Disneyland California

(writing 2/26/2021, updated 6/23/25) My very first plane ride with the wheelchair was from San Francisco to Disneyland. It started and ended with disaster, but we made it! I had been warned about how to prepare the chair for flight and it survived the trip there. More on flights and transit later in post.

When you book
Get your tickets as far ahead of time as you can, and then book your reservations for each park. You cannot go without a park reservation. If you do a park hopper, you reserve the first park and can park-hop after 11PM.

Get the ap on your phone ahead. When you are at the parks it will be invaluable (maps, wait times, sow times, etc.). Beforehand it will help you with reservations.

Make dining reservations up to 60 days out. Some reservations don’t open until closer to the time. Mousewatcher lets you watch for certain reservations for a price (and you have to be ready to jump on it in seconds). You get a text message on your phone, click it and it directs you to log into your disney account. It then puts you on that reservation and you can start the reservation process if it hasn’t already been taken. I find it worth it. Make sure if you are park-hopping to a lunch reservation that your lunch in park #2 is after 11AM.

DAS PASS
DAS theoretically allowed people who have disabilities that cause them serious difficulty or hardship waiting in line to wait the same amount of time outside the line and return when the wait is up. They can do this by choosing their next ride on their phone. 10 minutes after checking into that ride they may chose the next ride.

DAS HAS CHANGED! Qualifications are much more strict as of 6/18/2024. They say (though long term cast members have stated otherwise) that DAS has always been only for mental/psychological/developmental/neurological conditions (not physical things that they say a scooter or walker or wheelchair should solve- totally ignoring a lot of other physical conditions which they don’t solve). That still excludes a lot of people who have conditions that line return or a mobility device doesn’t solve. Now they say “only developmental conditions” that prevent people from waiting in line, and they seem to have added “only people who don’t understand the concept of a line (and usually only children). Now they seem to sometimes even being denied child with severe autism who don’t understand lines.

I qualified under the new rules on my first visit after the changes, but not on the second visit, which made everything impossible. The process can be humiliating, dehamanizing and even traumatizing for disabled people. If you think you qualify for DAS (perhaps in addition to being in a wheelchair, like myself), you can try to register, but know that now very few people do and you can’t even try without first buying tickets. Frankly I as a life-long Disney lover have decided to stop going to the parks unless/until they make them accessible again.

Now only 4 people (not 6) can be part of the DAS party total though they say exceptions may be made for families. For frequent need for the bathroom they are introducing “bathroom”return to line” passes. And “return to line passes” for some conditions. For those of use who need a responsible adult/carer with us to care for us and don’t want to leave our kids alone in line this will present a hardship that they should be made aware of.

Booking DAS ahead
At this moment (6/24/2024) DAS registration has a wait time of at least 5 hours and open at 8AM PST and closes at 8PM. You must book within 30 days of your park visit. It is available here. Log in to your Disney account (make one if you don’t have one) and then say yes to the terms and conditions and get in line. The recommended browser for using the Disney site is Chrome. The chat may hiccup and you can refresh and not lose your place. Every 30 mins it will ask you if you are still there and you need to type “YES”. You can log in on a different device (go from laptop to phone) and it should still keep your place in line.

You can also get DAS at the DAS labeled kiosks before you enter the park gates (true at Disneyland, not at Disneyworld).

If you are in a wheelchair or scooter, I suggest not focusing on that AT ALL in your interview since DAS is not for mobility issues and it can confuse them. Focus on the other obstacles you have to waiting in a line. There may also be issues compounded with being in a chair though because you cannot easily leave the line and return if you are in a chair.

You can take up to three people with you on a DAS pass (it used to be 5). It enables you to pick a ride and get a return time equivalent to the ride’s wait even for wheelchair accessible lines. Then you can rest or take your time getting to the ride and go through the faster line (or exit) when you get to it. This is a lifesaver for me and so many of us with qualifying conditions.

You choose your next return time directly from your phone in the DAS section of the Disneyland ap as soon as you have checked into a ride for the previous return time.

Other things I do are bring ear protection, wear a hat and sunglasses, carry a water bottle I can add electrolyte mix to, and pace carefully with rests. I also a blanket and hot water bottle for nighttime and cool towels for daytime. If it’s hot I bring the ice packs you can activate. I also bring a eye light-blocker mask for moments I need complete sensory rest.

At the Parks

Disneyland is magic. I have always loved it, but it was incredible for me at that moment because it was my first time being in a truly ADA compliant space since getting sick. They have all kinds of accommodations. The crowds are a bit overwhelming, and as a new wheelchair user the stress of constantly almost crashing into people was exhausting. Kids just run right in front of you! My big clown horn helped, but looking back I should have gone slower and been more patient. Now (three+ years later) I can navigate the same crowds with ease. If you are new to a power chair or scooter, please, keep in a slower speed for safety.

Rides In the original Disneyland Park
You enter most lines via the exit in the wheelchair (I highly recommend the Haunted Mansion because the elevator goes backwards on the way out). You need to get “return times” as a wheelchair user at the ride exits or at guest services/Information stations. The exceptions to this are new rides like Rise of the Resistance, Millennium Falcon and Runaway Railway which accommodate wheelchairs in the line.

They can see you are in a chair (or scooter) so you don’t need a special pass. You can take up to 5 people with you (6 total) per wheelchair/scooter user (though sometimes they will fudge it to add one more). Just go to a cast member at each ride to check in, or to a guest services umbrella.

The guest service/information stations have little umbrellas to mark them and people in plaid (one at the end of Main St on the right, one by the entrance to Star Wars Land closest to Fantasyland, one across from the Matterhorn entrance, one just past the Haunted Mansion toward Hungry Bear, and one by the expo dome in Tomorrowland).

In DCA (California Adventure) all ride lines are wheelchair accessible. No return times needed.

If you need guest services in DCA there is one across from Carthay Circle, one at the Entrance to Cars Land, and one across from the Incredicoaster. Sometimes they move them but they should be close to those locations.

Pretty much every ride in both parks is accessible if you can transfer from your chair into the ride vehicle, but some even let you take your chair on. The level of accessibility of every ride is listed here. If you want to see a show or parade, go early. For Fantasmic and World of Color, I recommend getting a meal package that reserves you a seat and going early to sit in the back section of the front (where you can see but won’t be blocking seated people and kids).

Renting a wheelchair or scooter
There are power scooters and push-wheelchairs for rental at Disneyland, though I have been warned the quality of the wheelchairs is bad (uncomfortable and hard to push), and the scooters are not well maintained. See Disney site here. “ECV and manual wheelchair rentals are available outside the theme parks, just east of the Disneyland Park Main Entrance.” I have heard that they sell out, so go early.

There are also companies outside Disneyland that rent and some deliver to your hotel, which sound like a better bet. This place has been recommended to me for outside rental companies.

If you rent a scooter and are new to driving one PLEASE, please drive in slow speeds. I cannot count the number of times I’ve seen rental users crash into children, objects, people, etc. It makes people think badly of disabled people and regular scooter/power chair users who know what they are doing if and when they go faster.

Battery and Charging on Power Chairs and Scooters:
Watch your battery life and make sure you are fully charged when you enter the park! At Disney I keep my battery charger with me in a bag hanging off the back of the chair. There are no regular plugs anywhere accessible in the Disneyland park, only high amp ones that could damage your chair (like the one by the bathroom under the Hungry Bear). If you need to plug in you have to ask a cast member to take you to medical and hope you get there. I accidentally didn’t plug in properly for the day once so I got to find out. Obviously you can also go to medical if you are in medical distress.

I have also heard, but not confirmed that the scooter rental place will let you charge. I found one place to charge in DCA- if you are seated downstairs near a wall with a plug (you can request and hope) in the Carthay Circle for dinner you can charge there.

Getting There with a big chair or scooter:
If you can get a direct flight to Orange County’s John Wayne Airport I highly recommend that. It’s closer and you’ll get your chair way faster (unless for example they leave it somewhere weird and don’t tell you and you have to send people to go hunting around the airport for it, which happened to me). If it isn’t direct, save yourself the insanity and risk of damaging the chair on a second flight and get a direct flight to LAX instead, though you have to weigh that against the cost of an accessible cab to the parks.

Disneyland used to have shuttles with wheelchair lifts, but no more.

Transport On the ground:
LA has 24 hour wheelchair cabs that will take a power wheelchair in the regular cab companies. Depending on the time of day though, getting one could take hours (something to remember when you are going back to the airport). This is especially true during rush hours. Because of this I highly recommend staying at a hotel that is right next to the park so you only have to get to and from the airport and not to and from the airport, hotel and park.

Hotels
There are nice, reasonably priced hotels with breakfast included like the Hyatt farther out that have shuttles to Disneyland with more space and equal cost, but the accessibility of them is hit and miss. Not all hotel shuttles have wheelchair lifts, sometimes the lift is broken, sometimes the driver doesn’t know how to work it, etc. I suggest the Disneyland Hotel, the Grand Californian or one of several less expensive hotels across Harbor Blvd. from Disneyland (just as close as the Disneyland hotel and way cheaper!).

For me, Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel is not worth the cost compared to the closer non-Disney hotels across the street. Needing transport to and from your hotel can be a nightmare and cause hours of delay so to make your vacation smoother I suggest staying close if you have a large power chair that needs a lift in a shuttle or a special vehicle to transport you (or if you need to remain in your chair during transport).

We usually stay at the Grand Californian. It is more restful than the Disneyland hotel (less flying children, more mellow tone) so it is better for people with sensory issues. It is the closest hotel to Disneyland park and it has its own entrance to California Adventure Park, but it is also more expensive. You get an extra half hour early entrance to a different park each day. It used to be an hour, but it stopped and came back at a half hour. You don’t really get a discount for booking a parks plus hotel package, but you get a few discounts on things and free pins and little things. Still, very worth it if you can manage the crazy price hike it, especially if you need to go back to rest.

The Disneyland Hotel is a great option for younger kids- the pool is better (cool waterslides) and there is more Disney theming. There is alsoTrader Sam’s Tiki bar.

On a personal note: We were there for Halloween and my daughter’s birthday and dressed up as the Addams Family. In a later year we added on another family and did a costume for the chair and it came out even better!

FLYING:
When we flew back from John Wayne Airport to SFO my chair arrived broken. On my second ever wheelchair flight! It was actually bent like they had dropped it from a height and various parts were falling off of it when they rolled it up to me (and then they literally ran away). United Airlines fixed it free of charge within a couple days, and after I made a big stink on Twitter they comped me some tickets as well. Thankfully we were home. It would have been a nightmare if it had happened going the other way!

Update: After 7 years of experience flying now, it’s the small planes that break chairs. Avoid them whenever possible.
After several trips both flown and driven we have since decided that for SF to Disneyland, DRIVING is the way to go now that we have a wheelchair van. With the extra time-padding you have to do to make sure the wheelchair makes it to the airport and the time getting your chair back from the airline it is exactly the same amount of travel time from SF, and less stress.

If you are flying with a wheelchair into the greater LA area, bias for a larger plane when you pick your airport (John Wayne or LAX). You will be able to find a wheelchair cab, but two flights, one with a small plane will be very likely to break your chair.