Sarah McCoy -- May 2003 -- Walt Disney World (Offsite)
Who
- Sarah McCoy, age 27; I grew up in Orlando so I consider myself a WDW veteran
- Bobby McCoy, age 27; my husband has been to WDW 3 times with one trip to Disneyland. My husband is also in a wheelchair.
Travel
We traveled in our accessible van to WDW. We put over 1,000 miles on our van on the trip.
Where
We stayed off-site at the Gaylord Palms Resort on Osceola Parkway. Our room was handicap accessible with a balcony view of the atrium. Our room rate was almost 70% lower because we reserved our room through Priceline.com. We were literally ten minutes away from all the parks.
Additional Info
My husband is fairly new to being in a wheelchair. He is paralyzed from the chest down as the result of a car accident. His car was hit by another car that ran a red light. Our biggest concern was that Disney would not be very accessible since my husband uses a power wheelchair to get around. The batteries in his wheelchair are very heavy and his chair is pretty large. The combined weight of him (175) and his chair (200) is about 375 pounds.
Day 1-Sunday, May 4
We left Greenville at 3:00 in the afternoon and headed to Savannah. We had made plans to stay the night at a Fairfield Inn in Midtown Savannah. Initially we experienced great difficulty trying to get a room that was fully in compliance with ADA laws, but after several “conversations” with Marriott’s corporate office, they said that the room would be fully accessible to my husband.
Day 2-Monday, May 5
My husband drove us the rest of the way to Orlando and we arrived at our hotel at 4 p.m. Our room was completely accessible and beautifully furnished. The hotel featured extensive themed areas within its atrium: Everglades, Key West, and St. Augustine. We were so pleased that all the themed areas easily accommodated wheelchairs. Our balcony view of the atrium was also accessible. (Previous hotels that we’ve stayed in had a step down to the balcony.)
Day 3-Tuesday, May 6-Magic Kingdom
I was most concerned about visiting MK because I knew it was the least accessible of the 4 parks. I was afraid that my husband’s large wheelchair would be classed as an ECV which would even further limit what he could do at the park. As a side note, my husband is unable to transfer out of his wheelchair. We were pleasantly surprised. We rode the monorail over to MK. During the day we kept extremely busy visiting a number of attractions that were totally accessible to Bobby’s wheelchair: Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, Country Bears, Liberty Riverboat, Hall of the Presidents, Small World, Buzz Lightyear, Alien Encounter, and the Railroad. After the 9:00 fireworks, we waited for the crowd to abate before we attempted to leave the park. When we finally did exit the park at 9:45, the estimated wait time for the monorail was at least two hours. We opted to take the boat instead and arrived back at our hotel by 11 p.m.
Highlights/Tips:
The cast members really went out of their way to make us feel comfortable as we loaded up Bobby in his wheelchair on the rides. I was amazed at the creative solutions that have been developed to make the rides accessible. We also appreciated the wheelchair seating section for the parades. My husband is used to not being able to see what’s going on when in a big crowd, but he got a front row seat for both MK parades. It was incredibly hot with temperatures in the 90’s. Because of my husband’s injury, he’s more prone to heat stroke. We purchased a water mist fan from Wal-Mart for $5 and used it the entire time to keep my husband and me cool. Disney was selling water mist fans at the park for $18.
Day 4-Wednesday, May 7-Animal Kingdom
Our first ride of the day was the Safari ride. The cast member used tie-downs to hold Bobby’s wheelchair in place since the ride is pretty bumpy. I wish I could say I enjoyed the ride, but I spent the entire time trying to keep my husband’s wheelchair from moving around. We were afraid it was going to tip over or break loose. The driver of our safari drove like a wild woman. I would have enjoyed the wild driving if there wasn’t my husband’s body and a $10,000 wheelchair at stake. We rode the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. My husband wasn’t allowed to go into the petting section because they said the goats would try to bite off parts of his wheelchair. We really enjoyed the themed exhibits at the Conservation Station. Tough to be a Bug was great, although folks in wheelchairs miss out on some of the creepy-crawly effects. Depending on your like or dislike for bugs, this could be a good thing! The Festival of the Lion King offered front row seats to wheelchair users. We ran out of time and weren’t able to make it over to Dinoland, but I was told that the Triceratops Spin is accessible to wheelchairs.
Highlights/Tips:
All the animal trails were extremely bumpy which could be a problem if you are pushing your own wheelchair. Fortunately, Bobby was relying on battery power. Animal Kingdom seemed less magical than the MK, but we still enjoyed it. At times, it seemed to try really hard to be politically/environmentally correct, and perhaps this is what made it seem less “Disney”.
Day 5-Thursday, May 8- MGM
Virtually everything at MGM was accessible except for Rockin’ Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror. All of the theater seating was well designed for someone in a wheelchair and those with them. There were generous open sized spaces for wheelchairs to maneuver into, yet they could still sit with people in their group. The Backlot Tour bus had an accessible ramp for wheelchairs to board. The only scary moment took place in Catastrophe Canyon when the track becomes unstable and the tour bus seems to be tipping over. This was a really interesting experience in a wheelchair. My husband rode a really slow elevator up to the very top row of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. At the very top, it’s a little hard to see the screens, but it’s really not too bad. Wheelchairs can be seated that the front or back rows of Beauty and the Beast. We would recommend the front row. The back row isn’t shaded and if the people sitting in front of you let their kids stand up in the seat, folks in wheelchairs can’t see. We found seats for Fantasmic two hours before the performance. (We were dead tired and wanted to sit down). We sat in the very back handicapped row right in the center. These were great seats and we were able to get out of the park fast after the show ended.
Day 6-Friday, May 9-Epcot
Epcot is another great park in terms of accessibility. Here’s a list of the rides that you can go on in your wheelchair without transferring: Ellen’s Energy Adventure, Living with the Land, Journey into Imagination, Mexico. Norway’s ride requires a transfer, but you can skip the ride and just view the film about Norway. This film is excellent. When boarding the Mexico boat there is a small space between the dock and the boat. My husband was a little worried about his wheel getting stuck in the crack. It seems like this ride could really use a simple ramp for safer boarding. On this ride my husband and I were the only people in the boat and the boat seemed to lean to one side because of the weight of Bobby’s chair. I changed positions to adjust the weight a little better. Viewing the sea life at the Living Seas is rather difficult for folks in wheelchairs because they are sitting and everyone else is standing in front of them. A wheelchair viewing section might have been good.
Highlights/Tips:
We ate lunch at the San Angel Inn at Mexico. What a romantic restaurant! Right before we sat down to eat the mariachi band came out to play; this made for a great dining experience. Wheelchair access is very tight when maneuvering between all the tables; the tables and chairs are placed very close together. One family had to get up and move in their chairs so my husband could get to our table.
Day 7-Saturday, May 10-Holy Land Experience
This non-Disney park is fairly new; it was particularly interesting to us because my husband is interested in biblical antiquities. The Holy Land Experience is a living, biblical history museum that takes you 7,000 miles away and 3,000 years back in time to the land of the Bible. We visited the Garden Tomb, the Qumran Dead Sea Caves, the Plaza of the Nations, the Temple, the model of Jerusalem, and a life-size model of the Wilderness Tabernacle. The best part of our visit was viewing the ancient cuneiform, scrolls, and manuscripts in the Scriptorium. Each artifact was displayed in its historical and geographical context. It was an amazing multi-media experience. If you can imagine the special effects and top-notch quality of Disney and transfer it to the Holy Land Experience, you’ll get an idea of what it’s like.
Day 8-Sunday, May 11
We visited the church in Orlando that I used to attend and had a great time catching up with people I hadn’t seen in 5 years. We also did some souvenir shopping in the afternoon at Downtown Disney. As an avid scrapbooker, I was delighted to see that Disney has a whole new line of scrapbooking products for capturing all your Disney memories in a keepsake album. The stores were incredibly crowded and it was very, very hot outside so we bought our souvenirs and quickly left.
Day 9-Monday, May 12
We opted to not use the fifth day of our park hopper pass. Instead we chose to use the remaining day on a return trip. We were really tired because of the fast pace of our trip so we decided to relax and enjoy our gorgeous hotel, the Gaylord Palms. We sat on our balcony and looked at all the pictures we had taken on our digital camera. It was a great way to reminisce about what we had done earlier in the week. The next day we made the 9-hour trip back to Greenville.
Summary Tips
- Disney is extremely accessible to folks in wheelchairs and the cast members are very friendly and helpful.
- People in wheelchairs are very often limited in what they can participate in at amusement parks (Dollywood, etc.) I applaud Disney for giving my husband a great experience where he was able to stay busy the whole day. We will be back. We had a wonderful time!
Sarah McCoy
Smccoy@bju.edu
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