Rich Manhattan moms hire handicapped tour guides so kids can cut lines at Disney World

[VLWH]

Originally Posted by Think4Yourself

You're just mad because you didn't think of it first and that you don't have the money to do the same. Sure, it's crass but if company policy allows it...

Over a $1000 for the day? They may be able to afford it, but a smarter move would be for the mom to rent a wheelchair for the day for around 50 bucks.

Not that I think it's right what they did, just saying....

[Soldier of FORTRAN]

I know a non-disabled guy who used to do this. I don't know if it's still a thing, but at the time he had this expensive annual pass which allowed for use of alternate lines w/guests. He met all kinds of people (Saudi royalty* hired him out a few times). The work to pay ratio was incredible.

Since there's no overhead for the disabled, it's quite a method of fleecing rich people. And since Disney offers the same guide service, it's safe to say they don't care. It helps drum up business from spendier clients, after all.


* It turns out there's a lot of them.

Edit: I want to emphasize that there was a legit little niche market for guide services. Parks offered it, private individuals and companies offered it. The disabled just had lower overhead. It just sounds like things haven't changed.

[mkpunk]

Originally Posted by lycos679

As long as the working man pays then s/he can do the same thing wealthier people can do. I'm surprised the family in question paid somebody to stand in line when they didn't even have to pay a dime. Or, perhaps I'm reading the website incorrectly. I know that amusement parks have similar programs for a fee.

Disney's Fast Pass Service

Disney's Fastpass is free for any guest though the system we know as Fastpass will be going through changes with the emergence of the RFID entrances that they have started this year, they will eventually use them for electronic Fastpasses managed from a computer and a smartphone. To tie back into the this topic, there are concierge level packages at the deluxe Disney World resorts that allow guests to pay for Fastpasses off the bat not sure if they fastpasses per day or what (I've never used it)

After listening to one of the Disney podcasts I listen to because I am a Disney fan, I am reminded to my original post and thoughts about this topic. The story is irrelevant. This is either a story from years ago, a misinformed story or a "bad rich" story to fuel liberals. In reality most rides have integrated queues where you can use scooters or wheelchairs. Only a handful of these queues are not. Because of this only a few attractions have "skip the line" options because their queues cannot have scooters or wheelchairs. Spaceship Earth is one of these, Splash Mountain is another and I think Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Rock n Roller Coaster, Expedition Everest and Tower of Terror are too though I do not know from first hand experience. Most of the time, the line is the same and you just transfer into the ride vehicle, the scooters and wheelchairs just give you more leeway with omnimover rides (due to the moving platforms used to load and unload these attractions such as Haunted Mansion, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin where they can even shut down the ride to give guests more time to get into a vehicle safely. These along with other rides such as with Toy Story Mania (due to stairs and a separate set of cars and Kilimanjaro Safaris where you have a separate safari truck area and shows (live or 3-D) you stay in the line until you hit the point that it splits off for guests who need special assistance.

The issue is when many of these stories comes out the facts aren't talked about and forgotten. The fact is most Disney rides are unaffected by this 1% practice unless you talk about the thrill rides. I agree "tours" like this are wrong, but I don't think things are as bad as everyone thinks they are.