But, unless I misunderstand the new policy, anyone could have had the same accommodation in the past simply by purchasing a FastPass. If so, the new “accommodation” essentially amounts to a discount. Assuming it wasn’t a financial reason (inability to afford a FastPass) that made that particular family vacation impossible without the accommodation, then it sounds like it will no longer be possible.
First, you don’t purchase FastPasses.
Second, you can only have one Fastpass at a time. You go to the park at say 10:00 and get a Fastpass to ride Space Mountain at 11:10-1:10. At 11:10 you can pick up a second Fastpass (which you do - say for Splash Mountain that is 2:20-4:20) and go ride Space Mountain (crossing the park and getting there about 11:20).
But what do you do from 10:00 when you get your Fastpass until 11:10 when you can ride your Fastpass ride or pick up another Fastpass - you ride other attractions by standing in line. But some people can’t stand in line - so Disney has made accommodation for them in the past mostly through special lines and waiting rooms (it depends on the attraction).
What the new system does (according to rumor) is it allows you to walk up to a Disney employee and say “we want to stand in “line” for Pirates of the Carribean, but, see, we have some sort of issue where we can’t actually stand in line” - the employee looks at the data and says "The line for Pirates is currently 25 minutes long - we give you some “line credit” for the hassle of having to come over here, its now 10:15 - you can bop to the front of the line (or the disabilities entrance - although at DisneyWorld almost all lines are mainstreamed) at 10:35. If you (special needs guest) and me (non special needs guests) are doing the same park on the same day with the same plan - it should take us about the same amount of time - the difference being that you and your party can wait in air conditioned comfort in a restaurant, or sitting under a shade tree, or in whatever quiet corner you can find at Disney to avoid overstimulation - and I stand in the line for Pirates for 25 minutes. You can only be waiting in one “line” at a time - its a virtual placeholder for your spot.
So a special needs pass - or whatever they are calling it - will basically allow you to have two Fastpasses - a normal Fastpass, and a Fastpass timed to the current wait for guests without special needs.
Disneyland is very different, most lines are mainstreamed for wheelchairs
ETA: At Disney World all this is changing with “MagicBands” and Fastpass Plus- that will allow you to book your ride times like dinner reservations months before you go on vacation. Not sure I like that idea, but they didn’t ask me.
I went with the boyfriend to Disney World in the beginning of September. We hit all four parks using the Unofficial Guide to Disney, and our longest wait in line was less than ten minutes. The lines were so good, as a matter of fact, that we frequently left a ride, walked back around to the entrance, and rode again. In the course of our visit we literally saw everything except for the really-tiny-kids rides (Barnstormer, Aladdin’s Carpet). I think it’s possible, with the new system and a little pre-planning, for disabled folks to see all of Disney without the line-jumping of the previous system.
Now, the hordes of Latin American guests that can’t seem to keep their groups together and push past the other guests to ‘link up’ at the front of the line- not much to do about that, other than what the boyfriend and I finally did (pitch a total damn pantomime fit after repeatedly asking politely for them to stop). 
There’s also not much that can be done about the massive crowds for evening shows like the Electric Parade and Fantasmic- folks were lined up for those an hour and a half early, and there were a LOT of people crowded into a small area.
This is a fascinating piece on why this had to happen - and his take is that it wasn’t the abuse (although that disclosure might have accelerated a needed change) Use, Not Abuse, Forced Disney to Change its Disabled Access System
Dangerosa,
Thank you for the linked story–it makes a lot of sense to me that Disney has been a victim of its own success in handling people with disabilities well.
(I’ve never been to Disney. I have been other places where putting an aging grandmother in a wheelchair either made life simpler for everyone or would have if the aging grandmother would only have co-operated. And having read recently about Mount Everest and how one of it’s problems is modern weather prediction capabilities . . . it makes sense to me that Social Media and the Internet have accelerated/accentuated the problems caused by having many disabled people visiting Disney properties because someone they know with similar disabilities did so and had a fabulous time . . . )
I welcome the change. I never understood why that policy was the way it was in the first place. Kinda offensive, in a way. If you are well enough to visit a theme park and ride a roller coaster, simply having to wait for your turn should be within your capabilities as well. This change focuses on the right issues: the physical conditions of that wait.
Dangerosa, that is an interesting article.
Reading the comments below, I noticed a number of parents (of autistic children) decrying the decision because it means their kids will be forced to wait, which is something they are unable to do for long periods of time. I understand their disappointment. It always sucks when nice things are taken away.
But I guess where I’m feeling kind of “:rolleyes:” is the sense of…entitlement, maybe? I don’t know if that’s the right word, but it’s the best word I can come up with. I mean, I can see how it’s no big deal to give a kid preferential treatment if he’s the only one asking for it. But if there are a ton of people in line with autism spectrum disorders and all of them are at high-risk for melting down, and then you’ve got folks with back injuries and arthritis and other disorders that make standing in place for long periods of time very unpleasant, then it just seems to me SOMEONE needs to be prepared to wait. It seems to me those parents think their kids should always jump ahead, no matter who else is in line. I can see how that attitude alone would drive Disney to switch policies.
(I keep thinking of an amusement park for autistic kids. If there is such a thing, are there any lines at the rides? And if so, how do the parents handle this?)
Someone commented that their kid is a danger to himself and others when he goes into meltdown mode, and thus the park should provide special accommodation to avoid this situation. The heartless bitch in me thinks maybe a crowded amusement park is not the best place for such a fragile person. I really REALLY shouldn’t have to worry about some kid hurting me or mine just because he doesn’t have on-demand access to Magic Mountain.
In other news, other people’s disabilities are different than yours.
As many as 1 in 50 kids has some form of autism. At Disney on any day, that number is probably a lot higher - because Disney’s accomodations made it a pretty nice place to take your autistic kid. A lot of parents loved Disney because it added some normalcy.
Some of these kids have a need to do the same thing over and over again. And if that thing is Toy Story Mania, which only moves about 800 people an hour to start with, and takes five minutes to ride, and you have twenty kids and their families “looping” - that’s 80 people - say it takes ten minutes to loop around - 480 “spots” on Toy Story Mania are being taken up during the hour by autistic kids and their families. Yes, kids with autism deserve to ride Toy Story Mania - but so do other kids - who may never get the opportunity at all because someone with autism (well, several someones) fixated on it for two or three hours, to be replaced by other families with autistic kids who fixated on it for two or three hours.
And I suspect that ride - with its limited capacity and popularity - and that behavior - might be the reason for this.
Universal has Front of the Line Access that can be purchased (or is free if you are staying in one of their expensive hotels), but it doesn’t work for Harry Potter’s Forbidden Journey.
The policy makes sense to me regardless of any supposed con artists. I can’t stand in line for hours, or even a few minutes, and the lines do not have seating. So I’d go somewhere else while waiting, and sit down. Others who can’t stand in line because their child’s autistic, for example, would be able to take their child off and do something that would distract them from the wait.
Seems fairer to me than just jumping the queue.
Disney really should make the queues less hellish for everyone, though. Occasional seating, probably at corners. Boards with info to read, or read to your kids. Hand-outs of ride-relevant games to do with your kids. Fans in hot weather - this one would really help. Roving ushers selling food and drinks. Roving entertainers. Anything so that you’re not standing in the heat doing nothing for over an hour and paying for the privilege.
I’ve been doing Disney at least every other year for fifteen years - and we’ve waited in a 40 minute line once - for TSM - and that was the Fastpass line (and now we know why :)) - Wait, twice - we waited in an over 40 minute line for Space Mountain, because it was storming and we decided we might as well wait out the rain in a covered line. It turned out to be a fine idea - we were bored in line, but the storm took up just slightly less time than the ride did (at Disney, you can always tell by how many people are still wearing their ponchos and how wet they are).
The Space Mountain queue at WDW does have games to play in line. The Everest line in AK has all sort of Yeti discovery props to read. Mr. Potatohead tells lame jokes in the TSM line.
Most of the queues are wrapped pretty tight, I’m not sure where you’d put these roving entertainers and vendors. And the lines are crowded - I’m not sure I want the family next to me getting a Mickey Bar for their four year old, I suspect my children or I would end up wearing at least some of it.
Early September is not representative of the lines found at Walt Disney World. Early September is widely considered the absolute lowest crowds of the year. You were smart to visit at that time and avoid the lines. Other times of the year are busier, sometimes much busier.
I agree with Dangerosa about lines and the new policies. One thing that might make things work smoother in the future is that Disney is mining data like a mad-mouse. The old system for special needs access lacked tracking and oversight. Disney had no idea how many times a disabled party was jumping to the front of the line. At least now, Disney will track that info and be in the position to make better decisions. If the load on the system is light, they could reduce the waiting time period.
At Disney, this very well may be fair to implement the change because their parks are well laid out and easy to get around.
However, I went to Universal Studios with a party that included someone in a wheelchair. We did save a lot of time by being able to skip the lines. But we also took a lot more time to just get around the park due to the small walkways and large crowds.
I see a lot of that entitlement as well. And while I want to be sensitive and helpful to someone like China Guy with the challenges he has with his daughter, if the system isn’t sustainable due to the numbers who are using it, then it isn’t sustainable. No matter how deserving the people who are using it are.
It might be interesting if Disney were to open up the parks for what they call Extra Magic Hours - but only to those with GACs once a week. However, I have a feeling that for kids who need a routine, the problem of having the hour of 8-9am by themselves may not actually solve any issues since if your kids routine doesn’t get them moving until 10am, it hasn’t done them any good. And for those with the entitlement mentality - any change is going to be a bad change. I’ve heard someone who goes multiple times a year say that this can’t change because their autistic child won’t understand the change and won’t understand why he can’t ride Toy Story Mania all day. Which causes a lot of eye rolling in those who might get to Disney once in their lives with their neuro typical kids and whose kids will get to ride TSM once.
I’ve been to Disney Florida twice and California once, two of them in high season due to school terms. Florida was the worst in high season because lining up, unmoving, in July heat, unshaded, for over an hour, is painful. Literally. Out of season it was a breeze. Also literally.
Even at Disney in California (both parks), two years ago in July/August, the queues for the most popular rides were over 2 hours and there were limited numbers of fast passes that you were out of luck for if you arrived at, say, 11:15am.
A couple of rides did have very short queues, usually those for little kids.
Some of my suggestions wouldn’t work for all rides, but for certain rides, they would. Fans and/or shading would take little space and improve the experience for everyone. Having billboards with info (erected alongside the barriers) and seating at some corners, would have worked for all rides. So would worksheets for kids. Entertainers wouldn’t work for all parts of all the queues, but would for some. Etc, etc.
It would have to be up to the individual ride managers to decide what would work, but there surely has to be something better than wait and bake?
Wait, so your previous TSM math is a real thing? Real autistic kids are really riding it over and over on their GAC passes? That’s why the lines there are so godawful and the Fastpasses are gone by 11 even on a slow day? I did not know that.
Excuse me? I dont even know how to respond to this…??
The problem is the lines themselves. Ideally no one should really have to wait. In the past they didn’t have the means to do that, so they needed a way to provide access to those who were not capable of waiting. Now with fast pass the long wait is now mitigated, so that would sold the problem for most people with disabilities I would suspect, while allowing others to share in this as well. This is a win win. It also helps integrate the disabled with the non-disabled general public, where they would have otherwise been more isolated, so socially better.
I’m sure the old system of primary access for the disabled is still available if needed for some, but what has happened for many is their disability is no longer a hindrance with the new system to using the park. That seems like a great thing to me.
There’s little to do about lines that doesn’t consist of just having more seats on the rides or more distractions by filling their heads with random information. Granted, Disney does do the latter pretty well, but having worked at Disneyland for 5 years, there’s a point where you just can’t move or distract 50000 people fast enough. They can barely do that for the food lines, not to mention the ride lines. Maybe if they start opening up the park 24 hours a day and people start coming at 3am or something…
It is apparently fairly real. I don’t know what the real number are. Estimated throughput is 800-1000 people an hour - closer to 800. How many autistic kids are riding it over and over due to fixation? Don’t know. But if one in 50 kids is autistic in the general population, and WDW has become an “autism destination” due to their ability to make accomodations…maybe Len will come in here with real data or math.
MOST people don’t let their autistic kids loop (or they don’t feel the need to), because they realize that there is some sort of fairness issue here. But there are people who are admitting to looping for hours because that is their child’s Disney ritual. And rituals with autistic kids are important.