Be Our Guest

 

A few months ago, I was talking with another dad about our enthusiasm for Disney World generally, and in particular for figuring out how to plan a day minimizing line-waiting time for our families.  A third dad said that when he went with his family he chose between two options he'd learned about to deal with long lines at Disney World:  An "official" and an "unofficial" tour guide.

 

I'd heard of the option my friend had ended up choosing: the "official" tour guide.  As I understood it, it's called a V.I.P. tour, and you hire a Disney employee to shepherd you around and help with line strategies and FastPasses (it's about $350 per hour, six hour minimum!).  But my friend said they actually do more than that.  While the Disney guide tries to avoid lines in legitimate ways, when they can't, they just have their friends working at each ride allow the family to cut the line.

 

I asked what an "unofficial" tour guide is.  He paused and sort of sheepishly explained that it's a person who has a "disabled" certificate who you hire to bring your family along as he/she goes to the front of the line due to their disability.

 

To tell the truth, I put the whole thing out of my mind because I like this friend a lot, and I didn't want to press him on the details of something that shady.  (He did end up going with the legitimate option, and I have no idea if he even considered the "unofficial" route.)

 

But Cory Doctorow and Boing Boing have been on top of the rising publicity this practice has been getting, first with a NY Post article, then with this NBC undercover report actually showing the "disabled" people getting their paying customers into rides ahead of the lines at Disneyland.

 

By the way, I would never judge or second-guess someone using a disability pass legitimately, because sometime disabilities aren't visible.  But I feel that the burden of proof shifts against the Hire-A-Handicap frauds in the NBC video who seem fully capable of standing in line; they are shown walking with no problem, and even jogging up stairs.

 

Of course all this is fraught with the issues of the growing income disparity we've come to see in America, and the increasing expectation and acceptance that the very wealthy will have a different experience than everyone else, in every activity they choose.  And this is true not only for the disability fraud, but also for the V.I.P tour, where wealthy parkgoers are apparently allowed to cut lines with a a few grand and a wink.