One of the longest (and unresolved) complaints with Disney is that families pay an obscene amount to get into “The Happiest Place on Earth” only to face ridiculously long lines that severely limit the number of rides that they can enjoy. Disney actually makes money off the inconvenience by selling “guides” and offering fast passes. However, it is not the only one making money off its lines. New York City moms are reportedly hiring disabled people to pose as family members so that their kids can go to the front of lines. The cost: $1000 a day for your own personal line-cutting wheelchaired person.
One report states that such an outfit is 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. The website reportedly cited a Manhattan mom who claims she hired a tour guide using a motorized scooter.
The Post quotes a Mom as saying “This is how the 1 percent does Disney.” By using its rent-a-disabled person approach, the Mom says that she and her husband and two boys avoided hours of standing in line at Disney.
The article identifies Jacie Christiano as the person who works at Dream Tours. She is reportedly the girlfriend of the tour company owner, Ryan Clement. Clement insisted that Christiano doesn’t use her disability to bypass lines and says that she has an auto-immune disorder.
What is interesting is whether Disney would run afoul of disability laws if it cracks down on such guides. If Christiano has a documented disability, can Disney bar her from being a guide who goes on rides with guests? Likewise, if you simply hire a disabled person for the day, how can Disney refuse the accommodation afforded to family and friends with disabilities? It can hardly impose a test on how well you know this person. People will say that they met yesterday but are now like family (an almost Disney like story).
I will not return to my theory that Michael Eisner is the Biblical Beast or that Disney is his Kingdom from Revelations 13. However, when people start hiring disabled folk to avoid your lines, isn’t it time for you to start to do something? Now most businesses would stop ripping off people by packing too many people into its parks or adding rides to shorten lines. If Disney is true to form, it will crackdown on faux guides to sell more fast passes. Indeed, initial reports show an outraged Disney — not at the fact that families are standing for hours for rides at its park but someone else is making money off Disney. I will only direct you again to Revelations 13: “And [the Antichrist] causeth all … to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark….”
Source: Post
Ha-ha! I know people that easily get those special passes at Disneyland just for claiming they are or are with someone that’s autistic. They don’t even ask for proof! No need to pay $1000! Glad the disabled are able to make extra money off the rich as well as not so smart!
Good point, P Smith.
Yes Vince is missed…..of course…. I’m with the 5th….
Put aside the unimportance of Disney and ask yourself this:
Would those 1% scumbags act any different if they were being rescued from a disaster? The 1%ers are the sort of fith who would step on the heads of crying children to save their own necks.
In the case of organ transplants, it’s already true. “Transplant tourists” spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for organs and surgeries in third world countries, in countries where as often as not the organs are taken by force from people who did not agree to it (e.g. the killing of political prisoners in China, “doctors” in India kidnapping and murdering street orphans). It’s not working class or poor people who are travelling and buying organs, it’s the 1%.
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I fourth the kind words regarding Vince. he was an informative poster and I enjoyed his contributions.
Blouise,
I got an email from Vince the other day. It was brief and in passing but Vince is still Vince. I hope when his current projects are done, he returns to the fold. I’m pretty sure I’m safe in saying you’re not the only one who misses his contributions.
What amazes me is that there are lines in a place like Disneyland and that there are people who want to spend what little vacation they have standing in them.
The last time I went to Disneyland was in California around 1979. It was fun and all but two of the lasting memories of it was the lines and my dad complaining it cost (if memory serves me correctly) a hundred dollars just for our family to get in the door.
Now, 32 years later, the same problems it seems.
I strongly doubt that Walt Disney would have tolerated the idea of selling far more entry tix per day to reasonably accommodate families with young children without their having to stand in interminable lines, being hungry, thirsty, having to go to the bathroom, heat prostration, etc., just to pad the day’s revenue. This practice is a degenerate fraud. My 4-year old said he hated Disney World! I concur.
“The cost: $1000 a day for your own personal line-cutting wheelchaired person.”
I would do it for $950.00. I am in the wrong line of work.
Work 200 days a year, cash only. What a gig that is. $190k tax free, that is better than a stripper makes and you dont have to carry around one dollar bills.
Since handicapped people are some of the poorest in the country, I think this is a good idea for them to make money. If a bunch of handicapped people started doing it, the price would come down so nearly everyone could afford to do it and then it wouldnt matter. There would be no advantage if everyone could afford their own handicapped person to cut in line.
The way to get rid of this is to encourage it to point where it isnt worth it because everyone is doing it.
Blouise:
I miss him too. He did his homework thoroughly and explained his positions with great clarity and reasoned analysis. That, of course, is why the Natural Born Citizen blog back in those days described him as a “perfect example of lawyers giving unsupported, inaccurate interpretations of the law.” Vince, if you read this, check in once in awhile.
“Blouise: LOL. I knew that. I actually found your description quite appropriate to the story.” (Mike A.)
I know you knew but I so seldom get the opportunity to talk with you that I’ll take whatever chance presents itself.
BTW, the other day you mentioned discussions you and Vince Treacy had with birthers/truthers … I really, really miss Vince. His contributions were pure gold.
“Blouise, The way I look at it, we have everything to lose by not using it.” (ap)
Words of wisdom, girlfriend, words of wisdom.
Blouise,
There’s too much at stake… …tools like Strongbox and others… All news outlets should follow suit, IMO.
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Here’s the link again, veering OT:
“Strongbox, an online place where people can send documents and messages to the magazine, and we, in turn, can offer them a reasonable amount of anonymity. It was put together by Aaron Swartz, who died in January, and Kevin Poulsen.” -from the following article
Introducing Strongbox
Posted by Amy Davidson, May 15, 2013
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2013/05/introducing-strongbox-anonymous-document-sharing-tool.html
The graphic below maps it out; multiple computers, thumb drives, encryption, and Tor are all involved. We’ll be looking forward to what we find in Strongbox, with the same curiosity our first editors had almost ninety years ago.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/wiki-info-final.jpgstrongbox-infographic-580.jpg
Blouise 1, May 17, 2013 at 12:55 pm
ap,
yep … btw, that Strongbox thing was really interesting. I’m tempted to give it a go … emphasis on tempted.
——
Blouise, The way I look at it, we have everything to lose by not using it.
Blouise: LOL. I knew that. I actually found your description quite appropriate to the story.
Well, Universal Studios has always been better, not that the woman didn’t visit there.