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Ft. Katelyn, Service Animal Handling and Inclusive Design with Unleashed Access
97 Plays14 days ago
Welcome to the first of three episodes in our Accessibility Series, taking a look at creative, inclusive design at parks! We’re joined by Katelyn, founder of Unleashed Access and experience service animal handler in the world of theme parks. Plus, more have-you-been-listening trivia, some trip recaps, and lots of puppy cameos because Allison refused to edit those out this time.
Check out Unleashed Access!
https://www.unleashedaccess.com/
https://www.instagram.com/unleashed_access/
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to the Inverted Creative Podcast. I'm Allison. I'm Bryant. And I'm Jen.
00:00:17
Speaker
Jen, my favorite co-host. Heck yeah, we have a girls only episode. So, uh, Bryant is not able to join us today, but we having a, who run the world girls kind of day today.
00:00:32
Speaker
We have a guest coming on later. yep We have the wonderful Caitlin of, I, why did I just blank on the name? Unleashed Access.
00:00:43
Speaker
Unleashed Access. Um, one of my favorite service dog handlers.
00:00:49
Speaker
We're excited. We are. It's weird not having Bryant here. I miss him. I know. It already feels off without our third person. and also, that means you were never late for recording because he's technically not joined us yet.
00:01:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's very true.
Milestone and Travel Plans
00:01:06
Speaker
It also means that we don't have a trivia answer for you guys. No, we do, because I remember what the question was, because it dealt with me. Never mind. i lied. don't have a trivia answer.
00:01:19
Speaker
We'll go right into trivia. Brian had posed a question to see who was listening to the episode and was asking, what is my... intended 700 milestone coaster um because we talked about our summer trip plans and i mentioned all the crazy things that we're doing um my flight leaves in 23 days which is absurd um but if you were paying attention my 700 is planning to be hopefully fireball and adventure land in new york city or just outside of new york city i don't really know where it is um
00:01:52
Speaker
And I know a few people answered, so shout out to Alex, Tim, and Evan. I know you guys were listening. Thank you very much. um um If you don't know me, I ah have a thing for fire. Not like me personally setting things on fire, but if you ever watched the movie Sky High um from 2005, I'm obsessed with War and Peace and Pyrokinetics, and I even wrote a whole book on it. So I think it's very fitting if I have a ah milestone on a coaster called Fireball.
00:02:21
Speaker
Heck yeah. Yeah, but we'll see if that happens. There's another, you know, I have to go through five countries first and see what all I get there to see if it's actually going to line up to have that as my milestone. So I will keep you all posted.
00:02:34
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure we'll hear about it. Oh, God, that's going to be the world's longest inverted creative podcast episode when me and Bryant talk about our trips. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. To be able to finally talk about Europa Park and Fantasialand with Bryant, though.
00:02:51
Speaker
I feel like that should have its own episode. episode No, legitimately, that's something I want to do in the future is have straight park episodes about looking at the entire creative side of Europa Park.
00:03:02
Speaker
And I guess maybe we need to have ah Joey on for that one whenever we do that. Yeah. I feel like that's probably a good call. There's a lot of parks I think that would work well for that.
Theme Park Visits and Experiences
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah. And Brian can finally join in them. Yay! He doesn't have to put his fingers in his ears and go la la la la. Yeah. Heck yeah. um So we both have some trip recaps to do real quick. I'm going to try to keep this short because I know we have an interview today.
00:03:32
Speaker
And also, I'm just really hungry and I want dinner soon. um Yeah, so we're just going to get into quick intro, quick retric recaps, and then on to our interview. So you first.
00:03:43
Speaker
So and I don't remember when we last recorded, but I did a um ah silly little Kings Island visit. Yeah. For people who don't know, I also have a publishing company on the side.
00:03:56
Speaker
And i literally, the whole point of me going up to Kings Island with my friend John Mike was to take a couple books with me and take cute pictures of my books in like related areas around the park.
00:04:07
Speaker
And that was like our entire time there. So like we have a book called like the beast of Luffy Island. So I was literally awkwardly sitting in the middle of the pathway where like the Paul print, Paul prints, I guess they're Paul prints. I don't know. These prints. Yeah.
00:04:23
Speaker
Whatever they are. um I was awkwardly sitting in them in the ah walkway getting pictures of a book with that. um We have a book about like possessed German carousel horses or something like that called Dream Thieves. And so I did some stuff on the carousel for that and then rode the carousel.
00:04:41
Speaker
And I take a really weird selfie with one of the horses. Stuff like that. just It was literally a day to just chill. and we did the antique cars. That was very entertaining. Cool.
00:04:53
Speaker
I had not done the ones at Kings Island, but um my driver was a little demented. well And by that I mean very entertaining, and I'm sure I sent you snaps of that.
00:05:06
Speaker
No, maybe I didn't, but I need to. um and So that was our entire little Kings Island visit. Just something fun, silly at the home park. um And then this past weekend, um I'm still very tired from this trip. We went over to Virginia for the Buzz Bars...
00:05:22
Speaker
crap what was all but i forget the name of the event virginia is for stumbles the revenge virginia is for stumbles revenge something like that i don't know but we did um king's dominion and bush gardens williamsburg um it was a really fun event because i have spent so much time at those parks already that i didn't need to sit and cred run the entire time and i was just able to chill a lot more um We had ERT on Rapterra, so I got a few rides on that.
00:05:52
Speaker
um Enjoyed that ride. I think I like it better than Thunderbird. Okay. um just There's just more to it. And um' I'm a sucker for a rolling launch.
00:06:04
Speaker
um And the theming was fun like with the whole like dead volcano in the middle of it. Pain and rush to volcano. um Grizzly is running really, really well. I was standing on my rides, which is crazy.
00:06:18
Speaker
um i can't even remember what i wrote i wrote dominator did you ride i 305 oh yeah totally it was totally open for us heck yeah ah i wrote that twisted timbers i got the uh great pumpkin coaster since adults can ride that now ah Oh, yeah. I heard like everyone getting excited for Great Pumpkin Games. yeah. We had like a whole whole groups riding it. It was fun.
00:06:43
Speaker
um And we did a ah ah tail ah tailgate out in like the picnic pavilion kind of area of the parking lot where all of us backed up our cars and just chilled and had a good time. And I might have been out there for four hours.
00:06:56
Speaker
It was great. It was a lot of fun. um And then Busch Gardens Williamsburg. ah We ended the night on Pantheon ERT. That was a lot of fun. Like a whole hour of it.
00:07:07
Speaker
I just kept marathoning even though I said my body was tired and I needed to stop. But then there was nobody in our row. So we just kept riding. Of course. I'm really jealous you guys had nighttime ERT on that. Yeah, it was been really cool.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah, the events I went on the in the past were morning and that thing's not sped up enough in the morning. God, that thing has insane airtime. So good.
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah. um I guess my big thing for Bush Williamsburg was did the Burgermeister's Hideaway, the speakeasy experience that they have there. Highly recommend it.
00:07:42
Speaker
So much fun. It was hilarious. We had like 10 of our group in there. Yeah. Popcorn was delicious. Cocktails. Two of the three were delicious. Oh, which one didn't you like? There was a whiskey sour one.
00:07:56
Speaker
I don't particularly like whiskey sours. So I would just keep um filling Brambo's drink when he wasn't paying attention. If he's he was watching something else, I'd just pour a little of mine in his. And he'd be like, where the hell did that come from?
00:08:08
Speaker
um And they gave the rest to John Mike. But it was a lot of fun. And then and did the sampler pass for Food and Wine Festival. And split that with a few people. And that was really good.
00:08:19
Speaker
I enjoyed that. Yeah, I hear that their food and wine festival is really good. I love Tampa's, so. I'm still thinking about some like beef tacos from the Mexico pavilion, pavilion station, whatever it is.
00:08:31
Speaker
um Still thinking about that. It was good. Yeah. I didn't really ride a lot that day. I did Alpengeist. did Loch Ness.
00:08:45
Speaker
That's fine. feel like that park, like, that's one of the really beautiful things about that park. Like, you can have a fantastic day there without riding a single thing. Yeah. It was nice. I enjoyed it.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's a really good one. And then we went up to Funland in Fredericksburg on the way home. And so I got another plus one there. Oh, well, of course. You got to get your plus one. Oh, Big Bad Wolf. There's a new coaster there. there Oh, yeah.
00:09:11
Speaker
I never got to ride the original, but this one, it was very cute. It is very far back from everything, so it takes a little while to get to it. I'm not a fan of the like family B&M restraints.
00:09:23
Speaker
They're so narrow and just dig into your thighs. Yeah. But aside from that, it was a really cute ride. I liked it. Yeah. Yeah, i don't I don't expect much going into that one.
00:09:39
Speaker
Yeah, I like it. It's definitely good fit for families. Pays good homage to the original. As far as I know, I never read the original, but... Yeah. I chickened out and I regret it. Because that was before I liked coasters.
00:09:51
Speaker
Oh, no. That's a hard loss. It was in when I was, what, fifth grade or so, and my friends tried to get me to ride it, and I would not, and I regret it. Yeah, that's rough.
00:10:04
Speaker
Oh, well. What can you do? I wonder if it was there. i went there in high school, I didn't really ride much at all, but I wonder if it was there when I went. I didn't ride it, but
00:10:17
Speaker
I'll have to look it up and see. I'm intrigued. Yeah, that was my weekend. And then I'm well, by the time this episode drops, I will have been to Epic Universe. So
00:10:30
Speaker
that's very fun. I'm excited, but i won't be able to talk much about it on the podcast. probably not i i'm not gonna lie i almost booked for this weekend you should as much as i said that i was never gonna go but only because one of my closest friends is going and she like texted me and she's like i'm going this weekend and also so is our other like besties so just extending an invite
00:11:02
Speaker
So like everyone you know is going to be there this weekend. Yeah, but then I was like, I could not justify. I can't justify the cost of that park when I have all of those annual passes down there. Yeah.
00:11:14
Speaker
It's like I can't do it.
00:11:18
Speaker
I'm just hoping it'll be slow because like preview times have seemed relatively chill. And also most everyone else I know is going to be at Hollywood Nights this weekend. Yeah, so I think it'll be kind of slow on that front.
00:11:32
Speaker
I hope so. Fingers crossed. Yeah. But I will report back vaguely next episode. Yeah.
00:11:42
Speaker
Well, I know you had a couple small trips. Yeah, I just had little local things. um Did I talk about Hershey last episode? I don't think so.
00:11:55
Speaker
We recorded a while back. so Did I even talk about... Yeah, but I talked about Paris, right? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I went to Hershey Park... um
00:12:07
Speaker
I don't know. two I'm doing great. Like maybe two weeks pretty much landed from Europe and the next day made myself over, like made my way over to Hershey.
00:12:21
Speaker
I had some friends from the Netherlands um who were visiting. So I went to go hang out with them for a little bit and experience the park with them for the first time. i don't get to experience the park for the first time with too, too many people. So that was pretty fun.
00:12:38
Speaker
The park was absolutely slammed. It was an awful day. This kid ended up running riding Fahrenheit with me. And he was like, I just ditched my friends because there were three of us. And it was taking forever. He said, I've waited over two hours in this line. Please.
00:12:58
Speaker
Fahrenheit ain't worth that. Yeah. I was like, oh my goodness. So... Yeah, so we did that. I got to my favorite part, though.
00:13:10
Speaker
we We got to ride, of course, all of the coasters and they got to experience that and everything. They got to experience fried Reese's. Interesting.
00:13:21
Speaker
I haven't even experienced that. Oh my gosh. Fried Reese's are the most incredible thing you could ever experience in your life. The most incredible thing. Like I, it would be before i had to go gluten free, I would literally go into that park and get fried Reese's almost immediately.
00:13:38
Speaker
They're incredible. have to remember that next time i go to Hershey, whenever that may be. It's not in the plans. You have to do it, because they're so good. And I got to introduce them to Reese's, which might have been my highlight.
00:13:52
Speaker
Um... But yeah, other than that, not really a productive day. we It was super busy, so we rode, like, everything once. Um... And then I left. Nothing crazy.
00:14:04
Speaker
That's... Nothing crazy! um Then this past weekend, I i brought myself over to Dorney Park. It was my first Dorney Park visit of the season.
00:14:16
Speaker
um I went with the intention of like taking a couple videos, making a couple things. um I have my film camera. I wanted to take some pictures on my film camera um and eating because I wanted to make a couple food videos.
00:14:36
Speaker
um I unfortunately had a very not good food day at Dorney Park. um i Always my first spot.
00:14:47
Speaker
Dining plan, people know. Your first... Like, your first stop when you go into a theme park, when you have a Cedar Fair dining plan, or I guess Six Flags dining plan, is always food, so you can make sure you get it a second food. You gotta maximize it.
00:15:01
Speaker
Exactly, you gotta maximize it. So, I walked in, and I... I don't know how many of you guys have heard me talk about this, but when it comes to Dorney Park, Tidal Wave Cafe is the
Service Dog Accessibility in Theme Parks
00:15:14
Speaker
place to go.
00:15:15
Speaker
Their food is incredible. All about Tidal Wave Cafe. So I went to Tidal Wave Cafe immediately, and um
00:15:26
Speaker
it's early enough in the season that they did not have any allergen sheets. um And when I asked for it and they couldn't find it, they went to talk to the chef and the chef told them that the mac and cheese and the French fries and the broccoli were gluten free.
00:15:51
Speaker
The broccoli was steamed. So that's I'll give them that. The French fries were fried with like funnel cake shrimp and chicken tenders so they were not gluten-free um and i said oh do you use gluten-free pasta and she just looked at me and paused and she was like no but that's what the chef said cheese and i was like you can't tell people that and she was just like i'm so sorry that's what the chef said she was like if you want my opinion don't think you should eat here
00:16:23
Speaker
Wow. I mean, I was like, well, thank you for being honest. Like, um, so I left. Um, so no Tidal Wave Cafe. um and then the chicken tender place, which has the grill, of the gluten-free chicken tenders, was so so completely backed up it was impossible to get, so I ended with a gluten-free pizza.
00:16:45
Speaker
not a great one. My food was not doing well at Dorney Park. it's not No gluten-free pizza is really that good. like Let's be honest. Especially not when you're getting it at a theme park.
00:16:57
Speaker
The cheese was really good and the sauce was really good, but like the the crust is not good. Yeah. Not good. um I will say, though, that they will give you this giant personal pan pizza on the dining meal, which is...
00:17:13
Speaker
it's at least double the size of the regular service serving. So that's good. Good. But yeah, so I had a really bad food day at Dorney park. Um, but on good notes, they opened a new bar called 21 and colder in wild water kingdom.
00:17:32
Speaker
Um, the bar itself very clean, but not really anything special. Um, looks wise. Selection wise, I was so, so, so impressed.
00:17:47
Speaker
They had a good selection. Like, so they obviously have like your Cedar Fair, like frozen margaritas, everything like that. little far and ah Yeah. on But then they had the best selection I've seen in a theme park fridge, like lemonade drinks, domestic beers,
00:18:10
Speaker
Imported beers. They have Polliner. i think that's how you say it. Polliner. Not. It's a. Weiss beer.
00:18:22
Speaker
That's only brewed in Germany. It's imported in from Germany by the same company. So not only did they have their Weiss beer, they also had Radler. Radler.
00:18:36
Speaker
So I was super blown away by that. Seltzers, everything you could think in this fridge. It was incredible. I was so, I almost cried of joy when I saw the polliner in there.
00:18:49
Speaker
Like, so incredible. um Yeah. And then rode Demon Drop and I rode Talon. that's it.
00:19:00
Speaker
How is Talon running? Talon was running fantastic. It was my first Talon ride of the season, so that was fun. My first demon drop ride of the season. But yeah, literally rode both of them once, took some pictures and stuff like that, and then just headed out.
00:19:14
Speaker
But Talon, incredible as always. We love her. Because as I'm sure it always is. Yeah. It's always so good.
00:19:24
Speaker
But yeah, it was a really chill day at Dorney. I just kind of like did my own thing. and took pictures and stuff. Those are some of the best days. Yeah. I did take a really cool picture of the Enterprise. I'm really excited to post it.
00:19:38
Speaker
It's like, I literally was like in bushes to get this picture, to get the flowers all angled the way I wanted them. And I like leaned on a tree by accident and got sap all over my arm and my leg and my hand.
00:19:52
Speaker
Like the tree was just covered in sap. I was like, but this is, this picture better turn out. i' I liked the picture so much that when I finished the roll of film I was using and pulled out the roll of film I really wanted it on, I went back.
00:20:09
Speaker
i was like, I'm just going to retake this. Got do it for the gram. So yeah, i'm very excited about that. I'm very, it's yeah. Yeah. So that was my day.
00:20:21
Speaker
Fun. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:26
Speaker
My brain just died.
00:20:29
Speaker
but So i think it's about time to welcome our guests on. um Do you want to give a little kind of backstory to... Yeah. So um as we have shared, we're kicking off this accessibility um little series here.
00:20:46
Speaker
And one of our guests that we're going to showcase is Caitlin. Caitlin is a service dog animal. a service dog. Caitlin is a service dog animal. Caitlin is a service dog handler. She has been for few years now.
00:21:02
Speaker
She's um working with her second dog now um and attends parks frequently. She owns Unleashed Access, um which focuses on accessibility and creativity in the space. She works with um parks escape rooms she does a whole um variety of themed and entertainment and um works with them so me and caitlin also have um some background in the past as well we met because we at the time were both service dog handlers um who both really enjoyed theme parks our dogs her previous dog and ahsoka who is now no longer working in service work um
00:21:46
Speaker
worked together a couple of times. They were really good friends, so we will touch base on some of those experiences a little bit. um But yeah, so that's the interview.
00:21:59
Speaker
All right, well, let's go ahead and ah bring Caitlin on, I think. All right. Hi, Caitlin. Welcome. Nice to be on here.
00:22:11
Speaker
Thank you for joining us. I know we've been having some ah scheduling issues to get this going, but I'm glad that we finally got you. Me too. I've been a busy girl. a while. Yep, that's for sure.
00:22:25
Speaker
Never, never, no, so there's never any slow moments, I feel like. Yeah, i I get that for sure. But. We're all set. Yes. So here we are with interview. We have interview and episode number one of a little accessibility series series that we have going.
00:22:43
Speaker
We're really excited for this. Me too. I'm excited to hear the rest of the episodes as well, but I'm excited to be here too. I'm obviously very passionate about this topic. For sure. Um, so definitely for this accessibility series, we want to give our listeners a chance to kind of better understand accessibility at theme parks, how a lot of that process works, and especially today, service animals and kind of their role in theme parks and how we can, you know, do things creatively at parks to help.
00:23:14
Speaker
Accommodate them. Yeah, there we go. That's the word I was trying to find. Thank you. So Caitlin, if you want to start and kind of tell us about your own coaster enthusiast journey and how you were inspired to start Unleashed Access and a little bit about that.
00:23:29
Speaker
Sure. So with my coaster journey, I actually used to be terrified of roller coasters. I would not ride them. um But then what is now my my number zero coaster, I rode for Bolton on my birthday like six, seven years ago.
00:23:43
Speaker
um and then I was hooked after that. Still one of my favorites, um but I used to be terrified. And now i you know travel and do parks and you know even work on designing some roller coasters and stuff like that.
00:23:57
Speaker
Super duper fun. um in Inspiration wise, I have a pretty funny story for this one. um So I have been handling a service dog for about eight years now. I'm on my second. I i had one named Baymax that I think Jen has met, but Allison has not.
00:24:16
Speaker
um But he was he was a delight. But when I had him, I called him um a backpack dog because he was so calm and very well trained. um A lot of these parks, what I'll get into more, is they only have the rider swap option um for accommodations, which means you can't ride with the person that you're with.
00:24:36
Speaker
And so I got desperate enough at one point, um that I gave Baymax to a group of like 13 year old girls because they loved him so much because I was so desperate to ride with my fiance that I was like, they loved him. And I was like, they're not going anywhere with him. Really bad idea, real bad idea. Not the smartest thing I've ever done in my life.
00:25:02
Speaker
However, that kind of spurred my,
00:25:07
Speaker
idea into making something that was able to help remedy that problem, if that makes sense. Yeah, for sure. um So new anyone tell us about ah Unleashed Access and kind of what the goal of that is and kind of where you're at in that process?
00:25:24
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So Unleashed Access is my LLC. So it's a consulting business on um better integrating service animals in any sort of themed entertainment, mostly theme parks. But I have things written down for mini golf, for character interactions, all sorts of stuff, but mainly theme parks because it's a little bit more applicable there.
00:25:46
Speaker
um So the things that I kind of work on are accommodation methods. So again, usually I advocate the most for crates, since they're less expensive, and don't take a whole lot of staff money to do. um So that's one thing that I do.
00:26:03
Speaker
and then I help facilities both. when they're making the facility and also after and retrofitting those things on how to better accommodate service animals and their handlers to make everything a little bit more smooth. Because right now, the really only options are rider swap. It's most most parks only do rider swap, which separates people from the the party. And that's never fun when...
00:26:28
Speaker
um Usually parks advertise that, you know, you're there to make memories with your friends and family. um And it could be argued that's a um fundamental alteration of the experience um if you have to separate from your party in order to ride things.
00:26:44
Speaker
ah So, and I know my experience and a lot of what the other people that have service dogs have, you know, had to split up with their group. It's not fun. um And so the goal would be, you know, to help people.
00:26:57
Speaker
places operationally because it can having service dogs and accommodating them can absolutely be a, um, It's a difficult thing legally and liability wise.
00:27:10
Speaker
um And so I am actually working with a lawyer that does ADA accessibility stuff and is very intimately familiar with service animals.
00:27:21
Speaker
I'm kind of verifying some things with him since it's such a legal gray area, but I'm pretty well versed. And if I you know need backup or anything, he's always there. So um there's lots of legal liability stuff.
00:27:34
Speaker
So I'm kind of there to help navigate that kind of thing. Yeah. feel like that makes sense. You have to have a good balance there. Yeah. For sure.
00:27:45
Speaker
um I also, I know Caitlin mentioned Verbolton before we get any further. I also like to point out that Baymax was the first dog in the in the show building of Verbolton. He was. He was the first.
00:27:57
Speaker
He was the first. He didn't care that much. um But the, oh, this is one thing that's that's pretty relevant. So I actually, during that tour, um we weren't sure what to do with him.
00:28:11
Speaker
So going into that show building, um no spoilers, but it going up to walk up to the drop track, the grate was really wide. And Baymax's feet are small. Baymax is not a big dog.
00:28:23
Speaker
ah And so he couldn't go up there. And so the solution ended up being the really, really sweet tour guide lady holding him for me while I walked up there. So there's little things like that, like trained staff.
00:28:37
Speaker
And again, it's a little bit of a legal, you know, um slippery slope. However, little things like that are always appreciated because I really want what's my favorite and i wanted to walk up there and she was like, do you want me to hold him? And it was it ended up working perfectly. So it's just little things like that um that are like, you know, obviously dogs should never be up there. But, you know, to be able to be on a tour for a guest at the service animal, there's got to be some sort of workaround.
00:29:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, definitely makes sense. um So Moving into a little bit more of your experience, you I know you mentioned you've been a service dog handler for a pretty long time, coaster enthusiast for a little while now.
00:29:21
Speaker
um What are some of the biggest accessibility issues you've seen in theme parks and what are some of the creative ways that you've thought of to solve? um So this isn't necessarily service dog applicable, but it's like a little side thing.
00:29:35
Speaker
I really wish that there were some restraint accommodations that were, um especially for people who are... amputees or paraplegic, there are some things out there, um but not every park has them.
00:29:51
Speaker
um So I wish that was a little bit better. um But service dog wise, some accessibility things could be um potty spots, as funny as that sounds, potty spots. um I am a big advocate for just any grass that is available because having potty spots actually, it takes up space, you know, for these parks, it takes up footprint.
00:30:19
Speaker
And a lot of parks actually judge how much money they make like per square foot in certain areas. And so by taking that, you're taking up space and that's money.
00:30:32
Speaker
Um, so by having, you know, one or two is fine, but once you start to have a really big park, you're going have to have more. I'm a big fan of people just being able to, you know, let the dog just pee pee on a bush. You know what i mean? i don't want to have to walk all the way back to the park and especially if people have mobility problems, um, and the dogs are tired, everyone's tired, you know, as you are with a theme park.
00:30:55
Speaker
Um, but just being able to just, you know, let the dog, you know, pee on a bush rather than having to, well, it's, it sucks because there, it does get enforced. It does get enforced.
00:31:10
Speaker
I've heard it has not happened to me. Um, however, you know, if the potty spots a 20 minute walk away and somebody has like chronic pain and is not, you know, that's a whole 20 minutes that they are, you know, going somewhere that they could just be using a piece of grass.
00:31:26
Speaker
Yeah. Um, And obviously, you know, we don't want that on speakers or any sort of electrical equipment. However, i think ah allowing that is ah is a decent accommodation.
00:31:38
Speaker
um Sorry, I'm checking back to make sure I'm on track. um Another thing is so there's a really hard balance between allowing dogs. And I believe Jen, you had an experience like this where some dogs, some service dogs do bark to like alert or task in one way or another.
00:32:01
Speaker
And there's nothing wrong, I think with security kind of looking and making sure nothing is going on. However, ah again, it all comes down to employee training.
00:32:12
Speaker
um, you shouldn't be kicking out a dog for barking once or twice. Um, especially if it's a task, um, legally they have to allow that.
00:32:23
Speaker
Um, but there's a really hard balance between, um, you know, dogs aren't robots and having a standard. Um, now depends on the handler, um, opinions on this. However,
00:32:38
Speaker
um it is a slippery slope in in theme parks because most of it is outside. It's, it's very, it's a very interesting line to dance on. Um, but I think having better trained security and, um, employees in general and having them to be able to be, uh,
00:32:58
Speaker
allowed to kick out of the service dogs that are not behaving appropriately because there is absolutely room for that. I have had dogs scream bark at poor, poor Baymax, just absolutely lose it.
00:33:13
Speaker
And I would be like, because normally my I'm usually very, very forgiving when it comes to service animals. And usually the law is as well. If a dog barks once or twice and it's corrected, I don't mind, especially at a theme park because there is legally, because it is both outside in a novel environment, it gives them a little bit of leeway.
00:33:35
Speaker
um And I agree with that because the dog is being quote unquote provoked, whether that's by like a character or I've had kids throw popcorn at Baymax. So there's lots of novel things happening. Yeah.
00:33:46
Speaker
So lots of novel things happening. um So I think in employee training on the balance between What is and is not a fake service dog um should be balanced better, especially at the front gate. The two questions, um Jen, you know them, but Allison, if you don't earn aware, the two questions that businesses are allowed to ask are, is that a service animal and what task does it provide? Those are the two questions they can ask. And emotional support is not a task.
00:34:13
Speaker
um So if they say that, the dog's not permitted to enter. Almost so pretty much every well every m handler should know what their task or dog's tasks are. That's the whole point of having one. um and And they should be able to answer those questions. No problem. And in fact, I actually really like when people ask the two questions, because that makes me feel better going in places, that they're sort of monitoring the animals that are coming in and out.
00:34:38
Speaker
So, um but yeah, better employee training. I kind of completely sidetracked on that question, but I hope that answers. No, I agree. I always remember i've i had one situation going into a park where um another dog was in a bag going in and i remember listening to them and, and them telling, they were like, yeah, they're trained in emotional support. and they were like, okay, let yourself in. And I was like, that emotional support is not a task.
00:35:07
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. I had to educate one of the Cedar point security people because there was a dog also in a bag. They're always in bags. They're always in bags. Almost half the time they're in bags.
00:35:18
Speaker
They, they, Um, again, scream barking, um, which again, I'm usually very, very forgiving. Correct it and move on. They're dogs. I, it happens.
00:35:30
Speaker
I've had a dog at Dollywood, like absolutely lose it at Baymax, but you know, um the handler corrected it. It was just a lot of barking and we separated ways and we moved on.
00:35:41
Speaker
It doesn't, I'm not going to be upset with that. However, If you're just shoving your dog back in the bag, absolutely not. um Because legally, um as long as the behavior is corrected and it's not aggressive, you're good.
00:35:56
Speaker
And personally, again, I don't i and don't care. It happens, especially if the dog's a puppy. It happens. Correct it, move on. um But yeah, no. Yeah. Anyway, again, better trained employees is really a lot of what it comes down to.
00:36:11
Speaker
um So you're talking about like location, like people like P spot locations or whatever, and like distances and parks. Like, yeah and you know, speaking of Verbolten, I was just at Busch Gardens Williamsburg this last weekend.
00:36:23
Speaker
And even as a able bodied person with no animal, that park is huge. And like, those those animals have to get tired out just as quickly.
00:36:35
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Baymax is a... I have never seen Baymax sleep so much in a crate than at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. um It's so many hills.
00:36:46
Speaker
um But yeah, no, consideration for the animals is absolutely something um that needs to be considered, you know, because they're taking at least twice the steps that we are. um and it's it's exhausting. So yeah, no, that park is is a lot. But I do really like how they handle service animals at the Bush and the SeaWorld parks.
00:37:06
Speaker
yeah Big fan of them. It's so funny that with all the parks that I've been to, I feel like Bush and SeaWorld are continuously the most consistent, which for everything else, it's like, for everything else, there's not like a ton standout.
00:37:22
Speaker
But that is one thing, like as a handler, I feel like super standout that they do. Yeah. The only thing that I have is we have a hard time at Tampa, um, Tampa's park.
00:37:34
Speaker
And this is more of a, again, an operational thing that, um, that I, um, think they can improve on for their own poor staff.
00:37:47
Speaker
um So what they have is they have two crates in the entire park, one for one section and one for the other, which means they attach wheels to the crates. And if you want to ride something, an employee has to push it from all the other ways the side of the other part of the park.
00:38:03
Speaker
And that can take, you know, throughout the day, that can be an hour, two hours, three hours worth of pay for somebody for just one employee. And if you add that all crates aren't that expensive.
00:38:16
Speaker
So operationally, um it would just and monetarily it'd just be better for them to do that because at that point you're taking a ride operator away um from a ride and that slows it down for everyone else.
00:38:27
Speaker
um So that that one is hard. They're very nice about it, though. They're very nice. However, I feel bad them pushing around this giant crate everywhere and taking up their time when they could be doing something better.
00:38:41
Speaker
um So definitely a crate per ride or at least every other ride would be very nice, at least for the employees. Yeah. boom yeah This does bring up though, and Allison, I don't know if you've ever heard this story.
00:38:54
Speaker
One of my all-time favorite Ahsoka working in a park stories, Bryant and Megan were with me, and we went to Busch Gardens Tampa, and I showed up to Cobra's Curse.
00:39:06
Speaker
And anyone listening who does not know my dog, she's a corgi. And if you know corgis, like, they look really small when you look at them. But when you pick them up, they're 30-pound dogs. Like, they're pretty big dogs.
00:39:19
Speaker
And they sent a ride out. It took over half an hour for them to bring a crate. yeah about every time page oh geez They brought cat carrier.
00:39:29
Speaker
And I looked at the guy and I was like, I don't think she's going to get into that. And he was like, well, I could bring you another one, but it's like really big and it's gonna take me a while to get it over here.
00:39:42
Speaker
And I was like, I can try. And I was like, but even if I can get her into this, I can't promise she'll be good. Like she's trained to be in a giant crate. She went into it and she looked like she was busting out of a can of biscuits.
00:39:53
Speaker
yeah She was like busting out of the holes in this crate and she stayed in it. Like, I was like, I'm really proud of you for like getting into this cat crate and not fighting anything.
Legal and Operational Considerations for Service Dogs
00:40:06
Speaker
But i still like, i she looked at me like, you cannot be serious. Right. yeah Please get inside. I have noticed the same thing.
00:40:18
Speaker
Russell's trainer has Bernadoodle. She's now retired, but she has a Bernadoodle and those dogs are big and she's had the same problem. um So that's kind of why I always advocate for not only just crates, but make them so the dog can fit.
00:40:31
Speaker
I know there's a great day in that Frequence, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and she can't even use the
00:40:42
Speaker
Sometimes the crates are just too small. Yeah. forgot I forgot what was going to say. But yeah, no, it's the crates can be difficult wise because they do take up space. However, in the long run, it does allow guests with service animals. And normally a lot, usually...
00:40:58
Speaker
the chances of a dog being bigger is normal, is, is normal. Um, especially if the person, the dog's like a mobility dog or whatever. Um, I remember being shocked because in all the places that I brought a Soka that had crates or anything, I've never once been given a small crate.
00:41:15
Speaker
So I never even taught her how to get into one, how to chill in one. I was like, I have no idea how this is going to go. I was expecting one for like a lab. Right. Usually that's about the size. I actually haven't seen that. really funny. i would i would love to see that. Hopefully they got rid of that crate.
00:41:31
Speaker
um They're like, is this for the animal actors? Like, where did you find this? I don't know why they thought that. said that they have two size crates for every area, small and a large, and they bring the one based on eyeing up the dog.
00:41:44
Speaker
Okay. So it makes sense if they have to carry ah attraction to attraction and they thought my dog was smaller than she was. Yeah. But I was like, she's not that small. Yeah. I'd her up wrong.
00:41:56
Speaker
I'd her up wrong, brother. She's a big girl. I love Ahsoka. It was just like, I will never forget that experience because she looked at me like, no, no, no, we no. This is not serious.
00:42:08
Speaker
And then when I made, my God, I wish I had pictures. When I say she was busting out like a can of biscuits, she literally every hole in that crate had fur busting out of it. ah Poor thing, though.
00:42:20
Speaker
I know. If it was more than like they were literally like in the crate, got me right on the vehicle. She wasn't in there for more than two minutes or else I would never have allowed that. Right. Right.
00:42:31
Speaker
ah But she wasn't in there for more than two minutes. She was fine. She got out and she was happy as a clam. She got ice cream.
00:42:39
Speaker
you be it's like my favorite but yeah the it's like one of my favorite bush garden stories like ever at least you have at least we have fun stories every once in a while that come out of these things yeah it's entertaining for sure sucks in the moment especially when they take half an hour or an hour a half to bring the crate out cause that does happen to me as well um it Tampa every time we'll even give them a heads up and we'll be like, Hey, I'm going to take a break for an hour. This is, we're going to come back and ride this ride.
00:43:12
Speaker
And they'll be like, Oh, we forgot. And I'll be like, man, you know, Then my return time time has passed and it's a whole ordeal. So it sucks. But you know what? It is what it is. But that's what I'm here for.
00:43:23
Speaker
I would like to ah help parks and other facilities yeah work on that kind of thing. So these things don't happen. We don't have biscuit dogs popping out of crates and such.
00:43:37
Speaker
And like you get the stories out of it. But also it's a good opportunity to help teach parks better ways to handle things like this. Oh, for sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. Like, that's why we have warning labels on everything is because somebody has done something to use it incorrectly, and then we can correct it in the future. So it never has to happen again.
00:43:58
Speaker
Right. um Speaking of warning labels, um this is one of the things that I wanted to touch on. Yeah. So some rides are for service animals, ah specifically for Disney and Universal.
00:44:11
Speaker
um Six Flags parks usually only allow like the little drive cars, um the little gasoline, like the old antique cars and like the carousel. And sometimes...
00:44:22
Speaker
the rarely, but sometimes they let them ride the Ferris wheel and also Boo Blasters for some reason. and um Boo Blasters is also rideable. However, at some of the bigger parks, usually the rule is um if it doesn't have a height requirement, the dog can ride.
00:44:40
Speaker
However, there are some rides that are not like that. um like believe it or not, um both of you have ridden ET, right? you know how the platform is? I actually have never ridden ET, but so that's neither here nor there.
00:44:55
Speaker
So for context, you're kind of on the the bicycles, the ride vehicles like you're sitting on, they're on like a platform. and So it's flat, it's not enclosed. Technically, service animals are allowed to ride on that.
00:45:07
Speaker
And it's tilting, it's moving, it's not closed in, you're hovering from the ceiling. um So you've got all these things happening, you've got elevation changes, you've got it rotating on an axis, like you've got all sorts of stuff and dogs are allowed on that.
00:45:22
Speaker
um Personally, um in my personal opinion, they shouldn't be, um it's a safety hazard. And also, so one of the things that I consider in that I'm really interested in when it comes to consulting is figuring out whether or not dogs can ride.
00:45:40
Speaker
So some of the things that i look at um are what kind of restraint system they use. Cause obviously your dog can't, you know, ride on a VNM invert for safety reasons. It's not built for that. Are you saying that the dog can't ride on town at Dorney Park?
00:45:57
Speaker
Unfortunately, no, they're too short. was sorry to tell people, the dog's too short. Um, and So they can't ride on those things, obviously, but when it comes to dark rides, um we kind of look at the, you know, the restraint um and um the height requirement um and whether or not it would be safe for the dog to task.
00:46:15
Speaker
So the thing that I look at is... um you know if are the dog loses a point of contact because some dogs task if so if the dog was um some sort of medical alert dog those dogs are usually trained to either paw or some dogs boop with their nose but it's very very common to lift a paw and like ah tap somebody with their paw and um the question is would that dog um be sacrificing any sort of safety by losing that point of contact
00:46:46
Speaker
um So that's something I look at um as well as the motion on the ride, um how much how many degrees it's moving um and whether or not it's enclosed. Because if it moves a little bit more, you can probably um get away with them writing being able to ride it if it's enclosed.
00:47:04
Speaker
If it moves a little bit, if it's enclosed, maybe a little bit more than it would be if it was open, if that makes sense. um Another thing is... um the lack of having crates or the option to have a crate can put parks in a situation that is a safety problem for the handler, a safety problem for the dog. um So let's say, i don't want to name anything specific, but let's say there's a dark ride that isn't enclosed and has openings, but the dog technically can ride.
00:47:39
Speaker
um Now, not every service dog is going to want to ride that. and Especially because because the environment is so distracting, your dog probably won't be able to task anyway.
00:47:51
Speaker
um Some dogs do. Some dogs are really good at it, but the majority of dogs are not going to be able to task. Sorry, it's a motorcycle outside. ah But most dogs are not going to be to task, nor enjoy it.
00:48:04
Speaker
um Some dogs are stressed, and I don't expect any dog ever to you know enjoy that kind of thing. They don't have context. Um, that's another thing I'll get back to with haunts. Um, cause I think those are also a very important thing to cover.
00:48:16
Speaker
um with service animals, but anyway, so let's say hypothetically, um, the only option is to ride or swap or have the dog ride and don't want to separate from your friend. you don't want to separate from your partner. you don't want to separate from your family.
00:48:33
Speaker
So, um, What can happen is without knowing what's involved in the ride, handler's like, oh, my dog can go on this. They get on the ride. It's very loud. There's lots of stuff going on. The dog freaks out and jumps out of ride vehicle.
00:48:47
Speaker
It happens more often than you think. um I've heard some statistics that I'm not allowed to share. um it happens more often than you think. And it's horrible. um It's my belief that service dog handlers shouldn't have to look up POVs for videos and look at ride vehicles in order to guarantee the safety of their dog.
00:49:04
Speaker
That should be the park's responsibility, hands down. You shouldn't have to spoil things for yourself um just to make sure your dog, you know, but that's also comes back to crates. If you have that option, the handler's not going to feel pressured to put their dog in a situation um that could compromise their safety, if that makes sense.
00:49:24
Speaker
So it's kind of a safety thing as well as a comfort thing. And operationally, it's just sometimes it's easier to have crates, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent.
00:49:36
Speaker
Sorry. I feel like I'm yapping too much. No, you're here to yap. That's literally your requirement. It's literally what you're here for. i will continue to yap.
00:49:47
Speaker
um yeah I hope that answers the question. I can completely went off track. Oh, yeah. I think we answered the question a little while ago at this point.
00:49:57
Speaker
um i and No, we always ask questions and wherever the conversation takes us. um We do have another one though. um We're talking about situations that you look into, possible situations we can run into. What are some of the most creative solutions that you've seen Park implement implement to these issues? um The best one I can think of is probably trained staff um in the sense that they, like when I did the Verbolton thing,
00:50:31
Speaker
um the staff member was okay with holding him. So if there's no other workaround or crates for certain experiences, um I'm a big fan of train staff. And now it's not a theme park. However, um I was doing an escape room that had a fake hydraulic um floor that was supposed to be a fake elevator.
00:50:52
Speaker
So I was advised to not have him on, have Baymax. I had Baymax at the time, have him on it. Um, and the second I saw it, I was like, yeah, absolutely not. So the game master, it was a thing that those game masters would be allowed to hold the dog and they were trained to hold the dog.
00:51:09
Speaker
Um, so it's one of those things where if you don't have a crate and it just happens, the game master is there anyway. Um, now that can be a liability, but that's neither here nor there. If your dog is trained, um, it can be up to the discretion of the handler.
00:51:25
Speaker
Um, creatively, um I have seen a few things on like the ride maps that kind of um specify what exactly is happening on the ride, which I think is good both for sensory and um people have sensory issues, but also allows you to know if this if your dog is able to ride it, what they're getting into.
00:51:48
Speaker
I'm always a big advocate for those. I love when they kind you have pamphlets that don't necessarily spoil the ride, but tells you if it has a drop in it, you know, yeah is there flashing lights in here? Like, is there lots of smells or fog?
00:52:00
Speaker
um I'm a big fan of those. I hope that answers.
00:52:07
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. I used to like those two being able to see on a ride map. They're super cool. It was gonna happen. ah Disney's really good about that. They'll have like a little drop. Yeah, I've seen i don't know if you've seen but at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, they actually have 3D ride models for people.
00:52:27
Speaker
Whoever needs them. Usually they're intended for people that are visually impaired. So they have ride models so they can feel exactly what like the layout is like and feel like what's going on in there. Or if they, yeah, um,
00:52:42
Speaker
Somebody just is so anxious or somebody is you know autistic, they you know know what's coming and it gives them a better grasp of what's going on and gives them a little bit of a heads up.
00:52:53
Speaker
But not given just on paper, but you get to show them in 3D form and they can touch it. You can um show them that. And they do that for characters with costumes as well. um And the ride vehicle itself, the have little models.
00:53:06
Speaker
Those are super creative. I'm a big fan of those. I wish that was implemented more here. Yeah, that's incredible. I had no idea that that was an option. They're super cool. Super cool. Yeah, what a creative idea. i love that.
00:53:21
Speaker
I know I've been watching, um you know, Coaster Studios. They're coasting through Asia series. And how they keep pointing out a lot of the rides have, like, signs out front that say exactly how this ride operates, too.
00:53:33
Speaker
and that kind of makes kind of feels but right along the same lines, trying to give people an idea. Right. what to actually expect on a ride and what animals can expect on it.
00:53:44
Speaker
For sure. Yeah. I just am a big believer that, you know, people shouldn't have to spoil the ride to make sure that they can safely enjoy it. Especially with, with service dogs, you need to be able to make that decision, especially with rides like E.T. and the amazing adventures of Spider-Man.
00:54:01
Speaker
That is also a ride that they're allowed on. I would never put I personally have never and will never put my dog on Spider-Man, E.T. or Transformers.
00:54:14
Speaker
um i had no idea about Spider-Man and Transformers, but E.T. has always been a giant red flag for me. Right. um Oh, another thing. This brings up the creative ways to help. One thing at...
00:54:29
Speaker
you know help um one thing at uh, Animal Kingdom is on Kilmandrow safaris. The dogs are allowed to ride, um but as a little safety thing, they have a second tether.
00:54:42
Speaker
um so you have your leash that you have to have in your hand at all times, unless, um, you don't like have your hand function in that case, um, service dogs are allowed to be off leash, but the dog has to, um, be tethered into the ride vehicle, um, the other harness or their, um, collar, but,
00:55:03
Speaker
That way it kind of ensures the dog, you know, doesn't jump out of the ride. um So I think that's super clever is, you know, some dogs don't know. ah They've never seen a giraffe before. There's things that you can't predict.
00:55:14
Speaker
And so having that, you know, safety thing in there, I think is super smart and super creative, but also not compromising the dog being able to task. Yeah, that's really smart. I didn't know they did that. That's one that I haven't done.
00:55:28
Speaker
That's a pretty cool and creative way to allow them on there. Right. I think so, too. Yeah, it's in the in the wheelchair spot. There's like a little leash that's directly hooked into the right into the the car. Hi, Russell.
00:55:41
Speaker
Speaking of dogs. ah He's like, I want to be involved. He's so funny. um Do you have a preference? I know that sometimes I've seen that you ride, you tend to ride in the um handicap vehicle if there's one available or just a standard vehicle. Do you have a preference with you and your dogs specifically?
00:55:59
Speaker
And if so, do I? So sometimes only the accessibility eight vehicles can fit the dogs. Like, so i was at Epic Universe and we rode Yoshi's Adventure.
00:56:10
Speaker
Love that ride. um Now, those, have the inch I don't know if you've seen the interior of those ride vehicles. They're very small, very small.
00:56:21
Speaker
um There is not much room for for anything. um And the restraints are very, they're like, They're almost like RMC restraints. They're very like, they take up a lot of space.
00:56:34
Speaker
ah but um So in that case, I, you know, the only option is the wheelchair vehicle and it's an egg. It's not a Yoshi. It's super cute. There's still a Yoshi on it.
00:56:46
Speaker
um But I do use that when it's offered. um But other times, like if it's um accessible for just like wheelchair transfers at that point, there's no point in me using it.
00:56:58
Speaker
um If that makes sense. So yeah if it's, if the dog needs to be in the handicap one, then yes. And if there's more space with Russell, like with Russell, Russell is two times the size of Baymax. He's like 90 pounds.
00:57:11
Speaker
um So he needs a little bit more space, but Baymax was able to squeeze himself pretty much in it anywhere. oh So that kind of makes a difference. So I haven't gotten to take Russell on too many e rides yet, but yeah, I would prefer the handicap vehicle on that one.
00:57:27
Speaker
The more accessible one. That makes sense.
00:57:32
Speaker
That makes sense.
00:57:36
Speaker
um How do you think that theming and accessibility work to impact the guest experience? So um I'm a big fan of um the term inclusive design. So that is from the ground up, you're designing for everybody. And when you're designing for everyone, everyone benefits.
00:57:56
Speaker
um Operationally, ah just it it doesn't separate anyone from anybody does that make sense so it makes everyone um feel included um one thing that can be hard as a disabled person is kind of having to be separated from the rest and sometimes there's no workarounds for that when it comes to like things like lines you you can only do so much for that um But when it's inclusive, you get to, um it's A, smoother for everyone and B, smoother for disabled guests who just want the same experience as everyone else. um
00:58:37
Speaker
And it's not terribly hard to implement. I couldn't give you examples right now because there's so many, but implementing it is not terribly hard. um But when you involve inclusive design, it it works for everyone. it It improves everyone's experience by kind of keeping everyone together. There's no there's less moving parts.
00:58:56
Speaker
It's less operationally. It's even better that way because there's less moving parts, less people that are in you know different categories, if that makes sense, of who needs what, if that makes sense.
00:59:09
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Oh, you know what? there and There's something on my brain. um So Donkey Kong um is a really good example of this, um as well as Forbidden Journey. So they have anne they can manually take a ride vehicle off.
00:59:29
Speaker
and have a loading station that's directly next to the um like the regular road loading station. Now, there is a wall there because some people don't like being watched while they're transferring from their chair. can be a very vulnerable moment for some people.
00:59:44
Speaker
um But it's like the same ride station. It's right next to the ride station. They take the ride vehicle directly off the track. they have as much time as they want, um so no one is rushed. So you know um with some rides, if you're stopping the walkway, everyone stops.
01:00:04
Speaker
um And so at that point, you're getting less people through, you're stopping the ride for everyone. But the separate ride stations, and this Universal has a few of these, they're really, really cool.
01:00:16
Speaker
um When I was at Epic, we saw it and then we were like, can we look at it? it was super cool because it the system is super neat. It's its own um little area um that just connects directly to the the track and then you can have as much time as you want and it doesn't stop anyone.
01:00:32
Speaker
um Same with Forbidden Journey. Forbidden Journey is has the same thing. The crate's right there. It's awesome. Super, super cool design. I love that. Yeah, it is an awesome design. I liked... There was a point when I was on crutches and I had to use the Forbidden Journey one and I remember thinking it was awesome. like i Oh, it's so cool. Getting there too? I don't...
01:00:52
Speaker
they and don't Well, when I didn't have an escort, um they print out the direction on so on how to get there on receipt paper um because it's a little hard to get to because you have to take two elevators.
01:01:06
Speaker
But it's nice because you get to be in the air conditioning and it kind of takes you around. It's really nice. It's ah it's a break. I felt like I was someone like I was going to get in trouble. and like that You're like in this private hallway. It's it's very liminal space-esque. But, you know, you're in the...
01:01:23
Speaker
um air conditioning a little bit more. And also you've got a cool view because then you can see the Kuka arms. Unless you're not into that, then you just don't look at it.
01:01:35
Speaker
Yeah, you also, for all of our regular theme park nerds listening, um it also is probably like, especially for Forbidden Journey, I don't know what it's like for Donkey Kong or any of the others, but there's a specific spot in the lineup for that vehicle that's always that ends up being always empty and you have to wait for the next cycle, but it throws you into the spot in between the other vehicles with like the most intensity I've ever felt on a ride like that. super fun. It is super intense.
01:02:06
Speaker
It's like 0 to 100 in no time. You're like, all right, you're getting in. Go back in there. You got to squeeze them in. It's literally like you have a 10 if you're getting onto a major highway and you have like a 10 yard entrance onto the highway and you're just like pedal to the metal and just gun it.
01:02:23
Speaker
It's the most intense start to that ride ever. I love it. And it's super fun because it's cougar arm and you don't really get that experience on it. and It's very unique. super fun.
01:02:35
Speaker
it was it's a It's a very insane experience. It's very cool. Big fan of that. Shout out to Riverbidden Journey. Huge fan of that ride. What was I going to yeah I hope that answers the question.
01:02:50
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Perfect. And then before we get into the listener question, is there question questions? um What do you want our listeners to know about service animals and theme parks?
01:03:03
Speaker
Oh, okay. My first one is don't stop sticking your fingers in the crates, please. With peace and love. Stop putting your phalanges, your little appendages, put your, pit put your little fingers away.
01:03:17
Speaker
Keep them out. Now I have, run into this a couple times where kids just get bored and I understand I'm a I love kids I'm a sucker for kids I understand that you turn your head ah and they're 20 miles away i get it um however um kids are usually the the main offender of this but they'll just be sticking their fingers in and i'm like oh because there's so many dogs that do not like that don't like it um now service dogs are not allowed to be aggressive um you know a dog correcting another dog for being rude you know fine it happens um but
01:04:00
Speaker
it it does It happens. if i and I wouldn't blame them. If somebody's trying to get into the crate, I wouldn't be mad if the dog got a little grumpy at them. Stop sticking your fingers in there. It's not a good idea. it's it's not It's a safety problem.
01:04:11
Speaker
And that's another thing I think parks could consider. They often have crates right up next to queues. Right up next to queues. I know of a dog that was at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
01:04:23
Speaker
um that And I believe I actually met the handler if it's who I think it is. um They were on Finnegan's flyer and there was a dog, and ah somebody, i don't know why the person didn't stop, but they were just kicking the crate over and over again, like violently kicking the crate.
01:04:42
Speaker
The dog had to be washed later because they had never heard that dog make the sounds that it did because it was just being kicked in the crate and was terrified. It was absolutely terrified. um And I believe the staff did nothing wrong in this case. They they tried, but you can't you know physically stop somebody from doing anything.
01:04:58
Speaker
Um, and they're not allowed to take the dogs out of a crate because it's, it's, it's a liability problem. They're not allowed to touch them. Um, And yeah, the dog had to get washed for that. Leave the dogs alone in the crates. And I think parks could do a little bit better with the location of the crates.
01:05:14
Speaker
Disney has a really good job about that. And so does Universal. Usually the crates are are out of the way, except for sometimes Universal has them in the family rooms, but they have signs on them. They're like, please don't touch the dog.
01:05:25
Speaker
But places like Busch Gardens, kind of like the Wild Wild West out there. um Jen, I'm sure you've seen some of the locations for the crates there. Yeah. Yeah. so like Manta is a really good one it's just it's just out there um and for Bolton's Crate 2 it's right by the entrance um yeah it's by like the exit isn't it so it's like anyone leaving the ride hu yep it's right there um that one doesn't even there's not even a barrier it's not even in its own section oh literally on the wall section
01:05:56
Speaker
It is in a walkway. Yeah, so it's one of those things. But yeah, keep get your fingers, keep your toes, keep your appendages out of the crates. And don't feed them either.
01:06:09
Speaker
Don't feed them. I've had ah kid throw popcorn at Russell. I've also had um people straight up just try to feed him. And they were trying be nice. They thought it was funny. But don't feed them, especially like Baymax's tummy was very, very sensitive.
01:06:21
Speaker
Also, it's just rude. Don't distract the dog. Leave him alone. The dog's there as medical equipment is heartless and cold as that sounds. That's what they're there for. um Just don't distract him from that.
01:06:32
Speaker
That's all I can really think of. Keep your fingers and toes to yourself and don't feed him. Leave him alone. Oh, you know what? Another thing is So some, this is a little bit niche, but it's important, especially when you're going to theme parks.
01:06:47
Speaker
Um, a lot of service dog handlers, especially those who frequent theme parks, love fun gear. Like themed gear. I've seen a harness, a mobility harness with a toothless tail on it. Uh, that was part of the leather on the harness.
01:07:00
Speaker
Super duper fun. Some dogs have Mickey ears on super cute. Everyone loves it. Um, just ask before you take a picture of the dog. Don't like, you know, get a picture of the person and like, you know, stuffing their face with food and you know, the subject is the dog. However, nobody wants just random pictures of them. You might even get the dog to I've posed Baymax before, um you know, for people just ask, just, yeah the gear is still gear. The dog is still working. Leave him alone.
01:07:28
Speaker
Admire from afar, ask for a picture, but yeah it's not an invite. Yeah. Yeah, taking pictures used to be my biggest pet peeve. And when people were would just ask, I almost always would let them.
01:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm like, I can pose my dog for you. Just don't get a photo of me. um You know, like, it just ask. Some people will say no, obviously, and that's totally fine. um But yeah, no.
01:07:51
Speaker
Fun gear is super duper fun. I don't have much. I made a Jolly Rancher Remix Velcro thing that I stuck on Baymax's vest one time, because I love Jolly Rancher Remix. So I made him a... a little thing. I don't actually have it. I was going to reach over and grab it, but don't have it with me.
01:08:05
Speaker
I made panels that stuck to it. So yeah, fun gear, super fun. Some dogs have their dogs in much more extravagant outfits than I probably would put my dog in.
01:08:16
Speaker
um But I love seeing them. um I couldn't handle the attention, but some people don't mind. But yeah, so even if they have fun gear on, they're still working. But you can always ask to take a picture of them.
01:08:29
Speaker
It's better to ask than just take a photo randomly. okay Definitely. I feel like a lot of it is just kind of finding that balance and like educating families and having parents educate their kids on etiquette for service animals.
01:08:44
Speaker
Oh, for sure. um like cause you know, for a three-year-old, they might just be like, Ooh, puppy and want to go pet it. Not, not understanding at all. And so I think there's a lot that can be done creatively to kind of educate kids on how best to interact with service animals and their handlers.
01:08:59
Speaker
For sure. That could be anything from like the employees. I had an employee one time. His name Eddie. Shout out to Eddie Verbolton. um That made kids. Sorry, Russell just jumped off the bed and pulled out my power cord.
01:09:11
Speaker
um I and it plugged in all the way across the other part of the room because my extension cord is no longer there because I'm moving out. um But he made them. It was so funny. He made them apologize to me um because they kept harassing Baymax at the time.
01:09:28
Speaker
And then they let me write again. um because they felt bad. But, oh you know, there is a point where i think security employees should intervene a little bit more. There is a video out there of a woman in her wheelchair with her service dog.
01:09:45
Speaker
And they, parents do this all the time. Parents love using dogs as entertainment when their kids get, you know, that 3 p.m. hour when kids just get tired and grumpy, it's hot.
01:09:58
Speaker
I get it. i I get it. It's like peak tantrum time. It is like family fall apart time. It happens to all of us. However, um a lot of people will see a service dog and they they'll put their baby right in front of it all the time. Happens all the time. I don't know if you've experienced this, Jen, or not, but they'll be like, look at the doggy.
01:10:20
Speaker
Look, doggy go woof, woof, woof. And no, I'm a sucker for kids, so I'm not like... I don't, I'm also really bad at setting boundaries, so have a hard time saying no. um So sometimes I'll just try to ignore it. But that's definitely one of those things, like there's a point where it's like, hey, there's another attraction, especially like at a place that has other animals. Go see the penguins. If you're a SeaWorld, don't. This is a dog.
01:10:43
Speaker
You can see this walking down the street. Go get your money's worth. Yeah. So i think there is a point where employees should step in especially just like any other sort of argument. um lots of Lots of interesting ah service dog incidents between.
01:11:02
Speaker
Thanks, Russell. um have happened because it's is really tense. And again, people get grumpy. um Another thing is statistically, one of the reasons why this kind of thing is so important is um it's actually statistically more likely for people to fake a service dog on vacation and be at theme parks. Theme parks are going to be one of the places you see these the most.
01:11:25
Speaker
um Because get your head out of that.
01:11:30
Speaker
He's smelling something. He's like, what is that? think he's getting bored. um But they're statistically more likely to be fake service animals there because they're traveling.
01:11:41
Speaker
um There's like a lot of small details of ah why that is. um But the long story short, it's because people are traveling. And so not only from a safety standpoint, but with kids and adults just learning how to high wrestle.
01:11:58
Speaker
um interact with them. It's a safety problem for them too. Um, because again, you you don't know if that dog's trained or not. Um, again, these dogs are not supposed to be there, but sometimes they slip in. And if your dog goes up and, you know, grab, if your kid goes and grabs their face, you could get bit.
01:12:16
Speaker
Um, it's just, Stop. He's trying to open his own toy box. He does it all the time. He gets bored and he he takes out. It's an Ikea recycling bin that just has a flap that opens. So he pushes it open and grabs whatever he wants out it.
01:12:29
Speaker
Can I help you? Can I help you? just wants to be part of the podcast. He does. He says, don't want to be involved. I have things to say. He's like, actually, do feed me. Russell is a food fiend.
01:12:41
Speaker
Baymax was very stoic. Yeah. and very like regal. um Didn't care about a whole lot. Russell is a lab Rottweiler mix and he is, has no brain, I don't think.
01:12:53
Speaker
And he only cares about food and people paying attention to him, um which is great service dog wise, temperament wise, because of all the crazy things that he has to deal with. he He's fantastic. He doesn't care about anything.
01:13:07
Speaker
um But food is definitely a thing for him. on So, Now, if what? I don't know if you heard in line. I'm so sorry.
01:13:18
Speaker
um thought it was Alex. but Yeah, Alex, shut up over there. What was I going to say? But yeah, no, it's a safety thing for everyone. Just yeah people need to be better. Not even just in theme parks, um but theme parks especially because that risk is higher.
01:13:35
Speaker
Just don't touch dogs that you don't know. Honestly, just yeah just don't touch dogs you don't know. especially their butt. I've had people grab Russell's tail.
01:13:47
Speaker
Like y'all are so lucky that my dog is trained and has a good temperament because again, i wouldn't be mad at a dog that, you know, may have grumbled at the kid. If you grab their tail and pull on it, you have, that dog has every right to say, Hey, I didn't like that.
01:14:01
Speaker
No, no biting, no aggression. However, you know, don't grab tails and tell your kids not to grab tails or any part of a dog for that matter that you don't know yeah that's one of the few times that ahsoka like she was she ahsoka is really good at like one quick warning like snap and she won't get close but she will let you know she'll give like a quick bark snap like do not do that and someone i i remember universal and someone grabbed her butt And she was like, she turned so quick. And she was like, absolutely not.
01:14:34
Speaker
I don't blame her. And I was like, the the guy got mad. And I was like, why would you touch your butt? Like, why would you touch the dog's butt? Why would you do that? Go away. Right. ne Bye.
01:14:45
Speaker
For real. It's just. um welcome People need to be better behaved around dogs in general. Yeah, it was like, that was on you. I'm not going to apologize. Yeah, don't think she did anything wrong in that case.
01:14:58
Speaker
Yeah, the only other time she snapped at a park is that time that Baymax sniffed her butt. Yeah, so for context, um Jen and I were at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and we were going to do the little hideaway speakeasy thing. And so we were waiting around and these, they were so good. They were so good together, except for Baymax every once in a while.
01:15:22
Speaker
He, so for context, my, both of my dogs are trained in guide work. um And so with handling a guide dog versus a normal service dog, you kind of let their leash loose a little bit. um And so they're allowed to make little tiny decisions every once while that you could correct.
01:15:36
Speaker
um they have a little bit more leniency when it comes to where their head is uh he would kind of reach over and take a few sniffs to ahsoka and eventually but they were great they were great the whole time other than a sniff or two they were working side by side they were great and then we were like yeah you know what it's most of the way through the day they were so good together um and then we let them say hi and baymax is so rude went straight for her hind end.
01:16:04
Speaker
And Ahsoka was like, you're not even gonna like say hi to my face at first. And I don't blame her for that. Baymax was so rude.
01:16:15
Speaker
I'm sorry. did you hear that? never heard that one. Goodness. Well, Russell likes to talk. He goes raw, raw, raw. He doesn't howl, but he does, he talks. Well, it's a Roddy.
01:16:27
Speaker
Yeah, I know. I'm not used to it. It's so funny. He doesn't have the terrier yap that Baymax did. Yeah. um But yeah, no, that was so funny. Yeah, it's like, uh-uh. No, sir. I don't blame him.
Challenges Faced by Service Dogs at Haunts
01:16:40
Speaker
don't blame All day they were perfect, and then that was like the moment we released them. He deserved it. He deserved it. He went to rate straight to the butt. What was I going to say? Okay.
01:16:55
Speaker
Excellent. Sorry, I got sidetracked.
01:16:59
Speaker
oh Another topic I can bring up if it's okay. um Another thing with theme parks is that's very prevalent is haunts. This is a really hard topic to cover with service dogs.
01:17:14
Speaker
um And Jen, I know you have a story of one of the actors. um So that's a perfect example of what needs to be done better. um Do you want to go ahead and tell the story of what happened with you and Ahsoka before i continue?
01:17:29
Speaker
Oh yeah, i absolutely can. Please Please do. oh I want to preface this with, I was not bringing my my service dog to a haunt, but the setup at this park didn't have any options to attend the nightclub.
01:17:45
Speaker
Goodness.
01:17:48
Speaker
Russell's tilting his head. For what it's worth, i'm would um this is like the only time I'm going to leave all of the dog noises in because it's so applicable to the conversation at hand. None of going to get edited out. Russell, there's no one there.
01:18:05
Speaker
He's looking around. It's an episode about mostly about service dogs. What can we say? Adoka! I miss her.
01:18:18
Speaker
so Don't rile him up. He's right here.
01:18:24
Speaker
He's so stupid. um No, haunts can be a really hard thing to navigate only because the nature of them. And by haunts, I mean like the park event in general, um not just the houses. I'm talking scare zones, everything. It's overwhelming for just and that person. 1000%.
01:18:45
Speaker
That's why I kind of advise a lot of handlers not to bring their dog. Um, to lot of places now i'm a little hypocritical of that because both of my dogs have been absolutely fantastic um they both like sliders they both russell actually worked with me at cedar point in a scare zone for about a month and a half and he loved it um because i was a fog tech now he wasn't there for the whole shift we had you know times where we would sit backstage because i was a fog technician and uh There are dogs that we saw there that were absolutely not prepared to be there. They could have absolutely been legitimate service dogs.
01:19:23
Speaker
Absolutely. However, haunts are an entirely different thing because there's no kind they don't have context. Just like with fireworks, the dogs don't have context for it. I think the world's ending and who is this person sliding around on the ground and it's sparking? like what I would be terrified.
01:19:39
Speaker
I'd be terrified. um And I don't blame any dog for being scared of that. I think, though, this is the part where the handler is a lot more responsible than the park is um to make sure that their dog is okay to be in these environments.
01:19:53
Speaker
Now, when it comes to a situation like Jen's... um which I'll, sorry, I'll stop yapping in a second so you can tell the story. But there is a thing where, again, employee training needs to be applied a little bit more here. um And it's really unfortunate because those things can scar dogs.
01:20:12
Speaker
So go ahead, Jen, sorry. Yeah, so sorry, my dogs got very excited um and needed to pause. um But I do like to preface this with the fact that I was not... The park that I was at had a very, very, very small haunt event.
01:20:26
Speaker
There were three, there were like three or four houses and three scare zones. I mapped out everything. The scare zones could all be avoided. um So hence the only reason my dog was with me, except for the entrance, I put a scare zone...
01:20:41
Speaker
directly at the entrance of the park with no way around it. So I had a game plan. Rules to not interact with service dogs should always be applied. That's at least my thought.
01:20:54
Speaker
Absolutely. Whether you're a scare actor or not. So my game plan was to pick up my dog, carry her very visibly through the scare zone so no one would approach me.
01:21:08
Speaker
but No one would. ah
01:21:12
Speaker
Ahsoka has a lot to say right now. She says, I'm in this one. I'm in this one. Let me tell this. Let me tell you. Um, so it was me, two other people. They were prepared to tell people about the dog if they didn't see the dog. I had the dog held very visibly to my side where the scare actors could see her very visibly.
01:21:33
Speaker
My intention was that they would ignore her. She had been around chainsaws. She had had exposure to all of the noises. So I wasn't concerned about the noises. So my intention was that they would ignore her.
01:21:46
Speaker
Um... Instead, i had a scare actor follow us. And then even after being told that there was a service dog and to back off, he continued to follow us to the point that I had to turn around.
01:22:02
Speaker
And then he chased me with a chainsaw with a service dog in my hand. Like extremely close to me. and which is completely inappropriate behavior. And I think that the norm, if I remember correctly, the normal onboarding for a lot of just normal staff has stuff about service animals.
01:22:23
Speaker
But I think the scare actors one I've heard across the board do not have much training on it. Yeah. At all. um Yeah. And then I remember when i i I told a supervisor and was told that I i should have purchased a boo necklace when this was at the entrance of the park, there wasn't even access to a store. Right.
01:22:46
Speaker
Um, but I will say that after the fact, once the park was made aware of the situation, um, I talked to their head of like safety. Right. And had a conversation with them and they seemed to take it really seriously. So that part was good. I know. Hey, park at all at that point.
01:23:02
Speaker
Um, But yeah, that was an experience. Yeah. Training for the employees would have been extremely helpful because me and my dog, I shouldn't have had to purchase a boo necklace. I shouldn't have anything. We should not have been interacted with. She shouldn't have been distracted in any way.
01:23:16
Speaker
Right. It should just be a given, um just don't leave the dog alone. Leave any dog alone kind of thing. um So i feel so bad about that story.
01:23:29
Speaker
I have something opposite when I was at Halloween Horror Nights and And i I had a ah light-up collar and stuff on him. And I was going specifically for Horror Nights.
01:23:42
Speaker
And Baymax is all good and fine, completely fine, the scare zones. um But there was a... um This is not even just a service dog-specific issue. This is also a, you know, costuming department problem.
01:23:56
Speaker
um The actor couldn't see very well out of the mask and completely missed that Baymax was there. because it was in the lower field of his vision. and just swooped in with that chainsaw. And Baymax kind of jumped out of his skin a little bit, which again, I don't blame him.
01:24:13
Speaker
I've been scared too. um He didn't do anything. He just kind of jumped out of the way and then was nervous and in that scare zone, which again, I don't blame him, but um they felt so bad that they escorted me through the rest um and the employee.
01:24:30
Speaker
So scare actors aren't allowed to interact or like say anything like to, hi guests that aren't like, you know, part of their acting. They're not allowed to. And so the poor guy went to his supervisor and was like, please tell her i am so sorry. And i want he wanted to make sure that Baymax was okay because he just absolutely did not see um him until my friend yelled something. And and by that time it was done.
01:24:55
Speaker
Um, so that was one of those, those really, and then they escorted me out. And so that's like the, the better situation. Now, sometimes, you know, that stuff happens. Um, and that's one of those things where I'm, why I, uh, kind, I warn other handlers about bringing their dog to haunts.
01:25:13
Speaker
Um, now another thing is with not just like the scare zones, the actual houses. Um, um, Those can be legally are a hard thing to navigate because they're walkthroughs and you're not allowed to judge on whether or not um a dog can do something based on a what if my dog, you know, what if the dog gets scared to bite someone?
01:25:41
Speaker
It's not allowed. You can't do it. um You're not allowed to be like to base it on what if. um However, you can offer things like crates, which could be you know the policy modification um and still allow them to go through or some parks, shoot, I forgot who it was.
01:26:01
Speaker
It might have been, it was either Universal or Bush that um they would have a ah staff member go in with a sign and tell the actors that a dog was coming through and they wouldn't, they would experience all of the effects pretty much and have the actors from a distance. And so the dog was able to go through with the handler.
01:26:22
Speaker
Um, But you know they weren't really purposely scaring the dog because you can't see in those mazes most of the time. So they were just warned that there would be a dog and make sure that they don't you know freak out the dog.
01:26:36
Speaker
um But that will be one thing that I will i will never do with my dogs. I'll never take them into a haunting. I just don't think it's very kind. Scare zones are different, but in a closed space like that, um too many risks.
01:26:47
Speaker
I don't care how bomb-proof my dogs are. I'm not taking them through a haunt. It's not gonna happen. Um, but there are people that do want to take the dogs in and that if there's, you know, a combination for that, that's totally up to them.
01:27:00
Speaker
Um, Yeah, haunts are a little bit of a gray zone because dogs get terrified in those. There's ah story of a dog at Cedar Point that i managed to get their way in there. I don't know exactly what happened on the staff side, um but the dog went in and the dog got so scared it threw up in in the haunt maze, which is just one of those things where it's like you can't exclude things.
01:27:26
Speaker
You can't exclude them based on just having the dog and a what if. But um it's one of those things where I'm like, personally, I don't think it's very kind to the dog. so I think haunts are one of the number one places that should have have crates out of anywhere.
01:27:44
Speaker
um If that makes sense. Sorry. Haunts are very interesting little crossroads that I think should be true. Yeah, definitely. They're a tough environment.
01:27:57
Speaker
That's for sure. Yeah, I've seen a lot of dogs that were at and Cedar Point that just weren't ready. Again, they could have been absolutely fantastic service dogs normally. um But when they're in that environment, you know, at that point, it's one of those things where the accommodation could be somebody goes with a staff member and they walk through with them.
01:28:15
Speaker
That could be an absolute, like a complete thing. So that way you have people around you, but the dog itself is not getting scared. um and That could be an absolutely reasonable accommodation, especially because most haunt things have security and staff that aren't actors in there anyway.
01:28:30
Speaker
um And we've escorted through people all the time. I've done a few escorts of people through scare mazes that were just terrified and wanted to get out. So, you know, absolutely reasonable accommodation. Yeah.
01:28:41
Speaker
For haunts. Don't force your dog through, period. End story. It's not fun for anyone. Yeah. but It's a tough environment for humans. Yeah. Absolutely.
01:28:53
Speaker
don't blame any dog for not wanting to be there. I got very lucky with both of my dogs, but I also got pleased with dogs that knowingly were able to do that kind of thing because that's where I work a lot of the time.
01:29:05
Speaker
um So anyway, yeah, not every dog likes it. I don't blame them. Yeah, totally. All right. I think that it's time for us to get into some listener question it questionings.
01:29:18
Speaker
I don't know what I'm saying. Um, All right. two start, um what design or policy features are the most helpful for supporting service animals?
01:29:34
Speaker
um Crates. No question. Crates are great. I Circling back to the beginning, everyone likes to ride with the people they're with. I actually, um, let me pull up the statistics here real quick, because I have a lot of research into a lot of the stuff that i I talk about, um, where both observed by ride operators and, um, self reports of handlers, um,
01:30:04
Speaker
preferring with crates or the importance of riding with their party, 88% rate between on a five point scale, between four and 5%, they report how important it is for them to be able to ride with their party.
01:30:19
Speaker
um And from an a rideop um observational ride ride operator observational report was between, was 96%, you know, observing how important it was to somebody to be able to ride with them.
01:30:34
Speaker
And crates is pretty much the easiest way to do that. um And it's it's not expensive. um The only thing that could probably be um a little bit more expensive is needing to clean the crates, which does take, you know, it takes labor. It takes, you know, somebody's staff, you're paying hourly.
01:30:51
Speaker
um But I think it's it's easier than ride or swap anyway. um At least in my opinion. But you also get to ride with the party you want to.
01:31:03
Speaker
you're not swip swapping. So crates. um The other thing was the the grassy areas. Again. Let them pee on the bush.
01:31:15
Speaker
As long as there's no like cool lighting fixture. Or it's nothing. Let them pee on the bush. It's. That way you don't have to walk all the way. The front of the park. Just let them pee on the bush.
01:31:26
Speaker
yeah This was actually one of my. favorite things about the Disney parks because you look into Disney's official policy, the policy is that they provide service dog relief areas, but anywhere out of the walkway, as long as you clean up after the dog is accessible for the dog.
Design and Policy Innovations for Service Animals
01:31:49
Speaker
right And I think that's the best policy ever. i i agree. I completely agree. Because, you know, suddenly your dog gets sick or it's like, oh, shoot, I've been on three rides and I forgot to let my dog pee, as horrible as that sounds.
01:32:02
Speaker
um Just let him go. Let him go. Let him pee on the bush. That's all I have to say. to Let him pee on the bush, man. Yeah. It's crates and potty spots. That's the best to think of.
01:32:15
Speaker
And, like, I feel like there's so many ways that... crates and potty spots can be integrated into like themed areas. Yes. makes it a little more fun for the dog too, I think. So one of the things that I've worked on for um my classes ah is having crates that look like the scenery around them. I have literally designed a crate that looked like a tree and you opened the tree up and there's a crate in there. You know, the dog can sit in the tree.
01:32:44
Speaker
Um, and that's part of the inclusive design part where it's like, it's designed for everyone because those crates, I'm sorry, if they they're like the airport crates, normally they're not pretty. And it kind of kind of stick out like a sore thumb.
01:32:57
Speaker
Um, cause they're just black and tan and wire. So, which is fine. Um, but it also, i think it would make me as a handler really appreciate that it's there, but also it blends in,
01:33:11
Speaker
in an inclusive way to the set around it. It's less, you know, it doesn't take you out of it. um One example I can think of for this was um one of the main things that inspired me about this was at Universal Studios Hollywood at their, shoot, what is the Flight of the Hippogriff? Is that correct?
01:33:30
Speaker
The Hippogriff ride? The little roller coaster. They actually have a themed crate there. And it is wood that is like, it's the same wood as surrounding, like the surrounding like set pieces and the little latch, you know, it works the same way, but it's all wood and it all, it functions the same exact way.
01:33:47
Speaker
Um, but the crate blends in with the scenery around it and it's absolutely beautiful. Um, so that kind of inspired me, but, um, yeah, no, it's, if you, it's so easy. Um, you don't even have to make the actual crate itself. You can make a skin that goes around it. And by skin, I mean like,
01:34:05
Speaker
plywood and, you know, foam carving, and then, you know, put epoxy or sealer on it. Um, at that point you can just even ask a maintenance person, um, to paint it. Um, cause I have usually most parks have maintenance, um, painters.
01:34:19
Speaker
Um, so it's not that expensive and that it, it makes it less, you know, less of an eyesore. Um, although I am grateful for crates period, cause they're not legally required.
01:34:31
Speaker
um specifically, i don't remember which exact section it's in, but in the ADA FAQ, there's specifically a section that says that places don't have to have a space for your dog or supervise them at all. So all of these are are kind of luxuries.
01:34:50
Speaker
um um Even though it's, you know, doubling back on everything I've said, it's, it's, Kind of something that that fundamentally alters the experience if you don't get to ride.
01:35:04
Speaker
um But they are legally sort of luxuries. um But they're not hard to implement, so I wish more parks did do that. But yeah, there's plenty of ways that you can make crates that don't look like sore thumbs.
01:35:17
Speaker
You know, in a whimsical forest. Put a tree in there. Put little cabin in there. think would help prevent like young kids from poking their... You know, putting their phalanges into the... places that they shouldn't be if they barely even recognize that it's there. It's just another part of the game.
01:35:33
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And I think, yeah, absolutely. That's a point I didn't think about. um But yeah, no, absolutely. That could be a solution for sure. Like for, had done a couple crates.
01:35:45
Speaker
I've done one for a ride that I was working on that was Kuga Arm ride that was based around...
01:35:58
Speaker
a long story short, it was a zoo. Think of a zoo that gone bad. um you know And so you have a ah crate that looks like it was one of the animal crates that's just in um in the queue or off to the side of the queue where it's not accessible to other guests.
01:36:14
Speaker
But you know it looks like it belongs there, just like everything else does. um You can do, one of the ones I worked on was for a ah toy based ride and they're you know um made of giant blocks.
01:36:28
Speaker
you know, kind of thing. It just looks like it's another toy that's there. um But it doesn't give anyone access to the dog and it doesn't stick out like it's worth them. I know I keep using that term over and over again, but I don't know what else, what other word to use for it.
01:36:42
Speaker
It's all immersive. Yes. For sure. Here's my fancy word of the day. um So I know we're kind of coming up on your deadline of when you need to be done with us. um But I know one more question.
01:36:56
Speaker
Sure. We had a few more questions that were kind of answered throughout. But one last one. What's been your favorite interaction with a guest with a service dog that we're able to get on ride together? Oh, man.
01:37:07
Speaker
Okay. Actually, i have a really good story for this one. So I... ah few years ago, um i was on a trip with Baymax's program and we went to Disney world and, uh, or Disneyland. I'm sorry. oh my sound like a fake Thuzi right now. The one in California, Disneyland and pirates of the Caribbean, um allow service dogs on it. However, there is a drop on it.
01:37:32
Speaker
And so I was going to elect to not have, um, Baymax ride with me. Um, however, because we had a, uh, issue with one of my friends, um,
01:37:43
Speaker
that had one of the program dogs, um she was going to transfer from her wheelchair and they told her she couldn't. And it was like, that's absolutely not true. You can transfer from your wheelchair to the ride vehicle.
01:37:55
Speaker
um But the cast members felt so bad that they gave us our own boat. So it was a boat, a pirate boat, full of like five or six program dogs riding up Pirates of the Caribbean.
01:38:08
Speaker
um That was pretty fun. um That's a personal one, though. I'm trying to think of one that's not. I always enjoy the videos of people and their dogs getting to see their favorite characters.
01:38:23
Speaker
um I recently had an interaction with Igor during previews. Big fan of Igor. Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. He said that Russell was a werewolf and laterly laid on the floor with him.
01:38:36
Speaker
um um I think that's the best one for that. um Yeah, I think that's the best one. That I can think of at least for now.
01:38:46
Speaker
So sorry if I can't. Those are the best stories I've got. I can't imagine just like a boat full of dogs on Pirates of the Caribbean. I wish I had a picture but it's so dark. Right. It's like yeah no super fun. The dogs are fine.
01:39:00
Speaker
Baymax wasn't a huge fan but he uh he went on. I couldn't pass the opportunity up. I knew he would be fine on it and he wasn't gonna go anywhere. I just knew that he probably wouldn't love it. Um.
01:39:12
Speaker
But he was fine. He was happy. He liked to look at all the the set pieces. He thought it was cool. and He was smelling the bromine just like the rest of us. like that kind of stuff.
01:39:23
Speaker
Bromine water. So he was sticking his little head out and was going you know sniffing the air. um Don't we all? For real. For real. he's just like He's one of us. One of us, man.
01:39:34
Speaker
oh piano thats That's the best interaction I think I've ever had with that kind of thing. Still, even years later. Best story. Sounds precious. Have your dogs been on Living with the Land?
01:39:47
Speaker
No, i actually haven't been. i hadn't been to Disney since I was like 10, except for when um Alex, my fiance, actually took Surprise Me when we were the day before IAPA started.
01:40:00
Speaker
Um, and cause I hadn't been to Disney and I really want to ride dinosaur again. And so last minute he took me to Disney. And so I haven't been, since I've been a service dog handler, I have not been, but Russell rode, um, Navi river journey.
01:40:17
Speaker
Um, and he's written Boo Blasters. Um, that's pretty much it. He doesn't fit very well in Boo Blasters, but, um, he
Personal Stories and Conclusion
01:40:25
Speaker
likes it. He's like, you know, he can't see the colors, but he can see that they're bright and there's a lot happening.
01:40:30
Speaker
um Oh, no, and Yoshi. He wrote Yoshi, too. He love you thought Yoshi was really funny. um Baymax wrote Cat in the Hat. Oh, my gosh, the spinning on that.
01:40:42
Speaker
it Yeah, he wasn't a huge fan. I forgot that it spun, he had to, you know, lay completely flat. So, because that's one of the policies Universal has. Sometimes they enforce it, and sometimes they don't, where the dog has to be completely laying down.
01:40:57
Speaker
yeah, super fun. I never enforce that with my dog. So and I think it's normally when they're bigger. I'm not sure. Maybe it's a center of gravity thing. um There's not really any formal. I also had her handle. I used to hold her handle and everything in case.
01:41:11
Speaker
Right. No, makes perfect sense. That's one of the reasons I like the tethers too, is I don't have to think and worry about my dog, you know, my dog's safety, which both is on the handler in the park.
01:41:23
Speaker
Yeah. It's my whole thing is like, no matter how incredible your dog is trained, no matter how much you trust your dog, there's still a little bit of, of like, they don't have context.
01:41:34
Speaker
Yeah. Like there's still a little bit of like external factors. Oh, for sure. Absolutely. I would rather always have my hand on my dog. Oh, for sure.
01:41:45
Speaker
Yeah. Absolutely. Especially if the the ride vehicle isn't enclosed, for sure. Yeah. But yeah, living with the land, hands down, i think that Ahsoka would sell me for living with the land.
01:41:55
Speaker
I have heard so many people say something similar. They're like, everyone's dog's favorite ride is either small world or living with the land. Yeah. but i The first time she got on it, like she, I don't even know if she would have been capable of tasking because her nose was going a thousand miles a minute smelling everything in the greenhouse.
01:42:14
Speaker
There were like multiple times where I was just like, i have your eyes? Like after the first time she would pay attention a little more, but it would just be like a, every 30 seconds she'd check in. Like you good.
01:42:25
Speaker
All right. yeah Usually the first two, three rides, I don't expect my dog to, to really care that much. Yeah. It's one of those things.
01:42:37
Speaker
So it's a hard environment to tack in. So it's a really hard environment to task in. So I don't blame any dogs for not completely being all there. Yeah. But it's, it's like, I will never forget.
01:42:50
Speaker
yeah I'll try to go on as soon as I can. Cause I want to get back to Disney. I haven't had to Disney in 10 years. It's like crazy. Yeah. We need living with the land dog updates. I will do that. And I will have to post about it eventually. Once I get there, once I get there, I have to graduate and move out two days, two days, two days.
01:43:08
Speaker
So close. Caught you at a good time. Huh? So we caught you at a good time. Yeah, lots of stuff going on, but i'm it's a good this is a good break. I like yapping about this stuff, so it works.
01:43:20
Speaker
It works. Well, podcast is a good place to yap. Big fan of yapping. Big fan podcasts. Perfect place. Sorry if you can hear the sirens. There's always something going on in Savannah.
01:43:31
Speaker
There's always some sort of siren happening outside my window. um And Russell is staring out the window. He's a watcher. He sits there with his chin and just puts his head on the windowsill and just stares.
01:43:42
Speaker
He doesn't do anything. He just watches for hours. Hours. He'll sit there. He'll be happy. Sleeping and watching. Yeah, I'm talking about you. Your big old rock head. Jen, did you ever meet Russell?
01:43:56
Speaker
You met him at Cedar Point, right? No. i No? No, Cedar Point, you still had Baymax. I did, yeah. He retired a little bit between that. He was just getting sound sensitive and he was tired, so we knew it was coming.
01:44:10
Speaker
Yeah, I remember you still had Baymax because i have the picture. oh yeah. He literally just released himself because you wouldn't let him say hi to me. It's so funny. Baymax was giving you, that like, snubbing you too. And when I let him say hi, I was like, Baymax, being so rude. Yeah, we were... Or not Russell. Baymax, like, doesn't care about anybody.
01:44:30
Speaker
um that's That's my dog. i know. I was like, Baymax, go say hi. It's like ah um someone trying to get their kid to say hi to their like grandparent. You're like, go give her a hug. And they're like, I don't want to.
01:44:42
Speaker
I'm like, go say hi to Jen. No, that time we were like standing in front of Gemini he didn't want to say hi or at least he didn't want to. And he was in a heel and he was just sitting there. And then all of a sudden he just like removed himself from his heel and just. I remember that. up Against me. I think he remembered who you were and then was like, oh, okay.
01:45:03
Speaker
And then he was like, I'm done now. He's so funny. love that little old man in a dog suit. he The way I describe him to people who haven't met him is he's like an old man that like got reincarnated, but like against his will.
01:45:19
Speaker
Like he didn't want to be back. He like was back and was like, dang, and as a dog. And so that's just kind of permanent. Like he's happy. He was happy working. Um, but he, uh, yeah. He's like a grumpy old man.
01:45:32
Speaker
He does. He looks like a grumpy old man with the wrinkles and it doesn't help that his nose kind of goes, what like, slopes. So it's just like he's sad all the time. um people loved commenting on that.
01:45:43
Speaker
Um, even at parks. Even at parks. I've had people say that, like, they're like, why he shouldn't be working? He looks like he hates it. And i'm like, hmm.
01:45:52
Speaker
Yep, yep. Alright. I think this brings us to the end of our episode. I think so. Always the famous Jen line. Yeah. I'm always like, let's say, I think that wraps us up,
01:46:08
Speaker
Well, Caitlin, thank you so much for joining us and informing us more about kind of what it is that you do. And course, love it. way Always, always, always.
01:46:21
Speaker
Hopefully our listeners have ah learned something today. I know I've learned a lot for sure. It's not something that I've really been privy to at Parks. So it's been yeah very interesting for me to hear about.
01:46:32
Speaker
It's a super niche topic. i don't don't expect anyone to like be super versed in it. Except Jen. The perfect co-host for this. yes um I do, however, um even though we are missing a co-host right now, um I do feel like we have to come up with a very quick trivia question for next week's episode.
01:46:54
Speaker
Oh, um I have nothing unless you have something. Caitlin, do you have any accessibility themed trivia questions? Oh, man. I'm
01:47:06
Speaker
i'm not. I actually don't know. hang on. Give me a second. we're We're trying to channel our inner Bryant and it is not working. Um...
01:47:16
Speaker
Ooh, I guess, okay. ah The trivia question would be what parks do offer crates and which ones don't? Oh, that was kind of on my mind too. Okay, perfect. You'll have to give us answers separately because I know of about one park offhand.
01:47:30
Speaker
um I'll tell you when we're we're not recording. I'll tell you we're not recording. All right, so the trivia question of the week. What park chains offer crates for service animals? I believe they were mentioned in this episode.
01:47:46
Speaker
i might been listening yeah ah So they do have to be US based, but what US based chains offer crates for the service animals?
01:47:56
Speaker
All right. Now we're at the end of the episode. at the end Trivia. Thank you guys for having me. Of course. Thank you for spending an hour and a half with us.
01:48:08
Speaker
yeah i love and We appreciate you yapping. I appreciate having somewhere to yap. Bye, Russell. Russell also says bye. We are a yap inclusive podcast.
01:48:21
Speaker
So that inclusive design right there. Russell. Oh, so sweet. Russell also says bye. And Russell also says, no, don't listen to Caitlin and feed me popcorn.
01:48:32
Speaker
Any of that. Well, remember to always hashtag think inverted. Hashtag whatever. yeah i'm that's just all I'm just always going to say hashtag whatever now. oh boy I'll blame bla Bryant for that since he's not here to say anything against it.
01:48:46
Speaker
And we will see you all next time.