Have you ever felt like you might have shirked your responsibility? Funny word, “shirked”; it means, “to avoid or neglect (a duty or responsibility).”
In this session, let me talk about my shirking to help you not just plan your Walt Disney World trips, but to also pointing out any tools that can help in the planning process.
It’s probably way overdue that I point out some publications from Passporter Travel Press that I feel have been overlooked for a long time. For this session we’ll look at PassPorter’s Walt Disney World for Your Special Needs: The Take-Along Travel Guide and Planner! by Deb Wills and Debra Martin Koma (Passporter Travel Press: 2005. ISBN 1-58771-018-8). This gem is one of the best kept secret of all the Walt Disney World books out there and the most overlooked Walt Disney World guides as well.
Special Needs and More
So every once in a while I get asked, “Hey Mike, is there anything that I can read to help me figure out if my claustrophobia is going to act up when doing any attraction in Walt Disney World?” I’ll also hear, “Mike, I’m a large person and I’m concerned as to whether or not I can actually do certain attractions. Can you help?”
I even receive e-mails on such topics as mobility, motion sickness, pregnancy and other conditions that many people fear could hamper their vacation. Most of these questions come from those visiting Orlando for the first time. I don’t blame them for being a bit anxious about their upcoming trip.
When I mention the Passporter Special Needs book as a resource I get a look like I had just consumed two of those nasty smoked turkey legs in Frontierland. As soon as I say the words “special needs” I notice they fall on deaf ears. “Oh no,” I hear, “I don?t have any special needs!”
Well, there are many conditions both physically and emotionally that come under the special needs umbrella. Unfortunately when people hear the phrase “special needs,” their thoughts turn to autism, cognitive disabilities, or mobility issues. Sorry, there are more.
Authors Deb Wills and Deb Koma have worked hard to cover the entire swath of special needs. I’m probably doing them a disservice by saying there are some 24 different special needs designations in the book because that number may fall short of the actual total.
Along the way they employed the services of a huge team of experts who have firsthand knowledge of every condition covered in the book. We’re talking over 30 individuals who contributed to the book and also reviewed it for accuracy and thoroughness before it went to press.
Deb Wills knows the importance of having a knowledgeable team work on this book. After all, who else is more qualified to supply important information than those who she calls, “[e]xperts who themselves live with the challenges addressed in the book every day”?
Deb Koma explains that the book covers more than just disabilities, saying, “It also addresses individuals with invisible needs, such as seniors, folks with special diets, ADHD, and autistic spectrum disorders.”
Available on the market for just over a year, this publication is already getting recognized as an outstanding piece of work. It recently won Silver 2006 Benjamin Franklin Award for Travel Guides 1-2 Colors and was also a finalist in ForeWord magazine’s Book of the Year Awards (travel category).
But awards are not what Wills and Koma were looking for when they devoted a few years of their lives towards the development of this book.
Koma said, “We wanted to make the book as helpful as possible to as many people as possible, since we strongly feel everyone should be able to enjoy a vacation at Walt Disney World.”
In addition to addressing special needs issues at Walt Disney World, the book is also your basic Passporter Walt Disney World guide book as well. The book contains original research of every theme park attraction, resort and restaurant at Walt Disney World.
We’re all looking to simplify our lives. This book helps by consolidating a ton of information in one resource. The two Debs cover everything from A to Z, from addiction recovery to foreign language to motion sensitivity to vision.
OK, admit it. You saw the words “foreign language” and thought, “Huh? This is a special need?” Of course it is.
Any condition, emotional, physical, or whatever that requires special attention or special adjustments to properly enjoy a Walt Disney World vacation is a special need. Wills and Koma have taken great effort to provide the best and most current information to help guests who must deal with those conditions. For example, the book includes five pages devoted to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as well as several pages on fears ,like the fear of crowds, water spray, claustrophobia and others.
Did you ever think that traveling with an infant is a special needs condition? It is, and there are six pages devoted to issues revolving around infants, and they provide excellent guidance for parents traveling and visiting the parks with infants.
Beyond the Parks: The Resorts
Persons with special needs live with their condition on a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week basis; it’s not just something that appears once the guest moves past a theme park turnstile. Wills and Koma recognized this, and devote significant space in the book to the hotels around Walt Disney World.
The book contains several pages that discuss accommodations for guests requiring special equipment and facilities, and also gives the reader information on how to go about making reservations for them.
One of the most helpful aspects of the resort section is the special needs ratings section for each resort. This section applies a low, medium, or high rating to how well a given resort meets the requirements of its special needs guests.
In addition, the book addresses how a resort meets a specific need. For instance, Disney’s Pop Century Resort has a low rating because it may not be best for those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) because the resort can be very busy and noisy at times near the pools and the central areas of the resort.
The Polynesian Resort on the other hand has a high rating, especially for guests with ADHD and ASD, because it is on the monorail line, which allows a fast and easy midday break from the busy crowds at Magic Kingdom.
Icons and letters are used throughout the book to represent various needs, and help the reader determine which resort can best meet their specific requirements in an easy-to-understand format.
Special Needs Dining
Sooner or later all discussions that center around Walt Disney World usually find their way to the subject of food. This book devotes 57 pages to dining, with special emphasis on special dining requirements. How do you go about making special dietary requests, such as how foods are prepared or what ingredients are used in their preparation? Food allergies are nothing to fool around with and for many guests, it is vital to know what is used in the food preparation process. There is a page filled with tips for diners with special needs. Here are a few:
- Wheelchair/ECV accessible registers are available at most counter-service eateries, located at the far ends of the counter.
- Most full-service restaurants have at least one sugar-free dessert on request.
- Although foods such as french fries are cooked in 100 percent soybean oil, cross-contamination is always a concern so be sure to ask what type of oil is used, and what items have been fried in that oil.
As with the resorts section of the book, the eatery section also uses icons or designated letters for each special need to describe how well each eatery meets the needs of that condition. For instance, Le Cellier at World Showcase may not be a comfortable restaurant for those who suffer from the fear of darkness or claustrophobia.
Mama Melrose’s Restorante Italiano at the Disney-MGM Studios offers vegetarian selections as well as many chicken and seafood entrees for guests who restrict their diet for religious, moral, or health reasons.
All eateries are covered, including those in Downtown Disney and Pleasure Island.
A Book Like No Other
Bar none, PassPorter’s Walt Disney World for Your Special Needs is the most comprehensive Walt Disney World guidebook on the makret today because of its attention to those hidden conditions that many guests must live with everyday and who must contend with these conditions every day they are in Walt Disney World.
Sometimes when we choose a book to help us understand and make the best of something like a vacation we forget the efforts of the authors. We forget that it takes a lot of time to collect information, to validate the information, and to format this information in a way to help those who read the book to quickly retrieve said information off the written page.
Not only has this book been overlooked as its value to the special needs guest, but also overlooked are the efforts of two women who have spent countless hours and long days doing research to provide as they say “everyone” with the opportunity to enjoy their Walt Disney World Vacation to the fullest extent.
It’s people like Wills and Koma who are helping those who need a little help, a little, information and a little encouragement, to enjoy their time at Walt Disney World and in their own way these two ladies are indirectly helping some very special guests to…
…Remember the Magic!
Next Time!
July 7th is coming and we all know what that means. It’s the long-awaited Pirates of the Caribbean re-opening… Barbosa, Johnny Depp, and all that jazz.
So while the pirates continue their quest to find treasure at our next scheduled session I’ll tell you how to go about your own treasure hunt all over Walt Disney World with another overlooked book.
Class dismissed.
