Wheelchair access...

[rach98n]

Just a question, hopefully I am not going to get flamed on this one!...we just returned from WDW and were there the weekend that the dance teams were there. I have to say they were all VERY well behaved and the large groups were not a problem, BUT one thing happened that struck me as odd and I wonder what Disney's policy is. We were waiting in the FP line for Space Mountain when an entire dance team (about 16 girls plus their chaperones) came in through the handicap entrance w/one girl in a wheelchair. They let the entire group on the ride before anyone else. I can see letting a family in together, or a group that fits on the ride (in this case 3?), but this was a LARGE group and really held the line up a lot for those who had been waiting. Just wondering what the policy generally is!

 

[Tiger Fan]

I do think this is outrageous. I use an ECV as I have breast cancer that's spread to my bones. I couldn't go without my scooter and I'm thankful they have access. Most of the lines you don't even need any kind of pass for. However when I did have to use my GAC is clearly stated on their the size of my party. Mostly there are just the 3 of us. A few times we've had more and on one trip the entire family went - 11 of us. When I got my card they explained that no more than 6 (5 + the disabled guest) would be allowed on together. We were separated many times anyway and this was not a problem, but I couldn't imagine approaching a CM with my group of 11 and expecting a rush to the front. We did have a CM in AK see us at Fastpass and tell us all to use the FP line to get on the safari so we would be in one vehicle and thus finish the ride together. This was a nice surprise, but we didn't try it or ask for anything else. We were even separated at the FOTLK in AK since there is limited handicapped seating, only 3 of my family were allowed to sit down front and the rest were seated a few rows behind us.
Lisa
Tiger Fan

 

[rach98n]

Thanks for the info Lisa. It seemed like a little much, but you never know!

 

[SueM in MN]

In general, people with wheelchairs/ecvs wait in the same lines as everyone else (that's one reason the waiting areas/lines have been made wider, to allow access). I don't know what the reasons for them allowing the large group of cheerleaders was. I think (but not sure) that the cheerleader competition is an ESPN event, so that might have something to do with it.

 

[WDSearcher]

In general, wheelchair and ECV users are asked to limit the number of people who enter with them to three or four. In the case of the cheerleaders, they may have had a special pass for the parks that had nothing to do with the wheelchair. Rarely, if there are competitive groups on property and they have a very short window during which to actually be IN the parks, they are walked through several of the most popular rides so that they can get on and off quickly, and then back to competition. Fear not, though ... they pay for the priviledge!

 

[rach98n]

I don't think in this case that they had special priveledges. We saw many groups waiting in lines. This was the National Dance Team championship. We mostly saw them at MK, but a little bit at AK one day. This was the only time I happened to see it happen, but it did cause us to have to wait quite a long time to use our FP - just a little frustrating but really not that big of a deal!