We are taking my wife’s aunt to Disneyland in a couple of weeks and she has rheumatoid arthritis. She is fully ambulatory but long waits on her feet could cause discomfort and pain.
We will have Genie+ but I don’t believe she qualifies for DAS. My question is - is it worth getting the Mobility access pass? Which attractions does that apply to? My understanding is that it is only applicable to lines that are not wheelchair accessible, but I’ve never had to worry about making note of that before.
They would not board us through the exit (wheelchair entrance) for SM last week and required we leave the wheelchair at the entrance. Maybe because we told them my nephew could walk or be carried for the line? I was surprised.
CMs when they have to tell you no are the worst. We talked with a CM on video chat last night to try to get my wife’s aunt set up with DAS and it was like a dystopian novel the way she answered our questions *just so, * being careful not to give any wiggle room for us to think we qualified for DAS and making the mobility access sound so wonderful. I think if we had focused on the diabetes aspect of her health issues we would have been successful.
I hate having to be careful every word I use to make sure I don’t shut the door in my face. Same thing when we tried to use a second Boarding Group at Remy in October. The system gave us two BGs and the CM told us we could only ride once. If I had phrased a few things differently, I think I could have gotten away with it. But I admitted a few things that allowed the CM to say no. I replay that conversation in my mind all the time and it is annoying af.
Please report back on how it goes. My oldest daughter is graduating college in April in SoCal and we are trying to convince her dad to spend a day at DL with us. He is waiting on knee replacement surgery, so walking around is a no go for him. If we go we will try to rent a scooter from Disney for the day. Did they say you could set up Mobility Access ahead of time? Or just DAS?
Nothing ahead of time for mobility. Your wheelchair is your access indicator. If you have a cane or stroller as a mobility aid, you can go to Guest Services and they will give a you red flag to indicate it is for mobility.
Interesting that you have this situation, because I have RA and have been trying to figure out navigating it.
I was considering approaching it from a medication/fatigue perspective. For instance, the most common treatment for RA is a low-dose chemo therapy taken weekly (methotrexate). Unfortunately, we will be at the park on my weekly methotrexate day, so I planned to take that day as a break… generally I feel like garbage that day anyway. But I wondered if they would make accommodations for the following two days because I’ll likely need a nap both days. If they won’t, I’m prepared to take the break anyway and miss the park time.
I would be prepared for them to say no to DAS, but explain the full details of the situation and see what they say. Mobility access should help in some rides as @Julianne_fki noted so it would be worth doing that at least. I would also recommend getting LL and ILLs if it’s in the budget to supplement what you can’t get on with Mobility Access.