Beyond Fast Pass

[Dixie Springs]

:ack:


Moms pay $1,000-a-day to hire disabled members to skip lines at Disney

Published May 14, 2013
FoxNews.com

Some families reportedly have hired disabled people to allow them to be able to cut the line at Disney World.Disney
Forget the FastPasses. Apparently the secret to skipping the long lines at Disney World is to hire a disabled person.

The New York Post is reporting that some deep-pocketed New York City moms are hiring a motorized scooter-bound guide to pose as a family member so they and their kids can jump to the front of the lines.

According to the report, families book tours through an outfit called Dream Tours in Florida, which on its website claims to provide "quality based, memorable, and affordable vacations, to people with special needs." The Disney guide charges $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day, citing a Manhattan mom who claims she hired a tour guide using a motorized scooter.

“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,’’ she told the Post. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney.”

The mom said that a guide using a motorized scooter escorted her, and her husband and their two sons around the theme park and were able to immediately go onto rides while others waited for hours.

Disney allows each guest who needs a wheelchair or motorized scooter to bring up to six guests to a “more convenient entrance.”

The New York mother indicated that Jacie Christiano --who works at Dream Tours and is the girlfriend of the tour company owner, Ryan Clement--was the family's guide. Clement told the Post that Christiano doesn't use her disability to bypass lines and says that she has an auto-immune disorder.

Calls made by FoxNews.com to Clement and Disney representatives have not been returned.

[shadowden]

This type of abuse of the system really disgusts me...

[SBETigg]

We now have two threads on this topic, see this one. (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=199346)

Can we please combine them into one, mods?

[Dixie Springs]

Keep this one - posted earlier & will relieve everyone of having to find/read the article. Just kidding - I don't care. ;)

[SBETigg]

Keep this one - posted earlier & will relieve everyone of having to find/read the article. Just kidding - I don't care. ;)

Haha, maybe they will keep them both. :) Was just trying to be helpful in streamlining. It's ridiculous enough for several threads.

[TheDuckRocks]

The stupidity of this article and this tour company makes me furious.
First of all it is just not true.
As a scooter (EVC) user with mobilty problems I well know Disney policy and you do not get front of the line access on the majority of attractions. On things that to the general public appear to be "front of the line" you are usually taken to a holding area and gradually feed into the flow of everyone else (prime example is Spaceship Earth). If a Fasspass is needed for immediate boarding, you sure as heck better have one or you are going nowhere. With boats sometimes you have very long waits for the only boat that has the ability to take a disabled person. At almost all theater type sitting you are put in an area where the viewing is not the best.
What a brilliant idea for seperating fools from their money.

[Ian]

“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,’’ she told the Post. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney.”Forgetting all the other issues with this story, this comment makes me want to throat punch this woman. :mad:

Disney needs to tighten up policy here, if you ask me. The abuses of the system are excessive and need to be controlled.

[Dulcee]

What a horrible lesson to teach your children... first that they're above everyone else and then that disabled individuals are to be used. This whole idea is disgusting.

[JPL]

CNN) -- Disney World is looking into reports that some wealthy visitors are hiring disabled people to pretend to be family members so that they can skip lines.

"It is unacceptable to abuse accommodations that were designed for guests with disabilities," spokesman Bryan Malenius told CNN Wednesday. "We are thoroughly reviewing the situation and will take appropriate steps to deter this type of activity."

Reports of the alleged practice sparked fury on social media, with some people calling the actions "crazy," "awful," and "despicable."

But others defended the idea, arguing it's a way to help some disabled people make good money.

The debate began with an article in the New York Post.

"The black-market Disney guides run $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day," the report said.

Social researcher Wednesday Martin "caught wind of the underground network" while working on a book about practices among New York City's Park Avenue elite, the Post reported.

"It really is happening," Martin told CNN's "Starting Point" Wednesday.

"I live among the privileged and powerful parents of New York City," she said, "and once in a while I come across a practice that's really surprising."

She added, "It's not my job to judge."





Just a little update

[Dixie Springs]

May just be a coincidence, but a new Scooter Store just opened on International Drive (JK).