special assistance cards

[kathbuet1]

my daughter is the one who I will get it for (autistic). who is all included to be with her to use it. Is is just the immediate family or the whole group who is with her.

kathy

 

[Anne MN]

It is for up to six including the person who the pass is for. the ONLY exception that I know if is for MAW child and family.
I know that the villas at GKTW will sleep 7. (we did- we had grandparents for the last 3 nights)

 

[SueM in MN]

The Guest Assistance Cards are normally given for a party of up to 6 (5 plus the person with a disability).
The CMs can make exceptions, but a lot depends on your party. If it is a party of 2 parents and 5 kids, they won't say, "sorry, 6 is the limit". If you have a party of 10, chances are very good that they will tell you the limit is 6 and not give a card for more than 6.
There are times that even if you have less than the number on the card, they will ask you to split into smaller numbers. When that happens it's usually because the space for people with special needs is limited or there are already (or they expect) the space to fill with people with special needs. When that happens, they often limit to the person with a disability and 1 or 2 of their party to accompany them. This has happened to us at times, even in situations where our total party was only 4. It has happened when there were already several parties waiting for the show to begin and to accomidate more people who absolutely needed to be in that quieter space, they asked that only one person stay in that area with the "special needs" person. It's also happened to us in the Special Needs parade area.

If your group is large, you may find it is easier to split into smaller groups and meet up later for meals, etc. Trying to keep a large group (8 or 10) together all the time is really difficult even if no one has any special needs.

 

[ducklite]

Sue pointed out something I had forgotten. With the special viewing areas for parades and fireworks they do ask only one person stay with the handicapped person.

Exceptions can certainly be made, I spent two trips in a wheelchair after having a spinal tumor removed, and only once did a CM tell us that both my DH and DS (who was only 12 at the time) couldn't stay with me for the fireworks. I thought that person was a bit of a pill, to make my DH stand alone was pretty rude. Of course had we had another person in our party it would have been different, but he had to watch alone. I wanted to just leave, but was boxed in by then.

Anne