Living with the Land access and fast pass question

[McCall]

I have a question about the Living with the Land ride for anyone who has been recently.
Do they now make you get a fast pass or give you a return later pass if you are in a wheelchair for this ride?

They did once on a trial basis when I went a couple years ago.
I went to guest services and also wrote protesting this BECAUSE
as any of you who have been on it know, to get to the ride you must enter the pavillion and take the small elevator to the lower level in order to ride, this elevator is always busy with wheelchairs going up and down and takes time and effort to do.
It seems on this particular ride that making someone in a wheelchair go through that to get to the lower level then telling them to come back later seems wrong to me.
I am not advocating wheelchair guests to get head of line or always skip lines or what ever, but it puts an undue burden on disabled guests to have to return to this particular ride.
So that being said how do they handle it now?

 

[BillSears]

When I went in July 2004 I got a fast pass. Then I just had lunch in the Land and did Food Rocks. I think they pretty much require that all wheelchair access to fast pass rides is done by getting a fast pass, but I could be mistaken.

 

[dj2]

maybe my memory is faulty, but when we went in june 2004 i do not remember needing a fast pass. i seem to recall that we followed the queue for awhile and then were directed off the line at some point to a wc entrance. did not need to transfer out of wc for the ride.

yes--that elevator is NOT sufficient for high crowd days!

 

[SueM in MN]

We were just there in March and went on it twice with 2 different procedures.

There is a sign at the entrance and exit to the ride that says something to the effect of wheelchair users report to the fastpass return line.

The first time we went, it was not busy and they let us come right into the fastpass line.
The second time we went, it was busy and they gave us a slip with return time on it that was somewhat shorter than the current time for the regular line. When we came back, we went in the fastpass line. As you get closer to boarding, the fastpass line splits off and there is a separate wheelchair line. We waited there for a while (longer than the people who were behind us when we entered the fastpass line).

It seems that they have 2 procedures, one for busy and one for not so busy times. You can also choose to just get a fastpass and have something to eat while you wait. That's one nice thing about waiting there. At least you are inside with a place you can get food.

 

[McCall]

Originally posted by SueM in MN
We were just there in March and went on it twice with 2 different procedures.

There is a sign at the entrance and exit to the ride that says something to the effect of wheelchair users report to the fastpass return line.

The first time we went, it was not busy and they let us come right into the fastpass line.
The second time we went, it was busy and they gave us a slip with return time on it that was somewhat shorter than the current time for the regular line. When we came back, we went in the fastpass line. As you get closer to boarding, the fastpass line splits off and there is a separate wheelchair line. We waited there for a while (longer than the people who were behind us when we entered the fastpass line).

It seems that they have 2 procedures, one for busy and one for not so busy times. You can also choose to just get a fastpass and have something to eat while you wait. That's one nice thing about waiting there. At least you are inside with a place you can get food.

True you are in there with the food, but you should not be stuck having to get food or whatever. as I say on this ONE attraction the wheelchair person is a captive audience as it were. with other fast pass rides you can just go where you please and return, on this one you have to deal with that inadequate elevator.

 

[SueM in MN]

I do agree that the elevator situation there is not very convenient -plus that there are no fully accessible bathrooms once you are in the building.

If you are with other people, an option might be to have someone else go down and get fastpasses and then the rest of your party can watch the movie or leave the buidling. It was better when Food Rocks was still open because at least you could do something besides just eat in that lower area.

 

[mbb]

when we were there in January, we had to use the elevator (I fell at Tarzan rocks and wrecked my ankle...long story for another day...let's just say "Tarzan ROCKS!!" and leave it at that...)

Anyway, for some odd reason, we had a really friendly CM escort me- in the wheelchair (DH took the boys down the "carpet hill") to the elevator and shared that there are plans to improve this issue..

Must be in connection with Soarin'

Fingers crossed

 

[SueM in MN]

That would be good news. Those elevators are so small and even though they are sort of off the beaten path, a lot of people do ride them. Some people can't climb stairs and have problems with escalators (my MIL has major problems riding escalators because of the height and movement).

I think once they open Soaring, they will have more traffic. I wondered if they would make a lower floor entrance that goes directly into the bottom floor. Would also be nice for people who have trouble climbing that major ramp to get to the current entrance.