Too many cheaters — that’s the reason Disneyland and Walt Disney World cited for a new rule prohibiting the disabled from jumping place in ride lines.
Currently, theme-park visitors with some sort of physical disability or special need are allowed to cut the lines or gain backdoor access to reduce their wait times. But that policy has proven “problematic,” a park spokesman said, in The Daily Mail.
And now the new plan is for those with disabilities to obtain a ticket that gives them an estimated time to return to the ride — a best-guess on when the line will have moved along a bit. Still, for some with significant disabilities, this new restaurant-type reservation system could prove burdensome.
Rebecca Goddard, who takes her autistic sons, age 4 and 6, to the local Disneyland park on a weekly basis, says the change in policy will still make it tough for her boys to wait.
“My boys don’t have the cognition to understand why it’s going to be a long wait,” she said, in the Orange County Register. “There are so few things for my boys that bring them utter joy and happiness — to mess with it just makes me sad.”
Disney theme park officials said they’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of disabled “tour guides” who actually profit off the line-cutting system by charging hundreds of dollars to save places for those without disabilities.
“We wanted to curb some of the abuse of this system,” said Disneyland Resort spokeswoman Suzi Brown, in the Orange County Register report.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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