Disney alters queue policy for guests with disabilities

Having a child who is autistic, in the past, Cedar Fair allowed instant access to each ride 1 time and a ride time any additional times. This year, early on, they went to a time only system. There was a lot of feedback from the community, and the policy changed again mid-season. Now for autistic children, they have a system called plan your day. You get specified times, either for a specific ride, or just generic times, that allow for instant access. The times vary based on crowd level and are evenly spaced. If you miss a time, it just goes unused and you move on to the next one.

This system has worked really well on providing both the flexibility of managing a day with a special needs child, and providing the structure that he craves and needs.

We have a trip to Disney scheduled for December, and will try out the new system. I refuse to cast judgement on it until we've used it, but I will provide Disney feedback on how it worked, and what I see as potential improvements. Of course, this feedback will only be from my situation, and not other disabilities that will have other opinions.

Raven-Phile said:

Nah, I hear they're always hiring at the popcorn factory. Someone's gotta add those chemicals, you know.

You are very witty and hilarious. Good for you.

Farfel said:

Now for autistic children, they have a system called plan your day.

This is news to me. I wonder if this is something we might want to try with our son (he is now 5) as he gets older. What works for us is we treat our day as a routine for him. One of us will split off and take him to the normal order of rides and the other will take the bigger kid on the bigger rides. What's nice is he is beginning to get better at deviating from the routine.

However, I'm not sure how he would do when he is big enough for the bigger rides (that's if he wants to ride them). For right now, we make him wait in line and don't do any special access. It is our hope that he can learn to cope with waiting and give him a better shot at a normal life. But Autism is a broad spectrum, so what works for me may not work for others.

~Rob

LostKause said:

Raven-Phile said:

Nah, I hear they're always hiring at the popcorn factory. Someone's gotta add those chemicals, you know.

You are very witty and hilarious. Good for you.

You do realize that people probably wouldn't use that meme so much if it didn't obviously bother you so much, don't you?

I'm kind of tired of memes that beat dead horses at the expense of other members. It starts to feel very junior high after awhile.

Tek. So, you guys are being a dick to me because it bothers me so much that you guys are being a dick to me?

A lot of things just become a "meme" so that some of you can keep disagreeing with whatever it is about forever. It's disrespectful. It ticks me off. It doesn't add anything to the conversation at all. It has been degrading to my input here.

Ever since this popcorn crap started, I refrain from adding anything to the conversation, because I constantly wonder if someone is going to find something about it that they don't like about my next post and start to mention it over and over.

This isn't even the first time this has happened to something I have said.

I can't tell you how many times I decided not to post something over the last few weeks. If I can ever come up with something to add to the conversation that I am sure will not be turned into a stupid, repetitive joke that degrades my participation, I will be more than happy to add it.

I'd love to mention how my lil' bro JD deals with lines at the parks, because he has Aspurger's. This seems like a great topic for me to discuss that, but I don't want to deal with you guys.

It seems to me there's a whole lot of nuance to joking, joshing, teasing--whatever you care to call it--that doesn't make it across the Interwebs. Trying to gauge intentions can be difficult, if not impossible. The very same statement meant as outright mockery when directed at someone disliked, e.g. Tyler, might only be intended as good-natured poking fun when aimed at someone else. Therein lies the challenge of all written communication.

I'm assuming that Raven-Phile's use of the meme qualifies as the latter and not the former. But I can't know that for sure. Heck, I don't even know what the reference is about; it must have occurred during my lost months from the site (a.k.a., Dark Times at Coasterbuzz... but I digress.)

It's my opinion that if a regular on this forum has grown tired or annoyed at the repeated use of a particular statement or reference about him/her, a simple declaration ought to suffice to put end to the business. Or at the very least, any further usage would be clearly understood as being against the wishes of the subject of the joke, and therefore not intended respectfully.

While I will occasionally "tease" someone, it is pretty much confined to those who know me well enough personally to KNOW that I'm having fun *with* them. Having fun at someone else's expense isn't really fun for me....and I'm pretty sure it's no fun for them. (Hence, my lack of participation in the Tyler situation...saga.)

Having fun at my own expense...now THAT is good times!

LostKause said:

Tek. So, you guys are being a dick to me because it bothers me so much that you guys are being a dick to me?

I've used the popcorn thing once. Mmmmaybe twice, I dunno. Honestly, I don't find it that funny myself. But, as per usual, you lump everyone you're mad at on the internet together. So let me elaborate.

A lot of things just become a "meme" so that some of you can keep disagreeing with whatever it is about forever.

So...we should just agree with you? On everything? This, sir, is an internet message board. I swear, you've been her for over a decade, and sometimes I feel like you've not learned anything about your community.

It's disrespectful. It ticks me off.

So what? I don't care. At all. Neither do most others, I'd imagine. Except the annoying people you tend to take up for, occasionally. Because let's all agree with Travis, sing a happy song, hug, and we can all be good little lemmings. I'd just imagined you as a person that enjoyed diversity, even when something isn't your thing, but you tend to prove time and time (and time and time and time) again that you'd just rather everyone agree with you and be like you. Boring.

It doesn't add anything to the conversation at all. It has been degrading to my input here.

If I had time and my head wasn't spinning from the last 2 weeks of work, I'd go back thru your posts and point out each time you've done the same thing we're doing to other people, or liked someone else's post that did it, or condoned it. Honestly, I have better things to look at on the internet.

So, it's okay when you joke, but not okay when people joke with you. It's okay for you to use queue mgt systems, but they're immoral. Dude, seriously, that's just hypocritical.

Ever since this popcorn crap started, I refrain from adding anything to the conversation, because I constantly wonder if someone is going to find something about it that they don't like about my next post and start to mention it over and over.

Boo-freakin-hoo. Put your big boy pants on and grow up. Also, stop being so self absorbed. This is why people are purposefully mentioning the popcorn thing:

It annoys you, you've made a huge deal about it instead of brushing it off, you continue to whine and whine and whine about it, you're being ridiculous, you're being a hypocrite because you've done it to other people, but gee-golly, Travis doesn't deserve this. But billb does? Amillj does? It's okay, as long as it's not you. And when I pointed that out before, 4 others agreed with me.

This isn't even the first time this has happened to something I have said.

And yet again, you show that it bothers you and whine about it. Isn't there more important things in your life that someone on an internet message board sitting in their PJs behind a keyboard making a joke at your expense? I was on a message board once that had a photoshop contest where they took a picture of me and did quite a few things with it (all as a joke, without telling me about it first, and quite frankly, some of the things were rather disgusting). I saved the pictures and have no problem posting them on my flickr page, because I've learned to laugh with people laughing at me.

I can't tell you how many times I decided not to post something over the last few weeks. If I can ever come up with something to add to the conversation that I am sure will not be turned into a stupid, repetitive joke that degrades my participation, I will be more than happy to add it.

Then that's your loss. I couldn't care less what anyone thinks about me, nor do I care if I post something that someone is going to poke fun at. When this stops being entertaining, then I'll stop posting here. Maybe you should consider that.

I'd love to mention how my lil' bro JD deals with lines at the parks, because he has Aspurger's. This seems like a great topic for me to discuss that, but I don't want to deal with you guys.

Then don't and continue to be miserable at Coasterbuzz. The rest of us don't seem to care and are going on with our lives, FYI.

C'mon, guys. Do not make me bust a haiku on your asses.

Well there's all that... but anyway... I wish I understood more about certain disabilities that would preclude someone from getting a time to experience an attraction. I see things like my child can't wait or they will have a fit, but isn't that life? I mean is there to be a special line at the grocery store? the bank? the parking garage? a special lane on the freeway? I'm not trying to trivialize, but I do not understand why you can't go to an attraction entrance and receive the great news that in 45 minutes you get to ride the ride without standing in line and that during that time you can go look at other things.

Ensign Smith said:

C'mon, guys. Do not make me bust a haiku on your asses.

You need two more syllables there, champ.

...puh-leeze.

I'm going to ask politely that we dispense with the pissing in each others' Cheerios and move on... in this thread and everywhere in the forum.

Having just returned from a long weekend at WDW, and having followed this story for the past few weeks, it was interesting to see just how many guests were using the GAC pass. It was way more than I ever imagined and I wasn’t even really looking for it.

And in most of the instances I saw a GAC, there was no visible disability within the group (I know, I know, kids (and adults) on the spectrum may not have signs of any disability…that’s not my point).

Now being aware of the abuse issue, I was just surprised that I actually saw that many GAC passes as much as I did. Hence the reason the program is being reigned in a bit.

CPJ, I respect your wanting to learn more about disabilities, it says a lot about a person. Let me try and give you some insight into my son's life. His toughest part of his normal day, every day, is lunch at school. He has two triggers that will almost always set him off on a meltdown. Now understand, this meltdown isn't like a normal child's fit. When he was younger, it could take 2 days to fully recover and be back at school after a huge meltdown, he just wasn't able to process the stimuli of the world around him, and would just sit in his room, lights off, because the bulbs hum, and would read.

Let me also explain why lunch is so hard for him, and not other parts of the day. There's two senses at play during lunch, smell and hearing. My son is very sensitive to food smells, and it took over a year to get him to eat lunch in the regular room. He is also sensitive to noise, but it's not just noise, it's conversations. I once asked him to describe it, and was thrilled that he could, it gave me much insight. The way he processes the lunchroom is like trying to listen and comprehend every conversation he can hear, all at once. He can't pick out one conversation to focus on from the others, so he tries to hear them all. I can only imagine how overwhelming that must be.

This is why waiting in lines at an amusement park can be very challenging. Add that to impulse control issues, which we work on every day, and many ASD kids struggle with understanding why they can't ride dumbo when they are standing right next to it. The fact that Disney is not making you go to the actual ride to get a time may make this implementation successful for certain disabilities, but there's never a one size fits all that really fits anyone.

Not every Pass Holder has a visible disability.

I have Type II Diabetes, because my pancreas no longer produces insulin, I suffer from neuropathy of the legs and feet, my walk is fatigued and I have nerves that set off like bee stings, after a while my feet burn like they have been asleep, needle stinging. So I welcome my pass. To the outside eye, it may not look like I need help, but I struggle everyday with pain.

I also broke my right leg skydiving that keeps me from being able to walk or stand for long times.

I am 51 years old, My issues relates to standing, if queues had seats I would be fine, but after 30 to 45 minutes my feet burn and legs want to give out, when walking between rides, I sit often.

BTW, both Disney and SFGA agreed with my problems and issued me my pass, the supervior at SF said she had a family memebr who suffered as I did.

Also, The ride times don't always work for handicaps at SF, if you have to walk up the exit to get a ride time, back down, then back up to get your ride, that is twice the work. I say that because at SF you have to go up the exit, all the way to the ride operator, to get your ride time.

My apologies for assuming I was older. We all know what happens when you "assume." We're actually close in age, as I just turned 49. Standing is difficult, but I haven't reached a point (yet) where I feel the need to use an access program of this or any other type. But, hey, there's always next year...

*EDIT* Accidentally deleted my previous post that ENUFFZNUFF was responding to. Ooops. I was gonna edit and clicked the wrong button.

It is a sad state of affairs when the GAC abusers far outnumber those with true needs. If you talk to Cast Members, some put the abuse rate as high as 80%. I can't find it now, but there was an article a while back that talked about Radiator Spring's Racers Fastpass unavailability past 10 am being almost exclusively related to GAC abuse.

Disney had/has no choice. The dredge of society forced their hand...