Alton Towers and a Disabled Child 25 September 2014 at 10:37AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Disability Money Matters 6 replies 2.2K views

janninew

Hi All,

Hoping you knowledgeable people will be able to help me.

We are having a family trip to Alton Tower's next week and I just wanted a few points clarifying as I can't seem to get through to an actual human when I ring, just keep getting past from pillar to post listening to those annoying pre recorded messages!

My daughter has a blue badge and receives DLA. Now she is under 4 years old so her entrance to the park is free. Now I'm confused as on the web-site it states a disabled guest is entitled to take a carer in for free but they pay full price for their ticket. Now as my daughter is entitled to a free ticket due to her age, will she also be entitled to free carer?

I know if you have a blue badge the holder is entitled to go to the front of the queue but how does that work?

Do you just take the badge as your proof or do you need a Doctors letter?

I've searched on line and can't seem to find the answers.

Any help or experiences from others would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

LimeLight

Tigs and marleyboy may have the answers

elsien

My guess with regard to the entrance fee is possibly not, as an under 4 is going to need a carer with them regardless of disability, but it is only a guess.
They have a special needs desk which can tell you how it works when you get inside. The last time I went a couple of years back, if you qualify for the disabled wrist bands (and they've tightened up a lot because people were taking the mick) depending on the ride there were either wheelchair accessible entrances or you went in the "out" way and waited for the staff to allocate the seat.
However it did depend on the nature and severity if the disability as to whether you get the wristband or not. It's not automatic. And it will only apply to rides your daughter goes on.
I'd take the blue badge and dla awards letters to be on the safe side, having had a mega row once when we got there and they tried to say the discount only applied to wheelchair users - the people I was with were mobile but has severe learning disabilities. The first two times we got the wristband, the third time because they could get on and off rides and were able to queue without becoming challenging, we didnt. Which was fair enough, and I agreed with them.

supersaver2

My daughter is disabled and has a blue badge and we found Alton Towers to be very helpful. Your daughter will be entitled to a free carer admission the same as anybody else, so she won't pay and neither will 1 carer. Take your blue badge to the Guest Services and this will be enough proof for her to be able to skip any queues along with 3 other visitors. They will no longer accept a DLA letter, but a blue badge on its own will be fine.

If I can think of any other useful information I'll pop back.

Enjoy your day.

nannytone_2

with a red wristband, you enter the ride from the rides exit, so bypassing the queue.
they will write the time that you can have your next ride on your card.
i went on 7th september and the times between rides varied between 1 and 1 1/2 hours.
a few rides have no time restrictions, but all those in ceebeebiesland do

Tigsteroonie

LimeLight wrote: »

Tigs and marleyboy may have the answers

PChances are that the OP already has the answers because they'll have been before I saw the thread to reply!

AFAIK the disabled child under 4 will get free access by their age, so you won't be entitled to the free Carer pass. But another person says that you can. It's not something we've tried, to be honest, we didn't visit until our son was over 4 years old and he enjoyed it so much, we invested in an annual Merlin pass which comes with a free Carer pass anyway.

Once inside the park, you will need to queue at Customer Services to get the red disability wristband and pass. (This strikes me as daft, as you can get the wristband if your child cannot queue but you have to queue to get it!) You will need to have evidence of disability - the DLA/BB is not sufficient - you need a letter confirming diagnosis of a disability that makes your child unable to queue. (For example, hearing impairment doesn't prevent queueing so you wouldn't get the wristband). I believe there is a second wristband in white that denotes your child as needing extra care but that won't get you fast access to the rides.

The DLA/BB would get you to disabled parking and disabled prices but not fast access to the rides. If they are busy, you might find that the staff only look at the BB and give you a red wristband - they did for us in August - but if its quieter then they stick to the rules and look at the documentation for the diagnosis - which they did this week.

As Nannytone says, you also get a card which can restrict how frequently you go on the really good rides - they write down the time your child is next allowed to ride. In August, they were sticking to the card/times rule and we had to find other things to do (such hardship!) until the next ride. But this week, although they issued the card, no rides were busy and the staff weren't bothering with it.

Just an extra note, at the Waterpark you can get a second Carer through at a discounted price called "Extra Carer".

Tigsteroonie

Knew I meant to add something else ... Your best place to ask such questions is on the Alton Towers Facebook page Quick replies from staff and from previous visitors.