[blparent] Disney world

[Leanne Merren]

Hi Karla,
We've been to Disney World twice with our kids.  The first time Mason was 5 
and Andralyn was 18 months and we went by ourselves.  My husband had more 
vision then, but it still wasn't great.  They have braille maps near guest 
services at each park that sort of show you how the park is laid out, but 
that was about it for accessibility.  We were there on a make a wish trip 
both times, so we got to go to the exit and go in without waiting in line 
for all the attractions, but I think they let you do that if you have a 
disability as well.  That way you don't have to try to figure out the lines 
and navigate with all the people waiting.  Mason was great at pointing out 
signs (he is a very good reader), so that helped quite a bit, but we still 
asked a lot of people for directions.  The good thing is that all the Disney 
staff wear uniforms so you know who to ask for help if you can pick out the 
uniform.
We went for the second time last year when Mason was 8, Andralyn was 5 and 
Kaelyn was 1.  We decided to take a friend with better vision this time to 
help us navigate the parks.  We don't like to put too much responsibility on 
Mason, even though he does very well.  We did get around a lot faster that 
way, and there is so much to do that it's nice to get in as much as 
possible.  We had 3 days worth of hopper passes, meaning we could visit any 
of the 4 major parks within those 3 days.  You would want an entire day for 
Magic Kingdom for sure, because that's the best park and it will take you 
all day to get around it.  Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios are best done 
early in the day, because things close early at those parks.  We only hit 
Epcot because they had booked a lunch with the princesses for us there, but 
there wasn't really anything for our kids to do there being so young, so we 
left shortly after that.
They used to have something called pal mickey, which was a gps activated 
mickey mouse doll, and it would announce what attraction you were passing 
and tell you where you were in the park.  Unfortunately for us they had just 
discontinued them when we went last year, and we were never told about it 
back in 2004 when we were there.
I recommend staying on site if you go, because there is transportation to 
all the parks either by boat, monorail or bus.  If you stay off site you 
have to add extra time for transportation, not to mention money for cabs and 
things, and the wait times can be long.
Also, if you want to go to Seaworld, they told us that if we had called 
ahead they could have provided an escort.  I think Universal Studios said 
that too but can't remember for sure.  Those are in the same area as Disney 
World so thought I'd mention it.
Let me know if you have any other questions.  It was an awesome experience 
that none of us will ever forget, so if you can make it happen you won't 
regret it, no matter how you do it.  Make sure you plan out your days as 
much as possible, because winging it definitely doesn't work. *smile*
Leanne
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karla Hudson" <HudsonKC at msu.edu>
To: <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 2:14 PM
Subject: [blparent] Disney world


> Hi group,
>
> Anyone out there taken their kids to Disney world.  How accessible was the
> experience?  Any couples that are both blind take this one on yet?  My 
> kids
> would love to go but I am not certain they are old enough to take this on
> with us.  What are others experiences with Disney?
>
>
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