Rant Alert - Disabled assistance in UK Theme Parks

heavensbug

Don't know if I am being over sensitive but I can not understand how the UK gets it so wrong with its acceptance and assistance to people with disabilities compared to other countries.

My daughter suffers from Cerebral palsey which affect both motor skills and can have affect on her temprament. e.g. less tolerant of waiting etc.

We have just come back from Florida where we went to Disney and Sea World. At both parks we went to Guest services and showed her blue badge and were given a guest assistance pass. No questions asked. This allowed us to use wheel chair entrances, exits and fast passes to help her with getting onto rides. You could use this as many times as you wanted and anyone in the party could use it to prevent her from waiting around while parents/sister went on rides she may not want to go on. You could also use this as many times as you wanted on any given ride. E.g. if she had a favourite and just wanted to go round and round on that one you could.

So we are looking at going to one of the big theme parks for her birthday (She is 4 along with her twin sister).

Having just looked at the assistance for disabled I am amazed at the things I have found.

At one park you need to present her blue badge, a letter from your doctor stating what the disability is and then be evaluated by an onsite Nurse.

She then has to have a red stamp on her hand to say she is disabled.

At another park you have to present the blue badge and a letter from the doctor and she will be given a wrist band which states "Disabled".

We have spoken to a couple of parks and all of them say that you can use the entrance just once in your whole day. If she wants to go on the ride again you have to queue up in the regular queue and wait your turn. But thats part of the disability. Her need that she can not queue like that.

We were even told by the park that we are only allowed to "Queue Jump" once. But we are not queue jumping. We are assisting a disabled person to be able to carry out normal activities that she would normally struggle to do through no fault of their own.

One park even has it published "does not wish to discriminate against guests with disabilities, therefore the full admission rate will be charged."

Now I don't mind paying full price. But is it really discriminatory to give someone who can't go on all the rides due to a life long illness a discount. Bad choice of words in my opinion. Sometimes it better to say nothing at all.

She also has to ride to allow other members of the party to use the quicker entrances. Something that makes life a lot easier and can allow us to split up if one daughter wants to ride and one does not. If thats the case in florida the wife would go on with disabled daughter then I would so she could show me the ride as she was so excited. As disabled daughter had used her "One" ride we would have to go through the regular queue which she does not understand. (Think children with autism etc).

Maybe I am just sensitive about it or maybe I have seen how the USA get it so right that I wonder where we have gone so wrong.

Just needed to get it off my chest and maybe get another perspective if I am reading too much into it.

Thank you for reading/listening )

nomoneytoday

IMHO you have to balance the rights of everyone at the parks.
If one person gets to enjoy the same busy ride multiple times, how is that fair on the others in the queue?

Olokia

heavensbug wrote: »

We were even told by the park that we are only allowed to "Queue Jump" once. But we are not queue jumping. We are assisting a disabled person to be able to carry out normal activities that she would normally struggle to do through no fault of their own.

If we are talking about normal activities, then non-disabled people only have time to go on each ride once and sometimes not all the rides. Your daughter will have time to go on all the rides that she wants and have time spare to queue up to go on the rides she really liked again

Of course if she can't queue then she still has done way more than a non-disabled child can do. To me this is still discriminating against the non-disabled child but it is the best the theme parks can do.

If it was my choice, then depending on the busy-ness of the park, the disabled child gets a set number of queue jumps that corresponds with the same amount of rides a non-disabled child can do.

For example, its a saturday and the park is extremely busy, so a non-disabled child will get through approximately 3 big rides and 10 small rides. I would give the disabled child queue-jump vouchers for the same quantity.

On a weekday during term-time, a non-disabled child gets through 10 big rides and loads of small rides, I would give the disabled child 10 big ride vouchers and make no restriction on the small rides.

The above numbers are just guesses and the theme park could do research to find the optimum quantity.

I think that is the best way a theme park could do to make sure they don't discriminate against either disabled children or non-disabled children.

heavensbug

nomoneytoday wrote: »

IMHO you have to balance the rights of everyone at the parks.
If one person gets to enjoy the same busy ride multiple times, how is that fair on the others in the queue?

I can appreciate that. But you are talking 1 car on a ride of 12 say.

In Disney they would let 1 or 2 cars in from disabled entrance and the rest would fill up from regular queue. Where there was not a disabled entrance you would be let in the fast pass queue without having to wait.

It made about 2 minutes difference in wait. The length of the ride.

You have to get the balance right and I can see that. But then there are rides that disabled won't go on and in some cases don't even have a disabled entrance.

Maybe the size of the parks makes a difference. Just could not believe the hoops we have to jump through and also making the person wear something to say they are disabled.

We fight to make our daughter look as normal as possible so she does not stick out in a crowd.

darkpool

heavensbug wrote: »

their own.
She also has to ride to allow other members of the party to use the quicker entrances.

You honestly think it reasonable for other members of the family to use the "quicker entrances" when the disabled perso doesn't want to go on the ride?

heavensbug

darkpool wrote: »

You honestly think it reasonable for other members of the family to use the "quicker entrances" when the disabled perso doesn't want to go on the ride?

I honestly think that a disabled person who can't stand/wait for more than a short period of time should be afforded the leisure of spending time with their family while they are enjoying themselves.Sometimes it does mean splitting up for a short amount of time. But you have to keep that time short.

Like I said though. Maybe the way the USA does it is better. Maybe it is just more luxurious.

I'm interested to see other points of view. You are right that if the privilege was abused to consitently jump the queues without the disabled person wanting to ride then that is not on.

I used it once to go on one ride when daughter did not want to. She actually gets upset if I am away from her for too long other than work e.g. A change to her normal pattern. Sadly another part of the disability so in this case yes I do believe it can be right. But as long as I don't abuse it.

ThumbRemote

You seem to be quite happy for discrimination to take place when it's to your daughters benefit.

Why on earth do you expect her to pay less and get more than anyone else?

k3lvc

The 'big picture' here is equality with no advantage (either financial or in services rendered) gained. By all means have a separate entrance/queuing system that provides a level of comfort but not so that others are delayed.

As an example if I'm on a train I'll give up my seat but it's a different story if it came to giving up my place on the train and being delayed to the next one.

Hopefully I don'tget shot down or accused of having a Meldrew moment

heavensbug

I wouldn't call it discrimination.

I would call it a recognition of additional assistance required by a minority of people.

But then maybe that is just my understanding of it.

I also did not say I would expect her to pay less. I said that I thought the phrasing of that paragraph was not needed. There is no discrimination and I also said in my original post that I am happy to pay full price.

I was asking the question of whether it was discrimatory to give a discount as I could not understand how it could be seen as being discrimatory.

Sadly, the rest of my daughter and any disabled person's life is going to be a fight. All the additional hospital/specialist appointments (my daughter see's more medical specialist in one month than most people will see in a year).

I just thought that places like theme parks would want to make 1 day in the life of disabled people easier than them having to fight in the same way they have to fight every day of their life.

This thread has been useful as I get to see what the rest of the public see/think. If I can better understand how they think I can help my daughter fit in and learn to live with this disability and what extra effort she will need to do everyday things.

Whether its go to a theme park and ride a roller coaster to walking to the shops which takes her 3 times as long as anyone else as she has to take frequent breaks.

heavensbug

k3lvc wrote: »

The 'big picture' here is equality with no advantage (either financial or in services rendered) gained. By all means have a separate entrance/queuing system that provides a level of comfort but not so that others are delayed.

As an example if I'm on a train I'll give up my seat but it's a different story if it came to giving up my place on the train and being delayed to the next one.

Hopefully I don'tget shot down or accused of having a Meldrew moment

I actually think that is a very good example. The GAC cards in disney are phrased in such a way that they are their to provide a person who requires additional assistance with a place to wait, quietly, in air-conditioning (Different to the uk due to the heat).

The people at disney and sea world just move both lines alone as quickly as possible. As I said earlier. 1 ride in 5 would have a single or at busiest 2 cars taken out by disabled riders. So in general no delay's for riding were made.

I agree totally that I would not expect a person to delay their own journey etc to let us on.

Sadly it is a touchy subject and one that unless you are in that position of caring for a person who has a disability the majority of people will not fully understand.

Maybe I am wanting a bit much through being spoilt in the USA. But it is good to understand how much I should push without upsetting others in this world.

ThumbRemote

I don't think anyone objects to a seperate entrance and extra assistance for people who need it. What they do object to is someone perceived to be queue jumping.

As you've said, in Florida your daughter could go round and round on the same ride indefinitely without queueing. Assuming it's a 30 minute queue, why should she get to go on the ride 3 or 4 times while others get to go once? The 'fair' thing to do would be to let her on once every 30 minutes, so she isn't getting an advantage. That's what the UK theme parks have tried to do with their queueing/fast pass rules.

As for all the rest, hand stamps, doctors letters and special wrist bands do sound excessive, but I guess they are to prevent abuse of the system.