Tarkblog

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of Disneyworld.

Now, I’m not a big Disney fan in general. I don’t watch Disney movies nor do I own any related merchandise. But, I simply like going to DW on vacation because it’s all inclusive, it’s very relaxing, and the people there are very nice. And there’s lots of fun stuff to do.

In order to stay fresh on all things DW, I frequent a certain DW related forum on the internet. Mostly, I just look and see what people are posting such as trip reports, questions they may have about upcoming trips, and the like. It’s also a good place to find out about what’s new and what’s coming up for future vacations. I rarely ever make a post.

This weekend someone started a thread relating things that people do on your vacation at a theme park that make you upset. The original poster talked about how they hate listening to other people’s conversations when they’re standing near each other, especially when that other person is telling a group of people facts about DW that aren’t true. I don’t think that would frustrate me in the least, but to each their own I guess.

I had to chime in. The one thing that frustrates me the most is when parties that include someone in a wheelchair push their way to the front of the lines. Now, some of the older attractions have lines that weren’t designed for wheelchairs. In these places, the wheelchair people (and their parties) typically go up the exit ramp and board from the exit side of the ride. In other words, they basically get to go to the front of the line. This does not bother me. I could care less. It doesn’t really slow the line down at all.

What I was talking about was the lines that were designed WIDE to accomodate wheelchairs. In certain instances, I’ve been in these lines and people in wheelchairs and their groups push their way through everyone else trying to get to the front faster. This isn’t how it works. In these cases, all of them wait in line with everyone else. It was designed that way. And I wrote about how that was one thing that frustrated me.

I received a bit of negative reply to that, basically saying that I’m insensitive to people’s need in wheelchairs. Whatever. I didn’t respond to the comments that said I was being negative (which I wasn’t, mind you. Simply stating that these people weren’t entitled to special treatment in this case.)

However, my reply spawned another thread by someone else. This person was mad about how the bus service was handled. See, at DW they have free bus transportation to and from the hotels and parks (at least, the ones that don’t already have some other form of transportation in place like the Monorail or a Boat Launch). All Disney busses are able to accomodate a person in a wheelchair. In order to do this, the driver gets off and runs a small lift to get the person in the chair onto the bus.

The problem this person had wasn’t with the person in the wheelchair, but with their group. You see, sometimes a large family will take their grandmother, so a group of 10 people includes one person in a wheelchair. So while 50 or so people are standing in line waiting for the bus, when it arrives the person in the wheelchair gets to go on first (mainly due to safety reasons), then their whole party gets on, then everyone else in line. Even if everyone else in line had been waiting considerably longer. That’s what made this particular person upset.

There were lots of replies. Some people suggested that large parties like this should be split up in this instance. Other people wrote about how the first group of people were insensitive. “People in wheelchairs would much rather trade places with you and be able to walk”.

Well, I’ve never cared that someone in a wheelchair got on the bus before me. The busses come often enough. I didn’t get into that debate.

However, I did post a reply about how people who rent the electric wheelchairs at the park, but who have never used them before, are a bit while when they drive around. I also wrote about how I saw a one legged man walking around with just a crutch (no wheelchair) and how it was inspiring to see that when I saw plenty of people scooting around in electric chairs that looked like they were just avoiding having to walk such long distances.

Someone made a nasty reply to me about how they had to use an ECV (a fancy acronym for an electric wheelchair) and at casual glance you’d never be able to tell why. Then a moderator promptly closed the forum.

Why is any of this interesting? It’s not, really. I certainly have nothing against people in wheelchairs nor did I say anything that would be the least bit offensive to someone in that condition. But, certainly a lot of people took it that way. And that is very sad. It’s sad that very mildly venting frustrations in a thread about venting frustrations caused a lot of people to be on one side or another of a seemingly very unimportant issue.

If they hadn’t closed the thread, I probably would have written something like this:

“I think all of you need to stop caring the least about any of this. You’re on vacation. Enjoy yourself. Why do need to worry the least bit about someone else’s group?”

But after that bit of heresy, I probably would have been permanently banned from the forum.

Oh Disneyworld people. You’re so sensitive.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 6:41 am and is filed under Random Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.