Magic Mountain has already dealt with this. Used to be, if you had a disabled member in your party you could go right to the front of the line. Many people abused it. Now I am told that the disabled person can go to the front of the line, and then wait for the rest of the party to catch up.
I tried to verify this from their site, but they just say I need to pick up the paper brochure on guests with disabilities.
I’m not sure what the rationale for allowing disabled folks to not wait in line is. Unless the line does not allow proper ingress/egress.
Every park I’ve been to with Mrs SteveMB (who can’t stay on her feet for prolonged periods) has a system where they give out a disabled pass which is time-stamped at each ride (the current time plus the guesstimated line length), allowing the disabled patron to bypass the line at that time. It solves the problem without letting people game the system (well, if there’s another ride with little or no line you could ride that during the “virtual wait in line” for the main ride, but that’s a trivial issue – if the line is that short, it’s a ride not many people are using anyway).
Often there are steps or insufficient room for a chair. Those attractions have side entrances. Many of the disabled can’t wait for hours due to bathroom or medication issues.
I’m not trying to be snarky here - why should people get head of line privileges just because they’re in wheelchairs? Unless they’re likely to die before they get to the front of the line, they’re just like any other Disney patron, except that they’re not standing in line, they’re sitting. And for those who can walk but can’t handle standing in line for a long time, have a place where they can sit and wait for their party to work their way to the front of the line.
I don’t understand the connection between accessibility and special treatment. Am I missing something here?
The way I’ve explained it is … my daughter gets to get on the roller-coaster before you. You get to walk around on your own two legs for the rest of your life. Deal with it.
When I was working with autistic kids, I accompanied them to the local amusement parks on a couple occasions. They (and therefore, I) got golden tickets to skip to the front because waiting in a line was generally not among their strong suits.
Bringing them to the front of the line and then having them wait in a holding area would not have ended well.
I don’t know how it is at Disney World, but at Disneyland, they’re doing a pretty effective job of accommodating the disabled without even making it worthwhile to NOT fake it. Last time we went, we waited in a special disabled area for Space Mountain for about a half hour (maybe a bit longer). Yes, it’s an improvement on the 2.5 hours typical for the main line, but it’s nowhere near “waited for one minute.”
Seriously?! Do we really need to discuss whether this is wrong or not? Of course it’s wrong. It’s exploitative and it’s misusing accessibility features put in place for the disabled by those who feel the rules don’t apply to them. It’s wrong on all fronts.
Plus it violates the Kantian imperative.
I would pay it if they would throw in the use of a handicapped license plate for a week to sweeten the deal.
That’s easy. One companion per disabled person.
In addition to runner pat’s excellent points:
I imagine it probably takes handicapped folks longer to make way around the park meaning they can make it to fewer rides. There might also be some rides they can’t go on at all. At a certain point there are probably some handicapped folks who decide not to pay for a severely limited experience. Getting to jump lines on the rides they can go on probably helps convince a few of those folks that it’s worth it.
It’s also possible that some rides can only accomodate a small number of handicapped passengers at one time. If there are no handicapped passengers during any particular run, maybe those seats are unused. If that’s so, why make a handicapped park-goer wait while the seat rides empty.
Well, that would suck for the family of 8 that brought their 88 year old grandmother on vacation with them.
Although, from personal experience, I’m not really convinced that the handicapped lines are really any faster than judicious use of fast passes would allow.
If I was Queen of Disney, I’d issue some sort of pass to families that showed me their legally held and valid disabled parking placard, registered to one of the people at the park with them that day.
Could it still be cheated? Sure. But at least it would take a bit of effort to do so, not simply renting a wheelchair (with or without a person in it.)
Also that the less fortunate will take your money and put up with your immoral shit if you give them enough money.
If I was down there and handicapped I hook up with those rich bastards, demand cash up front (plus the tickets) then rat their asses out once we reached the front of the first line.
We can certainly debate the merits of this issue, but am I the only person whose hoax meter has pinged bigtime?
So this all stems from a New York Post article with no cites and a bunch of anonymous quotes.
The company mentioned in the report is not responding to inquiries, other than to refer to “inaccurate press and slander.”
I’d like to see one quote from an identified person who used the service, or an actual disabled person, before I believe that this is anything other than someone stirring up crap about those awful, awful rich people.
But it would not stop people from hiring actual legally disabled people to join their party expressly for the purpose of being able to go through the disabled line.
But again, in my experience, the disabled wait is about as long as a fast pass wait (or a bit longer). You have several parties with disabled members in front of you and the cast members do a pretty good job of regulating the flow of disabled vs able bodied people joining the head of the line.
Anecdotally, 3 years ago I was there with my grandmother (88 in a wheelchair) and we were in line for a popular Buzz Lightyear ride. My wife and I were separated from the rest of our party and went through the regular line. We waited about 35 min and they waited about 30 minutes.
We need that placard to park at the airport. 
My husband uses a scooter at Disney World and Disneyland. Most of the lines at either location will accommodate the scooter or a wheelchair, so we wait in line like everyone else, or use FastPass when available. It’s been pointed out on other sites that you can take the VIP tour at Magic Kingdom and get front-of-the-line access on the most popular rides for a whole lot less.
Some the rides the handicapped access isn’t really any improvement. More to the point you can’t just show up in a wheelchair, you do have to get an access pass from the customer service area. Not that that is hard, it just something you do need to go through. Just renting a wheelchair doesn’t cut it.
Some of the handicap access also skips sections. The haunted house has you go in the exit so you miss the elevator and introduction.