
so many things i'd like to say on this topic. I have been to Disney aprox 30 times in the last 9 years. For the first 15 visits or so it was myself, hubby, oldest daughter and son. When my youngest was born she had her first trip at 5 months old. Life was great, I love Disney as does the rest of the family. Little one in stroller off we went.
At future trips littlest was getting bigger, hubby has major back issues and stroller not allowed everywhere but we made the best of it. On one particular trip when she was about 3 we had gotten the Fantasmic dinner pkg. When we went to enter (entrance towards front of park) they told us that stroller not allowed. I tried to explain that little one unable to walk (she has CP amongst other things) and was there anything we could do-I really wasn't going to be able to carry her on that walk. they said no. we left.
since then i found out about stroller as wheelchair and it has been wonderful. My husband has also since been forced to use a wheelchair on many occassions. It bothers him tremendously to be in the w/c, I have to yell at him to use it, as he doesn't "look" injured and is rather young (38). He has spinal stenosis/6 degenerative disks.
However I find it amusing that people get upset when we go in a different way. Just because we get to go in a different way doesn't mean we get on faster. Last month we went for SWW and while having a fast pass for Toy Story once we got in line the non stair way we had a 45 minute wait. I saw people at the end of the regular (non fast pass) line board before us.
GAC is great if used right and not abused. In January we went for our daughters WISH trip (not MAW) we had 2 in chairs (daughter & hubby) I just had back surgery in November and my oldest was wearing knee brace. The only one physically "normal" was my 11 yo boy. I know I'm probably amongst the majority on this site but I'd say I'm in the minority whereas I didn't care about "entitlements" we did what we could, rested when we had to, and went with it. Yeah we had looks, yeah i heard comments when my youngest went to get Little Einstein autographs and the CM let her go in the exit. (we had wish shirts on) While she was offered to "cut" in line it took her forever to get comfortable to meet them.
Sorry for the long story. I guess it could be summed up by saying GAC (even with alt entrance) is not always quicker. Thanks for letting my enjoy this forum. I've had many conversations with CM's over SGT and have even sent some here.