fabfemmeboy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2014
I'm here now, and there are a few new options for chair access at some rides:
Flights of Passage
There is a new transfer chair that can be wheeled up around/over the bike. Unlike most wheelchairs where your legs are kind of close together, this one has footrests that are more spread so there is a bit of space between your legs. It means that, if you can't stand out of a wheelchair and get your legs over the bike to ride, you can simply pull yourself forward out of the transfer chair and into position. You can request it/transfer into the chair right before the first preshow room. It is also used to transport people who use battery-powered wheelchairs (like FoldNGo, WhiliC, AirHawk, etc). If you don't have someone to push you, they provided a CM to take the chair through both preshows and into position at the bike. Then they bring the chair back in at the end of the ride (again, right up to the bike) and take you directly to your personal device. The CMs when I was there yesterday were all very professional and had clearly been well-trained.
All of this is a welcome change from before. There wasn't a place to transfer from a manual wheelchair onto the bike if you couldn't stand/pivot/sit/leg-over/scoot-forward. For people with electric wheelchairs, they also used to kind of swap CMs at each room and half the time no one knew they were supposed to push you - and rarely did anyone know to bring a chair out at the end of the ride to get you back to your personal chair.
Pirates of the Caribbean
Previously, if you used any kind of device with a motor (including often a manual wheelchair with a power assist), they would not allow the device in the queue at all, full stop. I had been told everything from "you exit in a different building" to "there's water in there", which were silly for various reasons. However, they now allow small electric wheelchairs IF they can be put in manual mode and pushed by the CM. This is because, as we knew, the exit is in a different building so the chair has to go around a narrow path and down in a small elevator to get to the offloading area. Having been in that elevator today, there is no way a scooter would fit. So if your chair is the size of a manual wheelchair and can be pushed without turning it on/using the tiller, you can now take that in the queue with you just like a person with a manual wheelchair can do.
These are small things but have been gamechangers. I'm rolling around with a smile on my face at being able to ride one of my favourites (FOP) again. My partner was dancing up the exit of Pirates because we hadn't been able to ride it on this coast in years due to the requirement to transfer into a push-chair that he couldn't maneuver on those hilly corridors. I know there has been at least one lawsuit (and I suspect a second one based on what was changed and what type of plaintiff it would take) about wheelchair accessibility on attractions recently, and it looks like they have helped. If I find more rides they've improved access on, I'll report back. But for now, I'm happy to be the bearer of good news for those who can ride easier!
Flights of Passage
There is a new transfer chair that can be wheeled up around/over the bike. Unlike most wheelchairs where your legs are kind of close together, this one has footrests that are more spread so there is a bit of space between your legs. It means that, if you can't stand out of a wheelchair and get your legs over the bike to ride, you can simply pull yourself forward out of the transfer chair and into position. You can request it/transfer into the chair right before the first preshow room. It is also used to transport people who use battery-powered wheelchairs (like FoldNGo, WhiliC, AirHawk, etc). If you don't have someone to push you, they provided a CM to take the chair through both preshows and into position at the bike. Then they bring the chair back in at the end of the ride (again, right up to the bike) and take you directly to your personal device. The CMs when I was there yesterday were all very professional and had clearly been well-trained.
All of this is a welcome change from before. There wasn't a place to transfer from a manual wheelchair onto the bike if you couldn't stand/pivot/sit/leg-over/scoot-forward. For people with electric wheelchairs, they also used to kind of swap CMs at each room and half the time no one knew they were supposed to push you - and rarely did anyone know to bring a chair out at the end of the ride to get you back to your personal chair.
Pirates of the Caribbean
Previously, if you used any kind of device with a motor (including often a manual wheelchair with a power assist), they would not allow the device in the queue at all, full stop. I had been told everything from "you exit in a different building" to "there's water in there", which were silly for various reasons. However, they now allow small electric wheelchairs IF they can be put in manual mode and pushed by the CM. This is because, as we knew, the exit is in a different building so the chair has to go around a narrow path and down in a small elevator to get to the offloading area. Having been in that elevator today, there is no way a scooter would fit. So if your chair is the size of a manual wheelchair and can be pushed without turning it on/using the tiller, you can now take that in the queue with you just like a person with a manual wheelchair can do.
These are small things but have been gamechangers. I'm rolling around with a smile on my face at being able to ride one of my favourites (FOP) again. My partner was dancing up the exit of Pirates because we hadn't been able to ride it on this coast in years due to the requirement to transfer into a push-chair that he couldn't maneuver on those hilly corridors. I know there has been at least one lawsuit (and I suspect a second one based on what was changed and what type of plaintiff it would take) about wheelchair accessibility on attractions recently, and it looks like they have helped. If I find more rides they've improved access on, I'll report back. But for now, I'm happy to be the bearer of good news for those who can ride easier!
