A disabled woman planned a 'once-in-a-lifetime' trip to Disney World. Then the park changed its disability policy.

23.04.2024 - 08:38 / insider.com / Fox Business

Savannah spent nine weeks and thousands of dollars planning her family's trip to Walt Disney World.

"For me and my husband, this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip," Savannah, 36, told Business Insider.

It wasn't a simple process for the Indiana-based couple, who planned to travel with Savannah's 72-year-old mother. They had to ensure that Savannah, a lifelong Disney fan, could navigate the sprawling theme parks as someone with a physical disability.

"I have had physical issues for the last 10 years that have prevented me from doing a lot of things," she said.

Doctors discovered that Savannah — who asked that her last name not be published for health privacy reasons — had an os trigonum, which is an extra bone found in the back of the ankle, around 2013. Savannah had accidentally broken the os trigonum while running one day and didn't receive medical treatment for eight months.

The incident has continued to cause her pain and affect her mobility. She's undergone 16 surgeries since she was 17, including 12 surgeries on her ankles. Most recently, she underwent a subtalar fusion procedure in August after being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis 15 months ago.

Savannah had accepted that a Disney World vacation wasn't feasible until her physical therapist told her about Disney's Disability Access Service, which allowed guests who could not stand in line due to a disability to schedule rides in advance and then wait somewhere else until it's their turn.

Savannah doesn't lack full mobility but would need frequent breaks to navigate Disney World, so the service sounded like a good solution. She and her husband went ahead and booked a vacation for May 20.

"I got that glimmer of hope again," Savannah said. "Everything finally lined up, and I was sitting on cloud nine. Then, Disney dropped that bombshell."

The bombshell: Disney announced earlier this month that it would revise its Disability Access Service policy.

Disney's policy previously allowed anyone who had "difficulty tolerating extended waits in a conventional queue environment due to a disability" to participate in the program, according to Fox Business.

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Now, the service is more narrow, accommodating "only those Guests who, due to a developmental disability like autism or similar, are unable to wait in a conventional queue for an extended period of time."

Disney's policy change was, in part, an attempt to prevent able-bodied guests from exploiting the service. A Disney spokesperson told BI last year that there's been an increase in people misusing the service to skip lines and avoid crowds. Disability services are now the most requested service at the California and Florida parks, according to The Washington Post.

"Disney is dedicated to