Lego Land and DDA

SingleSue

To be honest, it is pretty much of a non affair for us anyway, we have never been to legoland, Alton Towers, Chessington or any of the other big things in this country due to cost and travel issues.

We did however go to Pleasurewood Hills last year, no idea if they have a disabled policy, if they do, we never used it. The day was spent mainly with me standing on the side with youngest as although he can now cope better queueing, he doesn't like the big rides, whilst all the others went riding (eldest, his friend and middle son)

It didn't detract from our day though, the older, braver ones went on the big rides and the scaredy cats (me and youngest), sat and had cups of tea and ice lollies...think we were the better off ones as sometimes the braver ones came off the rides looking decidely green

Over the years it has become normal for us to do things like that, although I will attempt to get youngest onto a ride he is not sure of, using the calming measures and generally, he will enjoy himself but I have to be sure what the ride entails as I know for sure that if it goes fast, goes upside down or goes high, he will be trying to jump out of the carriage and will not enjoy it at all....so it is a carefully picked ride which although may look scary to him (tunnel for queuing etc), the actual ride is one he would enjoy.

A brilliant example of this is the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland Paris (yep, been there 3 times in our rich days), youngest took one look at where you queue, went into meltdown in the queue, tried jumping out of the car as the ride was starting but then realised that he actually loved the ride...we ended up going on the blasted thing again and again and again, I was sick of the sight of it by the time we went home :rotfl:

I made a bit of a mistake with Big Thunder Mountain though, I thought it was a nice little train ride........cue one youngest completely freaked out for the rest of the day, in fact for the rest of the time we were there, so freaked out that he would not go on anything, no matter what I said as I had lost his trust

We did use the passes at Disneyland and they were a godsend at times (youngest also has physical disabilities which makes standing for a long time/lots of steps painful), although at the time we were going, the queues for the rides were pretty minimal for the most part anyway...it was more ease of access.

Tiddlywinks

Flyboy152 wrote: »

How much do you imagine I am "expecting?" What I am asking for, is for son to be treated with dignity and fairness, why is that too much to expect?

How has Legoland failed to treat your son with 'dignity and fairness'?

I think you are stamping your feet and asking to be treated as 'extra special' as opposed to simply accepting that they have complied with their obligation to provide access as far as practicable.

I recognise that life must be stressful for you BUT that is not the fault of Legoland or any other service provider - it is a fact of life and the cards you have been dealt by fate. We all have issues that we must handle but we should not expect others to always fall in line because of these issues. Legoland has fulfilled its legal obligations - time to accept it.

blue_monkey_2

GlasweJen wrote: »

And google does not explain to me why an autistic child can deal with stimulation from wind and screams from others around them but can't stand in a queue.

We had a lady come to see us from OT and she explained that it is to do with sensory processing.

Some children are thrill seekers, it is the sensory sensation that it gives. http://leapsandboundstherapy.co.uk/v1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=88

These children are usually the ones that spend a lot of time spinning or cannot sit still for very long, they like to eat stuff they shouldn't (my son eats salt a lot, even off the ground when they have gritted, because he likes the sensation. Even the school have trouble stopping him from eating it).

We stand in a queue for the cinema and people complain about him and it is just 5 minutes - and short of me holding him down, he just cannot stand still. But I cannot hold him down for an hour. So without these passes we just would not bother going. If the queue is 10-15 minutes then we wait.

I've no issue in waiting the queue time though and it being written down, I think this is only fair, they do this at Disney and at Chessington, we don't go a lot, once a year or every other year, but without it we would not be able to go places like this.

However, if they are doing this they should also stop the system where you pay to get on the ride first as this is discrimiating against the poor who cannot afford it!!

GlasweJen

Thanks blue monkey, the poster I aimed my question at has stopped talking to me since I posted that I'm autistic.

We're not the off the wall types, me and niece are more introverted and if we were to take her to something like disney land she would probably spend all day asking the staff how the rides work - we'd never in a million years get her on one.

sunnyone

GlasweJen wrote: »

Thanks blue monkey, the poster I aimed my question at has stopped talking to me since I posted that I'm autistic.

We're not the off the wall types, me and niece are more introverted and if we were to take her to something like disney land she would probably spend all day asking the staff how the rides work - we'd never in a million years get her on one.

When I was diagnsosed I couldnt believe it, even after I requested my educational pyscologist reports/reviews from when I was at school for the doctor that diagnosed me I still wantst sure until I talked to other women who are aspie, then it makes sense because it affects us diffrently.

blue_monkey_2

Absolutely. I just wanted people who questioned it to understand why. It is hard for us as parents to understand, let alone others who have no knowledge of the condition.

Every day brings a new challenge and, thankfully, we are all thrill seekers We only go on holiday to theme parks. Did say we was going to have a break from it for a few years so not sure hwat we will be doing instead.

That being said, my thrill seeking DS who whizzes around on rides all day and is obsessed with street running/pancour and has already started trying to jump off walls liek the big boys down town - it's best not to look, he is only 7), hates flying and hates babies screaming. Go figure. LOL!!

Beki88

blue_monkey wrote: »

Absolutely. I just wanted people who questioned it to understand why. It is hard for us as parents to understand, let alone others who have no knowledge of the condition.

Every day brings a new challenge and, thankfully, we are all thrill seekers We only go on holiday to theme parks. Did say we was going to have a break from it for a few years so not sure hwat we will be doing instead.

That being said, my thrill seeking DS who whizzes around on rides all day and is obsessed with street running/pancour and has already started trying to jump off walls liek the big boys down town - it's best not to look, he is only 7), hates flying and hates babies screaming. Go figure. LOL!!

Sounds like my son! it was a nightmare when my daughter was born! He is, as you described, he likes the thrill of the ride (only certain ones), he is always moving he can not sit still. or stand still, so cant deal with the queuing, we are helping him by getting him to queue longer ie local shops/tesco etc but jumping straight into a legoland queue is far too much for him yet, I dont want to be one of those parents who makes him avoid everything so that he eventually as an adult can not deal with it, but he is only 6 so takes time to integrate him

Im still confused as how it works with the waiting but hopefully when we go it wont be as bad as it seems, we did a two day ticket last year and will probably do same this year, so we should get time to go on all the ones he likes without too many problems.

SingleSue

My younger son (complex autistic) is more introverted and doesn't like the fast, noisy, light flashing rides (but is also one who will fidgit)...middle son (aspergers) loves the noisy, fast, high rides and used to be a mini whirlwind but is very chilled out now.

As they say, you will never get two autistic people exactly the same....hence why it is so confusing for everyone to understand!

blue_monkey_2

Beki88 wrote: »

Sounds like my son! it was a nightmare when my daughter was born! He is, as you described, he likes the thrill of the ride (only certain ones), he is always moving he can not sit still. or stand still, so cant deal with the queuing, we are helping him by getting him to queue longer ie local shops/tesco etc but jumping straight into a legoland queue is far too much for him yet, I dont want to be one of those parents who makes him avoid everything so that he eventually as an adult can not deal with it, but he is only 6 so takes time to integrate him

Im still confused as how it works with the waiting but hopefully when we go it wont be as bad as it seems, we did a two day ticket last year and will probably do same this year, so we should get time to go on all the ones he likes without too many problems.

Did you mean how the pass works? You get an exit pass and can use the exit, not the main queue. I always take the DLA letter and his doctors letter anyway. If it is busy they can ask you to come back at a certain time so there is no waiting in the main queue. They have had this in Disney for the big rides for a long time.

Like you we do wait if there is a smallish queue but we have the pass to fall back on if the queue is an hour long. We'll just go off and do something else while we wait.

They had the same thing in Universal and Busch Gardens when we went to Florida but they never filled a time in and would just let us in. I did think that those with a condition serious enough to need it would use the pass and be happy to wait and those that thought they could abuse the system would not bother if it meant they had to wait anyway. And by this, I guess it would be easy for me to 'lend' DS paperwork to any number of family members to get a pass to skip the queue. I am sure there are families that do this.

To get away from the staring and comments that we, as parents are subject too, they could give parents of disabled children Q-bots (the queue jumping system that you can pay for), and this would stop comments from other parents that 'the child does not look disabled' as they would never know who disabled or who had paid for it.

At AT you can pay £84pp and this enables you to get to the front of all the big rides, all day so I think it is more people were envious that disabled kids were getting this for free when they could not afford it: http://www.altontowers.com/events/fast-track/

Zziggi

Has Alton Towers tightened up their procedures fo the exit wrist bands this year?

We went near the end of last year and the exit queues were huge with people with the wrist bands. My DS couldn't even stand queuing in those queues so we left early & v v disappointed!

Whilst we were there we got talking to a family with a child with a hearing aid who were saying how great it was to just show a DLA letter & not have to queue. Now maybe the child had more illnesses than just hearing loss, but they didn't say. However on the surface I do wonder exactly what prevented that family from queuing in the normal queue. I can see that the child might need to be accompanied around the park for safety reasons (if a ride broke down and couldn't hear/understand safety instructions) and therefore offer a discounted rate for a carer's ticket to get into the park - but an exit pass????

To be honest, if Alton towers don't tighten up on their exit pass policy then we simply won't go ever again.