Chapter 57
Fall into the GAC

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(Originally posted August 26, 2013)

February 27, 2013

After closing out the park on Monday, we actually took our first day off from Disneyland on Tuesday to recharge a little and so I could work extra hours. Since I was able to set my hours however I wanted as long as I reached 25 by the end of the week, I decided to do longer days than usual for four of the five days and take Wednesday off entirely.

On Wednesday morning, therefore, we woke up even earlier than we would have if I had been going to work and made our way toward the resort for DCA rope drop.

We thought we were prepared for what the masses would be like at this time, but we really didn’t know what we were getting into. Once we were let past the gates, there was a huge crush at the rope leading into the park proper. We could also see that the Fastpass line for Radiator Springs Racers had formed, but we didn’t understand where it started or where it ended. We remembered something about taking a “wide right” being discussed on Lines, and we thought that it meant we would be able to get in the Fastpass distribution queue if we stayed to the right of the crowd at the official rope drop. If you have done any research into figuring out DCA opening, you will probably realize we were woefully unprepared and going off advice we didn’t really understand.

When the rope went down, the mobs started making their way toward the back of Cars Land while we wandered aimlessly trying to find the end of the Fastpass line. Finally, we came to our senses and realized that it snaked all the way back into Hollywoodland. We made our way in the right direction feeling pretty dumb (in case you were wondering, the “wide right” rule applies to getting to Radiator Springs if you AREN’T getting a Fastpass).

Anyway, we finally found the line and figured out where we needed to wait—I couldn’t believe how far back it stretched even though I guess it’s pretty normal. We were outside the Disney Jr. theater and had no idea how long the process would take. Once it did start moving, luckily, it was quite fast-moving. Still, it was a lot of standing, which really isn’t great for me to do in the morning.

There’s no real explanation as to why, but my condition is always much touchier in the mornings. Usually between 9 and lunch time, I’ll have several bad dizzy spells that I can’t fight off any other way than eating as often as possible and sitting with my legs elevated. It’s the reason we hadn’t tried doing rope drop thus far, and why it probably wasn’t “smart” of us to do it now. Still, there are some things you can only really do at Disneyland if you make it to rope drop, and we were determined to see if it would work.

As we got almost to the front of the line, we could see that we would be getting Fastpasses for around 1:00pm, which was perfect for us—mostly, we just wanted to ride Radiator Springs Racers while it was light out for once. Right after we finished up at the Fastpass machines, though, I had one of those moments when my body tells me it is NOT happy that I’ve been standing for so long. I felt immediately lightheaded and had to grab onto Tracy for support. Luckily, the moment was short-lived, and I recovered pretty quickly, but it was a sign that today wasn’t going to go as smoothly as I might have hoped.

The next “essential” thing to do on a rope drop morning—or so we had read/come to realize—was head over to Toy Story Mania before the line ticked up to its usual 45 minutes. We arrived and saw that it was currently at 30 minutes, so we queued up.

For the first minute or so, I was doing all right, but then I realized I NEEDED to sit down. We ducked out from the queue as soon as it was feasible and grabbed a spot on a nearby bench.

To say I was feeling frustrated in this moment would be a HUGE understatement. We couldn’t decide if we should call it a day (which neither of us wanted to do) or if we should just try to wait it out on a bench for who-knew-how-long until I would be okay to stand in line again (really not a good option either). Mostly, we just felt stuck.

As a last-ditch effort before just saying we would have to go home, I made a decision that was difficult for me. I needed to seek out the help that Disney offered to provide people with disabilities. So I told Tracy that we should go to Guest Relations and inquire about getting me a Guest Assistance Card (GAC). I say that it was hard for me not because I thought we would have any problem convincing them to give it to me, but because I really didn’t want to be “that person” cutting to the front of the lines, who is glared at in disdain by every judgmental Disney-goer. Due to unfortunate circumstances, the GAC has gotten such a stigma surrounding it that many people immediately jump to conclusions when they see someone who “appears healthy” using it and decide that they must be “abusing the system.”

I know it’s a hot-button topic, and I typically don’t like delving too deeply into certain issues here in this report, but this is one that I’ve gotten to feel very strongly about over the last few months. So here are a few words that I have to offer in defense of the GAC. Obviously, my condition is a little unusual. Even among others who suffer from the same problems (and there are many), I have a pretty difficult case to deal with. One of the worst things I can do for myself is stand still for a particularly long period of time—what happens, scientifically, is that my blood pools in my legs, feet, or abdomen and doesn’t do a very good job at reaching my brain. In case you were wondering, when your blood doesn’t get to your brain, your brain doesn’t get too happy. Standing isn’t the only thing that upsets my body, but it’s definitely one of the worst things.

Originally, when I presented my issue to the plaids at Guest Relations, they didn’t fight the issue. They gave me the GAC that allowed me to go through the exits of all the attractions or else through the Fastpass line of those that had one. For me, this was exactly what I needed. While going through the exit RARELY provided immediate access, it almost always limited how long I had to stand and wait. At those attractions where there was still a line, I wasn’t in the constantly-shuffling bustle of the crowds. Instead, we usually just had to wait in one place until we were called. I was able to sit down either on the ground or the guardrails while I waited, which got me off my feet.

I feel like we always used the GAC as it was intended and never tried to use the system unnecessarily. If the standby line was something we thought I could handle, we’ve always just waited in the line with everyone else rather than going through the exit. Unfortunately, since we rarely know how I am going to be doing in advance, we usually found ourselves using the card, but our intentions were always good.

I was originally issued the same type of GAC from about February thru mid-July, and it made it so we could actually enjoy the resort. Yes, I still had plenty of times during which I still had to pay more attention to my medical issues than I would have wanted to, but at least I was able to do almost everything instead of being limited by my inabilities. Then, in July, as I’m sure you’ve all heard, all hell broke loose after the Today Show profiled people who were selling their GAC abilities to the highest bidder.

Suddenly, all the rules began changing. When I had to go get my first GAC after the news broke, we found that I was no longer going to be eligible for the same level of assistance. Officially, since my disorder mostly has to do with standing problems, Disney’s stance is that I should just get a wheelchair to tour the parks. Obviously, this isn’t actually a good option for my situation. Not only would it be financially impossible for us to rent a wheelchair when we come to Disneyland several times a week, but I don’t actually need one to be able to get around. Walking isn’t my problem most of the time, but standing still in a queue doesn’t ever go well. The only other option presented by Disney now was to give me the GAC that treats you “as though you were in a wheelchair.” You can use the wheelchair entrances wherever the normal queues aren’t handicap-accessible, but at everything else, you still have to wait in line.

Unfortunately, for me, this change meant that riding attractions like the Matterhorn in Disneyland would be impossible because the queue is technically wheelchair-accessible, but the line is always much too long for me to wait in it. Much worse is what it would mean for DCA, where ALL the queues are ADA compliant. I would no longer be able to ride anything at that park without a Fastpass. The one exception, however, was that certain rides (Radiator Springs Racers, Toy Story Mania, and the other “biggies”) would issue a pass with a return time equal to the length of time you would wait if you had gotten in the queue at that time. Now, I think these are one of the fairest options for providing assistance to those who can’t wait in line, but they’re currently not available for the majority of the rides in DCA (or any rides at Disneyland). For now, therefore, I am unable to ride attractions like Mickey’s Fun Wheel, which always have long waits. On the one hand, I’m still glad to have some assistance, but on the other, I think there must be a better way to regulate things so that the system works better for everyone.

One of the worst parts about the change in the GAC policy was the uneven message and attitude from the Guest Relations cast members. We encountered several, especially in the first couple days after the change, because we wanted to make sure we actually understood what our best available options were. Some of them seemed genuinely sorry about the extra inconvenience the changes were causing while others were obviously pretty smug about the new policy. The ones who felt like most people abused the system seemed to think they were being vindicated by the new rules. We encountered one cast member who, when I asked a simple question for clarification, responded that Disney didn’t HAVE to do anything to accommodate people with any sort of special needs, but that it was a “courtesy” we were being provided.

Much worse, I think, than the reaction from cast members was the reaction from the public after the GAC “scandal” broke on national TV. Suddenly, many of the vocal Disney people on Twitter and the forums were able to feel like they were somehow justified for the negative attitudes that they always held toward the GAC program. It was as though the Today Show started a witch hunt, and the most outspoken Disney fans felt like they were able to hide behind the excuse that “most GAC users are faking it and don’t actually need the extra assistance.” I saw several disturbing tweets and comments that made me seethe. One Twitter user with 1000+ followers sent out a picture of someone walking around the parks after using the Indiana Jones GAC line as a “prime example” of the kind of people abusing the system. Another tweeted that he hoped the changes to the system signaled the beginning of the end for the GAC entirely. I began seeing posts from Liners asking other people if their child’s medical condition was “serious enough” to warrant getting a GAC, or whether other people would be judging them and thinking that they were abusing the system because “their kid looks perfectly normal.” Realizing that this sort of stigma was affecting whether people with special needs felt comfortable vacationing to Disney certainly rubbed me the wrong way, to say the least.

While I was (admittedly) pretty mad when I heard about how people were abusing the GAC system for profit, the reaction from Disney people on social media made me a hundred times madder. I honestly don’t even think that most of these people realized how ignorant they sounded and how discriminatory they were being. I wanted to tweet back expletive-laden messages reminding people that just because you get to hide behind an Internet screen name doesn’t give you an excuse to ignore the rules of common courtesy. Not all disabilities are visible, and it’s absolutely not anyone’s place to judge people based on your assumptions about them. Disneyland is supposed to be a place where EVERYONE can go and enjoy it. Disney had done what I always thought was a very good job of trying to make people who go through life on a daily basis feeling “abnormal” or “out of place” feel like they can fit in. The fact that there were some people who claim to be avid fans of what Disney stands for denouncing the system that allows both kids and adults with disabilities to appreciate this place that we all love just made me sick. Are there scammers and bad people in this world who will do everything they can to work the system? Absolutely. But just as in the outside world, I think they are very much in the minority here at Disney.

Anyway, my rant is almost over. And, of course, none of this is specifically directed toward any of you lovely readers because you’ve never been anything but great. I also realize that the extent of my “disability” isn’t even that bad as compared to other things people have going on, so my opinion is more in defense of everyone who feels unhappy with the recent developments for Disney’s special needs assistance. Here are a few things I wish everyone would remember as the GAC system goes through its next incarnation—whatever that may be:

1. It’s not your place to decide if someone is “faking” a disability or not. Disney will implement as many safeguards as they can to prevent the system being abused, and some people will probably figure out a way to slip through the cracks. Those people make me mad too, but I have no way to pinpoint who they are, and neither do you.

2. Not all disabilities are visible, and some of us don’t want to constantly put our issues out on display. I’m sure that most people who see me think that I look like a healthy, normal twenty-something. I don’t go around introducing myself to people as someone who might pass out if I stand for too long. Some of the other disabilities that Disney does their best to accommodate are things like claustrophobia, anxiety, and other similar struggles. Just because these “disabilities” are, for all intents and purposes, invisible doesn’t make them any less real.

3. If we could trade our shorter lines for the ability to not have to go through hell almost daily with our disabilities, we would in a heartbeat. No one wants to have to use a GAC. There’s a reason I tried as hard as I could to avoid getting one and why I only use it when I have to. People with health struggles would much rather feel normal than get a little bit of special treatment. If you don’t have to deal with a medical issue, thank your lucky stars and move on.

4. Everyone deserves a chance for a good vacation. Many people with family members who have special needs constantly remark that the Disney parks are one of the only places they can ever imagine going on vacation because there are so many considerations put in place to accommodate them. If you are worried about whether your family will be able to enjoy the parks because you or your kids have a medical problem, you should ABSOLUTELY inquire about what sort of assistance is available for you. The GAC might not be the right answer in your specific case, but I’m glad that I took the plunge and asked what could be done for me—it’s made the parks so much more doable. Once you have gotten your assistance, do your best to just not care what other people think. Yes, it stinks to feel like you are being judged, but not getting to experience the parks because you’re worried about the opinions of others is much worse.

5. It’s just a theme park, not the end of the world. When it comes right down to it, isn’t it a little bit petty to make such a big deal out of the GAC? The response from Disney has had to be so all-encompassing and harsh because of how much uproar the “scandal” caused. While I’m glad that the practice of people making money off their GACs has stopped, I wish that it all could have been handled much more quietly so that Disney could have implemented rules that actually benefitted everyone rather than hurting a lot of us.

Of course, everything we’ve experienced so far is totally going to change when the new GAC policies are revealed in the upcoming months. Apparently Disney brass has ordered a complete overhaul of the system, and none of us can really predict how it’s going to turn out. My biggest fear is that the new policy will make a hard and fast rule that anyone with conditions like mine will just have to get a wheelchair, which I won’t be doing any time soon. The one good idea I’ve heard floating around is that the return passes that are issued at the big DCA attractions currently might become standard across the whole resort. This solution would be ideal for me because then I could go wait out my “line” someplace where I could sit down and wouldn’t have to worry about standing being as much of an issue. Of course, standing isn’t my only problem, but it would certainly help to an extent. That said, there are definitely other disabilities that would have big problems if this were the new system, so I can’t imagine it will be perfect for everyone. In the end, I guess we’ll just have to roll with the punches, whatever happens, and hope that I am still able to do most of what I want to do in Disneyland.

I don’t really intend to talk too much more about the GAC going forward in the report. I try never to seem like I’m complaining about my issues and generally try to look at everything with a positive slant. Nevertheless, I felt like it was something I needed to address here, because I’ll often mention our using the GAC to access different attractions in the months of park-going that I still have yet to report on.

If you made it through this post, thanks for reading. I wanted to get all of this off my chest before moving on, and now that it’s out there I can go back to telling you about all the fun we’ve been having in the Happiest Place on Earth. Lots of pretty pictures and fun adventures lie ahead in the next posts, I promise.

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