Wheelchair Volleyball

My sister broke her growth plate yesterday in a freak volleyball accident, the sadest part is that we leave wednesday morning for Disney Land. We're really worried about having a wheelchair and navigating it, plus the lines, and how she can't get her cast wet. She's extremely embarrassed about the whole situation (she's a very hormonal 11 year old) and I want to make her as comfortable as possible. Can anyone help?

One of my friends is permanently wheelchair bound and we've gone to a couple theme parks together. You will get to ride more rides, skip the lines, and you should get the option of riding everything twice in a row.

They do the twice thing because it's usually pretty inconvenient to get out of a wheelchair and into whatever seating contraption the ride has, so the parks let you ride twice to cut down on the in-and-out parts.

Of course friends get to go along with the wheelchair bound person (in reasonable number) so you'll all get the perks.

That said, she'll probably be pretty embarrassed by the whole thing, because people really do stare. For most rides you'll have a separate entrance to go through (usually marked with the blue wheelchair symbol you see on parking permits) and you may be loosely followed by park attendees.

That last part sounds weird, I know, but I think it's because only so many attendees are up to date on ADA guidelines, that often they will sort of keep an eye on you to make sure everything is handled by the book. (Plus sometimes there are special elevators and whatnot to be unlocked to get the wheelchair to the ride platform.)

The last theme park I went to with my wheelchair bound friend we could actually hear them identifying our locations and probably next rides over walkie talkies as we walked around, so that could be embarrassing for her.

All in all though, you will get to ride more and you'll all spend less time standing in line, so it's not the worst thing. Just focus on the good side. And if anybody asks why she's in the wheelchair, tell them it was a bar fight or a horrible kitchen accident that she doesn't like to talk about.

2009-05-23 16:02:35 by moonlightqueen

Enjoy!