Disney World vows action after report of wealthy hiring disabled to skip lines

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, along the lines of Cal grabbing that baby in Titanic to secure a seat in a lifeboat, folks are hiring actual disabled individuals to act as family members so they can “accompany” them to the front of all lines.

It’s douche-tastic! Take away the butt-hurt, and it may be a viable business model.
It won’t be this way going forward, but giving disabled people a grand a day? That’s life improving money for anyone!

So, should we institute a class-system at Disney and similar resorts?

Poll to come…

2

Those are pretty loaded poll options. And, as a result, a pretty useless poll.

3

There are already a few theme parks with “VIP” passes and “VIP” queues. Isn’t this what capitalism is about? Selling to the highest bidder, etc.?

I mean, it’s ok if there’s a special pass, but hiring disabled people is not.

4

As Disney already has a VIP package that lets you skip lines, get great seats for live shows and have back stage character meets, I think that this is a combination of heading off bad press and protecting their own product rather than an actual concern regarding people buying their way to the front of the line.

5

It’s also about protecting their profit. The Disney VIP guide package is very expensive and the profit goes to Disney of course. People hiring out private handicapped guides get some of the special treatment of the VIPs without Disney getting any extra profit.

I’m trying to figure out why I don’t mind the VIP people but I do resent the handicapped guide scheme. Two reasons I think: the VIP thing helps subsidize my visit since if puts more money into the parks, and it is so ridiculously expensive that there are vanishingly few who can afford it, and therefore it doesn’t effect my wait times.

6

I was initially going to vote for the first option on the basis that if everyone did this, then those who could not afford it would never get a ride. But then it occurred to me, as has been pointed out, that most parks allow you to pay for VIP/Fast-track access. If everybody bought the fast access, the park would just increase the price of this (and the price of general admission) until the problem went away. We’re a capitalist society, after all - something is worth exactly what people are prepared to pay for it.

7

Money talks.

Taken to an extreme, Richie Rich buys the park and does as he pleases.

8

Why are disabled people allowed to skip the lines anyway? Sound like reverse discrimination to me. If the regular lines aren’t handicapped accessible then have them wait near the platform for however long it would have taken them on the regular line.

9

They’re not.

My mom works for the Mouse, and she mentioned to me once that there was so much abuse of the policy of letting the disabled cut in at the front (able-bodied kids renting wheelchairs, etc.) of the line that they instituted a policy where the disabled individual would wait at the head of the line for the rest of their party to catch up to them.

I can see them letting a disabled person by themself cut the line, but if they’ve been hired it’s almost certainly something that happened at the park, in which case, they’d already have someone with them, which means that even if someone stays with them, one other person will have to go through the line, and the others will wait.

10

In theory, the parks that sell other fast-line passes limit the number sold on a given day, so those lines will never get too long.

11

Some attractions are not handicapped accessible(there are alternate entrances) due to such obstacles as steps or narrow twisting lines that don’t allow for chairs. Also, there may be bathroom or medication issues.

12

I can imagine a park with a digital sign above the line with a price on it, the cost to ride the ride. At 100 dollars a pop, the line would most likely be pretty short, causing the price to drop until the line fills. As the line gets to a certain length, the price starts to rise again. Capitalism at its finest.

I should patent this; it would be a great way to maximize profit from a resource that is limited in its production rate.

Oh, and i like pie.

13

That’s annoying. I went to Disney World several years ago with my brother, his wife and two kids and our mother, who is seventy-something and has bad knees. So she was using a rented power scooter. I wouldn’t want to have her waiting at the front of the line alone while the rest of us went through the line together. I think we would rather all stay together, even if that means we all go through the regular line. (But it was nice when we all got to skip the long line and go right to the front.)

And, by the way, the NY Post quoted one mother as saying, “My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ – the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours. You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge. This is how the 1% does Disney.” The It’s a Small World ride is kind of pathetic, although perhaps it was age-appropriate for her daughter.

14

Hey, I remember the old days when they let you in for free or close to it, then charged you for individual rides (and charged more for the more desirable rides).

I kinda liked that way better. If I go back to Disney and want to ride Space Mountain, I would prefer to pay in money rather than time (or pay by tying up my FastPass for most of the day just to go on that one ride) for going on an extremely popular ride.

I’m even good with the one thing you add - charging more for a ride during times of peak demand. This is exactly the sort of thing the free market does well.

15

But back to the OP: I’ve got no problem with the VIP package thing. There aren’t that many people willing to drop a grand to cut to the front of every line, so let 'em.

But assuming the story is true, there’s just something scummy about using disabled people in this manner.

When I pay my cleaning lady for cleaning my home, it’s a straightforward trade of my money for her time and energy. When (if) rich people pay disabled people for this sort of service…well, we give disabled people certain breaks that make life as a disabled person a bit less of a pain in the neck, but that can never come close to fully compensating for the disability. But the point of these breaks is that they’re something we as a society do* for disabled people. They aren’t intended to be transferable.* And if rich people have found a way to make some of those breaks transferable and to buy them, they’re taking advantage of society’s sympathy for the less fortunate: it’s that sympathy that they’re advantaging themselves with. They’re taking advantage of all of us.

16

Heh. Price discrimination has long been a theoretical economics concept that simply hasn’t worked whenever put into practice because of an innate human desire for fair treatment. Price discrimination tends to work best when it happens behind the scenes and is tied to something more than ‘We’ll charge you extra simply because you’re willing to pay more’, for e.g air travel booking. Unfortunately, your idea is both upfront and unapologetic.

17

I dislike the idea of “VIP packages”.

When my daughter was 5, we went to Sea World in San Diego (and Anheuser Busch, who owned the park at the time, deserves their own pit thread for their over-the-top attempts to separate people from their money). Between admission, parking, food, and souvenirs, it wasn’t a cheap day. That’s fine. I knew that going in. At the time, Sea World featured a tiered admission policy. They more you paid, the fewer lines you waited in.

Much to my daughter’s dismay, we got shut out of a particular show because it was full. No big deal, I explained to her. Things like this happened. She was getting it at first, but then she burst into tears as they re-opened the doors to the show let VIPs in. When we questioned the attendant, he replied that while we’d spent a lot of money to get in to the park, we didn’t spend enough. (And, yes, I complained to Guest Services about this smart-ass attendant, but he did pretty much sum up the situation.)

It just strikes me as a shitty message to send to your customers.

18

Alright, feel free to skip this, because there is a screed coming.

Speaking as the father of a child with CP, this is highly, highly offensive.
Disney treats those with special needs very well. Of all of the theme parks that we have been to, they have done it the best, hands down.

How it worked with us (this was about 2 years ago) was that we got a disabled pass at guest services at the beginning of the visit, and that got us a) into the FastPass queue if the wait was short or non-existent or b) given a time to come back it the wait was long. This is fair.

Part of the problem is that, by there very nature, these parks are not set up ideally for those who need assistance. Many of the rides (especially the older ones) have stairs or other impediments, especially at the entrances. If so, we’re either out of luck, or HAVE to use the exits.

Unfortunately, there are many jerks who think that My family and I should not have this benefit, or they should get it too, even though they are perfectly healthy and able bodied. So they either rent wheelchairs or just get them when they get to the park. Then THEY get the handicapped pass. Why should THEY have to wait?! Often you will see a group of these “human beings” (generally young people) switching off and taking turns riding in the chair (Oh what jolly fun!)

This is the reason that we no longer have passes to the local theme park here. Because of this abuse, they had to change the rules. Now only one helper can go, thus splitting the family up.

Yeah, I have a sweet deal. I get the BEST parking spaces. My family gets special treatment all the time. We get to go to the doctor and the hospital SO Much! We get free stuff from time to time! Heck, all of this Wonderful stuff, and all that had to happen is that my son will NEVER BE ABLE TO WALK, TALK, LIVE ON HIS OWN OF HAVE A NORMAL LIFE AT ALL! Sweet!

I think that I can be so bold as to speak for the vast majority of those people who either have, or are very close to, someone who is not just confined to a wheelchair, but has any type of special need that makes life difficult, that we would be Very Very Happy to trade all of that “Special Treatment” for the ability to walk. Or the ability to feed one’s self. Or the ability to live on one’s own.

There is a special circle of hell for people who do this sort of stuff.

Just because you have advantages that others don’t does not mean that they deserve more and more.

19

Honest question: What is the reason for the policy of allowing disabled people to go to the front of the line? Is it a matter of not making them wait in an hour-plus line, which might be physically impossible for them?

This whole controversy seems to come from that policy. If DW were to institute a plan whereby disabled patrons get a limited number of “ride passes” (say, 5 per day) that could be used to skip the line, it seems like that would cut down on the incentive to hire someone to go on rides all day.

20

Part of it is that it’s not practical for disabled people to go through the same lines. Even if the lines are wheel-chair accessible, some folks who can’t walk well would be ill-served just by having to walk through those long lines, even if they could walk without waiting.