Possible Changes coming to the Guest Assistance Cards (GAC)

[RSoxNo1]

While the details of this article center on Disneyland, the identification of the Guest Assistance Card usage as a problem for NextGen is certainly relevant to Disney World. I understand Disney wanting to curb the abuse of the GAC card, but again, this is something (in conjunction with limiting Fastpass usage) that is really going to affect a lot of people. If people are abusing the GAC rules, than I have no sympathy, but I know several people that utilize the GAC for legitimate reasons.

Speaking on behalf of myself, we get a GAC for my autistic brother, and we get it for him and 5 additional guests. When I'm traveling with my family we travel 8 or 9 deep so the GAC does not accommodate everyone. We have been told that we can accompany the GAC with Fastpasses for the other family members and we have never had a problem doing this. However, we have yet to attempt this now that the end times are being reinforced. Previously, we would take the passes of everyone in the family, and get the necessary fastpasses we needed for the day to accompany the GAC, we would typically have Fastpasses for everything we needed (with the exception of the MK where there were more Fastpass attractions than elsewhere) before stepping foot in any line.

As an example we would do the following:

• 8 ticketed guests and 1 infant would arrive at the Magic Kingdom between 10-11 AM
• 1 person would head to Fantasyland and get 2 Fastpasses for Peter Pan's Flight, and 2 Fastpasses for Winnie the Pooh
• 1 person would head to Adventureland and get 2 Fastpases for Jungle Cruise, and then over to Frontierland to get 1 Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and 1 Fastpass for Splash Mountain.
• Our day would begin at Jungle Cruise where 9 of us get on a boat using the 2 Fastpasses and the GAC(for 6 people). The infant didn't require a Fastpass
• After Pirates of the Caribbean, one adult would sit off Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain with the Infant as 7 of us would ride using the 1 Fastpass, and GAC (for 6)
• After Haunted Mansion, we would would hit up the Fantasyland attractions in the same manner we did for Jungle Cruise.
• During a break in riding rides someone would probably head over to Tomorrowland grab Fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

My suggestion for the Guest Assistance Card would be to limit the number of people that can use it. This can be done by Doctor's Note (perhaps not legal)? Or having stricter policies on distribution.

Here is the text of the article that's relevant to this discussion. Most of this is regarding Radiator Springs Racers, and the "solution" is similar to what's done over in Universal Studios.

Another change triggered by the huge popularity of Cars Land and Radiator Springs Racers will be coming this winter to the Resort’s Guest Assistance Card program. The Guest Assistance Cards, or GAC’s as the Cast Members call them, are a program about 8 years old that allow those with disabilities that prevent them from being in long lines of people but don’t necessarily confine them to a wheelchair to bypass most lines at most attractions. Many people consider them a “front of line pass”, and a sub-culture of fraud and dishonesty has grown up around the program in recent years, where people with no disability whatsoever or with a vaguely undefined yet blanket condition like “claustrophobia” or a “bad back” now have a GAC. The Guest Relations team manages and distributes the GACs, and they will now post-date them for months in advance for Annual Passholders so that they have them ready to use for every casual visit for months at a time.

The result this summer was that on days with high Annual Passholder visitation rates the line of people wanting to use their GAC at Racers would completely overwhelm the attraction and create a line of 30 to 45 minutes long, clogging the Fastpass lane and demanding that the ride operators at Racers dramatically dial down the number of Fastpasses distributed each day. (And now you know why the Racers Fastpasses are all gone within 60 minutes of park opening; they are only giving out a third of the number of tickets they should be able to as they try and manage the GACs heading into the ride through the same line).

The Guest Relations team was summoned to the Racers ride entrance all summer as they tried to mitigate the problem by forcing GAC holders to return only after the length of the Standby line had lapsed, issuing them a “return time” much like a Fastpass. This process at least prevented those with GACs from just going around and around through the Fastpass line as much as they wanted, as a 45 minute Fastpass/GAC wait time is at least shorter than the two to three hour long Standby wait. The irony of a 45 minute line for people who freely acknowledge they can’t wait in line is not lost on any of the Cast Members from Guest Relations or Radiator Springs Racers.

When word of this GAC phenomenon reached DCA executives and George Kalogridis, after they demanded to know why so few Fastpasses were being given out each morning, the answer took the TDA executives by surprise. Any front-line Attractions or Guest Relations Cast Member has known the GAC program was highly abused and nearly worthless for years, but most executives had no exposure to the problem and had no idea so many GACs were being issued, often for months at a time. Some quick studies were commissioned by the Guest Relations team this summer, and it was determined that upwards of 5,000 people per day, almost all of whom were tracked as Annual Passholders, were going through the Fastpass line at Radiator Springs Racers with a GAC. At an attraction like Racers that was carrying an average of 20,000 riders per day, 5,000 of them boarding the ride with a GAC is a huge impact. After all, a GAC is valid for the disabled person, and up to five of their friends or family, so while there were often 1,500 or more valid GACs in the park at any one time that meant there were thousands more people joining the GAC card holder at an attraction.

Disabled visitors trying to access the Racers ride with a GAC first need to stop at this podium to receive a hand-written boarding pass from a Racers CM for use an hour or two later, and then wait through the often lengthy Fastpass line.​

​

The news that thousands and thousands of APs per day this summer had what amounted to an open Fastpass or backdoor access to any attraction at the Resort set off alarm bells in TDA, but not because of the assumption that many of the maladies were fake or overblown by the GAC holder just to get the perk of shorter lines. The TDA executives were most disturbed by the huge numbers of GACs because that would ruin their attempt to install and overlay the upcoming NextGen Fastpass or XPass concepts we’ve been telling you about for a couple of years. The entire NextGen queue project, just about to be rolled out formally later this fall in Walt Disney World, is built on fine tuned statistical models that have no leeway for huge numbers of people also trying to access the Fastpass lines at shows and attractions. With the average GAC-holding Annual Passholder essentially having an open Fastpass for any attraction at any time for their entire family, the NextGen concept would be undermined right from the start in Anaheim. Unless, of course, TDA blew up the existing GAC program and started over with something far more restrictive before NextGen arrives.

The NextGen project in Anaheim is a full 18 months behind the WDW timetable for NextGen installation. Much of the initial construction to add NextGen concepts to queues and waiting areas at Disneyland and DCA will kick off this winter and go through calendar year 2013, with a soft opening of NextGen in Anaheim by the winter of 2014. However, current construction projects at the Resort are taking NextGen into account, with data cables and physical changes already being included in current construction projects like the refurbished Fantasyland Theater and the Princess Fantasy Faire off the Hub.

The goal TDA has given the Guest Relations team is to blow up the current GAC process and come up with something far more restrictive by this winter, and then keep it on a very short leash through 2013 as TDA tries to reset the lofty expectations of those who get Guest Assistance Cards, the vast majority of whom are Annual Passholders. At the same time, Disneyland and DCA will need to take the same steps taken at WDW to limit Fastpass return times only to the actual hour printed on the ticket. NextGen concepts require rigid adherence to the programmed system, and a huge pool of people able to bypass all NextGen requirements with a Guest Assistance Card valid for the entire family simply can’t be allowed if NextGen is to succeed in Anaheim.

 

[wilkeliza]

I know the technical rules for GAC is that if fastpasses are still available for the attraction you must use the fastpass option (entire party not just the ones not covered by the GAC). If no fastpasses are available or if the time currently displayed is not convenient for your party then a hand written pass is to be issued allowing you to return at a time equal to the current posted stand by time. I only know of one attraction actually following the rule and that is Space Mountain. I believe Toy Story Midway Mania also follows the rule but I've never seen it happen my self. Of course these are the rules for Disney World so I'm not sure what the official operating rules for Disneyland are.

No one wants to make it harder on guests with disabilities but far too many times I see people abusing the system and lying. There are entire threads on some other boards dedicated to telling parents how to coach their kids to appear autistic so that they can get GAC cards to "skip the line" although the cards clearly say on them they are not front of the line cards and sometimes the wait may be longer than the standby line.

 

[flynnibus]

Even tho Al wants to hang everything on bOrgLando as the root of all evil - this is a problem far more involved at DLR than WDW. I doubt we'll see any pending changes to GAC for WDW.

I also question the link between GAC and NextGen... solely from why the motivation to address the problem now, when Al claims NextGen is almost 2 years away for DLR? If it were purely to prevent NextGen snags.. why the hurry to make changes?

I think it's just an excuse to finally face the elephant in the room. The population at DLR has far less qualms about abusing leeway granted by Disney, and GAC is just one of those areas people walk all over Disney.

 

[nytimez]

I don't have/use/need a GAC and am thankful that I am not entitled to one.

But, I don't fully understand their purpose as it extends to cutting a line. I don't like lines (who does?) and rarely wait in them in myself -- and somehow, I always manage to ride everything I want.

I've never seen or heard of that hand-written "return by" note described above, but that also seems like a perfectly reasonable accommodation.

 

[flynnibus]

But, I don't fully understand their purpose as it extends to cutting a line

They aren't universally - but depending on the condition the card is issued for, and the attraction in question, to eliminate the aspect that the guest can't do, cutting the line is the accomodation.

Example, if I can't stand for long periods, I can't stand for 60mins in a queue.. so maybe you put me through the FP line which is much shorter. Or maybe I'm in a wheelchair, and the stand-by queue can't accomodate a chair, etc.

In the old days it was predominately about wheelchair and disabled access. But now they issue passes for everything from sensory issues, to heat tolerance, to whatever. It's quite absurd IMO, but in a lot of ways Disney created the problem.

 

[wilkeliza]

They aren't universally - but depending on the condition the card is issued for, and the attraction in question, to eliminate the aspect that the guest can't do, cutting the line is the accomodation.

Example, if I can't stand for long periods, I can't stand for 60mins in a queue.. so maybe you put me through the FP line which is much shorter. Or maybe I'm in a wheelchair, and the stand-by queue can't accomodate a chair, etc.

In the old days it was predominately about wheelchair and disabled access. But now they issue passes for everything from sensory issues, to heat tolerance, to whatever. It's quite absurd IMO, but in a lot of ways Disney created the problem.

Like I said above the skip the line is not how they are technically suppose to be used but for some reason that is what greeter CMs have been doing for awhile and what has become the standard. The official policy is that the guest should still wait the posted stand by just in a location with whatever they need to accommodate their disability such as shade or a wider ramp or quite area.

 

[RSoxNo1]

To echo @flynnibus's point, Disneyland guests are more knowledgeable about the parks. As such, they are more familiar with ways to exploit existing offerings.

 

[JLipnick]

We always get GAC for our son who is 4 years old but cannot walk independantly (he has low muscle tone and besides his muscles developing at a slower pace, he also tires very quickly) and uses a walker. he is not wheel chair bound so when we then carry him into a line with the GAC or use our stoller with the stroller=wheelchair tag, people sometimes look to see why we are getting to the front. we even had people ask why, but when we tell them our 4 year old is handicapped, they usually understand. we have sometimes been told that the queue lines are wide enough for wheelchairs or walkers so he should just use the regular line, but he cannot stand for that long. guest relations are normally good about handling those situations for us. so while we would much rather not have to take advantage of the GAC, without it we would not be able to do WDW.

I just hope that they do not change it to where my son won't be able to enjoy himself like a normal 4 year old would.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I don't have/use/need a GAC and am thankful that I am not entitled to one.

But, I don't fully understand their purpose as it extends to cutting a line. I don't like lines (who does?) and rarely wait in them in myself -- and somehow, I always manage to ride everything I want.

I've never seen or heard of that hand-written "return by" note described above, but that also seems like a perfectly reasonable accommodation.

The "return by" note is what's currently done at Universal, but I think part of the benefit is to avoid having to double back through the park. For my brother, it's a matter of patience, for other's it's a physical issue.

I can only speak on personal experience - normally my brother (35 years old and autistic) is well behaved (or at least since puberty). However, we've had incidents in the park where just suggesting that we don't go on a certain attraction because it was cold and getting late and he wouldn't have it. At that point we're faced with dealing with a 200 pound autistic man throwing a full fledged temper tantrum in the middle of Fantasyland, or getting on his required attractions as quickly as possible.

For my brother he is far more high strung at the beginning and end of each trip as he needs to make sure that he sees and does everything he had planned out in his mind. Until that happens, he is far more likely to act out, and act out aggressively.

Disney has been more than accommodating for him, and I am 100% satisfied in how the current system works for my family. I feel guilty at times when we can bypass longer lines during crowded times, and as such, we try to minimilize usage where applicable. If we see a 10 minute wait, and no signs of an outburst we will often choose to go standby. Or not all of us will go on a ride so we won't be totally backing up the system with our 6 GAC users and 3 FP users. Yes, we take advantage of it but I feel it's a valuable service that's offered and we are well within the restrictions of the system.

 

[flynnibus]

To echo @flynnibus's point, Disneyland guests are more knowledgeable about the parks. As such, they are more familiar with ways to exploit existing offerings.

I'd say they are much better versed in how to visit the park, and even manipulate Disney... more so than knowledgeable about the parks They are much more willing to game the system because so many are selfish about the parks in the first place. Comes with growing up with it in their backyards and having frequent access to it.

 

[Todd H]

I'm the parent of a five year old autistic son and we used a GAC for the first time during our last trip in 2011. It was a godsend. I'd hate to see it disappear completely.

 

[captainkidd]

This doesn't sound like it should impact us too much. We've had to use the GAC for the past 4 years. I have a chronic back condition that doesn't allow me to stand in the same place for more than very short lengths of time. I had an MRI done and the specialists I've seen don't recommend I go through with surgery, so it's something I just have to live with.

I would have no problem (and think Disney should) with Disney requiring that people asking for GAC's have a note on physicians letterhead or copies of current prescriptions detailing what the medicine is for.

If it wasn't for the GAC, I can honestly say, we could no longer go to WDW. Well, we could, but I couldn't make it through the parks.

 

[RSoxNo1]

A friend of mine (and also the host of the WDW Kingdomcast podcast) gets a GAC on every visit. He was two prosthetic legs (below the knee)and really cannot stand still for long periods of time without serious discomfort. He can actually move very well around the parks while walking, but he utlizes the GAC to avoid standing still.

Just knowing how my feet feel at the end of each day, I can only imagine how much worse the pressure is on his legs. He swears by it, and Disney's willingness to accommodate is a big reason he continues to return.

 

[wilkeliza]

I would have no problem (and think Disney should) with Disney requiring that people asking for GAC's have a note on physicians letterhead or copies of current prescriptions detailing what the medicine is for.

The problem is they can't legally ask for that under ADA laws. Once someone says they are disabled you have to leave it at that.

 

[DisneyJoe]

I would have no problem (and think Disney should) with Disney requiring that people asking for GAC's have a note on physicians letterhead or copies of current prescriptions detailing what the medicine is for.

It's actually not up to Disney - I believe HIPAA laws prevent them from asking.

 

[captainkidd]

A friend of mine (and also the host of the WDW Kingdomcast podcast) gets a GAC on every visit. He was two prosthetic legs (below the knee)and really cannot stand still for long periods of time without serious discomfort. He can actually move very well around the parks while walking, but he utlizes the GAC to avoid standing still.

That's pretty much why I get it as well. I can walk OK, for a little while. But standing still - Forget it.

 

[Todd H]

I would have no problem (and think Disney should) with Disney requiring that people asking for GAC's have a note on physicians letterhead or copies of current prescriptions detailing what the medicine is for.

We brought one from our pediatrician and I don't think they even looked at it. I would be fine with requiring documentation but I think I've read somewhere that they can't ask you for documentation because of HIPAA perhaps?

Edit: Joe beat me to it.

 

[Disneydreamer23]

How are they changing it?

 

[DisneyJoe]

A friend of mine (and also the host of the WDW Kingdomcast podcast) gets a GAC on every visit. He was two prosthetic legs (below the knee)and really cannot stand still for long periods of time without serious discomfort. He can actually move very well around the parks while walking, but he utlizes the GAC to avoid standing still.

I am a congenital above the knee amputee and know just how he feels. Between my hands on my crutches and the prosthetic legs, I would be in serious discomfort on every Disney trip, until a friend talked me into using an ECV. WDW and DLR are the only places I use one, and it has made a tremendous difference in my enjoyment of the parks.

 

[captainkidd]

It's actually not up to Disney - I believe HIPAA laws prevent them from asking.

Yeah, I have read that too.

Most of the CM's we've encountered have been great about the GAC. I always show them copies of my prescriptions and highlight what they are for, just so there's no doubt. One year, we encountered a CM at the MK (Guest Relations just outside the park) who made a very snide comment to me. I showed him the note from my doctor and he replied "Gee, I wonder if your doctor gives out no waiting in line cards for his office." I thought that was REALLY uncalled for.