Theme park queue jumping for DLP

[RichSherl]

Probably the wrong place to ask this but...

My DP wants us to employ a theme park queue jumper for when we go to Disneyland Paris in October.

I didn't even know these things existed?!?!?! 🤐

I've not been to DLP for a number of years but apparently it's a thing that people go with their disabled parents just so they can skip queues for rides and to see characters etc?

Can anyone corroborate this? It seems mad to me and beyond unethical.

Anyway, AIBU or should we really use someone like this to help us skip queues?

You can have ASD, qualify for DLA and not have a particular problem queuing. As you know, some people with ASD have other struggles. There is a family I follow on YouTube like this and the mum applies for every DAS and carer's pass that she can.

She uploads other videos at places that don't have a DAS and her kids can queue for attractions and to meet characters with very few problems.

Her videos show her using her DAS to fast track queues and she even shares 'hacks' about how to optimise DAS so you can go on the maximum number of rides possible. She goes on at least double the number of rides that a regular guests could go on due to the queues.

I have disabled dcs and we've used our UK Access cards to get the disability queue passes with no problem. We queue at the exit and can usually get on immediately, or with a much shorter queue.

At Florida DW they don't ask for any documentation but you have to book a video chat and explain how your dc's disabilities affect their ability to queue - no problems getting it there either, although it did cause me more anxiety as I didn't know for sure whether we'd get it until we were there.

The UK Merlin parks are a pain these days as you need to book a day i advance that you will use a disability pass, and it's often booked up weeks ahead.

Our dcs aren't visibly disabled so I'm sure some people might have thought they were taking advantage. You can't ever know just by looking at someone.

Personally I wouldn't be keen on using this service as I'd hate to have a stranger coming around with us and going on the rides (and I think pp are right that he'd have to come on all rides with you and sit in the same ride car/boat etc, and it would be a max 4 people including the disabled person). It would just be easier to pay for the fast track sevice (though I don't know how the costs compare, as I've never needed to look into it).

That "Queue Jump With Mick" site looks so much like a parody, surely it can't be real? Especially the name Mick, it's screaming "taking the Mick" at me. It looks like a Viz-style parody.

At Legoland Florida you just walk up to Guest Services and tell them your child has a disabilty, and they give you a paper pass. No evidence needed and no detailed explanations. The child and one carer only (not the whole family) can go to the ride exit and get on immediately/short queue, but the paper is marked with a virtual queue time for the child to go on again with the whole family.

A friend told me that at DisneyLand Shanghai there are disabled people that wait outside the entrance offering these very services!!!

It's obviously very ethically questionable but at the same time I commend the chap on his entrepreneurialism. It can't be easy being disabled and holding a job (as half the views on this thread show).

It's not entrepreneurial. It's manipulating a system designed for the most vulnerable. It ultimately will lead to longer queues for actual disabled people and further restrictions on eligibility.

This is like people subletting council housing as Air Bnbs or selling on food from food banks.

Yeah that's gross. Imagine being that kid and watching that back as an adult!

This is another reason why we don't use it for our autistic DC. I don't want him to look back and have built a bigger view of himself as "different". Instead he will have the memories of when he struggled, but also the memories of when he coped with situations which he found hard and that it was worth doing for the outcomes.
I'd imagine the children in that case will just look back at it as "we couldn't do anything that other children could" as they never even got the opportunity to try. And I'd imagine when they're older it will be harder for them to then start managing those situations too.

It will also build an expectation of special treatment and adjustments that realistically just don't exist for the vast majority of adults.

This is absolutely bizarre lmao

But then again i also find it very strange that in the UK pregnant women, disabled people or people with babies don’t have priority in queues (ie supermarket, post office) so maybe it’s just a cultural difference.

Disabled people don’t even have priority in queues for the accessible toilets any more, so being given any sort of priority for anything else ain’t gonna happen. And some posts here make it very clear that they don’t think queue jumping passes at theme parks should exist either.

Do you think it’s entrepreneurial for disabled people to lend out their blue badges for other people to use, because this is tantamount to the same thing. It brings disabled people into disrepute and it inevitably ends up with eligibility being tightened so much simply to stop this kind of behaviour, that it prevents genuinely disabled people for benefitting. It’s not entrepreneurialism, it’s fraud.

"I bring my own lunch and can talk as much or as little as you like."

This can't be real!

100 quid? Tell him to buy a hammer for a fiver and smash his own leg up, then he can get queue jump for ever for free. And it'll be legitimate.

It's nothing like as fraudulant as A LOT of people doing their best to limp in order to get a disabled badge for their car!

A limp isn’t part of the criteria for a BB - it’s medical evidence.

HTH

The husband is suggesting they pay someone that they do not know, to accompany them on the parks, because the stranger has a disability and qualifies for a priority pass.

Quite. How disgusting that people pretend to be disabled or use those who are, to jump queues. Sickening.

Don't see it as a queue jump. See it as a reasonable adjustment to meet someone's needs.

Passes aren't only issued for shorter queues (which us what the poster's husband wants to use it for).
At dlp ( and probably other places passes are also given because

• a person nay not physically be able to walk the distance required for the normal queue ( they bend around to fit more people in a small space)
• some may not be able to manage the steps in some ride queues.
• the passes tell the cast member on the ride who may need assistance if the ride breaks down, so there is also a safety aspect to them

We went to DLP a few weeks ago and this problem is rife. Clearly a lot of families go there with Papa or whatever for the queue-jump.

It happened to us when we were waiting to see Jessy and it was so obvious - one young family with everyone fit and able, all posing for photographs, while their elderly Grandpa pointed to his name on a piece of paper.

This nonsense has to stop.

But it absolutely is being used as a queue jump by some people. To pretend otherwise is completely disingenuous. When people are paying a lot of money for a park ticket and they have the opportunity to apply for DAS then many will be tempted to do so even if they know that they don't strictly need it. It's human nature!

There is even someone upthread who goes to the park with her partner and uses her DAS to jump the queue for him despite not going on any rides herself. She genuinely believes this is perfectly ok and something she is entitled to do. This is why anger and resentment builds. Other people have also paid hundreds of pounds to go to these parks and it simply isn't fair to see such blatant queue cutting.

Would you? You have no idea really. We’re not discussing disabled people’s daily life activities. I have a different opinion regarding leisure activities that’s all. I absolutely support making concessions for people who are unable to carry out day to day activities as able bodied people are; of course that would be unreasonable to suggest otherwise however when a leisure activity such as a theme park (which is a choice to attend) charge extortionate prices for entry for able bodied people I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to ask that if you want to enjoy that facility at a premium then you pay for it.

Anyway, AIBU or should we really use someone like this to help us skip queues?

🙄

Bizarre behaviour really

@Kilroyonly yeah screw those disabled people, why would they be entitled to enjoy themselves! Going to a theme park by choice, the absolute cheek.

@Rosscameasdoody so strange, i was surprised to find out about that when my friend was pregnant, in the UK. In my country disabled people, pregnant, with toddler or over 65 are entitled to jump the queue anywhere by default. It’s really not that big a deal.

I think most people on here would actually agree that pregnant women or those with toddlers should jump queues. But God help you if you suggested those over 65 should!!!! The uproar about boomers DARING to push in front of young people!! They already have all the money and luxuries now they want to push first in everything!!! Trust me. That’s the response you’d get to that. Older people aren’t well liked on mumsnet unfortunately.