Stupid Guest Tricks

February wrote:
Back on topic- anyone have any recent SGT stories to share???

Bru

Not currently. But give me a couple of weeks, and I'm sure I'll have some!

DisneyMom wrote:... even a live poisonous snake in my fridge would only slightly delay my random snacking! :D:

Makes sense. A snake at 40 degrees is so slow and sluggish you could stand there and make a sandwich before he noticed the door had opened.

You might want to be careful about defrosting, though.

Ooo! A thread from another board got me thinking.

Another SG trick we saw on our last trip- avoid paying the double stroller rental by renting a wheelchair and plunking two obviously healthy kids into it.
And I know from hidden disability- when you see someone ask the price of a double stroller and then two seconds later their kids skip and hop into the wheelchair seat- that's not right!

Yes, we saw it happen. Dispicable.

Bru

February wrote:Ooo! A thread from another board got me thinking.

Another SG trick we saw on our last trip- avoid paying the double stroller rental by renting a wheelchair and plunking two obviously healthy kids into it.
And I know from hidden disability- when you see someone ask the price of a double stroller and then two seconds later their kids skip and hop into the wheelchair seat- that's not right!

Yes, we saw it happen. Dispicable.

Bru

Oh, that is just wrong, wrong, wrong! I hope Disney finds a way to put a stop to that.

Ms. Matterhorn wrote:Oh, that is just wrong, wrong, wrong! I hope Disney finds a way to put a stop to that.

Sad to say, as some other posters have pointed out on other threads, WDW personnel are not allowed to ask if you are disabled.

I believe the reason is that it would violate the ADA.

You are correct. We cannot ask what the disability is, the wheelchairs are available for any guests to rent. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that there is no rule that states a guest has to have a disability to rent one. I have seen this behavior before, sadly there are families that will rent them to take advantage of wheelchair entrances that bypass lines. I suspect with the increase of stroller prices it will only get worse.

I wonder if they could make a rule that anybody using the wheelchair has to be over a certain age (like they do for the ECVs). If you have a child below that age who needs it you could have the family rent a stroller and then get a use stroller as wheelchair GAC. It could even be in the rental agreement that if a person under a certain age is caught using it it will get taken away. That's what we do for the ECVs. (Although for the ECVs it's a legal thing since you have to be able to drive them.)

EB, that is a very good idea. If we set the cutoff age to at least 10 for a wheelchair rental we can ask to see the tickets for the family.

Ahhh, but say you have one 11 year old on antibiotics (who's tiny and looks about 8,) and one healthy 8 year old, and the 8 year old hitches a ride in the chair with the 11 year old, partly because he's a lazy little bum, and partly because it alleviated some of his sister's embarrassment about being made to sit in the chair when she would rather be walking but has been disallowed from walking due to the 103 degree fever she had the day previous before the antibiotics kicked in.... that would look like what you just described, except the 11 year old really probably shouldn't be walking all over the park, no matter how much she may prefer too.

Note: We left the chair in stroller parking and queued up like everyone else, since the point of the chair was to avoid fatiguing a recently sick kid with unnecessary WALKING, and queuing is mostly standing about.

Or maybe my parents were being SGs... wouldn't be the first time. Still chaffing over being made to pretend to be 12 when I was 14 so they didn't have to pay for me at the Holiday Inn. 12 year olds need accompaniment to the continental breakfast buffet, but 14 year olds can serve them selves.

8^S

This will not be a popular opinion, but a child who had such a dangerously high fever the previous day should not be in the parks. Their body needs time to recover. Even with a wheelchair being in the parks can be very exhausting. Plus, most illnesses that require antibiotics are still contagious within the first 24 hours of treatment, which means that you risk spreading your child's illness to other guests. As Susi and Bru have pointed out before, many of our guests do not have healthy immune systems, and it's hard enough for htem to avoid illness when standing in line with perfectly healthy guests. Not to mention the number of MAW kids we have, many of whom also have compromised immune systems due to their illnesses and treatments.

If you have a child that sick, the best thing to do is stay in the hotel the next day and give the antibiotics a chance to work. Your child will feel much better after a rest and treatment meaning you will probably be able to get back into full swing quicker the following day, and you will not be exposing the other guests to your child's illness as by then they should no longer be contagious.

This was the day AFTER the day off for the antibiotics to kick in and make me not contagious. Not that I was responsible for the decision. I was 11. And like I said, my folks had been SGs in a number of other ways... just clarifying that I was no longer contagious at the time.

8^)