Space Mountain with wheelchair

[LisaBi]

Does anyone have any recent experience? This is one of the most inconsistent rides in my experience. It is not possible to go thru standard queue. But often they don't let us in FP either. I'm good with having to wait whatever the standby time is before entering the FP line. BUT they often write a return pass for longer than the current standby time. One time we even made rope drop and were about the fifth party to get to Space Mountain (slow time of year.). They still wanted us to wait an hour. If we could have used standard queue the wait would have been zero. I'm talking about no GAC - we haven't really needed it the last few years as DS is better able to understand waiting, and is no longer interested in many of the rides with the worst hoardes of people around them (like Alladins carpet and dumbo). He's OK as long as he doesn't see the line, or more accurately, a large hoard of people.

Space Mountain just stresses me out as it is one of his favorites and he does not do well with change, and I never know what to expect. We do get FP as much as possible, but sometimes just wing it. He usually wants to ride multiple times, so that normally means standby on most attractions. He would be fine with the hour long standby line. He actually hates not using it since they put in the new stuff in the queue. He can see it but can't touch it. Last trip I had him walk the queue once but that turned out to be a mistake...especially since the walkway on the exit was down.

BTW ...he has Down syndrome which leads to stamina issues, and also an issue with an odd shaped foot. I once made him walk a small local park (before I realized the impact of the weird shaped feet) and we ended up with a foot sized blister.[/QUOTE]

 

[PatMcDuck]

I think Space mountain is one of the rides where they only allow a limited number of special needs guests riding at the same time. It might only be one, actually out there on the tracks, at a time. They do this in case they have to evacuate the ride, I believe.

At WDW, there is no quick way into the ride, is there? I can't remember, my last few trips have been to DL, where they have an area for GAC and wheelchair guests to wait, and that line gets very long. So I think you are talking about WDW.

We had this happen at Living with the Land, of all places. The wait line was about 10 minutes, which was ok with us. No, they wanted to give us a FP with a return time over an hour away.(because OTHER guests were also given these ahead of us). I would guess the same issue, did not want to have too many special needs guests out on the boats? My son does transfer, we did NOT need a wheelchair boat or anything. (he also has downs, autism, poor vision and balance, etc). He is in a Convaid chair at the parks.

 

[LisaBi]

Yes....after you get near the boarding area wheelchairs veer off to a separate space and they take one at a time. They don't seem to limit how many are waiting there. If 10 w/c parties with FP came up at the same time they could all go in. It's the being made to wait longer than the standby time before we can even go wait in the w/c area that is irritating.

 

[SueM in MN]

The Guidebook for guests with disabilities gives these instructions for the Mobilty Entrance:
Obtain a FASTPASS or see a host for Options. If FASTPASS is not available, enter through queue on the right.

I think the issue with inconsistency at Space Mountain is that what happens depends on conditions at the time. These are educated guesses, but I think they are probably correct.

One of the conditions is how many other people with disabilities are already on the ride or in the queue. I don't know what the limit is for Space Mountain.
I know they can only have a certain number of people who would need to be evacuated in an emergency because they can't get out on thir own (so, agree with PatMcDuck.


Another condition would be which lines are open. When rides first open for the day, they don't usually have the Fastpass line open because people have not gotten Fastpasses yet. Since that line is accessible, not having it open cuts out one option for guests using wheelchairs.
If the line that is open is the LEFT line, that one is not accessible. So they may be giving a return time based in when the RIGHT line, which is accessible, will be open.

 

[disneymarie]

The last three trips with GAC I wheeled the chair up the fast pass enterance and waited to the side, we were loaded without extended wait. I think the exit was more an issue with the people mover, folks were afraid to just go around us. I just waved them along.