special disabled day out rates.

holistic_witch

Hi I have a boy that has both autism and adhd, I have servere arthritis
I purchased 3 normal rate passes though tesco vouchers and have done the last couple of years. Your not entitled to a free carers pass but if you ask nicely the lady (it has been so far) she lets me do one pass as a carers, this means that when my husband cant go I can take someone else as its not person related.
i use my mobility scooter around park. We get a band a desk which entitles us to use the exits, which with my son like most autistic kids does like people around him in queues and can get quite physical if he gets upset.
If I take a friend with me because i'm not feeeling upto rides she has has lots of abuse because he doesn't look like he has anything wrong. They should be around when he's not medicated or if he is when something goes wrong.
I get more respect than does (well most of time) but then people are so judgemental.
if you have a blue badge and not got your dla form then take that in, you dont need it in car the car park person checks it before you go into car park. If you are going to be going there lots the will put into the computer so you dont have to show it everytime.
We went about 8 times last yr and didn't have too many problems

hm71_2

alanrp123 wrote: »

You cannot show a blue badge, if it is in the front of your car, entitling you to park for free etc!!.

you could always photo copy it before you go.
I have never understood the need for 3 carers- at chessington & thorpe park they allow up to 3 according to the ride- i have one carer to help me in & out of the seats. I have seen people have 3 free tickets, but it is not something I need to do.
The wristbands come with a card that has to be marked each time you 'que-jump' you are only allowed to do it on certain rides & must have a 45min break between each ride- so basically you couldn't go from 1 popular ride to another straight away- to be honest at chessington it took nearly 1 hr to sort out paperwork etc.. & don't get me wrong I appreciate the assistance they give but if I didn't need to do it I wouldn't.

ajgrist

when we go to alton towers we use up to three carers. this means we can alternate who goes on the rides with my son. this means i can have a break too.

5stey

Wot a fantastic idea!! My baby became suddenly ill and she is now wheel chair bound. Unfortunately as a weak excuse for a mum I have used her wheel chair as an excuse not to get out and about (I know terrible) I found it hard to get to grips with having a child who was absolutely fine to being in a wheel chair. Everything suddenly required a risk assessment before we could step out the door. Things I took for granted suddenly became issues. phhhrt... ignore me but Thanx everyone for giving me hope x

shykins

holistic_witch wrote: »

I purchased 3 normal rate passes though tesco vouchers and have done the last couple of years. Your not entitled to a free carers pass but if you ask nicely the lady (it has been so far) she lets me do one pass as a carers, this means that when my husband cant go I can take someone else as its not person related.

just curious how u did this, i also purchased 3 passes, 1 each for my husband and i and 1 for my son..... i was told i couldnt just get 2, one for me (and my husband as a carer) and one for my son which is what i had intended

we would like to get some again for next year but not sure i can pay for 3 passes again
thanks

daska

One of the best I've found is the British Museum. They will reserve a parking place by the wheelchair lift to the main door and, if you're not taking your own, a wheelchair in your name will be waiting for you just inside the door (they'll bring it to you if you're unaccompanied) and if you're going to a paying exhibition a carer gets in free. The most difficult bit is avoiding all the pedestrians...

holistic_witch

I just asked the lady when getting the passes as offically with the tesco vouchers you should get like for like 3 vouchers 3 passes but as really needed the carers one I just said well I've paid albeit in vouchers so surely can have a carers which she did and as I had gone in early as bloke on gate told to get new cards the card didn't expire till a month later but the lady made a mistake which I did point out and she had june instead of March she couldn't be bother to change as huge queue
all you can do is ask

longhotbath

My son loves ice skating at Hampton Court which we do every year as a family.DH and DD DS2 and I pay and DS1 (age 6) goes for free in his wheelchair. His only problem is that we dont go fast enough.:rotfl:

National Trust were great - DH bought a 1 parent family ticket, which includes the 3 children. They had to find a ticket that had him as a paying member (they even sent him his own card to stop difficult questions on the gate). I was given a carers card to accompany him.
They gave us a copy of the access guide which explains in great detail where any access problems may be.

English Heritage arent so straightforward and we end up ahving long discussions at the ticket offices.
they also have an access guide, though not as thorough as the National Trust.

Try the ice skating. Its fantastic!!

ceebeeby

Hi skcollobcat,

Is it for adults or children?

The best theme park for disabled children is by far Loudon, who really do go the extra mile (holding rides so you can get the child on). If there's a 'scary' ride that I won't go on, but the child wants to, someone from the park will go on with them.

Also, the science museum is glasgow is very wheelchair friendly.

Unfortunately, Kelvingrove isn't particularly ...

Dioritt

I don't mean to be a party pooper but I've never quite understood why disabled people should pay less than others for entry into a lot of places. Ok, if you're not going to use the rides and are just along for the day out then fair enough but if you're going to do pretty much what everybody else does, why should it be cheaper? I'm disabled, am on income support and don't have a whole lot of money but then neither do a lot of able bodied people either.

Carers I can understand. Not everybody needs to have somebody with them in order to get about easily etc but I do have a degree of concern about the disabled person being given discounted entry.

Can anybody shed some light on why this should be? Maybe it's just me not 'getting it'.