Comments on: Want to cut the line at the Disney park? Call my disabled friend

By: Disabled tour guides at Disney, cont’d - Overlawyered

Disabled tour guides at Disney, cont’d - Overlawyered — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:30:04 +0000

[…] those stories about tactically using disabled passes to steer paying clients past the long lines (earlier). […]

By: KateC

KateC — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:43:58 +0000

This story is all about Dr. Wednesday Martin’s book. She’s the only source for it, and she’s got a PhD in Comparative Lit, not anthropology. I called BS when I first read it, and am stunned by the number of people who believe it. The REALLY RICH, like Trump rich, just rent the place. Disney has done that in the past, and will again. If you’re just sort of hedge-fund rich, you’ll take the kids to French Disneyland, not Orlando.

By: kimsch

kimsch — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:40:00 +0000

I am disabled, and I was planning to use this on my trip to Disney World next month for myself, Hubby, and The Little Guy (12). I hope this doesn’t ruin it for me.

By: marco73

marco73 — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:43:07 +0000

Mr. Robbins covers this story from the New York angle, calling the hiring of a disabled person to skip Disney lines a “playground” story.
I certainly agree with him. Oh yes, the only person actually quoted in the story has a book coming out soon.

I wanted to update local news on this story. The Tuesday 10pm local FOX Tampa newcast ran with this story, without attribution. Even though Disney is a pretty good local corporate citizen, bashing Disney is sort of a cottage industry amongst local news types. So when you can combine bashing Disney for a practice that they have zero control over, bashing the rich, and bashing everyone for exploiting the disabled, well, who wouldn’t run the story?

One of the reasons this story started to smell for me, was the anonymous anecdote about taking only 1 minute to get into Small World, skipping a 2.5 hour line. I’ve been going to Disney for close to 40 years, and have probably been on Small World hundreds of times. Never, unless the ride has broken down, have I ever seen more than a 60 minute wait.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:07:34 +0000

My experience with grandparents in a scooter was that the time saved wasn’t that much. It was about the same as the extra time getting around the park with the scooter.

Wasn’t there a story on this site about a woman who believed that the Tower of Terror ride helped her adhesions? She was upset because Disney would not let her bypass the line numerous times based on her special needs.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:51:59 +0000

Years ago, we took my wife’s grandmother. Went to Disney and Universal Studios. Took her right into The Terminator at Universal Studios. Her reaction was, “it was a bit loud”.

By: marco73

marco73 — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:37:59 +0000

This story sure sounds too good to check. You can hire a Disney employee to personally escort your group anywhere in any of the DisneyWorld parks, jumping to the front of every line, and providing entertaining knowledge to boot. We’ve taken a couple escorted tours, and the experience is worth every penny.
Why would you bother with having to drag around some stranger for $1000 per day, when you can have a real tour guide for a lot less?
Do reporters ever do any diligence? Oh, yes, the reporter called Disney a couple times and Disney never called back.
Maybe they should have just checked the Disney website:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/