Hi folks,
I want to share a terrible experience I had recently at Disneyland by way of posting part of the letter I'm sending to Disney Guest Relations. If I get a response, I'll be sure to update this thread. Comments not in my letter are in square brackets [].
------
Dear Disney Guest Services:
I am writing to express my great sadness and dissatisfaction with the way my family and I were treated during our visit to Disneyland and California Adventure on Christmas 2014. A month earlier, I had proposed to my then-girlfriend, a lifelong Disney fanatic, at EPCOT in Orlando. It went without a hitch, so we decided to take my parents to Disneyland to celebrate. We were a little concerned because my mother, her husband, and I are all disabled, but while at WDW I had been able to get a Disability Access Service card which enabled our visit to go smoothly, and I had been told that I simply needed to bring the card to Guest Services at Disneyland to have it reissued for that park.
We arrived around noon at the main Guest Services location in California Adventure. We would have come earlier, but one of my disabilities made it impossible for me to arrive in the morning. My other disability is a bad back that prevents me from standing or sitting still for extended periods, so after waiting in line for 45 minutes I was already in pain and taking breaks to sit on a nearby ledge while my family held my place. When we entered the building, we were pulled aside by a Cast Member who asked what we needed.
I showed my DAS card to the Cast Member and explained that because of my back, I needed accommodation so that I could freely move around the park while waiting for my chance to board the rides. At this point, I was informed that Disney had changed its policy since I had visited WDW just a month earlier and would no longer provide accommodation. And that, moreover, accommodations would not be necessary as Disneyland was fully ADA compliant. I explained that my problem was not limited mobility, but rather a need to stay moving rather than stand in line. The Cast Member again repeated that Disney would not provide any accommodations for me and explained that I could use the FastPass system or wait on a bench while my family remained in line. I told her that I had not paid $600 to bring my family to Disneyland so that I could sit apart from them all day while they waited on line and reminded her that all the FastPasses had likely already been issued for the day for the popular rides. And even if I had been willing to sit on a bench for the day, there would be no viable way for me to know when theyd reached the front of the queue to rejoin them as the park was packed with guests.
The cast member then asked if I had brought a wheelchair, cane, or walker. I said that I had not as I do not require one, and she began to lecture me about personal responsibility--telling me that if I had difficulty standing I should get a wheelchair [as a side note to anyone who agrees with this, sitting in a wheelchair would certainly have made my situation worse--my back does not respond well to that sort of thing]. I was aghast and my fiancée broke down in tears at how offensively we were being treated. Unfortunately, I was too dumbstruck to take down the name of the CM with whom we were speaking. When I asked for a supervisor, I was introduced to someone named [redacted]. He reiterated the same policy, stating that Disney had no accommodations that they could make for my back problems, and he asked if I had any other disabilities that would cause me difficulty at the parks. I explained that my family and I have a number of different disabilities and asked what kinds of accommodations he was allowed to make if Disney was no longer offering their Disability Access Service. [redacted] replied that he could not answer hypothetical questions. I was not asking a hypothetical question, though--I was asking an entirely concrete question about available services for guests with disabilities. I was not comfortable listing all of my familys medical conditions to the CM and I was extremely frustrated with his refusal to answer any of my questions other than to tell me he could not help me, so I asked to speak to his supervisor. He told me that he would have the Guest Relations Manager brought over from the other park; and I went to wait outside where I could sit down.
While waiting, I found a page on the Disney website explaining how the DAS system works and stating that Disney Parks goal is to accommodate guests who arent able to wait in a conventional queue environment due to a disability (including non-apparent disabilities). ([Link removed since I don't meet the minimum post count, but you can easily find it by looking for the "Disney Parks Disability Access Service Card Fact Sheet" on the disney blogs site])
That described my situation perfectly. After another fifteen minutes or so, a woman named [redacted] came over to us, and I explained the situation again and showed her the website. She told us that the webpage did not apply to the Disneyland Parks because they were ADA compliant. She agreed only to give us a couple FastPasses to make up for the hour and a half wed spent at Guest Services.
At this point, we gave up and located my mother and her husband. She had had an experience that was both depressingly similar and disturbingly different. When she had explained her own disabilities to the CMs, they had told her the same thing they told me--that there was nothing they could do. But when she told them that her husband had autism, they were suddenly more than willing to provide exactly the accommodations we had been requesting. It was only because of this that we were able to enjoy the parks, and that was only after wed spent another hour calming down from our miserable treatment.
From the sound of it, it appears that some disabilities are given preferential treatment by Disney Parks. This discriminatory treatment is reprehensible and disappointing. Being made to feel ashamed and guilty for requesting assistance is not what we expected from a company built on exceptional customer service. My fiancée and I had hoped to celebrate many anniversaries together at Disney parks, and we are very disappointed to think that that may no longer be possible given my needs.
I want to share a terrible experience I had recently at Disneyland by way of posting part of the letter I'm sending to Disney Guest Relations. If I get a response, I'll be sure to update this thread. Comments not in my letter are in square brackets [].
------
Dear Disney Guest Services:
I am writing to express my great sadness and dissatisfaction with the way my family and I were treated during our visit to Disneyland and California Adventure on Christmas 2014. A month earlier, I had proposed to my then-girlfriend, a lifelong Disney fanatic, at EPCOT in Orlando. It went without a hitch, so we decided to take my parents to Disneyland to celebrate. We were a little concerned because my mother, her husband, and I are all disabled, but while at WDW I had been able to get a Disability Access Service card which enabled our visit to go smoothly, and I had been told that I simply needed to bring the card to Guest Services at Disneyland to have it reissued for that park.
We arrived around noon at the main Guest Services location in California Adventure. We would have come earlier, but one of my disabilities made it impossible for me to arrive in the morning. My other disability is a bad back that prevents me from standing or sitting still for extended periods, so after waiting in line for 45 minutes I was already in pain and taking breaks to sit on a nearby ledge while my family held my place. When we entered the building, we were pulled aside by a Cast Member who asked what we needed.
I showed my DAS card to the Cast Member and explained that because of my back, I needed accommodation so that I could freely move around the park while waiting for my chance to board the rides. At this point, I was informed that Disney had changed its policy since I had visited WDW just a month earlier and would no longer provide accommodation. And that, moreover, accommodations would not be necessary as Disneyland was fully ADA compliant. I explained that my problem was not limited mobility, but rather a need to stay moving rather than stand in line. The Cast Member again repeated that Disney would not provide any accommodations for me and explained that I could use the FastPass system or wait on a bench while my family remained in line. I told her that I had not paid $600 to bring my family to Disneyland so that I could sit apart from them all day while they waited on line and reminded her that all the FastPasses had likely already been issued for the day for the popular rides. And even if I had been willing to sit on a bench for the day, there would be no viable way for me to know when theyd reached the front of the queue to rejoin them as the park was packed with guests.
The cast member then asked if I had brought a wheelchair, cane, or walker. I said that I had not as I do not require one, and she began to lecture me about personal responsibility--telling me that if I had difficulty standing I should get a wheelchair [as a side note to anyone who agrees with this, sitting in a wheelchair would certainly have made my situation worse--my back does not respond well to that sort of thing]. I was aghast and my fiancée broke down in tears at how offensively we were being treated. Unfortunately, I was too dumbstruck to take down the name of the CM with whom we were speaking. When I asked for a supervisor, I was introduced to someone named [redacted]. He reiterated the same policy, stating that Disney had no accommodations that they could make for my back problems, and he asked if I had any other disabilities that would cause me difficulty at the parks. I explained that my family and I have a number of different disabilities and asked what kinds of accommodations he was allowed to make if Disney was no longer offering their Disability Access Service. [redacted] replied that he could not answer hypothetical questions. I was not asking a hypothetical question, though--I was asking an entirely concrete question about available services for guests with disabilities. I was not comfortable listing all of my familys medical conditions to the CM and I was extremely frustrated with his refusal to answer any of my questions other than to tell me he could not help me, so I asked to speak to his supervisor. He told me that he would have the Guest Relations Manager brought over from the other park; and I went to wait outside where I could sit down.
While waiting, I found a page on the Disney website explaining how the DAS system works and stating that Disney Parks goal is to accommodate guests who arent able to wait in a conventional queue environment due to a disability (including non-apparent disabilities). ([Link removed since I don't meet the minimum post count, but you can easily find it by looking for the "Disney Parks Disability Access Service Card Fact Sheet" on the disney blogs site])
That described my situation perfectly. After another fifteen minutes or so, a woman named [redacted] came over to us, and I explained the situation again and showed her the website. She told us that the webpage did not apply to the Disneyland Parks because they were ADA compliant. She agreed only to give us a couple FastPasses to make up for the hour and a half wed spent at Guest Services.
At this point, we gave up and located my mother and her husband. She had had an experience that was both depressingly similar and disturbingly different. When she had explained her own disabilities to the CMs, they had told her the same thing they told me--that there was nothing they could do. But when she told them that her husband had autism, they were suddenly more than willing to provide exactly the accommodations we had been requesting. It was only because of this that we were able to enjoy the parks, and that was only after wed spent another hour calming down from our miserable treatment.
From the sound of it, it appears that some disabilities are given preferential treatment by Disney Parks. This discriminatory treatment is reprehensible and disappointing. Being made to feel ashamed and guilty for requesting assistance is not what we expected from a company built on exceptional customer service. My fiancée and I had hoped to celebrate many anniversaries together at Disney parks, and we are very disappointed to think that that may no longer be possible given my needs.