12 thoughts on “Joe Rohde Explains Lack of Wheelchair-Accessible Boats on Na’vi River Journey in Disney’s Animal Kingdom”

1. Question solved. Are you kidding? These rides were designed from the ground up, so this reasoning does not stand. Admit it Joe, you screwed this up. To design an attraction at this time and miss such a massive detail is inexcusable. I have a son in a wheelchair who cannot transfer. In fact for him to do the slide transfer to the banshee is virtually impossible. I’m not writing this on his account as he does not care for the land and thus the attractions. I’m writing this because it irritates me to see an adult who uses excuses for their lack of detail to attention on something that was their responsibility.

   • We should probably have Joe Rohde executed for his crimes against humanity then, right? I bet he did this on purpose because he hates people in wheelchairs!

     Jesus Christ, calm down.

     • Seriously, KPTC? Grow up. You sound exactly like the ones who think that, just because a statement or opinion is shared, it must be based on bigotry, hate, etc. Disdug said nothing of the sort but YOU had to make it about hate. Disdug is absolutely correct in his observation – the ride was designed from the ground up and SHOULD HAVE been designed with better accessibility for those who cannot transfer from their wheelchair and/or ECV. Disney has the money and the knowledge to do so – shame on them for not doing so.

2. i don’t think this explains anything. Some Imagineer he is…..can’t imagine a way around all of that. Its a shame its not more accessible. these are new rides….no excuses.

3. The only ride I can think of where you could take a scooter or a wheelchair on was universal of energy, I don’t see why this is a big issue, or why people are complaining about it. I think scooters are a huge issue in the parks, what’s next, why are the rides not hospital bed Accessible

   • Some of these are very old rides retrofitted to accommodate one staying in their own wheelchair. Some are very new – so why not this one? Your comment about hospital beds is ridiculous. I hope none of you or your children/spouses/parents ever have to deal with being disabled. If they do, contact me as I will see to it that they have someone in their corner fighting for them by simply being able to enjoy a ride in a park with their family and not having to wait outside for them and missing the enjoyment on their faces. The following list of Disney rides allows you to remain in your wheelchair at all times:

     • Jungle Cruise
     • Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room
     • Country Bear Jamboree
     • Raft to Tom Sawyer Island
     • The Hall of Presidents
     • Liberty Square Riverboat
     • Mickey’s PhilharMagic®
     • Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
     • Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor®
     • Advanced Training Lab
     • Innoventions East
     • The Seas with Nemo & Friends® The Circle of Life
     • House of Whispering Willows
     • Wildlife Express Train
     • Flights of Wonder
     • Maharajah Jungle Trek®
     • Conservation Station®
     • Tike’s Peak
     • Shark Reef
     • The American Adventure
     • America Gardens Theatre
     • Bijutsu-kan Gallery
     • Gallery of Arts and History
     • Impressions de France
     • O Canada!
     • The Great Movie Ride®
     • Indiana Jones™ Epic Stunt Spectacular!
     • Muppet*Vision 3D
     • Lights, Motors, Action!® Extreme Stunt Show®•
     • Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure
     • Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream
     • Voyage of the Little Mermaid
     • The Magic of Disney Animation
     • Disney Junior – Live on Stage!
     • Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage
     • Tree of Life Garden
     • Discovery Island® Trails
     • It’s Tough to be a Bug!®
     • Festival of the Lion King
     • The Boneyard
     • Dino-Sue
     • Fossil Fun Games
     • Finding Nemo – The Musical
     • Pangani Forest Exploration Trail®
     • Journey Into Imagination with Figment
     • ImageWorks – The “What If” Labs
     • Captain EO
     • Stave Church Gallery
     • Reflections of China

   • There are so many attractions with wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs) at WDW — The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, it’s a small world, Journey Into Imagination with Figment, Living with the Land, the Three Caballeros boat ride in the Mexico pavilion, Triceratops Spin, Jungle Cruise, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Toy Story Midway Mania….just to list a few. Maybe you don’t seen why people think this is an issue because it doesn’t impact you, but it impacts millions of others. My mother has been in a wheelchair for most of my life. It’s not much of a “family vacation” if you have to leave one of your party waiting out front at every attraction, and that’s why we chose Disney for years and years. Their trend has been, unfortunately, to stop creating attractions that are wheelchair accessible, and this is just another example of it. We aren’t asking for EVERY attraction to be accessible, but we’re asking for ones that are easily able to incorporate WAVs be designed as such.

     • But maybe, in this case, it wasn’t easily able to be designed? It seemed Rhode was only given a certain budget and land for the project. By looking at his tweets and old news, Navi River Journey may have not even been an original plan. I get your frustration but maybe it was out of his hands. We don’t know the full details with a tweet simply saying it wasn’t possible.

4. I love Disney World. It is absolute magic, every second! And I have never said anything bad about it, I just can’t be unhappy there! But this, this is the first time I have been disappointed by Disney World. A HUGE part of the magic is that the parks are 100% thought out. There are tiny details that you or I may not ever think of. And another HUGE part of the magic, is that Disney World can be enjoyed be everyone. And this design flaw, is a violation of both of these aspects of the parks. It is totally unacceptable to have a new ride in 2019 that is not accessible. The only thing to do is to close it down and redesign it. It’s Disney for God’s sake! Sorry for the rant, but this is very upsetting…

5. I agree. I love the scope of Avatar, and I love the detailed engineering that went into the land and the rides. But, if wheelchair access was a priority, they could have done it. It’s not like the engineering for those boats is that complex…see Small World and Jungle Book. This was a message to disabled visitors about $ and priorities.

6. I would have to disagree with his reasoning for wheelchair access. My child is in a power wheelchair and is getting too big to lift and transfer to some rides. She absolutely loves Disney and feels included when she can just drive onto Winnie the Pooh, figment, small world, living with the land, toy story mania, etc. I don’t find any of these vehicles bigger than the other ones, they may have less seating to accommodate but that’s it. Winnie the Pooh is a much smaller vehicle than the pandora boat. Other than that Disney has been a wonderful place for my child to play and have a tons of fun.

   I hope they continue to keep in mind wheelchair bound children and adults, they should be able to enjoy it as much as anyone else.

7. River Journey was clearly an afterthought and my guess is it was on the back burner when it comes to funding too. He can design a million amazing things but the bean counters are there too. That’s the reason we ended up with glow in the dark craft paint in Pandora instead of internally lit walkways. This may have been a mistake on his part but he is one part of a much, much larger operation and I think people are placing too much blame on him just because he’s a public figure. Disney Parks are taking the cheap way out all around in the past few years.

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