Have you been dreaming of a trip to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida but feel like you can’t go because you or someone in your immediate family has special needs? Well, I’m here to tell you that your dream can become a reality. A trip to Walt Disney World with special needs is not only possible, but can be an awesome experience! I am a parent of a child with special needs and we love taking our daughter to Walt Disney World!
That is why I have chosen to write a series of posts on the subject of “Going to Walt Disney World With Special Needs”. In this first installment, I want to do an overview of the different ways Disney makes your trip as easy and magical as possible. You see, Disney wants all their guests to have magical experiences and they go above and beyond for their guests with special needs. If you have a family member with special needs you know as well as I do that we have to fight for everything for our family member. Nothing comes easily, but at Disney, that’s, well, “A Whole New World”.
My family has been going to Walt Disney World for years, but our most recent trip was a little different experience for us. Our daughter is older, mobile (unlike on our last trip), more aware of her surroundings, and she has found her voice (and it is most definitely NOT an inside voice). When planning our trip we decided we needed to make some special requests to ensure that not only our experience was magical but other guests also. We made special requests for our room and our seating in restaurants. Our goal in making the requests were to make the experience as pleasant as possible not only for us but other guests. If she got loud we wanted to not be in the middle of everything but off to the side with an easy escape plan, so to speak. We also used the Guest Assistance Card that Disney has available for guest with special needs. This card made our experience magical in so many ways. We also had our daughter, who is 6 years old, in a stroller. We knew there was no way she would walk through the parks, so we rented a large stroller. For our next trip we will need to rent a special needs stroller. She is just too big for a regular stroller, but Disney without a stroller is just not an option for us. With the stroller in mind, we requested to use the stroller as a wheel chair and this allowed us to keep the stroller in line with us.
All of these things helped to make our Walt Disney World vacation an incredible and magical experience for all of us. It is a vacation we will never forget. For one week we felt like a “normal” family. A Walt Disney World vacation is one that I can say, with confidence, is an excellent choice for families with special needs.
In the next installment I will go into detail about the different accommodations made for people with special needs at Walt Disney World. If you are dreaming of going to Walt Disney World with special needs I would love to help you plan your magical vacation!
Tabitha has been a Disney Travel Specialist with Wishing Well Travel since 2012, you can contact her at Tabitha at wishingwelltravel.com, find her on facebook or Request a Quote from her online.
