ThemePark Access Guide
Tony Phoenix & Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix
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As a wheelchair user and California Adventure (DCA) watcher, I appreciated your review. Your input will make my upcoming trip to DCA  that much easier. Do you have any tips on access at Downtown Disney?

-Matt

We have found that Downtown Disney poses no real access issues, with the usual exception of narrow aisles in some of the stores. All of the two-story restaurants have elevators to the second floor, and the seating areas are generally wide enough to maneuver in. (The notable exception to this is if you are seated inside at Naples on a crowded night) The AMC theater has dispersed seating in the larger theaters, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Downtown Disney

If you are planning to just visit Downtown Disney, take advantage of the very close parking available in the Downtown Disney lot, next to the ESPN Zone and Rainforest Cafe. The first 3 hours are free, up to 5 hours with validation from a sit down restaurant. If you want to pop into Downtown Disney before or after visiting Disneyland, don't forget that the Monorail is a nice way to get between DtD and the park. 

Since DtD is a new development, the shade trees have not grown in. As we are finally getting that California weather we are famous for, be sure to protect sensitive skin. One other thing, we have noticed that Disneyland Resort Health Services CMs are almost always out walking through DtD, so first aid is quickly available. 

Have a great trip, and please let us know how your visit was! 

I recently read your article and I was quite impressed with it. I am currently a Guest Relations Cast Member at the Disney MGM Studios.

I must correct one thing however. We at Walt Disney World no longer use the colored pass system. We use a single colored card now, called a GAC. (Guest Assistance Card.) We discuss the entrance challenges to the guest and they tell us the service that they require. We do not need to see doctor's notes or stitches (as some guests are too anxious to show). We just need them to explain their difficulty and be patient with us.

We try to accommodate every request within reason. However being told that one must skip the lines because you one can not wait in the queue often goes over badly. 

-E

Taking the time to discuss the challenges and the accommodations that can be offered is the right approach. The Guest needs to know what their limitations are, the CM needs to be able to discuss the challenges with the Guest, and the Guest ends up with the accommodation that will work best for them. 

Thank you for you efforts - I know that we would love to meet you when we next visit WDW - or if you come it to DLR! 

Hi Tony and Adrienne,

We visited DCA with our son who uses a wheelchair. While the queues are mostly accessible (there was a palm tree in the middle of the overflow queue on the Sun Wheel), we were not allowed to use Fastpass. Every time we tried, we were told we needed an SAP. When we tried to get to get an SAP at Guest Relations, we were told all the queues were accessible. So we spent our first hour going back and forth until I finally blew my top and demanded an SAP (got it).

I don't have a problem with using the queues as Disney intended but if everybody else can use Fastpass, I want to be able to use it to. If not, give me an SAP without arguing about it. I don't want to spend a lot of time that I spent a lot of money on getting the runaround.

-Darryl

Ugh. I have to say that the Guest Relations CMs were correct, in that all of the queues are wheelchair accessible. The problem was definitely with the attractions Cast Members. If they were transfers from Disneyland, they are not used to the Fast Pass queues being wheelchair accessible. Of course, none of this changes what happens to you. When you showed up at Guest Relations the second time with the same problem, an SA pass should have been issued with no further question, since it was obvious that the attractions CMs didn't know what the policy was. 

We had a similar experience this past week, when we were stopped while in line for Soarin'. The CM demanded to see an SA Pass, even though I was walking with a cane. It took a minute to clear up the issue, and the CM admitted that she had been trained to require SA passes, even though the Guest Relations policy is that SA passes are not issued when a visible cane or brace is being used.

Our standing advice: smile, stay calm, know the policies, and know what you need the CM to do. For better or worse, it really is up to the visitor to make their experience all they want it to be.  

Tracy & David Hutchins

We are now back in rainy N.O. and were so surprised to see we had made MousePlanet!! We were the two in the blue panchos throwing beads in New Orleans Square on Mardi Gras. After that, we went to DCA, ran into Mickey, Minnie and the gang and adorned them with beads too! We had a ball - rain and all! Thanks for including us in your story!

Tracy & David Hutchins
Metairie, LA

...Oh and you remember your search for Mardi Gras? I found it. It's at Universal down here. They're celebrating in a big way till the 17th. Huge parade, tons of beads, and tons of fancy beads, masks, and other assorted accouterments for sale along with beignets. Too bad Disneyland didn't do something like this.

>>>Unfortunately, the Disneyland Resort isn't exactly brimming with Irish influences.<<<

Except for a couple.

Walt (and Roy, heck, even Roy Jr.) -- all Irish.

And then he wrote right back: 

As an addendum, you should know that Roy E. Disney's private investment company is called "Shamrock Holdings". It owns, among other things, many soundstages in Manhattan Beach.

Daniel offers:

St. Patrick was really English, too. He was kidnapped as a child by Irish, escaped sometime later, returned as a missionary and christianized the country.

Adrienne -

Thanks for the story about the former Pendleton store in Frontierland today. Although I barely remember it from my visits as a youth (I'm only 23), it holds a special place for me as I grew up (and still live) in Portland, Oregon. It always gives me a great feeling of pride to look at pictures of the old sign on the shop and see the name of my hometown painted below the logo.

Pendleton is rather famous around here, not only as the woolen mills but for the town itself, a bustling rural population center in eastern Oregon, and the rodeo they hold every year. In other words, Pendleton means more than a blanket to most Oregonians.

Myself, I own a green wool Pendleton fedora, the only hat I look good in! My mother gives Pendleton blankets on special occasions like weddings and baby showers to family and friends. You can visit the Pendleton warehouse in Portland and buy raw wool yarn or blankets, or go to their discount outlet in Washougal, Washington (just across the river) to buy any number of Pendleton products- hats, blankets, shirts, pants, etc. at reduced prices. If you ever get a chance to visit Portland, go to any mall and find a Made In Oregon store (there's even one in the airport, should you have a fortuitous layover), which carries a wide selection of Pendleton products.

A few years ago, not long after the Pendleton store closed, the E-Ticket magazine (and those wonderful Janzen brothers) sent out a piece of letterhead and beautiful shirt tag from the store to their subscribers. I keep mine tucked away with my other precious Disneyland souvenirs, but take it out on occasion and admire the raw spirit of the west that Walt imbued his original Frontierland with, and which Pendleton is so much a part of for us here at the end of the Oregon Trail.

Last December I had the opportunity to visit Japan and I couldn't let the chance to visit Tokyo Disneyland slip by me. With my brother and fiancˇ, we killed time while waiting for our Big Thunder fast pass to activate by browsing the shops in Westernland (aka Frontierland). The shops there are all connected, just like Anaheim's, and as we drifted towards the end and the smell of hot curry wafted from the nearby Hungry Bear restaurant, when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but Pendleton blankets, and eight tiny reindeer!

Wait, no. There might have been a stuffed elk or something, but they had Pendleton blankets (in the Chief Joseph pattern, the most popular), shirts, and other sundries, just like our Disneyland used to carry. What a sweet sign to see "Pendleton Woolen Mills, Portland, Oregon" stamped on these little mementos, some 8000 miles from home.

Later that week, as my fiancˇ and I were dodging rain drops in Kanazawa, Japan, I thanked my Pendleton hat for keeping my head dry and I thought of that original Pendleton shop in Anaheim, embracing the whole world now, some 46 years later, with it's warm, cozy wool.

Thanks again for the story Adrienne, and for bringing back the memories.

- Tim

Thanks so much for your note. When and if we visit Tokyo, I will be sure to pay a visit to the Pendleton shop. (Of course, curry in a Disney park is going to be a whole other attraction for me!)