The Gacs have gone loopy

Melisande

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
82
No more characters and shows on the gacs. Its kind of annoying. I love seeing the characters and doing the longer lines for characters can be stressful on my vascular illness. The princesses and Fairies are the harder ones for me. They have the longest lines and their lines move slowly. My vascular illness makes standing in one spot for long periods of time hard. Like I told the girl today Siting for the hour wait time is fine. I am more than happy to do that. They made allowances for me today. I guess in the future perhaps I have to hit those at opening. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew. I am not sure how recent this is but last time anyone I knew had a gac this was not the case. That was back in Jan or Feb.

B
 
No more characters and shows on the gacs. Its kind of annoying. I love seeing the characters and doing the longer lines for characters can be stressful on my vascular illness. The princesses and Fairies are the harder ones for me. They have the longest lines and their lines move slowly. My vascular illness makes standing in one spot for long periods of time hard. Like I told the girl today Siting for the hour wait time is fine. I am more than happy to do that. They made allowances for me today. I guess in the future perhaps I have to hit those at opening. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew. I am not sure how recent this is but last time anyone I knew had a gac this was not the case. That was back in Jan or Feb.

B

The "offical" policy has always been the GAC is for attractions. If you need to sit for an hour line don't they suggest a wheelchair or ECV?
 
I agree with livndisney. The official policy for GACs are that they are for attractions only. This specifically means rides and shows. They ae not intended for transportation, dining, or Character meet and greets.

The meet and greet areas do not have benches or other areas for sitting to wait your turn. The GAC states on it that it is not intended to bypass lines.

And the official policy for any mobility or stamina concern is the suggestion that a person rent a wheelchair or ECV.
 
The only time the GAC worked for us (and it wasn't the GAC) was during the wish trip. The one other time we were at Disneyland and used a GAC it did not apply to characters. Rides only.
 

with shows there is only so much you can do anyway - you have to wait for the next show to start no matter what.

If you cannot stand in lines, Disney's policy is to rent a wheelchair or scooter. For you, however, a walker with a seat might do very well for you - it lets you walk as much as you can, but sit in those longer slow-moving lines.
 
We saw a few guests using walkers at WDW last week - I was jealous that they had a seat so handy! ;) I think they are a great idea for those that can walk a bit, but need an at-hand resting spot as well. Thinking of getting one for my Mom, but know she will fight it, sigh... Maybe I'll tell her it's for me!
 
I agree with the other posters that if a guest needs a seat, they really need to bring it with them. I have seen a lot of guests with the walkers with wheels and seats (also called rollators).

A few of the shows have benches in the waiting area (not usually preshow areas), but these benches are not reserved for guests with GACs. The seats are first come, first served.
Here is an example of benches in the waiting area. This is the Circle of Life in The Land - you can see the benches in the background near the top of the picture. The roped off area at the right of the picture is an area for guests with wheelchairs, which is also used by some guests with GACs who need a little separation from the rest of the guests.
2590Circle_of_Life_entrance.JPG
 
When we were there in May, we showed our GAC at the entrance to the princess-fairies lines. We were given a card with a number and directed to the waiting area outside of the exit. At some point a CM would come out and escort us in through the exit. It was by no means a short wait, but it provided a less crowded waiting area. Is this no longer being done?
 
When we were there in May, we showed our GAC at the entrance to the princess-fairies lines. We were given a card with a number and directed to the waiting area outside of the exit. At some point a CM would come out and escort us in through the exit. It was by no means a short wait, but it provided a less crowded waiting area. Is this no longer being done?

It might very well be dependent on what the GAC is for. Meaning, what the disability is and what the accomodations are. If its primarily a stamina/mobility issue, they dont need an accomodation of a less crowded waiting area. The accomodation according to disney is renting a wheelchair/ECV or as a PP mentioned, a walker with a seat. That takes care of the mobility issue and is an acceptable accomodation.
 
We've never been able to use our GAC for shows or characters (other than the fairies). I've asked to wait in the wheelchair area for shows even saying that we'll enter after the line has gone in because we knew that DD12 just couldn't handle waiting without being able to move around more than can be done in the line but it just wasn't allowed. We've skipped many shows because of it. For characters, we stick mainly with meals and those rare instances where there aren't long lines to meet them.
 
The problem we have with shows is our son doesn't have the patience for them, not necessarily the queue but the whole length of waiting, watching etc, the full start to finish process.

We find the GAC invaluable for general rides like Soarin' and Test Track where the queue's are often too long for a regular queue wait time.
 
When we were there in May, we showed our GAC at the entrance to the princess-fairies lines. We were given a card with a number and directed to the waiting area outside of the exit. At some point a CM would come out and escort us in through the exit. It was by no means a short wait, but it provided a less crowded waiting area. Is this no longer being done?

That is what happened to us last month. We didn't mind how long we waited as it was a quieter area and DS2 could still watch the TV. It worked really well for us.

Caron
 
When we were there in May, we showed our GAC at the entrance to the princess-fairies lines. We were given a card with a number and directed to the waiting area outside of the exit. At some point a CM would come out and escort us in through the exit. It was by no means a short wait, but it provided a less crowded waiting area. Is this no longer being done?
That was what we did in May, but whether someone is able to do that depends on what accommodations they need. For example, someone with a GAC that says they need to wait out of the sun, in an air conditioned place, or avoid stairs, would not get the accommodation of waiting outside of the regular line for the Fairies or Princesses. Since the regular line provides what they need, they would not need any other accommodation.
GACs are only used for characters inside in permanent locations. They are not used for outdoor or impromptu character greetings.

In my DD's case, she had previously been to see the Fairies on another trip when we did wait in line. This was very challenging for her; she can't walk and uses a wheelchair, which was not a problem because the lines are wheelchair accessible. In addition, she has multiple other challenges, which is why we get a GAC for her and use it only when she needs it.
When we waited in the regular Fairy line, the biggest issue we had was that most of the guests waiting for the Fairies had one or 2 of their party waiting in the line and when they got almost to the front, they called the rest of their party to join the line. So, there were constantly people coming from outside and squeezing ahead of us in line. THis was very difficult for DD as her wheelchair was getting bumped all the time (which she doesn't always cope well with).
The next time we came to the Fairies, we explained our difficulties and showed DD's GAC. The CM gave us a card with a number on it and were told that we would wait in the seating area by the exit until a CM came out to get us. We were also told that our wait would be approximately the same as if we had been in the line; we just would be waiting outside of the line.
Part of our wait was in that seating area and part was standing right outside of the exit for the Fairies. I kept track of the wait and it did turn out to be about the same as the posted wait.
If we had wanted to see the Princesses, the posted wait was much shorter (I think less than 15 minutes). DD did not want to see them, but the CM told us if we did, we could either wait in line or the CM would give us another card for the Princesses.
Definately not avoiding the wait, but the waiting area did meet DD's needs.
 
My problem with the line for the fairies is that it stands still for long periods of time. When I stand still in one spot my blood ends up flowing into my muscles and pooling in my muscles which does a number of things to my body. It causes my legs to itch and turn red. It irritates my heart and causes it to race. I do not typically need a wheelchair. If I am moving I am ok. If I am siting I am ok. Customer Relations feels that I qualify for the GAC during summer months when the park is crowded. I only ask for help on the princess and fairies because it is the one character wait that is truly problematic for me. Their own staff were convinced there was a second different gac stamp that I needed which made the whole situation confusing.
 
When we were there in May, we showed our GAC at the entrance to the princess-fairies lines. We were given a card with a number and directed to the waiting area outside of the exit. At some point a CM would come out and escort us in through the exit. It was by no means a short wait, but it provided a less crowded waiting area. Is this no longer being done?

This was done for our family in July. My daughter has autism and she can't do the lines and I have a mobility issue, i was in a wheelchair. They gave us the card adn we waited until the got us, it was not a short wait. Then when we wanted to see the other one we got a new card with a new number and had to wait.
 
I have an issue where standing still for long periods of time makes me faint. I emailed Disney and described my diagnosis and they sent me back what I'm sure was the basic form letter of not visiting during busy season and using a wheelchair or ECV because they classify it as a stamina issue.
 
I have an issue where standing still for long periods of time makes me faint. I emailed Disney and described my diagnosis and they sent me back what I'm sure was the basic form letter of not visiting during busy season and using a wheelchair or ECV because they classify it as a stamina issue.

WOW, I know that is not funny, but when I read what you wrote I had to LOL. I can't believe that they told you not to visit during busy season:eek:, seems like they are always busy now!! I hope that you do heed their advice and rent an ECV.
 
I'm actually just going to play it by ear. I take a medicine to help fend off that reaction, and so long as I have a little room to kind of shift my weight from foot to foot, I'm usually fine. It's standing with my feet planted that does it to me, so no Circle 360 movies for me. Heat also makes me more sensitive to this happening, hence my January trip. If I find that I need a wheelchair or ECV I certainly won't hesitate to get one. If the weather by some chance gets really warm, I'll go and get the GAC for queues that are out under the sun. I know what my options are, but since this is a recent diagnosis I just have to figure things out as I go along. I'm hoping to avoid the whole "OMG that girl just fainted on Mickey!"
 
I think it also depends on the CM you approach. Last year we showed the CM our GAC and he asked us if we wanted to see the Princesses or the Fairies or both and we chose "both". He marked a little laminated, numbered card and sent us to wait in the area PP was talking about. We went in to see the princesses and then came back out and got taken back to see the fairies after another wait. I don't think our wait time was nearly as long as the posted.
 
I think it also depends on the CM you approach. Last year we showed the CM our GAC and he asked us if we wanted to see the Princesses or the Fairies or both and we chose "both". He marked a little laminated, numbered card and sent us to wait in the area PP was talking about. We went in to see the princesses and then came back out and got taken back to see the fairies after another wait. I don't think our wait time was nearly as long as the posted.

The wait can be very deceptive there.
First, the posted time is not always correct (often the actual wait is shorter than posted by a few minutes). And being out if the line waiting, it can seem much shorter. The last time we went, my mom was with us. I had been keeping track of the time, so I could tell our wait was roughly equivilent to the posted wait. My mom was quite certain though that we had been waiting less than half as long as we actually waited.
 














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