Disneyland- My Experience Without Accommodations

Last weekend I went to Disneyland and California Adventure with my partner for about ten hours. While there, I was unable to receive any accommodations due to the recent changes to Disneyland's accommodation policy. This week, I want to share my experience attending Disneyland without any accommodations.

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When I go to Disneyland, I am one of those people who wants to ride as many rides as I can. This time, I rode Thunder Mountain, Matterhorn, Buzz Lightyear, Radiator Springs, Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, Snow White, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Alice in Wonderland, and Splash Mountain, which has since been redone to be Princess and the Frog themed. I spent most of my day standing in line, which is hard for me because of foot pain. I'm not sure if I get neuropathy or if the pain is muscular, but the effect is that I end up needing to sit down after a while. Before, I was able to sit down and wait before getting in the faster lane with my disability pass, but I was told last year that the disability pass was being reserved for those with behavioral disabilities and overstimulation. The end result was that I had to wait in the longer lines when I was not able to book a Lightning Lane entry.

By the time I left Disneyland, I was waddling. I ended up with sciatica, horrible foot pain in the bottom of my feet and my big toes, and some neuropathy in my feet. In one line, I had to sit down, which felt gross because it was on the floor of an amusement park. While I was able to ride a lot of rides, I ended up paying for it with physical pain the two days after because I really pushed myself. My final step count was over 21k steps, which for me is a lot.

Lightning Lane helped a bit with the line management because I was able to shorten my wait time with some of the rides. However, this is not free at $34 a person. I find it to be worth it, but it is annoying to have to pay for an accommodation I used to be able to get for free. It also is not cheap, so this solution might not work for everyone. Many of the big rides can have wait times over an hour, which can be an issue if you aren't able to use Lightning Lane to make the waiting experience shorter. The app is also not the easiest to use, which could be user error.

The food at Disneyland has also become a burden, even without any allergies or medical needs. If you want to book a reservation for a sit-down restaurant, you have to book 60+ days in advance. I am not enough of a Disney adult to remember to do that. This means the only food left are quick stations. The first problem with this is that there is almost never enough seating, which I need to give my legs a break from walking. The second problem is that the food is often not very good. The sugary food is usually good, but I don't recommend the meals; all of my food was, for a lack of a better word, weird. I got a breakfast burrito that was not like any breakfast burrito I have ever had in a bad way. It tasted like the only ingredient was fried sausage, even though I saw other ingredients. I did not enjoy the food, except for my Slurpee and caramel apple I took home, which were terrific.

I will give Disney credit for one thing- their bathrooms are super accessible. I never had to wait in line; there were multiple accessible stalls, and they had paper towels, which, in my opinion, are more helpful than the blow dryers. I wish I could be as excited about the rest of Disney's accessibility, but the bathrooms were accessible.

Overall, the lack of disability accommodations left me with pain for 1-2 days after I left Disneyland. While I wish I could have gotten the accommodations, I technically was able to make do with Lightning Lane and sitting down in lines. If Disneyland wants to be more accessible, it can increase seating at restaurants and bring back disability accommodation services for people with disabilities other than autism and other conditions who experience regulatory and behavioral challenges. And as a side note, Disney could also get more points by adding more menu options. All of this being said, I do very much hope to go back next year.

Thank you for reading about my experience back at Disneyland without the disability accommodations I got last time I went. If you have any questions or comments, please comment on the blog, reach out at @Anniekrollblog on Instagram or Facebook, or email me at Anniekrollblog@gmail.com. I hope to see you next week!