Waiting in lines...

[bubbasmom99]

Hello everyone!

We are traveling to WDW in May with my ILs. FIL has a back injury/condition that does not allow him to stay in any one position for too long. We are pretty sure he will not be able to walk around all day, and he is not going to be able to stand in line for very long. We had originally planned to rent an ECV, but are not sure how much he would use it. Our current plan is to borrow a wheelchair from our resort (VWL) and use it whenever he needs it. He is still mobile and has no problem walking, so I imagine this would be more for the end of the day. Should we venture out without the chair and he gets tired, we can just rent a wheelchair at the parks.

My main question is what to do about him standing in line. I have read a little about the guest assistance pass (?) and plan to see if we can get one for him. I am mostly worried that he looks perfectly healthy and that people won't believe he needs special treatment. But believe me, if he overdoes it even for an hour, he will pay for it by being in bed for the rest of the vacation. And none of us wants that!

Hopefully we can fastpass alot of rides with long lines. For the others, would we just wait in line as usual and then have him come join us toward the end of the line somehow? (Have him sit somewhere and wait and then come back up through the exit, like a baby swap situation).

Sorry this is so long. I have just started *really* planning for our trip and all these details are going to drive me crazy! I'm okay with planning for my family, but adding the ILs is taking extra coordination, lol.

THANKS!!

 

[mitros]

Hi! first, the EVC's are very slow. When we take my mother, we rent a regular wheelchair and take turns pushing her. Beleive me, it's much quicker that way. You should bring the wheelchair with you. It would be a real pain to have someone walk all the way back to the front gate to pick one up later in the day..I've never heard of a guest assistance pass. If there is such a thing,I wish I could find out about it. ,Most rides have a special wheelchair entrance,and if there isn't one, a CM,when they see a wheelchair will isually assit that person and there party to get in ahead of the line. Please don't worry about other people thinking he doesn't need special treatment. As long as he is in a wheelchair it's not a problem. Hope everything works out. Have a great time!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I would agree that the ECVs which Disney rents are very slow. The ones rented from off-site can go up to about 7mph.

I always rent from off-site as my problem is both with prolonged walking and prolonged standing. This way I always have one available, including to/from the parking lots as well as if I need one outside of the Disney parks.

A Guest Assistance Card (GAC) is available at Guest Services at any of the Disney parks. They will indicate the needs. I have never used one, but from what I understand they could allow you to use the FastPass lines without having a FastPass, or allow him to sit off the line while others are in line; joining the line just before the final entrance to an attraction.

Unless you are used to pushing aa wc, an ECV is the way to go. Not only is it easier on the rest of the group, but it gives the user more of a degree of freedom, and a feeling they they are not dependent on someone else.

Sometimes I will zoom ahead of my wife to get in line for something, or if I want to go one place and she wants to go somewhere else we can split up with no problem.

 

[SueM in MN]

,Most rides have a special wheelchair entrance,and if there isn't one, a CM,when they see a wheelchair will isually assit that person and there party to get in ahead of the line.

This was true 10 years ago because most lines had turnstiles, steps or other things that made them not wheelchair accessible, but now, it's seldom that a person in a wheelchair will be allowed ahead in line. In the past few years, almost all the lines were changed to "Mainstream Access", which means that wheelchair or ecv users wait in line with everyone else. For some rides (like Haunted Mansion) that board at the exit, the wheelchair party waits in line until just before the turnstiles that take the regular line into the building. At that point, wheelchair users are pulled off and go directly to the exit (missing the prehow part). A few rides (mostly at MK) could not be retro-fitted to make them wheelchair accessible, so at those rides there is a special wheelchair entrance.
Here is a link to the DIS page about touring with a mobility disability. It lists the rides/attractions that have Mainstream Access and also has a list of rides where someone can stay in a wheelchair or ecv for their entire wait in line and for the attraction.
As Cheshire Figment said, a lot of people prefer an ecv because it gives a lot more independence to the person using it and no one has to push.

A GAC can be requested from Guest Services at any of the parks. They are not meant to (and usually won't) shorten your wait in line. In most cases, the person with a GAC will still be asked to use fastpass as much as possible (the ones that allow use of the fastpass entrance are given out very sparingly). GACS are meant to give the CM information about the type of assistance you need that might not be visible. Examples might be waiting out of the sun (maybe because of medications that cause sunburn easily) or in a quieter place (for example, for a person with autism or similar probelms). Most of the lines don't have a place to sit and wait, so once you get in line, he will be standing unless he brings a wheelchair or ecv in line with him. In most of the ride lines, you will be slowly moving forward all the time. For shows (and a few rides that board in batches) you will be standing still in one place until you get to the show area. The CMs at the ride entrance can help you with figuring out how long the wait will actually be. Sometimes, a ride with a short line actually has a long line snaking thru the building that you can't see. Other times, what looks like a long line, might actually be a short wait.
We use a GAC for our DD because she has many other invisible needs (besides her wheelchair) that make waiting in line difficult. The last few years, we have ended up going during the peak Easter season. Even then, we have only needed to use the GAC once or twice a day at most. With using fastpass and just avoiding lines that are long until later in the day, you can avoid long waits most of the time. At each park, there is a status board where CMs keep track of the wait times for different rides. They can be very helpful because some rides that have a long wait at one time of day might actually be "walk right on" at some other times. Also, just because you can get a fastpass, doesn't mean you always should. Last March at ITTBAB, we saw the fastpass return was in one hour, but the standby line was walk into the next show. THe CM was having a hard timme convincing people that they did NOT need a fastpass to see the show since so many people are fixated on using a fastpass to avoid lines. DH and I were at WDW over NewYears (a really busy time) and saw the same thing happen several times. People were making comments about how "lucky" they were that they would only have a one hour wait for their fastpass time, when they actually could have walked right in if they turned to the standby line.