DISNEY BY WHEELCHAIR

FOUR DISNEYWORLD PARKS ON FOUR (WHEELCHAIR) WHEELS

By Steve Wright and Heidi Johnson Wright

We are confessed Disney skeptics.

We are suspicious of corporate giants. Since we don’t have kids, we don’t feel that overwhelming pressure to fulfill the little ones’ dreams by taking them to see Cinderella Castle. Because one of us has fragile joints, we’re not big on rides that bump, jolt and otherwise thrash us about.

While we will probably never be lock, stock and barrel devotees of The Mouse, we found plenty of things on and off the grounds of Mighty Disney to keep us coming back. Best of all, we found outstanding wheelchair access at Disney’s empire and a surprisingly tranquil hotel.

Wheelchair access is important to us because Heidi, who has rheumatoid arthritis, has used a wheelchair for mobility for a quarter century. She is far from alone. With more than 50 million Americans reporting some kind of physical disability that impacts their daily life, accessibility is a growing consideration for many families planning an outing to a giant theme park or anywhere.

A weekend visit to Disney’s four theme parks proves the point, because thousands of people using manual wheelchairs, scooters, power wheelchairs and other powered mobility devices can be seen wheeling around the fabled fun palaces.

On the plus side, Disney has accessibility guides to each of its four parks. The foldout map-style guides explain what rides are accessible and give lots of handy planning information. We strongly suggest ordering them before going to the parks. More advanced planning can be done via the Disney section in the book Wheelchairs on the Go: Accessible Fun in Florida by Michelle Stigleman and Deborah Van Brunt.

“Walt Disney World is very easy to get around - from lodging to the theme parks, shopping, restaurants and night spots. All locations, including the hotels on Disney’s grounds, have free, regular bus service with lifts and tie-downs,’’ said Van Brunt when we caught up with her and asked for her Disney accessibility pluses and minuses.

“While Disney has accessible vehicles for several rides, the entrances to those attractions are not always wheelchair friendly,” author Van Brunt continued. “For example, Magic Kingdom’s Small World has a very long, steep entrance. Of the 36 rides and major attractions at Magic Kingdom, only 19 are accessible by wheelchair.”

We agree that since Magic Kingdom is the oldest park, it is Disney’s least wheelchair-accessible.

We do give high points to the barrier-free accessibility of the river boat that ferries you across a man-made lake to the Magic Kingdom entrance. Boarding and disembarking are easy and fast. Soon visitors are entering the park, catching a glimpse of the Cinderella Castle, whose towers, turrets and blue roofs have become iconic of the Disney experience.

Another favorite is the train ride at the Magic Kingdom gates. The train station is accessible via a long ramp and wheelchair users can board the train itself safely. Besides the chance to enjoy the features of a genuine steam train – complete with whistle, steam smell and chugging sounds – riders get a tour of other park areas they may wish to later explore on foot or wheels.

Main Street USA also has excellent zero-step entrances to its restaurants and emporiums. The shops here sell countless items featuring Disney characters. We saved our shopping until last, so we wouldn’t have to tote our purchases throughout the park. Steve was charmed by the plethora of snow globes, while Heidi had to look at every T-shirt on display.

A monorail links the Magic Kingdom to Epcot and the ride itself is smooth and very accessible. However, Van Brunt points out that “After a magical but exhausting day at the Magic Kingdom, the steep 100-foot ramp to the Monorail seems a most unmagical mountain!”

Thankfully, the Epcot end of the monorail has a nice elevator from the platform to the ground level entrance of the park.

“At Epcot, you can enjoy 17 of 19 major attractions in your own wheelchair --although a few include an inaccessible activity,” Van Brunt told us.

We were most interested in The Living Seas attraction, which entices with a promise of descending to Sea Base Alpha, an “awe-inspiring” under-sea research facility where you can view dolphins, sharks, manatees and thousands of tropical fish.

We started out in a cattle call herding area of a waiting room, a perfectly round room where the voice on the loudspeaker told us to move to our left – huh, which way is left in perfectly round room?, we thought.

When we finally made our way through a strategically-placed giant gift shop and thought we were making our way toward a viewing area of fantastic marine life, we were stopped and told the elevator to the accessible observation area was broken.

Heidi was asked “Can you walk up steps? Would you like to be carried?” She answered “no” and “no” and we made our way out of that attraction. We’ll take their word for it that when the elevator is working, there’s really cool stuff to see. We just thought a city within a city like Disney could have come up with some manpower capable of fixing elevators 24/7.

We made our way next toward the giant circular man-made lake that spans the globe, sort of. This area is very popular with most of our over-50 friends. They love the international pavilions and marvel at the way they recreate the architecture, food, dress and other aspects of culture ranging from Japan to Germany, Mexico to Morocco.

While the walkways are nice, wide and barrier-free and the shops are generally accommodating to people with disabilities, we were not enthralled. And we could have used a few more shade trees to cool the miles of concrete pavement broiling under a sweltering summer Florida sun.

Somehow, a fake United Kingdom Pavilion with an overpriced pub an even more expensive gift shop and some faux tudor buildings didn’t quite wow us when we’d spent the previous month visiting the real thing across the pond.

Rather than being wowed by the croissants and mimes of the France Pavilion, we felt a little bit like Homer and Marge in a Simpson’s episode that pokes fun at crass American consumerism and over-the-top theme park pomp.

Needless to say, the Disney’s two newest parks are our favorites.

“Animal Kingdom is a delightful reprieve from the intensity of the other parks,” Van Brunt observed. “But the distances and the hills can take a toll on those not using a motorized ride,” was her only caveat. “Because the different areas spoke out via bridges from the center, you must backtrack then cross another bridge to get to the next region.”

Animal Kingdom has some really cool faux architecture. Most walkways are smooth and very disability-friendly. Unquestionably our favorite area was the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Here man-made, yet surprisingly realistic, palace ruins lie among a recreation of the Anandapur Royal Forest of Southeast Asia. Walkers and wheelers wind their way through the lush, dense landscaping, feeling a bit like the discoverers of a marvelous archeological find.

Here is a world inhabited by Komodo dragons, tapirs and majestic tigers (all at a safe distance behind barriers, of course.) Virtually all of the exhibits can be seen easily from the line of sight of a wheelchair user, including our very favorite: the bats. Large reddish brown bats – lethargic in daytime -- hang upside down, not in a darkened cave but in a sunlit alcove. No need for infrared camera gear here in order to get some great shots of these mysterious winged mammals.

To get to the African section, we took a barrier-free ride on the Eastern Star Railway. The cars have care-worn but charming luggage and bicycles strapped on top of the cars for an authentic look. The staff is excellent at assisting wheelchair users in boarding the train from an accessible platform. The seating area has no tie downs, but the train moves so slowly and smoothly, none are needed.

Disney also deserves high praise for having several locations with family/unisex restrooms, where companions can assist a disabled visitor in a private setting. There are several of these facilities located in each of Disney’s theme parks. Each has outstanding raised commodes, automatic faucets, accessible sinks, grab bars and other gear to accommodate people with limited mobility.

The Flights of Wonder bird show in a canopied outdoor amphitheater earns high marks for have plenty of locations for wheelchair seating plus adjacent companion seating. The staff directs wheelers to seating without hesitation and aisles are gently sloped for ease of access.

The show is amusing enough for kids without insulting the intelligence of adults. Handlers work with many different birds, including eagles, hawks and tropical birds with gorgeously colorful plumage. They impart wisdom about conservation mixed with a good dose of humor to make for a delightful experience.

The Disney-MGM Studios park, with its recreated old Hollywood art deco streetscape at the entrance and its celebration of film from corner to corner, is our pick of the litter for adult appeal.

The Great Movie Ride Tour takes you on a gentle, slow moving tram ride through some of the most famous scenes in cinema history. The tram requires wheelchair users to transfer to a seat, but on the plus side, your foldable manual wheelchair can be stowed right beside you.

During the ride, life-size animated figures move and talk, making riders feel as if they’ve stepped into a scene from The Wizard of Oz or Raiders of the Lost Ark. At times, the tour guides even leap from the tram and play out scenes as well. The effect is a bit campy, but what would Hollywood be without a healthy dose of camp now and then?

The Backlot Tour is another excellent attraction for entertainment and accessibility. You start off walking and rolling through an area where park visitors are cast in a military movie, complete with exploding depth charges, large splashes of water and other special effects.

The main tour through the backlot takes place on a tram that is well-equipped with much-needed four-point tie downs. Park staffers assist accessible boarding with the surgical precision of Swiss watchmakers.

The tram goes through a backlot tour of facades, props and other movie backdrops. The highlight is a ride through Catastrophe Canyon, where the tram shakes, a tanker catches fire and water rushes by. The good news is the four point tie downs do a good job of securing wheelchair users during the bumpy ride. The bad news is the tie down set up faces the opposite direction of all the action, meaning wheelers have a difficult time twisting around to see the colorful display.

The gift shop at the end of the backlot tour gift shop is very cool because it has a low Disney factor. Collectibles from I Love Lucy, the Wizard of Oz, Get Smart, Hitchcock, James Bond and other classics rule. Minnie and Mickey are barely seen. We picked up some cool retro, wooden clap sticks.

Despite the hundreds of offerings, we passed on the high prices and low culinary excellence of the in-park restaurants and cafes. But we didn’t stray far from the Mouse for our meals, choosing Downtown Disney for a pair of healthy sit-down dinners.

The colorfully-tiled Wolfgang Puck Café filled the bill with excellent wheelchair access to different seating levels and lots of the standard thin crust pizzas and nouveau Asian entrees that are a hallmark of his empire.

Somewhat more interesting, though no less corporate and contrived, is the House of Blues in Downtown Disney. Made to look like an old house honky-tonk at the edge of the bayou, it has a big front porch with a couple steps up in front. Access is made easy via a ramp to the side of the porch.

Ramped areas also provide access to various raised and lowered levels inside, where the ceiling is decorated with famous bluesmen in bas relief. Vividly colored painted furniture with religious symbols and voodoo stylings add a nice touch. The menu is pure southern soul and Cajun, with giant portions of gumbo, jambalaya, shrimp po boys, catfish, ribs and the like.

Downtown Disney also is home to Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba. The custom-made theater for the avant-garde troupe has outstanding accessible wheelchair and companion seating right in the middle of the theater.

According to the kind elevator attendant lady that transported us up to our seats, “La Nouba is the story of all stories, the site of all mysteries, where dreams and nightmares sleep side by side. La Nouba is memory, individual and universal. It beckons to us, challenges us to uncover passions we thought we'd lost long ago. Here, anything is possible.”

Who knows? We’ll take her word for it. As with all Cirque productions, the staging is mystical, the acrobatics captivating, the music mesmerizing, the storyline is somewhat hard to follow and no animals are harmed (or used) in the staging of this Euro-styled circus.

While we rode, looked, played, shopped, experienced, photographed, explored and dined Disney, we didn’t sleep at Walt’s place. Since we have happily navigated more than two decades of adulthood without children, we’re not keen on bedding down in one of the approximately one zillion family friendly resorts.

We chose a quirky place a good half hour’s drive from Disney. We bunked down at the Orlando Airport Hyatt, a real diamond in the rough property. Believe it or not, getting through the airport grounds and parking are not a hassle at all. Even more amazing, the rooms are so well built, we barely heard aircraft and we didn’t hear a peep from adjoining rooms or the connected air terminal concourse.

The room itself had excellent wheelchair access from the roll-in shower to the rare amenity of climate controls lowered to the height of a wheelchair user.

The rooftop pool is simply sublime, a strangely peaceful oasis in the middle of a busy, bustling airport. Better still, it is equipped with an outstanding pool lift. The lift has a seatbelt and footrest for extra safety. Best of all, we had the urban escape virtually all to ourselves, no mouse ear-clad little shavers in sight.

IF YOU GO:

Disney World, 1675 Buena Vista Dr., Lake Buena Vista. Phone 407 WDW-MAGIC. http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/

Wolfgang Puck Café Downtown Disney, 1482 E. Buena Vista Dr., Lake Buena Vista. 407 938-9653. www.wolfgangpuck.com

House of Blues Orlando, 1490 E. Buena Vista Dr., Lake Buena Vista. 407.934.BLUE. http://www.hob.com/venues/clubvenues/orlando/

Cirque du Soleil, 478 E. Buena Vista Dr. Lake Buena Vista. 407 939-7600. http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/shows/resident/lanouba

Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport, 9300 Airport Boulevard
Orlando. Phone 407 825-1234. http://www.orlandoairport.hyatt.com/property/index.jhtml

Wheelchairs on the Go, 888 245-7300. www.wheelchairsonthego.com

Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, 407 363-5872. www.orlandoinfo.com

Wright is a Pulitzer-nominated writer and Johnson-Wright is an Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator. The multiple award-winning couple live in Miami’s Little Havana. Contact them at: stevewright64@yahoo.com