Anti- Autism Suit Against Disney Update

[justintheharris]

But under the current system all that allows you to do is wait the same amount of time as you would in line, elsewhere.
So if the queue for Splash Mountain is 60 minutes, you show the pass and get a "FastPass" to come back in 50 minutes and enter the FastPass line. You still need to wait, but can avoid the crowded environment of the queueline. Of course it is up to you to find somewhere more pleasant to wait or another distraction such as a shop or restaurant. You can only have one of these passes at a time (so after your 50 minutes is up you can get one for Big Thunder just before riding Splash for example).

So even if you do lie to get the pass, all you gain is the ability to get additional "FastPasses", and therefore can multi-task a bit more.

What the lawsuit wants is the ability to have zero wait time and even skip the crowd in the FastPass line. Some children just want to ride one ride over and over again. But if the line is an hour long they currently have to keep getting off and coming back after 50 minutes and getting in the FP line. The lawsuit parents want even less of a wait, which is then putting them at a significant advantage over the average guest.

I’m well aware of that. But I am angered that my friends abuse the system. They are more than capable of standing in a line for 60 minutes rather than being free to roam.

 

[phillip9698]

No, for a lot of reasons. The biggest one being, an autistic child might not want to ride every ride in the park once per day. They might want to ride Peter Pan's Flight over and over and over again.

Letting them ride any ride over and over and over like that isn't making their experience equal to everyone else's its well beyond what anyone else will receive. Why is compromise so bad?

 

[Almac97]

I'm not 100% on how it works though.

It's quite simple. You go to Guest Services with your child, kindly explain your issues, and they'll give you a card. When you go to a ride you present the card, and the attendants at the FP entrance look at the standby wait time and (I forget the exact details) either give you a paper FP to return, or write the return time on your card. Come back at that time, and you can enter the FP line.

The skill I've had to learn since the advent of this all is to have the app ready and then see if there's anything close by w/ real short wait to kill the time in between. Unfortunately between my parents aging (we ain't walking to Tomorrowland and back!), and crowds becoming increasingly larger, there are many times where there isn't anything. If we need to wait 45 min for Splash, many times BTMR, POTC, and HM are all similar, so we end up either just taking up space a bench trying to tell him every 2 minutes that it's ready soon, or I declare it Churro Time.

 

[Kamikaze]

No, for a lot of reasons. The biggest one being, an autistic child might not want to ride every ride in the park once per day. They might want to ride Peter Pan's Flight over and over and over again.

I don't remember the person's name, but there was the child that rode SWSA some ridiculous number of times. It was the only thing he went on. I don't believe the parents ever asked for anything special or to be able to skip the line, and they managed.

 

[Bairstow]

...Of course the counter is that now anytime anyone goes to Disney they just claim they are autistic and since Disney can't ask for proof of the disability then anyone would be able to get a front of the line pass such that every ride would have very long lines for the front of the line pass and no one using the regular lines... and of course the autistic kids would be having a melt down because the front of the line line was 90 minutes long...

This scenario is so perversely dysotopian it's honestly kind of appealing.

At least the people who want fastpass to go away would be happy.

 

[Corgi]

What I don’t understand, is if we should be treating autistic children/adults equally, why shouldn’t they have to wait in line just like the rest of us?

 

[docdebbi]

It's quite simple. You go to Guest Services with your child, kindly explain your issues, and they'll give you a card. When you go to a ride you present the card, and the attendants at the FP entrance look at the standby wait time and (I forget the exact details) either give you a paper FP to return, or write the return time on your card. Come back at that time, and you can enter the FP line.

The skill I've had to learn since the advent of this all is to have the app ready and then see if there's anything close by w/ real short wait to kill the time in between. Unfortunately between my parents aging (we ain't walking to Tomorrowland and back!), and crowds becoming increasingly larger, there are many times where there isn't anything. If we need to wait 45 min for Splash, many times BTMR, POTC, and HM are all similar, so we end up either just taking up space a bench trying to tell him every 2 minutes that it's ready soon, or I declare it Churro Time.

Just an FYI. There is no longer a piece of paper. You present the magic band or ticket card of the special visitor at the FP entrance. They associate it to this. The person does not need to be present when registering for the return time. They obviously do have to be present when your group is going in to ride.

 

[Almac97]

What I don’t understand, is if we should be treating autistic children/adults equally, why shouldn’t they have to wait in line just like the rest of us?

Unless you're the type who also appreciates screaming infants on flights, that may not play out the way you wish. Uncontrollable "meltdowns" (the crux of this lawsuit) is the argument to not be in line (next to you) in the first place.

Just an FYI. There is no longer a piece of paper. You present the magic band or ticket card of the special visitor at the FP entrance. They associate it to this. The person does not need to be present when registering for the return time. They obviously do have to be present when your group is going in to ride.

We don't stay onsite and haven't had the bands, so I knew it was something else. Just couldn't remember what it was... meanwhile I have my last park card on my desk as I write this.

 

[Bairstow]

What I don’t understand, is if we should be treating autistic children/adults equally, why shouldn’t they have to wait in line just like the rest of us?

 

[Willmark]

It's quite simple. You go to Guest Services with your child, kindly explain your issues, and they'll give you a card. When you go to a ride you present the card, and the attendants at the FP entrance look at the standby wait time and (I forget the exact details) either give you a paper FP to return, or write the return time on your card. Come back at that time, and you can enter the FP line.

The skill I've had to learn since the advent of this all is to have the app ready and then see if there's anything close by w/ real short wait to kill the time in between. Unfortunately between my parents aging (we ain't walking to Tomorrowland and back!), and crowds becoming increasingly larger, there are many times where there isn't anything. If we need to wait 45 min for Splash, many times BTMR, POTC, and HM are all similar, so we end up either just taking up space a bench trying to tell him every 2 minutes that it's ready soon, or I declare it Churro Time.

Intresting.

You bring up a very good point but perhaps not the way you intend.

What you describe is what most people do with fast passes in general: it’s saving your place in line while riding something else. But the question I have is the pass unlimited? I’ve read through the thread and it appears it is subject to the time of the fastpass line.

Because if so I imagine there will be lots more special needs in the Park should this suit win. The ironic thing (not saying you) will be this will have an unintended consequence of the capacity to meet this need become diminished.

 

[Touchdown]

So Country Bears and Tiki Room aren’t options? Tom Sawyer Island, Riverboat? What about doing a loop on the train? Heck using the train you can access those other areas w/o walking far. Expand your horizons. I regularly get on everything I want to in the park using FPs and getting at the park for opening. The only time I’ll wait for more then 30 min is for night shows.

 

[Elfinko]

It's quite simple. You go to Guest Services with your child, kindly explain your issues, and they'll give you a card. When you go to a ride you present the card, and the attendants at the FP entrance look at the standby wait time and (I forget the exact details) either give you a paper FP to return, or write the return time on your card. Come back at that time, and you can enter the FP line.

The skill I've had to learn since the advent of this all is to have the app ready and then see if there's anything close by w/ real short wait to kill the time in between. Unfortunately between my parents aging (we ain't walking to Tomorrowland and back!), and crowds becoming increasingly larger, there are many times where there isn't anything. If we need to wait 45 min for Splash, many times BTMR, POTC, and HM are all similar, so we end up either just taking up space a bench trying to tell him every 2 minutes that it's ready soon, or I declare it Churro Time.

Thank you for that explanation! Very kind of you.

 

[thomas998]

What I don’t understand, is if we should be treating autistic children/adults equally, why shouldn’t they have to wait in line just like the rest of us?

Because what you generally have with a large percentage of people using the ADA law is not people wanting equality but people wanting special treatment. I'm always baffled by handicapped parking, I can understand having some spaces wider to insure a wheelchair can be moved easily near the car; that makes sense. But if every parking spot in your parking lot were extra wide affording the ability to get a wheelchair in and out easily why require handicap parking at all, that would truly be equal treatment of everyone. I know some people will say but some people can't walk very far... which may be true, but if you can't walk very far why would you be going to places like malls where you are going to have to walk a long way no matter where you parked. Why not allow places to scatter handicapped parking all over the place some places near the entrance some far far away and some in the middle, wouldn't that insure that the person using that special parking place was being treated equally and being given preferential treatment? In the end everyone wants to be treated better than the next guy, and in the US a lot of people have found that the weapon to get that special treatment is the ADA.

 

[thomas998]

Intresting.

You bring up a very good point but perhaps not the way you intend.

What you describe is what most people do with fast passes in general: it’s saving your place in line while riding something else. But the question I have is the pass unlimited? I’ve read through the thread and it appears it is subject to the time of the fastpass line.

Because if so I imagine there will be lots more special needs in the Park should this suit win. The ironic thing (not saying you) will be this will have an unintended consequence of the capacity to meet this need become diminished.

If it is unlimited then what you now have is a new unlimited fastpass you no longer have to book days or weeks in advance and once the word gets out about it I can assure you that their will be lots of people using it that have absolutely no need whatsoever for it just as DL used to have a problem with people gaming their old system for handicapped people. If I'm not mistaken at one time you actually had people paying people in wheelchairs to go DL with them just so they could avoid any lines... just wait eventually this will happen at WDW and you'll end up with longer lines in the fastpass from people claiming someone is autistic and can't wait in line.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Cute analogy, but it doesn't translate to reality. We're not talking about the best way to distribute three boxes. We're talking about forcing the baseball stadium to manufacture hydraulic lifts that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. There's no box in the world that Disney can stack high enough to make an autistic person non-autistic.

The issue is not whether an accommodation is fair to those who don't have a disability. Fairness has nothing to do with it. The issue is whether the accommodation is a reasonable burden to impose on the business. The relevant parties here are Disney and disabled guests. The issue has nothing to do with the non-disabled guests.

There's also a sweet irony in that meme. If any of the three freeloaders had paid for an actual ticket to the game, they'd be inside the stadium with a perfect view rather than trying to sneak a free look over the fence.

 

[jaklgreen]

Because what you generally have with a large percentage of people using the ADA law is not people wanting equality but people wanting special treatment. I'm always baffled by handicapped parking, I can understand having some spaces wider to insure a wheelchair can be moved easily near the car; that makes sense. But if every parking spot in your parking lot were extra wide affording the ability to get a wheelchair in and out easily why require handicap parking at all, that would truly be equal treatment of everyone. I know some people will say but some people can't walk very far... which may be true, but if you can't walk very far why would you be going to places like malls where you are going to have to walk a long way no matter where you parked. Why not allow places to scatter handicapped parking all over the place some places near the entrance some far far away and some in the middle, wouldn't that insure that the person using that special parking place was being treated equally and being given preferential treatment? In the end everyone wants to be treated better than the next guy, and in the US a lot of people have found that the weapon to get that special treatment is the ADA.

I always thought it was funny to have handicapped parking spots at an amusement park/zoo/etc. Someplace that you are going to be walking a significant amount, but you need to park a few yards closer? Does not make sense. The only thing I can see being a necessity is for wheelchairs to have larger spaces.

 

[Figgy1]

View attachment 305435

Welcome @Almac97 and for once my older brother from another mother @Mr Ferret 88 is quite correct Bravo

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Why is this only about the parks? Seems to me there are plenty of other lines that are apparently okay to wait in. I don't see a mention of a 15 minute guarantee for lines at security check points, or buses, or monorails - or lines to check in for ADR's, waiting for table availability for TS, lines for Kiosks at an EPCOT festival, lines for concerts at America Gardens Theater, lines at the ticket windows (for those that use them), lines at guest relations, lines for resort boats, lines for ferry boats, lines for non-FP Character Meet and Greets......

Oh right...because all of those aren't rides. The concern is with the rides. Got it.

 

[Figgy1]

We practice security before every trip and get to it before the crowds form and then find a place at the front turnstiles so the line is behind us and my ds doesn't get bumped around.. The CMs up front do a great job of entertaining as do electronic devices. We eat at off times to avoid crowds. We've also waited just as long as the line in quiet places as in backstage by the garbage. Not a fun or magical place but quiet. That was with the old system. As for those that say with the card you don't have to plan most people with family members on the spectrum actually do twice as much planning to avoid problems both to their families and those bothered when somebody acts differently. Edit I forgot to mention the 16 hour drive to avoid the mess that's TSA

 

[Willmark]

If it is unlimited then what you now have is a new unlimited fastpass you no longer have to book days or weeks in advance and once the word gets out about it I can assure you that their will be lots of people using it that have absolutely no need whatsoever for it just as DL used to have a problem with people gaming their old system for handicapped people. If I'm not mistaken at one time you actually had people paying people in wheelchairs to go DL with them just so they could avoid any lines... just wait eventually this will happen at WDW and you'll end up with longer lines in the fastpass from people claiming someone is autistic and can't wait in line.

Yeah that’s kind of my point there are a number of unintended effects that I can see here.

Because you can’t ask about status this simply means you go get a card. Once significant number of people start doing this the fast pass line becomes just another standby line because of the increase in capacity.

It’s really a number of issues that are starting to bite Disney. This could be absorbed if Disney has excess capacity but now with a potential way to fame the system?

In all this is general musings on my part. How it’s set up seems to make sense to me. What the lawsuit wants, ie unlimited access with no waiting? Ummm everyone wants that.