Special Assistance Pass

[Debbie2]

As DS is disabled we have made use of this facility on our past trips and it has made our holiday much easier. We are a family of 4.

Friends of our are considering coming with us next year(4 people) and I was wondering if any of you knew what the maximium number of visitors this pass covered. I recall there is a box which the CM circles on the pass as to the number of people it covers. I appreciate it is just for the disabled guest and their family but is there a limit to the'family' number??

I can see us going on holiday together but splitting up all day as my son has autism amongst his many problems.

Thanks

[mrs t]

don't know for sure ,but my cousin and her family went 2 years ago and her dh has a terminal illness, they have six kids and they were all able to ride together, hope this helps.

[candyman]

i have heard some where that it is the guest that needs the pass and 5 others
to be honest i think you may get some bad reactions if you used it for all 8 people some times we got funny looks and there were only 4 of us .
i realise you are all together but you could always get the other family to join the line and keep your DS occupied AWAY from the line until they are near the front and then use the Guest assistance pass to join the line then so you would all get to ride together and hopefully your DS would not be so upset .

another idea is that in most rides the GAP gets you to join the fast pass line so if the other 4 got fast passes you could all return together and you could just show your GAP this way you could use your park tickets to get fast passes for a different ride and give them to the other family and that would make it faster for you to get on to 2 rides that way .
we found that some times the minders with the characters accepted the pass to jump the line in character greetings -but only some and it was usually the older lady minders that did this .

one thing though if waiting in line really upsets your son even using the GAP still needs a fair wait when you join the fast pass line -we found this at Buzz light year, Winnie, and the safari on AK.
even so it was no where near the normal wait .

i think great rides for it were pirates and jungle cruise they were very fast indeed and it was great to use for the lion king show


hope all this helps

Steve

[Catherine]

6 people it can be used for, the reason i know is because there were 6 in our party with my mum and dad. We always used the GAP for all of us. On some rides have alternative entrances making the line much shorter.

[katiemae123]

We used the Special Assistance Pass on our trip in January. There were 6 of us and we used it anytime our special guy was with any of us. I disagree that you should split up at any time. If you are all allowed access with the pass then, by all means, use the pass. If you get strong reactions from anyone around you, imagine the strong reactions you would get should a meltdown occur. Other people do NOT understand the nature of Autism and they automatically assume that our kids are brats or worse. If you are able to skip the long lines and avoid some of the sensory overload of those lines then this is an extremely small perk for the lifetime of difficulties our kids face (as well as ourselves). If I could trade places with any of those in the long lines and have my guy neurotypical, I would wait in the longest line on the hottest day and be glad for the wait... Heck, I'd skip a trip to WDW altogether for that one!!! Go, have a wonderful time, use your SAP and ignore all others. I can tell you that, for the most part, no one knew that you had a pass. Since you use the fast pass lane at most rides they simply thought you had a fast pass. The cast members were great about it.

[Morgan8]

Do you need to be staying On site to get a special Assistance pass?

[candyman]

Do you need to be staying On site to get a special Assistance pass?

no you dont just go to city hall on main street and ask the CM's are really helpfull

steve

[Morgan8]

Thanks Candyman :)

[candyman]

Thanks Candyman :)

yvw

if you go to one of thr other parks first just go to guest relations and they will help you there


it really is a wonderful thing it made our vacation so much better
my DD is normally very quiet but if you stay in one place for a long time she just starts shouting very loud indeed and it can be distressing for all around her and because of the GAP she did not have one bad episode at all

steve

[Catherine]

It worked well for us, we did however have a few hitches one being CM's telling us when we got near disabled exits that we would have to use the regular exit before we even had a chance to get out the pass and explain. The other being when we tried to get a seat to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark show and the CM asked us for our pass we had 2 as we forgot it one day and they stamped something different on the new one. One said something like use disabled entrances and exits and the other special seating. We showed her the one with exit and entrances and explained Connah is blind she was going to move us from the seats until we found the other one, quite bad really i thought.

Connah needs alternative entrance and exits he is registered Blind he also needs seats which give him the maximum view for him to at least see something, disney can have a problem with these issues but i think it will be in the minority

[Morgan8]

I think this will help us out alot :) Thankyou :hug:

[philwalker_wba]

This is the first time Ive heard of this pass. My wife and I were going to Thailand for a luxury holiday, but when she saw the itinerary she decided she couldnt handle all the walking, so decided to spend the money taking the grandchildren to WDW.

Now we know thats lots of walking and she is disabled but no so much that she useds a wheel chair every day. Some days she really should, but her pride wont let her, and the worst thing she can do is stand for a long time, particiularly if she is still or in one of theose long lines at Disney.

She wasnt worried as she thought she would sit out the longer queues and look after the smaller grandchildren when we got to rides with height restrictions.

In the evening when the smaller ones got tired she was going to baby sit them at the hotel on site.

If she brought her disabled badges from the UK will Disney accept that so on her bad days she could benefit from some of the rides she otherwise would not get onto.

We went to Disney in Paris two years ago and she missed out on a lot, but still payed the same prices.

[Whitequeen]

The blue badge is only good for parking in Orlando.
I really would recommend her renting a scooter while in WDW. It's waaaayyyyy bigger than DLParis.
I know it's difficult for your wife to be seen as 'giving in' when using a scooter or wheelchair but I promise, her trip will be so much better if she uses a scooter.
She'll be able to keep up with the kids and transfer to any ride she wants.
Take a doctor's letter with you and show it to Guest Services in any park and they'll mark the card according to what help is needed.

[candyman]

the main thing i see from your mail is that your wife should swallow her pride and rent a wheel chair every day .
i am only 52 but have walking dificulties , not imposible to walk, but hard.
but this year for my 5th visit i decided it has got so bad that i would rent an electric scooter , we were there for 4 weeks and i decided it was not worth doing permanent damage to my legs . it was the best thing i have ever done . i wasable to do things i have never been able to do because they were just too far to walk.and it made the trip more enjoyable for everyone . i rented a scooter off site as it is a long way to the parks from the parking lots and to be honest it was far cheaper.of you want details please PM me .

to answer one of your questions there are special wheel chair entrances to some things , like the lion king show and there are special reserved areas for parades
i am sure it would make your holiday so much better if you hired even if only a normal wheel chair

steve

[philwalker_wba]

Where do you get the scootersand how much do they cost, well be doing ten days.


Thanks for the replies .... Phil

[Whitequeen]

Have a read of our Disibilities section (http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/disab.html) on our main information pages. It'll give you links to renting scooters.

[candyman]

Where do you get the scootersand how much do they cost, well be doing ten days.


Thanks for the replies .... Phil


pm sent