Toy Story Mania strategy

[brymolmom]

Hi all!

We leave on Sunday for our big family trip. 15 of us!!! I'm SO excited. I am the Super Planner of the trip so I'm a bit anxious that usually when we go it's just dh, myself and 2 kids. Now we have a MUCH bigger group and my mom, who has MS, will be riding in a wheelchair. I already have her manual push chair (we'll have plenty of people to push her) reserved through Applescooters thanks to advice here.

I've been going through my 'usual' rope drop strategies to determine where I need to make tweaks either due to the size of our party or due to the wheelchair and I'm most curious about how I should handle DHS and TSM. Our usual routine is that dh takes all our passes as we enter gates...he swerves in and out of any available space to get to the FP machines as quickly as possible, while the kids and I take our time and follow the crowd to the main line, where dh joins us (we will not enter the building without him - will step aside and wait for him as I won't 'budge' on others).

Anyway - I realize it will take us longer to get through the crowd with the wheelchair and that's fine - we'll take our time. My main question is should I be sending 10 others ahead of us to meet up with DH and ride in the standby line while 2 or 3 of us hang back and go in the line with my mom? She will not be able to do the stairs in the line and I know where they take wheelchairs to the other entrance, but I'm guessing that all 15 of us won't be able to go together. Is this right? I just don't want to hold up the rest of our group - and have them be even farther back in the standby line if we're not going to ride together anyway. I am thinking the better move is to keep 3 people back with mom and let everyone else just go as quickly as possible, then she'll get to the wheelchair entrance whenever she can anyway - and the 4 of us will just go through together.

Thoughts? Other experiences with this?

 

[peemagg]

Yes, I would send most of your group thru the standby line. They will only allow your Mom and up to 5 others with her in the alternate entrance. Your group would be much happier this way.

 

[SueM in MN]

Always be ready to separate into smaller groups - total of 5 people plus the person using the wheelchair. In the case of TSM, they will for sure limit your party size because the loading area for guests with disabilities gets very full and the ride car 'pod' can only hold a total of 6 people.

 

[amykathleen2005]

Surely you probably won't hang out all 15 of your all day either.

 

[PatMcDuck]

And for Toy story Mania, there can be a very long line at the wheelchair accessible area. So I would go there very early in the morning. We have waited there at times for 40 minutes, and fast pass does not help, because you have to wait in that special (long) line anyway. Sometimes it is a longer wait than the regular line, so be prepared. Maybe a good one to do when you are in a smaller group.

But the loading area is pure genius. Reminds me of the one at Space Mt in DL (which can also have a very long wait, unfortunately).

 

[tinkerbelluk]

My recommendation would be to send one person with all your park tickets for fastpasses at toy story mania and avoid having to push the wheelchair near pixar place till you time on the fastpass, they will then def allow six to go in the wheelchair line, everyone else will prob get the regular line. (TSM is one of the more strict rides on this policy.) The wheelchair line can be long so bear that in mind, but at least with a fastpass you will get into that line a little quicker, there has been time that hubby and I have waited over 20 mins after the merge area with a fastpass, but the wait time can be horrendous if you use the standby line (the lady behind us told us they had been in line 90 min before even getting sent to the wheelchair line and she def waited a good 15 min more than those who entered the standby line at the same time.)

 

[blondietink]

Well, you are probably already at WDW now so this might not help. As others have said, the wheelchair line at toy Story Mania can be horribly long and horribly backed up. The CM's have to configure the cars each time they load/unlodad, depending on whether or not the person with a wheelchair can actually get out and transfer to the ride or not.

I second getting a fast pass or going firth thing in the morning in the stand-by line. My son has Down syndrome and a heart condition. We use a wheelchair for him as he cannot walk long distances and crowds make him afraid. However, he has been on this ride many times and he is used to it. Our strategy is this: the fastpass line runs right beside a window looking into the wheelchair loading area. We get our fastpass and at the correct time, DH goes into the fastpass line just far enough to see if the wheelchair loading area is full or not. If not, DH motions the rest of us to come into the line pushing my DS's wheelchair. If the line in the wheelchair loading area is long/backed up, DH will tell us to come in to the fastpass line without the chair. It is a relatively short fastpass line, but there is about ten steps walking up and ten walking down into the general loading area. We are able to manage this slowly holding DS's hand and get on the ride quickly. Often times that wheelchair line is soooooo looooonnnnnnnggggg that by the time we get off the ride using the regular fastpass line, we see the same people still waiting in the wheelchair line.

Whichever way you choose, as others have said you will need to break up your party if you use a GAC for any of the rides at WDW.