Mini Trip Report: My first visit to Tokyo Disneyland.....in a wheelchair!

[tinibee]

Ok, its not my FIRST visit to Tokyo Disneyland, but it was the first time I've ever used a wheelchair there!

I broke my foot a couple of weeks ago when visiting an onsen (Hakone Kowakien Yunessun - great place!). I was put in a cast up to my knee and given crutches to get around. Would this stop me from going to Tokyo Disneyland for the Fourth of July? Heck no, but it did make for a different experience which I thought I would share.

We tried to get there a bit early so we could park in the garage where we scored a sweet spot on the second floor. As we exited the parking structure and I was crutching my way to the bag inspection checkpoint, we were stopped by a cast member who told us that we could move our car to the handicap parking, even though we don't have a handicap parking sticker. My husband exited the parking garage then came back through. I guess he was told to make the motion of rolling a wheelchair which signified that he could park in the handicap section, but I guess it works! I thought we had a sweet spot in the garage, but I think the handicap parking is the closest we will ever be to the park. You get out of the car in about a 1 minute walk (I mean, if you are actually walking, not crutching) and you are at the gates.

We wanted to get to the park before it opened so we would have time to figure out wheelchair rental. The lines were still pretty long at the gates as the park had not quite opened yet. We went to ask a cast member where to find the wheelchair rental. She kindly asked us to follow her. She proceeded to lead us the furthest right gate, where they had an entrance with no line. She directed me to go through that entrance and then to the right to rent a wheelchair. They scanned our passes and were in the park!

We got to the stroller/wheelchair rental where the kind cast member told me I could sit down while my husband rented the wheelchair. Three hundred yen and a few minutes later we were the proud renters of a TDL wheelchair. They have a variety of types of wheelchairs including motorized as well as the scooters. There was even a small tray on the back for me to rest my crutch tips on with a Velcro loop so that they could be held against the chair. Brilliant!

Every visit needs at least one silly picture, right?

They gave us a "Guest Assistance Card" and instructed us that you take it to the cast member at the standby entrance of the rides. The cast member will give you a time to return (not a window, but an actual time you need to come back) and write it on the card. We decided to give it a shot at Star Tours. It took about 5 minutes to get a time assigned from the cast member. There were other parties with the card as well. I never really noticed people in wheelchairs at TDL before, but now I was acutely aware and noticing several people in them, but I was the only unlucky sucker in a cast. Come to think of it, I've never seen anyone in a cast in the past year that I've been in Japan.

We returned later for our assigned Star Tours time. They put a check mark on my card to show I had arrived for my time. We were then led by a cast member to the far left side of the line for the ride where there was a small side door that we entered. I had no idea there was a door there. We were led to a small elevator where we went to the second floor of the ride that put us at the front of the line and got assigned to our Star Tours ship. They pushed my wheelchair all the way to the first row seats of the ride so I could just hop out of the chair and into the ride seat. It was a great ride as always and we finally we didn't go to the Wookie planet (that we ALWAYS get), instead greatly enjoying our Star Tours trip to Hoth. At the end of the ride, they brought the wheelchair all the way to my seat so I could hop back in and go out the way we came. Sweet!

My husband decided to pick up a regular fast pass for Buzz then we headed over to Pooh's Hunny Hunt and got our next assigned time. We had a little time to kill and the Tanabata Greeting Parade was about to start so we thought we would go see it until our ride time. Because I was in the wheelchair we were able to use one of their wheelchair viewing sections for the parade. There were only a few other wheelchairs/scooters there so I was pretty much in the front. Several of the parade characters often came by the wheelchair section to shake our hands and say hi. I've never experienced that in any Disney parade I've been to. I took pictures of the parade and for a change I didn't have the back of anyone's head in my pics. It was pretty darn cool.

Ok - this actually my husband's picture, hence the heads, but the ones I took with my phone were pretty back-of-the-head free!

We went back to the Pooh ride, but it was down. The cast member said we could come back at anytime to ride. So we left to go cash in our Buzz fast passes. The CM at Buzz asked if I could walk and said they could slow down the speedwalk onto the ride for me. I can only walk with the assistance of crutches, so they let me take the crutches on the ride! I really didn't expect that. The cast members and service at TDL is always great, but this was above and beyond anything I had experienced there.

We went to Grandma Sara's Kitchen for lunch. Its quite a hill to push someone up in a wheel chair. Most of the seating is downstairs, but they have an elevator. It was pretty busy so we thought we'd better stake out a table first. Nothing is worse than getting your food and then not being able to find a table. A cast member saw us looking for a table and directed us to one and even removed a chair from the table so the wheelchair would fit. The exit from the restaurant was much flatter which was great because I was secretly worried about rolling out of control down the bear country hill. Panic averted.

After a great lunch we headed over to Haunted Mansion and got our assigned time. They led us to the exit of the ride and into a small hallway. The hallway was even decorated to go with the haunted mansion theme. The attention to detail at this park just blows me away. The hallway was right next to the waiting room to the elevators. We could hear the motor for the elevator humming while we waited. They then put on first and by the exit door so would we be first off the elevator. The TDL haunted mansion is a little chaotic when you get off the elevator because the line almost immediately squishes down from the size of the elevator doors to a single file line pretty quickly. I wasn't sure how we were going to get through it in a wheelchair, when a cast member led us to the outside of the line to the loading area for the ride. They stopped the speedwalk so I could crutch my way into the doombuggy and then stopped it again when I exited the ride. I had heard that TDL wasn't the most wheelchair friendly park, but it was surprisingly easy for this ride.

Phew! We were only there for a day, but I still have a bit more to share! I'll have to write the rest this mini TR later.

In part two - the ride that isn't wheelchair/foot in a cast friendly.....

 

[KPeveler]

Great TR so far. I would love to hear about that third wheelchair option - I know there is a regular manual chair like we have in parks here, a scooter option, but what was the motorized one? I am just curious as I really want to go to Tokyo Disney, but I am in a wheelchair full time. I am just wondering what their options were.

Hope to hear more!

ETA: nevermind - I found out what I was looking for!

 

[tinibee]

The trip continues....
After we exited the haunted mansion it was getting time for the Happiness parade. We returned to the same wheelchair viewing area in Tomorrowland. This time the wheelchair viewing section was much more full. I got there early enough to be in the front row. You can have one person stand with you at the wheelchair and the rest of your party has to stand on the side. There were some convenient benches for my husband and son while my daughter stayed with me. I definitely beat sitting on the ground on a leisure sheet waiting for the parade. Its about a twenty minute parade, but we got a close up view of the amazing floats.

It wasn't an unbearable hot day, but it was still hot enough to go get ice cream. While we sat eating our ice cream we decided to fill out our Tanabata wish cards. The readers digest version of tanabata - it is about two star-crossed lovers who are seperated by the milky way and on July 7th, it is the one day they allowed to be together. People write their wishes on pieces of paper and tie them to bamboo poles in hopes that they come true. Its a really fun time at TDL because many people dress in traditional Japanese-wear. The women look amazing in their beautiful yukatas. They even sell Disney themed yukatas for women and young girls.

We had grabbed some of the Tanabata wish cards earlier in the day. We enjoyed our ice cream and prepared our wishes. The bamboo poles (okay, they aren't exactly bamboo at TDL, but they have to hold a lot of wishes, so its understandable) are located in the smack dab middle of the World Bazaar. There are pieces of twine for you to hang your wishes.

My wish for no more cast!

My daughter's wish that we could have a pet dog or bunny.

Tanabata tree?

Once we had made our Tanabata wishes, we swung by Monsters Inc to get a ride time. Our assigned time was going to be about 90 minutes away so we headed over to Pooh in the meantime. They led us through a side entrance near the exit and came to a hallway near the loading area for the ride. If you riding the Pooh ride and you are about to return to the loading/exiting area, there is a small space to the right that is just large enough to hold one ride car. I watched as a ride car exited to the right into the small private space and unload a guest in a wheelchair. How cool, I've never done that before! And then it was my turn. And I had to crutch to the regular loading area for the ride. No special single ride car loading space for me. Again, they allowed me to take my crutches with me on the ride. When it was over, we came back to the regular load/exit area where they had moved the wheelchair up so it would be right there when I exited.

We swung by Toon Town for my traditional cream cheese pretzel because they are just so darn addicting! My son got some egg and shrimp egg roll that looked okay, but I wasn't interested in eating. The flavors don't quite work with the cream cheese pretzel I was snacking on.

We decided to head back towards the Monsters Inc ride, stopping to take a break next to the Tomorrowland Hall. While we were sitting there, a CM came over to try to tell us something. Out of the few Japanese phrases I have mastered, "Eigo de daijoubu desu ka?" is my favorite/most effective. It basically means, "Is English okay?". I gave him my Japanese phrase, causing him to go find another cast member with better English. This second CM explained that some characters were going to be coming out and that it might get crazy and the line would be near where we were sitting.

My husband and daughter decided to walk over and see who was coming out. Suddenly I notice a mad crowd of people running over yelling "Stitchy!", which is what they call Stitch in Japan. In about 10 seconds flat a huge line formed, heading right to where I was sitting. I quickly rolled out of the way and watched the ensuing madness. Angel was with Stitch so my daughter and husband had run over to get a picture too. I think its an unspoken rule that characters in TDL must have a significant other, contributing to the popularity of Angel, whom I'd never really heard of till I came to Japan. But I digress.

We went back to Monsters Inc. for our assigned time where we were led to a seperate loading area, right before the standard loading area. They have a section where a whole piece of the track with three cars on it shifts to the left for the special loading zone. I'm not describing it very well, but if you have ever seen the track move for special loading at Space Mountain in Anaheim, you know exactly what I mean! We went through the ride and as always I always forget when they are taking pictures so I'm never looking in the right place. When we got off, there was a small photo viewing area just for the special loading zone where we could see our pics!

Where am I looking? I dunno...

We swung by the Popping Pod because we really wanted a new Star Tours popcorn bucket. They had salted or caramel popcorn or mixed. Mixed of course! In a twist, they offered us special seasoning powder, which we've never had before. We got banana and garam masala (curry) flavors. I'm not a big fan of banana which my husband proceeded to dump the whole package into the popcorn, effectively thwarting me from eating his popcorn. But the bucket is still pretty awesome.

We were getting towards the end of our day but decided to try to squeeze in one more ride to cap it off - Pirates of the Caribbean! It was pretty much walk on for the ride so we thought we'd go for it. The cast member instructed us that I would need to walk/crutch in to the ride and leave my wheelchair at the front entrance. Then after the ride we would go out the regular exit (which isn't close at all to the entrance!) and retrieve said wheelchair. What!?! I have been to Anaheim DLR many a time and seen the line of wheelchairs and scooters waiting at the exit of POTC to board the ride as well as retrieve their wheelchairs at the same exit. Oh well, we've come this far, why stop now?

I crutched my way up the ramp to the ride, being quite thankful it wasn't super busy where the queue wraps around forever. Getting in the boat was hard. You have to step down into the boat. With one foot in a cast that you aren't supposed to put weight on, that's pretty difficult. Its an unspoken rule in TDR that when you enter and exit a ride you don't step on the seat. You just take a really big step up or down to enter the ride. In general I like that because I hate riding Splash Mountain and having to sit on someone's wet footprint, but for today's purposes it sucked. So I did exactly what I'm not supposed to do. I stepped down full weight on my cast foot to get into the ride so I could avoid stepping on the seat. In my condition, maybe they wouldn't have minded if I stepped on the seat, but that's not me. So I sucked it up and stepped down all the way. Thankfully it didn't make my foot really hurt, but still, after all the other rides that made it fairly easy, it was kind of a bummer. I still love the pirates ride and had a great time. Exiting was a tad easier because I could lodge my knee on the side of the boat and use the railing to pull myself out. Its a speedwalk uphill to exit the ride which they didn't slow down for me so I took a big breath and hoped I wouldn't bite it as I exited. They have a footprint and a peg leg painted on the speedwalk. I did my best to line up my foot and peg leg crutch before I had to jump off. It dumps you out at gift shops that I waited at while my husband ran to the front of the ride and retrieved the wheelchair.

As we exited the park, returning the wheelchair was relatively easy too. According to the website, if you have permission, you can take the chair out of the park to get to your vehicle. It wasn't necessary for me, but is a nice option.

Some Final thoughts:
All in all, the trip was a success. We didn't try to hard charge it through the park which helped. We also pretty much skipped Westernland. I had heard Big Thunder was not wheelchair friendly not to mention some of the pathways over there are very bumpy! We didn't venture into Bear Country besides having lunch there so I can't attest to how Splash Mountain works. Space Mountain was also closed the day we were there so no report for that ride. We didn't try to go to TDS. I was concerned because its a much hillier park to navigate compared to TDL. I was not comfortable with the idea of using a manual wheelchair there. Using a scooter is an option, but I wouldn't recommend it during busy times at the park as its very difficult to navigate the crowds walking, let alone on a larger scooter. Its not a perfect park for wheelchairs, but based on some places I've seen in Japan that are not wheelchair friendly at all, TDL it not too bad. I think Japan is improving overall in terms of access. One of my friends told me she has taken her parents in wheelchairs on the trains and the staff for the trains were exceptionally nice asking where they were getting off so they couldn't have a wheelchair ramp ready for their exit or in train stations with no elevators, they carried them up the stairs!

I can happily say that TDL exceeded my expectations in making my visit in a wheelchair quite enjoyable. The cast members were really helpful and in a country full of hills and steep staircases, I think TDL did a good job overall making it wheelchair friendly.

Hoping to see you at Tokyo Disneyland!

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

It was really interesting reading your trip report! My friend was in a wheel chair in the spring time due to a leg injury and what you mentioned about the characters and dancers taking the time to make a connection and interact with the people in the wheel chair area was really touching to see especially in the case of young children. So glad to hear you had a great time! Your daughter's wish was really sweet!