Sick of long lines at Disney world? Hire a disabled guide.

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**Grey Templar**

Ok, this is a little disgusting.

Now this is rich: Disney World is investigating news that a handful of upper-crust Manhattan moms have a pricey, secret way to get their kids to the front of the lines—and it’s not by bribing Mickey Mouse.

More on Shine: Disney Princess Makeover Sparks Outrage: Merida Petition Goes Viral

Instead, according to the New York Post, the moms pay $130 an hour to hire a disabled, “black-market” guide, who uses her position—sitting in a motorized scooter—to help entitled families gain special access to rides.

“On one hand, you can say she’s a great entrepreneur,” disability activist Kleo King, of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, told Yahoo! Shine. “On the other hand, she’s kind of pimping herself out. And it’s outrageous she would help people commit fraud.”

Though the New York Post has no on-the-record sources in its shocking report, Disney is taking the matter seriously, according to spokesperson Bryan Malenius, who told Yahoo! Shine, “We are thoroughly reviewing the situation and will take appropriate steps to deter this type of activity." He added, "It is unacceptable to abuse accommodations that were designed for guests with disabilities."
More on Yahoo!: 6 Rejected Disney Theme Park Rides

The scheme of hiring out the disabled guide was uncovered by social anthropologist Wednesday Martin, a former New York Post contributor who was conducting research for a forthcoming book, “Primates of Park Avenue,” due out in 2014.

“It’s insider knowledge that very few have and share carefully,” Martin told the Post. “So when you’re doing it, you’re affirming that you are one of the privileged insiders who has and shares this information.” You’re also getting a good deal, as VIP tours offered by Disney, which include speed passes, start at $315 an hour.

“My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ — the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours,” one unnamed mom bragged to the Post. “You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge...This is how the 1 percent does Disney.”
A tour company singled out in the story as the family's guide denied using a disability to bypass lines. Both the tour company and Disney have not yet responded to Yahoo! Shine requests for comment.

But according to the park's official policy, guests using a wheelchair or motorized scooter, plus up to five members of their party, can use auxiliary entrances “intended to offer guests in wheelchairs or with trained service animals a more convenient entrance to the attraction” and are “not intended to bypass waiting lines.”

Still, the Post also reported that urban mothers have asked Divamoms website operator Lyss Stern how they might make their children appear handicapped in order to gain special disabled access. “I never understood how parents could have a clear conscience doing this,” Stern told the Post. And one parent, Matt Montesi of Atlanta, added that, after his 11-year-old with ADHD was granted a three-day Disney handicapped pass with a doctor's note, he was tempted to sell it on Craigslist. "People will pay bucks to circumvent the lines," he noted.

Yahoo forums on the topic turn up people who claim to have seen folks fake handicaps for special access. Wrote one commenter, who identified himself as a Disney employee, "There are ways that do allow you to bypass the line but I am not going to tell people because there are people who already abuse it and that pisses me and my fellow cast member off. Those people should be ashamed of themselves for doing it to. They disgust me every time I see them come through."

Using a false disability claim to skip lines is not a new trick, unfortunately. A recent Wall Street Journal story documented the trend of travelers requesting the use of complimentary wheelchairs in airports as a technique of getting pushed to the front of security lines, only to leap up and sprint to their gates once they have clearance. “We call them ‘miracles.’ They just start running with their heavy carry-ons," longtime wheelchair attendant Kenny Sanchez noted.

It’s also not unheard of at other amusement parks, apparently. King told Shine that, just the other day, she heard about someone who borrowed his grandmother’s wheelchair for his day at New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure in order to avoid waiting in queues.

“It’s outrageous. This practice is hurting people with disabilities who legitimately can’t stand in line, as the more people who do it, the more resentful people get,” King explained. “Disney World and other places can’t really ask people about their disabilities in order to curtail fraud, so they have to take people at face value. But anytime fraud happens, it hurts people who really need services.”

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/disney-world-scheme--entitled-families-hire-disabled-guide-to-bypass-lines-194555620.html

**kronk**

Sounds like it was ripped from a Carlos Mencia stand up routine.

**MrDwhitey**

Oh wow, I just saw that on /r/rage.

Yes, disgusting.

**Ahtman**

kronk wrote:
Sounds like it was ripped from a Carlos Mencia stand up routine.

But then who did Carlos rip it off of?

**SickSix**

LOL wow. Some people are willing to do anything to not have to stand in line with the paupers.

**kronk**

Ahtman wrote:
kronk wrote:
Sounds like it was ripped from a Carlos Mencia stand up routine.

But then who did Carlos rip it off of?

I see what you did there...

**Grey Templar**

I don't know who's worse. The people paying the disabled guide or the disabled person hiring themselves out as a guide.

**Polonius**

I almost wish this could shock me.

First off, the thrust of the story, that rich people hire disabled guides, is based on zero on the record evidence. So, at most, it's rumors or gossip. Very plausible, but lets not get all Occupy Epcot over it just yet.

Secondly, as long as there is an incentive to appearing disabled, people will appear disabled. Even it means turning down opportunites they are capable of, refusing treatment, exaggerting, or outright feigning a disability, if there is a reward to be had, people will get it.

I'd wager that easily half the guest at these parks that have the chairs don't medically require them. I can assure you, getting a doctor's note is pretty easy.

**hotsauceman1**

Why, Just rent a wheelchair and put a kid in it man, say the kid has a problem with walking...............

**kronk**

Say he hurt his leg driving over a curb...

**hotsauceman1**

Not driving, I was walking in the park, tripped over a curb at that park and twisted my leg........They gave me a complimentary wheelchair and i got to use the fast way for the rest of the trip.

**Desubot**

Man a 130 an hour to hang out at Disney land? sounds like an awesome job for those who are legitimately disabled and have nothing better to do. (besides that medical bills are expensive)

**Necroshea**

Not surprised in the slightest.

Is even go as far as to say I've done that...sorta. My growth spurt happened hard and fast, so I was this really tall child. You know the worst part about being tall and like 10 years old? During Halloween when I went trick or treating with my friends I kept getting remarks on how I was a bit old to be trick or treating. Mind you I was wearing a mask and some sort of costume so all they could see was a tall person. Do I had a friend act disabled so I could say I was his brother guiding him around if people tried to guilt trip me.

Also, inb4 the phrase I'm not going to point out.

**azazel the cat**

Grey Templar wrote:I don't know who's worse. The people paying the disabled guide or the disabled person hiring themselves out as a guide.

Depends on whether you blame the John or the Pimp.

**Grey Templar**

I don't think that analogy is a good one.

**LordofHats**

I'm with Polonius on this one. We believe this because its about rich people doing something dispicable. If I wrote a story about how poor people are just lazy bums mooching off the state and didn't have a single source I'd be blasted for terrible journalism and being stupid.

**easysauce**

jeese... in my day you just hacked the speed pass kiosks like a decent human being.

people these days....

**Kilkrazy**

Can such poverty truly exist as not having one's own private Disneyland.

**kronk**

Exactly. I just ride on my own space mountain whenever I want.

**filbert**

Surprised it has taken this long to cotton on, to be honest. About twenty years or so ago, I went to Disney World in Orlando on a family holiday, accompanied by my step father and disabled mother, who is confined to a wheelchair. We managed to go on every single ride in the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and MGM studios in about 3 days because we never had to queue - straight in the disabled queue and straight to the front every time. Of course, whether my mum actually wanted to go on the ride or not was rather moot; she had no choice! Her face going down Splash Mountain or whatever its called was priceless.

That people will pay or hire someone to skip queues is hardly surprising to me. Even back then, there looked to me several families in the disabled queue with adults who looked decidedly able-bodied. They were easy to spot because they were in borrowed Disney wheelchairs. The truly crippled supply their own wheelchairs.

**DeathReaper**

Grey Templar wrote:
I don't know who's worse. The people paying the disabled guide or the disabled person hiring themselves out as a guide.

So hiring a guide, who has a legitimate disability is a bad thing.

I would love that kind of work if I were a person that needed the use of a wheelchair. $130 an hour would be a great wage.

**Grey Templar**

DeathReaper wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
I don't know who's worse. The people paying the disabled guide or the disabled person hiring themselves out as a guide.

So hiring a guide, who has a legitimate disability is a bad thing.

I would love that kind of work if I were a person that needed the use of a wheelchair. $130 an hour would be a great wage.

Both parties are pretty deplorable, although I admit if I were bound to a wheelchair I'd be tempted to do it. $130 an hour to roll around Disney World would be a dream job.

**Desubot**

DeathReaper wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
I don't know who's worse. The people paying the disabled guide or the disabled person hiring themselves out as a guide.

So hiring a guide, who has a legitimate disability is a bad thing.

I would love that kind of work if I were a person that needed the use of a wheelchair. $130 an hour would be a great wage.

Not to mention the riding perks when possible.

**DeathReaper**

Grey Templar wrote:
DeathReaper wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
I don't know who's worse. The people paying the disabled guide or the disabled person hiring themselves out as a guide.

So hiring a guide, who has a legitimate disability is a bad thing.

I would love that kind of work if I were a person that needed the use of a wheelchair. $130 an hour would be a great wage.

Both parties are pretty deplorable, although I admit if I were bound to a wheelchair I'd be tempted to do it. $130 an hour to roll around Disney World would be a dream job.

How is it deplorable?

A family gets a guide for Disney, and the person that needed the use of a wheelchair gets to make some money while showing a family around Disney. It is a win win.

**Jihadin**

Capitlism.......I'm laughing hard....tow thumbs up and score card of twelve on the ten scale

**azazel the cat**

DeathReaper wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
DeathReaper wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
I don't know who's worse. The people paying the disabled guide or the disabled person hiring themselves out as a guide.

So hiring a guide, who has a legitimate disability is a bad thing.

I would love that kind of work if I were a person that needed the use of a wheelchair. $130 an hour would be a great wage.

Both parties are pretty deplorable, although I admit if I were bound to a wheelchair I'd be tempted to do it. $130 an hour to roll around Disney World would be a dream job.

How is it deplorable?

A family gets a guide for Disney, and the person that needed the use of a wheelchair gets to make some money while showing a family around Disney. It is a win win.

Because the family is only hiring that guide on the grounds that said guide is handicapped. Thus, it is exploiting the handicapped person, to the detriment of everyone else.

**Grey Templar**

And the said handicapped person is deliberately doing it. Which isn't fair to other handicapped patrons that genuinely use the services provided.

Although I've always thought it isn't fair for handicapped to get preferential treatment anyway. Isn't the point so they can do the same things everybody else does, not that they get preferential treatment.

**Ouze**

Polonius wrote:
I almost wish this could shock me.

First off, the thrust of the story, that rich people hire disabled guides, is based on zero on the record evidence. So, at most, it's rumors or gossip. Very plausible, but lets not get all Occupy Epcot over it just yet.

But a "Social Anthropologist" has books to sell!

**whembly**

DeathReaper wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
I don't know who's worse. The people paying the disabled guide or the disabled person hiring themselves out as a guide.

So hiring a guide, who has a legitimate disability is a bad thing.

I would love that kind of work if I were a person that needed the use of a wheelchair. $130 an hour would be a great wage.

Yeah... I'm not so butthurt over this.

The disabled guide is getting paid.

*shrugs*

As someone who took his two squiqs to Disney last year... the queues aren't that bad.

**Chancetragedy**

While I doubt I'd ever pay money for a guide like that, I really don't see the harm in it. The disabled person is making money to help their situation which I think is awesome.

And I will say I have a brother who is disabled and we took him to Disney and used the disabled pass and it was the most enjoyable Disney experience I or He could had. I got to ride space mountain 10 times in less than half an hour was glorious. And he got to ride the teacups without have a breakdown while waiting in line for an hour.