[Berman:] All right. Welcome back to STARTING POINT, everyone. You're going to want to hear this according to an upcoming book about wealthy New York parents, some Manhattan mothers are hiring disabled tour guides because it allows them to jump to the front of the line at Disney World.
[Romans:] CNN has reached out to Disney. We've reached to a company called Dream Tours Florida which at least one parent claims provided this black market tour service. And neither organization has responded. The upcoming book is called "Primates of Park Avenue," an anthropological memoir of Manhattan motherhood. A beautiful title. The author is social researcher Wednesday Martin is here now. This story has so many people buzzing about this story. The idea of the 1 percent of the 1 percent hiring disabled tour guides to get through Disney. Is that really happening?
[Wednesday Martin, Social Researcher & Author:] It really is happening. And, you know, as you know, I'm a social researcher, and I live in what I consider a pretty exotic tribe. I live among the privileged and powerful parents of New York City. And once in a while, when you're a social researcher in this world, I mean, I live in the world. I'm fascinated by it, and once in a while, I uncover something a practice that's truly surprising. And this was sure one of them.
[Berman:] And you're writing about this in your book which is coming out. "The New York Post" also wrote about it this week and they quoted a mother saying who apparently engaged in this practice with a group called Dream Tours Florida. And this mother said, "My daughter waited one minute to get on it's a small world. The other kids had to wait 2 12 hours. You can't go to Disney without a tour concierge. This is how the one percent does Disney."
[Romans:] Is it a lens into a certain kind of life?
[Martin:] It is absolutely that. You know, as a social researcher, it's truly not my job to judge and I've watched as people talk about this story and the stories become a springboard for conversations. The perspective of the social researcher would be, this is a tribal behavior. When you hire these guides, what you're doing is you're affirming, that you're a member of this group of people that exchanges this quasi-secret privileged information. You're part of that exchange economy.
[Romans:] But you think you're better than everyone. I mean, this obviously you think you're better than anyone. You don't need to wait 2 12 hours.
[Martin:] I think this woman's description of this is how the one percent does Disney was accurate. How ironic she was being, I can't say, but I think it's an accurate description that these people are doing Disney and many other things in a different way.
[Berman:] But look, there are two things going on here. I mean, we're talking about the one percent or the top echelon. They have a lot of money. They can pay for legitimate V.I.P. tours. Why are they hiring this disabled group?
[Martin:] That's right. The way that the parents that I interviewed, and it's not just moms but dads as well, its privileged parents, and the way that many of them described it to me was that the V.I.P. tour guides who are officially with Disney cost more money and only get you speed passes whereas if you hire a handicapped black market Disney guy, you get an additional level of privilege, which is that you get to go to the front of the line, according to them, because this is Disney policy that disabled people and their parties don't wait. So and again, on top of that, the privilege that these people are also getting is that they're sort of demonstrating their affiliation with this exclusive tribe of people who do these things. When they hire these guides, they're saying, I'm one of you. This is the way we do things. We are different from other people. That's part of what's going on here.
[Romans:] It's just so outrageous.
[Berman:] We just say, we have reached out to Disney for a statement. They have not responded to us. Are they aware as far as you know that these outside groups are doing this and that people from Manhattan are doing this?
[Martin:] I would presume that this practice is an open secret in Manhattan, and that it was inevitable that this information would get out and that Disney would try to address it, but I should say this is the tip of the iceberg. This is a town where people have $4,000 birthday parties for four-year-olds. This is a town where we can hire a play date consultant to make sure that our children are doing play dates and learning to play the right way. So, this is a very particular world in which parents like parents everywhere are trying to do what's best for their children, but in Manhattan, what's best is a different animal all together.
[Berman:] You make it sound like such a great place. Wow.
[Romans:] Wow!
[Berman:] By the way, not everyone lives like that here, but it is alarming to hear that some people do. Wednesday Martin, thank you so much.
[Martin:] Thank you for having me.
[Romans:] You're my only play date consultant. I just ask you.
[Berman:] I let them fight and wrestle. That's what I do. That's a play date.
[Romans:] Nice to meet you.
[Martin:] Thank you. All right. Ahead on STARTING POINT, this amazing story. Buried for 17 days under rubble, the teen who survived the deadly Bangladesh factory collapse speaks for the first time. She tells the world what she will never do again. A CNN exclusive is next on STARTING POINT.