Disabled guests

[daddytomjm]

I am interested in everyones take on this:

My wife and daughter are both in manual wheelchairs. Since I am usually the only one avalible to push, we came up with a way to hook the chairs togeather side by side. Because of the extra wide load, we need special assistance with most attractions (manual transfer chair, alternative enterance etc) we try our best to be polite when asking for help since we know we are not the only guests in the park. I am sure there are some not so polite disabled guests out there. That said does anybody have any stupid disabled guest stories.

[hhsrat]

That said does anybody have any stupid disabled guest stories.

Nothing that really strikes me as stupid, just the standard "I should be allowed to skip all the lines because I'm in a wheelchair" type stuff.

[BirdMom]

Well, at least Daddytomjm tries to be helpful. I can think of dozens of groups of guests with at least one disabled member of the party who expected me, as the ride operator, to be doing the lifting and transfering of the handicapped person into and out of the conveyances. That always bothered me. I was not a nurse or an occupational therapist who was trained to do that task, plus I had a bad back. I still remember one very large woman on the West side who pretty much attempted to sink into my grasp when I tried to steady her as she was being gotten out of a Pirate boat. The reason I remember her is that she was in a sleeveless top and my hands pretty much got stuck supporting her soaking wet armpits *gawd - that still makes me shudder all these years later* :bugeyes:

The one thing that I can remember that was nearly as repulsive as the above incident was one of the "Fat Sisters," a pair of very large AP's who always claimed to be handicapped, drooling on me as she tried to explain that they were too fat to fit through the turnstile. *shudders again* God bless Terry Fukahara for telling them that we weren't taking any of their nonsense anymore. I'm sure he's retired by now. :dancear:

[Zazu]

... does anybody have any stupid disabled guest stories.

I probably get less stupid out of disabled guests than average. There was one day though....

I was the greeter at the Frontierland RR Station. This position includes escorting disabled guests and their parties up the exit ramp to the station (the regular entry has only stairs). We were running three trains that day -- 7 minute headings -- so the practice is to only take up one party per train.

A person came up and asked if this was the wheelchair entrance. I assured her that it was, and asked, "How many in your posse?"

"Well, we have fourteen in wheelchairs and ten who can walk, plus 28 family members."

I did some quick math in my head, explained how there were only two wheelchair spots per train that might already be full, and that it would probably take about two hours to get them all to Toontown.

And here is where the stupid hit the fan: "But the children are sick!"

:wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai

[leftcoaster]

"Well, we have fourteen in wheelchairs and ten who can walk, plus 28 family members."

:wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai

Zazu, you're missing a few wheelchairs there. :p:

[Zazu]

"Well, we have fourteen in wheelchairs and ten who can walk, plus 28 family members."

:wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai :wheelchai

Zazu, you're missing a few wheelchairs there. :p:

Could be worse. At least I'm not missing a few screws like some of our guests! :sparky:

[techie-13]

Not a stupid guest trick but a story of an incredibly rare "intelligent guest trick".
I once had a party of 16, 12 in wheelchairs and 4 walking come in to the exit of the skyway. Now most guests in wheelchairs come on the ride and travel roundtrip, leaving their chairs in a corner of the station until they return. Occasionally we get one guest (in chair) and a friend who would decide to travel to the other side by folding the chair and sticking it in the cabin with them.
But this time it was 12. Actually, this was really cool because the guests had it all worked out. :D: We held a cabin back while 2 of the wheelchair guests got into a second cabin. 2 of the walking guests folded the chairs and took them with them in the first cabin so they could unload first and unfold the chairs when they got to the other side. Sent the 2 cabins and then kind of repeated it. We would hold a cabin, load 2 into the second cabin, the two remaining walking guests would fold the chairs and stick them in the first cabin for the friends on the other side to unfold. Repeat until all of them had made it onto the ride.
It was a neat trick and I was VERY glad they did this on a weekday when we were sending and receiving cabins about every 19 seconds instead of a weekend when the time interval would go down to 13 seconds.

[SummerInFl]

And here is where the stupid hit the fan: "But the children are sick!"

I'm curious, did they wait for the train or decide it isn't worth the trouble and walk them there? LOL Funny story though, thanks for sharing. :)

[thrillriderbabs]

Could be worse. At least I'm not missing a few screws like some of our guests! :sparky:

Guests who are disabled or are faking it just try to take advantage of it to the most. I was just at the kingdom recently and we got off big thunder mountain when we noticed a traffic jam in the hallway exit area. My brother told me it was a wheelchair that is until we got past the 1st one. There was a total of 3 wheelchairs causing a 5 min wait to just get off the ride and of course they had an entire group of freakin kids with them just trying to skip the ride line. I just don't like people who take advantage of Disney's hospitality and never bother to thank anyone. Also when I worked at DRC I would get calls about how someone could get a handicap skip the line pass. I'm like ummm you have to wait until you get to the park and they wouldn't be satisifed with that answer. It's like they are measuring whether or not they will visit Disney based on if they have to wait in line like everyone else!!! Just amazing people have no patience nowadayz!!! :mad:

[PirateJohn]

Guests who are disabled or are faking it just try to take advantage of it to the most. I was just at the kingdom recently and we got off big thunder mountain when we noticed a traffic jam in the hallway exit area. My brother told me it was a wheelchair that is until we got past the 1st one. There was a total of 3 wheelchairs causing a 5 min wait to just get off the ride and of course they had an entire group of freakin kids with them just trying to skip the ride line. I just don't like people who take advantage of Disney's hospitality and never bother to thank anyone. Also when I worked at DRC I would get calls about how someone could get a handicap skip the line pass. I'm like ummm you have to wait until you get to the park and they wouldn't be satisifed with that answer. It's like they are measuring whether or not they will visit Disney based on if they have to wait in line like everyone else!!! Just amazing people have no patience nowadayz!!! :mad:

I've overheard more than once:

"Whose turn is it in the wheelchair?"

And one of those times it was a mother talking to her two children. Made me want to throw that witch in the flume.