I'd like to take that comment and pose it more respectfully to those who have autism or family with autism. (I have a nephew I was told was "on the spectrum" at a young age, but he lives in another state and there was some debate as to whether he actually had autism or not. My brother doesn't talk about it. I haven't asked.)
So, is waiting at the doctor's office different...because it's a different kind of experience? In other words, nobody is excited to get into the doctor's office, so it's not the same as waiting to go on Haunted Mansion? Serious question, not challenging anything, just don't know and would like to understand.
And waiting for the bathroom - first of all, how often does one really have to do that? I've rarely encountered lines at a bathroom except at a club on Saturday night (not ever at WDW) and obviously a bathroom line will never be as long as standby at Peter Pan, so is it something easier to just "get through" if you come across it?
I'd like to have answers ready for someone who might ask those questions in a flippant manner.
Your questions are pretty good ones, I'd like to answer them.
At least for me, things like waiting at a doctor's office are actually extremely different. For one thing, there's not that rush of jittery adrenaline of "I'm doing something that is loud and outside and potentially frightening", since doctor's offices are typically designed to be calming... or at least not necessarily agitating.
For another, typically in a doctor's office, everyone is seated. Sitting is easier for me, at least mentally, than standing when waiting because I can focus
all of my attention on whatever is in my hands. Standing, especially in a crowd or line, I have to keep looking around to make sure I'm not missing anything.
For a third, lines at Disney, even with a Fastpass (the 'interior' lines, like at the Tower and the Rock'n'Roller Coaster), are extremely crowded. They're noisy, they're hot, they're sweaty, they're
just sitting there. Half the time, everyone is as close as they can be without touching, in my experience. Sweat feels rough and wet to me, it's a very unpleasant feeling, and in the Florida heat, it's a constant. The constant droning of conversations gives me a headache, occasionally abated by conversing with people around me but only if they're in a conversing mood and speak English (about 30% of the time they don't). I can't hold onto my own comfort stuffed animal to focus on it because I'll generally miss the line moving, and people don't usually understand that it's a comfort item (plus, there are a lot of children at Disney, and small children like grabbing things, so I tend to just leave it in the bag).
Waiting for the bathroom isn't a problem for me specifically, since it's really kind of a break from the hecticness (is that a word?) of Disney. Granted, unmitigated disaster is right... women do typically have longer bathroom lines than men... but for me those lines aren't too bad, again because it's kind of a break.
If you've got any other questions, I'd be glad to answer!
Also, some other notes:
- Playing on my phone does help, but I've noticed that it likes to die more quickly in the Florida sun than when I'm indoors. And a lot of ride queues wind through outdoor areas. So that's not always a viable option.
- Having already gone on something helps a lot because then I already know what I'm going to expect, so the anticipation doesn't get to me as much.
- If it's short enough, I can actually go through most regular lines (though I wish more rides, like the Tower, had single rider queues).
- Single rider queues work wonders for me specifically because generally, though they can be as long as a regular one, they're a lot faster and I can occasionally just get right through and into the pre-show (or even skip the pre-show entirely, if there is one).
- Problems, for me, start to arise when I'm stuck in a crowd of people for more than 30 minutes. I can generally deal with the issues until 45 minutes, but around an hour is when it gets iffy and I start to panic. I can't wait in a ride line if it's longer than an hour to get on, so I have to use my DAS for those. And with the DAS, if the wait is an hour or more, I tend to start having stomach issues and needing to get some food in my system to calm it down.
- To be honest, I tend to do much better at Universal than I do at Disney. Love Disney to death, but Universal has more single-rider lines, most of the lines I tend to use are primarily inside and AC'd (MIB, Escape from Gringotts, Transformers for the single rider line, Race Through New York, Revenge of the Mummy) and the ones that aren't have overhangs and lots of small industrial fans to keep cool, and tbh the quick-service food is so much better at Universal than at Disney (they need to step their game up there).
- It's easier to converse with people in lines if I know a lot of trivia about the rides (like all the Tower trivia I memorized to keep myself calm that first time I went on the Tower (evil tower u r doomed)), though I typically let them know that I get jittery and need to talk in lines to keep calm as well.
- Related and surprisingly, it's easier for me to talk to random strangers in ride lines than it is for me to talk to people I know.
Not all of us are like this, but these are my experiences. I have other stuff I can say about the topic, but I've already made this post way longer than I intended to.
