pennyplanner said:
SueM,
Would you reccomend stopping and getting a GAC? I'm not sure if I really need it.
I am trying to anticipate what it would be like approaching a ride using a wheelchair and thinking it through. I just have not payed attention enough to know if I follow the crowd or have to enter in a special spot. I suppose each ride is different.
Does the Disney publication have individual ride instructions? Can you tell I'm a planner???
Thanks again,
penny
If you are using a wheelchair or
ECV, you will not need a GAC to use the wheelchair accessible areas. The GAC is more for invisible needs. The CM at the entrance or nearer to boarding will see that you have a wheelchair and tell you where to go - if it's different at all.
In most cases, the wheelchair line is the regular line and if there is a need for wheelchair boarding to be at a different place than the regular boarding area, they usually have a well marked wheelchair gate close to the regular boarding area (marked with the wheelchair symbol) and there is usually a CM around there. Maybe not right by the gate, but close by.
For AK and the Studio, they have Mainstream lines, which means guests using wheelchairs/
ECVs wait in the regular line with everyone else. For those attractions, just get into the regular line and look for a CM farther in the line if there wasn't one at the entrance. MK and Epcot are different because they are older and less accessible. They have more attractions that were not able to be made accessible. There is a list in the GUidebook of Mainstream lines for that park - (a link to the Guidebooks is in the disABILITIES FAQs thread). For the Mainstream ones, you can just get into the regular line if you don't see the CM. For the others, ask the CM - those attractions usually have a CM at the entrance to direct people.
The Disney Guidebook for Guests with Disabilities doesn't give a lot of detail, but between that and the thread about moving walkway rides that there's a link to on the disABILITIES FAQs thread, you should be able to get an idea. Also, things change a little bit depending on how busy the attraction is and how well staffed it is. If you come up with a wheelchair and they have lots of people with special needs already waiting, they may give you a slip with a time on it and have you come back. Occasionally, they are ready for someone with special needs right when you drive up and will take you right away (there are staffing things that are invisible to us - like right now they have extra staff, but in 20 minutes they will be down one CM for lunch or something).
The park maps hae a little icon by each ride that tell how accessible the attraction is. The ones with a little wheelchair icon are fully accessible and someone who can't get out of their wheelchair/ECV will be able to experience it without getting out.
Some have an icon of a person getting out of the wheelchair - that means you have to get out of the wheelchair/ECV and board a ride car. (For you, that means you can bring the wheelchair/ECV to the boarding area and get out there. The wheelchair/ECV will be waiting at the sma eplace for you when you are finished).
A few have an icon of a stick person getting out of an ECV and into a wheelchair - that means the attraction is accessible for wheelchairs, but not ECVs. If that "ECV to wheelchair" icon is followed by a stick person getting out of the wheelchair, it means you will have to board a ride car.
I anticipate walking for the morning, icing at our afternoon break, but using a rented wheelchair at night.
