The Dark Side of Disney - Leonard Kinsey [38]
I’ve also found that near the end of the day at the parks people will abandon their wheelchairs, apparently too lazy to turn them back in, since there’s no deposit required. Although you aren’t supposed to take wheelchairs out of the parks, you can take one of these abandoned wheelchairs and then either tell the people at the gate that you rented it at your resort, or that you need it to get back to your bus/boat/monorail. If you keep doing this you can essentially get a free wheelchair rental for the duration of your stay, which equates to a free front-of-line pass for quite a few rides.
Hot girl in stolen wheelchair FTW!
So, without further adieu, here’s a detailed list of rides that either have great Front-of-Line access for disabled guests, or really poor access that actually makes the wait longer than the normal line. If an attraction isn’t mentioned that means that you go down the queue normally with everyone else.
All Parks:
If you have a handicapped tag you get to park in the handicapped lots, which are right up front with the AAA lot!
Magic Kingdom:
Jungle Cruise – You load in at the exit, boarding the boat before it moves to the regular queue. This equates to front-of-line access and usually zero wait time.
Splash Mountain – Wheelchairs take a separate entrance which end at the exit ramp. Then you have to fight against oncoming traffic exiting from the ride, which is particularly risky around the blind corners. But you do get FOL access with no wait.
Walt Disney World Railroad – Has a separate handicapped entrance for the front car of the train, which is extra-wide to accommodate wheelchairs. But since there is only this one seating area, if there are more than a few wheelchairs in line you’ll probably end up waiting longer than the normal line. Either way, there’s little advantage here.
Thunder Mountain – Entrance through the exit queue = FOL! However, Thunder Mountain is extremely jarring and bumpy, so if you’re with someone who is in a wheelchair because of back problems I don’t recommend bringing them on the ride.
The Haunted Mansion – We’ve been through two separate wheelchair entrances here. Both split off before the main queue, by the carriage. One time we were led by a CM part-way into the exit and then through a “Cast Members Only” door on the left that opened straight into the loading area. The other two times we were led all the way through the exit queue to the unloading area and boarded there. Both ways are FOL, no-wait, although the downside is that you skip the “stretching room”, which is a bummer.
Snow White’s Scary Adventure – Entrance through the exit, straight onto the ride, bypassing the queue entirely. Awesome.
Peter Pan’s Flight – Same as “Snow White”. This is a major timesaver.
It’s a Small World – You enter through the exit queue, but only specific boats are wheelchair accessible, and even with a few people in front of you the wait times are significant. Seems like it’s about even with the normal queue.
Space Mountain – Access is via the FastPass entrance. So this ends up being FOL, which kicks ass. Same bumpy/jerky warning as with Thunder Mountain, though.
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – You do board at the unload area, but go through the queue with everyone else. You just get split off at the end. So no FOL.
EPCOT:
Spaceship Earth – Wheelchair access is via the exit. You sign in with a CM, then sit in a little waiting area, and eventually the CM leads you in through the exit. Depending on the crowds this might actually take longer than just going through the regular queue.
Test Track – You go through the main queue but take a separate path after the theater that effectively bypasses the second half of the queue. Not exactly FOL, but if you have a FastPass it ends up being quite a timesaver.
Living With the Land – There is a separate handicapped