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Yes, if Disney asked to see "proof" of the disability I think the numbers would decimate overnight. You know what else, for going to the "Happiest Place on Earth", NONE of these people smile. Not one.
Disney needs to validate these Scooter abusers. I would suggest a couple of big security guards randomly yank the fraud up out of their scooter and see if they can stand up on their own. Those that aren't disabled, and try to fake fall, will no doubt collapse "inproperly" and the ruse will be revealed. You can offer the legitimate ones an apology, a hand stamp and a set of free mouse ears.
Seriously, if someone had done that to me after surgery, I would own Disney by the time I got done with them. A set of mouse ears would not have been enough. Not even close.
It is an open secret that if you go to any amusement park and request wheelchair (for you or your family member), because of whatever health condition ( recent surgery, twisted ankle, chronic back pain etc.) and actually use it all the times around the park, that will let you (in a wheelchair or pushing the wheelchair with "disabled" person) to the front of all those long lines. Same with airlines. You will board first. Some people abuse it.
This is not the case. While at Disney in a wheelchair I waited mostly in the regular lines with everyone else. At the rides where there was a separate entrance, the wait was often longer--particularly when someone else waiting ahead of me at that entrance needed a wheelchair capable ride vehicle as they were unable to transfer.
I think you are very presumptuous. In 1998 I had a tumor removed from my spine. I was otherwise healthy looking, slender, and able to get in and out of a wheelchair and walk without assistance. Yet I spent two Disney trips in a wheelchair as I was not able to walk long distances as I was recovering. To see me in the chair you probably would have thought I was "faking" it, especially when I got out of it and walked into a rest room or even a restaurant at a normal pace and without a limp. It gave me a new level of compassion and understanding that people can look perfectly healthy and be very ill or have a hidden condition.
And again you don't know the whole story. A friend of mine had an ileostomy when she was a teen. She wears an ostomy bag that must be emptied and changed several times a day. It's much easier for her to do this in a handicapped stall where she has a little more room, and in ideal circumstances, access to a sink for immediate handwashing. She has a disabling condition that gives her every right to use that stall, regardless of what some random park guest on bathroom patrol seems to think.
I don't disagree with you at all that there are people who need to use it and don't look handicapped, the majority however abuse it. next time we go I will count them for you, or do my very best as there are hundreds). And IF there are this many disabled people, I think we may have a new problem in our hands!
The lady in the bathroom was putting make up on...a LOT of it. I really should have taken a photo, and you know what else, she apologized (and looked really embarrassed as everyone gave her a "look") when she finally got out and saw me waiting with the stroller and another lady in the back IN a wheelchair! (I use that because I can't leave my baby alone outside while I go potty FYI).
I don't disagree with you at all that there are people who need to use it and don't look handicapped, the majority however abuse it. next time we go I will count them for you, or do my very best as there are hundreds). And IF there are this many disabled people, I think we may have a new problem in our hands!
Again with the presumptions. How do you "know" that anyone is "faking it?" Are you Karnak? Do you have some mysterious powers that the rest of us don't have to be able to "count" the ones who are (in nothing more than your opinion) "faking it." Instead of worrying about something which frankly isn't your business, maybe be thankful that you don't have a disabling condition.
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The lady in the bathroom was putting make up on...a LOT of it. I really should have taken a photo, and you know what else, she apologized (and looked really embarrassed as everyone gave her a "look") when she finally got out and saw me waiting with the stroller and another lady in the back IN a wheelchair! (I use that because I can't leave my baby alone outside while I go potty FYI).
So you don't actually "need" the handicapped rest room stall which offers grab bars and the ability to transfer from a wheelchair to a toilet, you use them for your convenience rather than go to a family rest room.
Frankly I find it sad that you have nothing better to do with your life than judge others with no basis in fact instead of enjoying your good health and family.
Yes, if Disney asked to see "proof" of the disability I think the numbers would decimate overnight. You know what else, for going to the "Happiest Place on Earth", NONE of these people smile. Not one.
You'd think it would do more than that. Decimate means losing 10% and keeping the other 90%.
The practice of decimation was used to keep Roman Legions in line. 10% of the offending union would be selected and killed by the other 90%.
BUT, if you read between the lines of the original story, I'd take it with a HUGE grain of salt. Yahoo's source is the New York Post!
It is an open secret that if you go to any amusement park and request wheelchair (for you or your family member), because of whatever health condition ( recent surgery, twisted ankle, chronic back pain etc.) and actually use it all the times around the park, that will let you (in a wheelchair or pushing the wheelchair with "disabled" person) to the front of all those long lines. Same with airlines. You will board first. Some people abuse it.
It seems strange that people who are sitting would get to go before people who have been standing and waiting for a long time.
I read, in one of the articles about the "Disney Scooter Scam," that guests in wheelchairs or scooters are not actually supposed to get ON the ride any faster than anyone else, but that they are supposed to have alternate access (such as entering through the exit) to avoid stairs or other obstacles that a wheelchair couldn't maneuver through. Once they get to their "specially designated area," according to this article, they are supposed to wait whatever the average wait time is before actually being allowed to board.
Of course, what's "supposed to happen" apparently is not what is happening.
Since I haven't been to Disney in about 100 years, I appreciate both your and Annerk's clarifications as to how it is supposed to be.
What's the advantage of early boarding? The airplane won't take off until everyone is on board.
If you don't have assigned seat - you go first and have a chance to choose where you want to sit, and a compartment space for you luggage. And even if you do have assigned seat, when you get there first, you don't have to worry about the luggage compartment space and all the people crowded in the plane when you get there.
Also:
"Pushed along in the wheelchairs each airline provides by request, they whizzed past the line to a specially designated and briskly efficient Transportation Security Administration screener." http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/ny...anted=all&_r=0
It seems strange that people who are sitting would get to go before people who have been standing and waiting for a long time.
Quite often they don't. I know this from personal experience.
For the record, I would have gladly traded the wheelchair for the ability to walk without pain to some whiner who thinks everyone in a wheelchair or on a scooter is faking it.
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