Last March I tried to ride Pirates at MK and the two CM's standing outside of the entrance said I could not bring my manual wheelchair into the queue, that I had to park it at stroller parking and walk the entire queue. Regardless of what else has been posted here and what is on the WDW site, this is what happened to me. I was shocked and disappointed. (I am hoping that my second spinal surgery scheduled for Feb 2012 will fix me up and I won't need a wheelchair anymore, I really love Pirates!!!)
Those CM's needed retraining, because if I as a
ECV user, wants to ride Pirates, I have to transfer to one of their wheelchairs. If you run into that problem again, ask for a supervisor immediately.
I have a feeling there may have been a misunderstanding.
Guests using
ECvs need to transfer to an attraction wheelchair. Guests using their own wheelchair are also asked to transfer to an attraction wheelchair.
I dont know why they did not offer the poster above one of the attraction wheelchairs, but it may have been a misunderstanding on the CMs part, thinking that the guest was OK with walking.
I know some guests have been confused and thought the CM wanted them to walk because it doesnt make much sense to most guests to transfer from one manual wheelchair to another.
So, if you are asked to park the wheelchair, make it clear that you cant walk in the line.
The reason they want guests to leave their personal wheelchair with the strollers is that it is difficult and time consuming to get a wheelchair from the boarding area to the unload area. The unload area is actually in a different building and one level down compared to the boarding area. If someone is using an attraction wheelchair, it doesnt matter how long it takes to get that wheelchair to the unload area because there will be another attraction wheelchair waiting there that the guest can use to leave.
If a guest uses their own wheelchair to the boarding area, the CMs have to get
that particular wheelchair to the unload area before the guest gets there. In the past, that has sometimes been a challenge and a few people have posted that they arrived at unload before their own wheelchair arrived.
That is why they want guests to park their wheelchairs with the strollers and use an attraction wheelchair if they cant walk.
When we go to Pirates, the CMs do always ask us to park DDs wheelchair and transfer her to an attraction wheelchair.
We explain that she cant sit in one of the attraction wheelchairs and we have always been allowed to bring her wheelchair into line. It usually takes a call to make sure they have staff available to bring her wheelchair to unload. We were told once to come back at a certain time, but we usually only have to wait a few minutes or them to work it out. We have never been denied bringing her own wheelchair into the line.
Except for one time when a CM was wheeling it in when our boat arrived at the unload area, her own wheelchair has always been waiting for us when we arrived.
