down the ramp because there wasn't that much space to go straight ahead. This also could have been really bad, but it was slow, and he, luckily ended up with only a small cut on his head. They did call the medics FAST. and they made sure he was good to go and he even went on Everest after that. Probably his pride wounded more than his body.
3. Boats - we stayed at wilderness lodge and they have two kinds of boats that go to MK. The smaller ones do not accommodate scooters, so sometimes we had to wait for two boats to get there, or back.
4. Crowds, the crowds tend to ignore scooters (but were more careful when he was using the rollator). Sometimes it was easier to use the rollator to go into shows for that reason, because the crowds for shows are never in lines. Also, it became easier, once my dad knew his way around, for him to find his own route with the scooter than for him to try to follow the rest of us, even when we tried to blaze a trail.
All in all, it was a good trip and we enjoyed it.
We never used the DAS system as most of the time our fast passes worked just fine, or the line was short enough to use the rollator.
My biggest tip for anyone, with disabilities or not, is to ask questions, at every ride, ask. The cast members we met were all extremely helpful and willing to help.
We also realize that it is probably impossible to meet everyone's needs in a way that allows everyone to do everything. But were WERE able to do almost everything we wanted to.
