The Dark Side of Disney (17 page)

Magic Kingdom:

Jungle Cruise – You load in at the exit, boarding the boat before it moves to the regular queue. This equates to front-of-line access and usually zero wait time.

Splash Mountain – Wheelchairs take a separate entrance which end at the exit ramp. Then you have to fight against oncoming traffic exiting from the ride, which is particularly risky around the blind corners. But you do get FOL access with no wait.

Walt Disney World Railroad – Has a separate handicapped entrance for the front car of the train, which is extra-wide to accommodate wheelchairs. But since there is only this one seating area, if there are more than a few wheelchairs in line you’ll probably end up waiting longer than the normal line. Either way, there’s little advantage here.

Thunder Mountain – Entrance through the exit queue = FOL! However, Thunder Mountain is extremely jarring and bumpy, so if you’re with someone who is in a wheelchair because of back problems I don’t recommend bringing them on the ride.

The Haunted Mansion – We’ve been through two separate wheelchair entrances here. Both split off before the main queue, by the carriage. One time we were led by a CM part-way into the exit and then through a “Cast Members Only” door on the left that opened straight into the loading area. The other two times we were led all the way through the exit queue to the unloading area and boarded there. Both ways are FOL, no-wait, although the downside is that you skip the “stretching room”, which is a bummer.

Snow White’s Scary Adventure – Entrance through the exit, straight onto the ride, bypassing the queue entirely. Awesome.

Peter Pan’s Flight – Same as “Snow White”. This is a major timesaver.

It’s a Small World – You enter through the exit queue, but only specific boats are wheelchair accessible, and even with a few people in front of you the wait times are significant. Seems like it’s about even with the normal queue.

Space Mountain – Access is via the FastPass entrance. So this ends up being FOL, which kicks ass. Same bumpy/jerky warning as with Thunder Mountain, though.

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – You do board at the unload area, but go through the queue with everyone else. You just get split off at the end. So no FOL.

EPCOT:

Spaceship Earth – Wheelchair access is via the exit. You sign in with a CM, then sit in a little waiting area, and eventually the CM leads you in through the exit. Depending on the crowds this might actually take longer than just going through the regular queue.