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| Picture shows Mickey's Fun Wheel at Disney's California Adventure park. |
Disney used to be famous for allowing blind people to jump to the head of the line. Boy was I keen to experience that with Charlotte! But they have stopped the practice and now blind people have to queue like everyone else.
But Disneyland did give us a few perks when we asked nicely for
them. These all took the form of preferential seating for live shows, of which
we saw three during our four day visit in California.
Here’s what we saw, what we did and how it all worked.
Fantasmic is a nightly show in the Disneyland park. The week
we were there was expected to be a busy week for the show because it was the
first week that annual passholders had re-entry to the park after the summer
high season and Fantasmic had only re-debuted a few weeks ago.
We used our Magic Morning (hotel guest early entry) to queue
for spots at the Frontierland rope drop. This was so we could get Fastpasses
for the 9pm show. Perhaps it wasn’t best use of our first Magic Morning, but we
did go straight to the ticket machines (escorted there by “Cast Members”) and
got our tickets. That’s step one. To get any special accommodations for the
show, make sure you have a Fastpass for that particular viewing.
When we came back for the show, at about 8:20pm, we
approached one of the “Cast Members” (I can’t bring myself to drop the inverted
commas!) who was manning the roped off queuing area. I told them we had someone
in our party with a visual impairment and asked if there was any special
accommodation they might be able to provide. First they confirmed we all had
Fastpasses, then they seemed to get a bit confused about what sort of
accommodation to provide. They are well set up for wheelchairs, but an ambulant
disabled person was a bit perplexing. But they were good about it. I just asked
if there was anywhere that we could stand to watch from closer so that she
would have a shot at seeing the show.
They directed us to the wheelchair queue for the show. For
reference, the main queue is on the dock for the Mark Twain Riverboat, and the
wheelchair queue is just to the left of this, when you are facing the dock. It
feels a bit weird to be standing around with the wheelchair users. It’s times
like these I think we should carry her cane with us. I told Charlotte to “act
more blind” and she told me she was going to act exactly as she always did.
Good girl!
After the rest of the Fastpass audience have gone to their
section, they direct the wheelchair users, and their carers, into a separate
viewing area. The area is to the side of the main stage, but right at the edge
of the water. The wheelchairs line up along the railing and the carers stand
behind them, leaning on another low railing. Disney insist on the space in
between being left open, and are very strict about keeping non-wheelchair users
off the front railing.
Overall, it was a good viewing spot, better than we would
likely have got in the Fastpass section. The girls could see over the heads of
the wheelchair users, and we got to lean / sit on a low railing. This is very
welcome when you are waiting 30+ minutes for the show to start. The side view
was restricted because it was far to the side, but it was nice and close to the
water. We could see Mickey on the island, and the dragon, but the main action
there was too sideways to feel very powerful, and much too far away for
Charlotte to see anything. What we did have a good view of was one of the side
screens. Much of the show is projections of favourite movies on to a screen of
water. They have three of these screens set up, and the wheelchair viewing
section is right in front of one of the side screens. Charlotte could see this
pretty well. Some of the action is on barges that move along in front of the
audience so we had a good view of the barges as they went past. Some of the
best moves performed by those on board are saved for the premium viewers in the
centre, but it was still a good vantage point.
Conclusion: well worth asking for this accommodation at
Fantasmic – for the opportunity to lean on the railing alone!
World of Color
This is the nighttime show at California Adventure park.
With dessert packages selling for $80 each just to have a central seat and a
plastic box of sponge cake and grapes, I figured this was a show not to be
missed.
As for Fantasmic, I set off to get our Fastpasses early in
the day. There wasn’t such pressure for passes for this show, quite likely
people were keen to see Fantasmic as it had just re-opened. Lucky for us who
wanted to see World of Colour.
We returned for the 9pm show at 8:15pm and went to one of
the cast members who was manning a roped off area. I asked her what
accommodation they might be able to offer for a visually impaired person. She
had no idea, but she asked her colleague, and together they went off to call
their manager. He was a lovely man who asked us what we needed. I explained
that seeing up close was the best possible solution for us, and said that
otherwise, we were fit and healthy. He asked if me minded getting wet and when
we said it was fine, he took us to the ‘WET ZONE’, plastered with signs warning
people that they might get wet. I think we might have been able to walk up near
to the spot we had for the show, but bless him, he took us to a small roped off
staircase, marked ‘Reserved’ and told us this area was entirely for us.
We felt like total VIPs! We reclined on the stairs, with a
(close to) front and centre view of the water. A nearby Cast Member offered us
warm hugs and reassured us that the wet zone might be a bit of a mist of spray,
rather than a half hour downpour. (It was somewhere in between.) We snapped and
connected some more glow sticks, and got ready to watch the show.
Then we experienced our own taste of the famous Disney
Magic. A security woman came up to us and sought out Charlotte. She told us
that her colleague, who showed us to our “seats” had told her that this child
was to start the show. She gave Charlotte a magic torch and showed her a button
to press. Charlotte was to hold the torch out towards Mickey’s nose on the
Ferris Wheel and press the button. “Not now! You don’t want to start the show
now! When I tell you, I’ll come back in 10 minutes and tell you when. In the
meantime, you practice with the other button.” She just made it back in time to
count Charlotte down from 10 and she started the show beautifully. Sob! During
the show, Charlotte told me that it was the most beautiful thing she had ever
seen, and she couldn’t believe that she had made it all happen with her magic!
We were lucky enough to see the man the following day, so I was able to go up
and thank him for making it so special for us.
Frozen at the
Hyperion, California Adventure
The third show we saw was the stage musical of Frozen in
California Adventure park. We arrived just under an hour before the start of
the show. They have a ‘holding pen’ where all the audience waits, in their
selected section: Orchestra, Stalls, Balcony. I was going to go for the
Orchestra section, but thought it was worth asking one of the staff who was
there at the queue. She was happy to take the decision straight away that we
should go through the disabled seating area, saying this queue got let in first
and were able to choose their seats on arrival. Happy days! There weren’t too
many others there, I didn’t even notice the usual array of mobility scooters.
Once they let us in, we headed straight for the front row and Charlotte had a
great view of the performance.
Dark rides
Another quality that Achromats, in particular, will
appreciate is that Disney has a large number of rides that take place indoors,
usually in very dark areas. I presume it is due the cinematic heritage of the
company, and the fact they are recreating parts of their films. We didn’t spend
much time in Tomorrowland, and Space Mountain was closed during our visit, but
that section seems to me to be almost entirely indoors. Fantasyland has lots of
the kid story rides that take place indoors, we went on Mr Toad’s Wild Ride,
Snow White’s Scary Adventure and Pinnochio’s Daring Journey. Adventureland has
Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Carribean plus the Tiki Room while even Splash
Mountain is more indoors than out.
Overall, our Disney trip was very successful. As a family,
Charlotte’s eyesight doesn’t really limit us and we typically carry on and do
whatever we choose, with Charlotte joining in too. People don’t realise she is
blind and we always watch her closely to her to make sure she doesn’t trip over
kerbs and such. We didn’t go there expecting special treatment, but it was
great to get a better viewing position at the three shows. She still liked the
rollercoaster best.
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