Alton Towers!

[Mumble]

Does anyone have any experience of going to Alton Towers with a disability/health need and of how accommodating/otherwise they are?

 

My sister and I were thinking of going but I'd like to know before planning anything if it'll be too much because I wouldn't want to spoil my sister's day - she would be my carer anyway and I often feel like I'm putting too much responsibility on her - she's my little sis and I'm supposed to look after her, not the other way round.

 

I had a few questions:

1. What do they accept as evidence of disability for carer entry prices? Their website says DLA book - I don't know what this is, but I do get DLA HRC/LRM.
   
2. How much do they interrogate you if you ask for a wristband to avoid queues; this could help significantly or at least avoid embarrassing misunderstandings in the queue, but some of my medical stuff my sister isn't fully aware of, at least not the severity, (yes I know this is wrong but no I don't want to go into this here... ) how much detail would they want me to give in front of her?
   
3. For anyone who has been recently, how big is the park and how much walking is needed between things - are there many alternatives, i.e. a park train, and are there attractions that aren't so fast paced/don't require standing (say a 3D cinema or shows or something) so we could spread out the day with breaks?
   
4. Are they actually going to let me go on the rides - is this my decision, and I'm pretty good at telling what I'll be okay with, or will they say nope you're disabled, you have X,Y,Z, you can't go?
   

Thanks for any suggestions

[Chloes mum]

Hi

 

I don't have personal experience of Alton Towers, but we recently took our AS / ADHD daughter and her NT sister to Dratyon Manor theme park, which operates the same disability policy as Alton Towers.

I took our DLA letter as proof, but I wasn't even asked for it - they accepated what we said without question. I got in for carers rate, and the whole family were given wrist bands to avoid the queues. No-one stopped her going on any rides as long as she met the height restrictions and had adequate mobility to get on the rides.

It was a fantastic day because of the wrist bands - my daughter does not have the ability to queue for anything!! My other daughter was even able to use her wrist band on rides that her sister wasn't going on!!

We had a great day - good luck and have fun

[Tally]

I've only been to Alton Towers once and that was 8 years ago, so I don't think I'm going to be any help with the specifics.

 

I've never heard of a DLA book either. The letter telling you that you have been awarded DLA should have included a one-page summary of your entitlement, which can be used as evidence that you have a disability.

 

I think they will allow you to decide whether you are able to handle the rides. At Chessington I've seen signs on some rides saying, for example, that you need to be able to take weight on your legs on this ride, and also warnings about strobe lighting. The decision is very much left to the person to decide whether they can manage it. I don't think they are going to challenge you at every ride and ask for your medical history, they won't even need to know what your disability is at the rides.

[westie]

we took our two kids who both have autistic spectrum conditions. We had the tickets given to us by a charity called merlins magic wand but think if you took DLA letters you would get discounted tickets.

 

We took the DLA letters for both children and went to guest services, I said to lady that both my children had autism and my friend had fetched her child and shown them DLA letters to get wrist bands to avoid the queues. She glanced at the letters, then gave us wristbands (a certain colour for the person with disability, and a different colour for the carers - one person with disability can have upto 4 carers with wristbands however all 4 cannot go on ride at once with person using bands to get fast access) they also gave us a leaflet explaining about park access and facilities for disabled people. It told you which rides were suitable, where to go to get on without queueing. It saved us SO MUCH STRESS. Where queues were short we just stayed in normal queue, at other times we used the disabled access points. Sometimes there was a short wait, if there were other disabled people in front, they sometimes asked us to wait till next couple of turns, I felt this was acceptable as it was still a much shorter time - some of the queues were an hour and a half. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. If a disabled person has a wristband then I think they have to go on with a carer generally, they cant ride on their own but you may want to confirm this...

 

My friend had taken her child with ASD to Alton Towers for first time before we went, she took their DLA letter and got reduced price tickets, at guest services they logged his details onto a computer and then said if she came again then they would not have to fetch letter but just give their name and they could pull up details on computer and then they would get wristbands.

AND

if you buy one of those MERLIN annual passes (that let you into alton towers, thorpe park, madame tussards, chessington world of adventures, legoland, warwick castle and other tussard group attractions I cant think of name for) for the person with the disability then they give one to a carer for FREE! So she got one for her child and got one free. these are not cheap but if you can make use of them - more than a couple of visits you have your money back - then this is a great offer really....

She was also very impressed!

 

The park is quite big, there can be a lot of walking but there are cable cars running to some of the park areas, and you can take it slow. Also the leaflet they give you warns about whether some rides are unsuitable for certain physical disabilities but certainly we did not get stopped and told that they could not go on any ride (my eldest got scared and changed his mind himself on one of the rides - the pirate ship) but he was not told he was not allowed on it. He went on oblivion, rita queen of speed, 13 (the new rollercoaster ride)and nemesis so quite why he was scared of the pirate ship I am not sure :-) with the wristbands you will save quite a bit of time so you can get on more rides, even allowing for walking time. Two day tickets can be a bargain but then you will have to find accommodation - two days would give you plenty of time to get around the whole park though..

 

Enjoy your visit if you decide to go.

Edited October 18, 2010 by westie

[Mumble]

Thanks everyone, that's all really helpful and reassuring. We need to look into all the practicalities because it's a long way away so the journey would be really long - we did look into staying there but it increases the costs a lot - even if we were to stay somewhere cheaper in Stoke say, because we then have transport costs to/from the park (neither of us drive) - the park hotels are well out of our price range - although I might be able to make my money back if we stayed in the chocolate room!! . I do have the DLA entitlement page, so I'd take that if we do go, I've also got my Freedom pass and one of those cinema cards, so that should be okay hopefully. Hmm, pirate ships, well I prefer to keep my stomach in my stomach area!!

[westie]

I am sure there was a small hotel/ b and b fairly close to the park, not sure what it was called though. If I find out I will post the name of it on here for you. its got to be cheaper than staying at the hotels (we stopped in a campsite up the road, taking our tent which made it reasonable price however this was early sept. not sure weather is suitable now)

[westie]

check out these two they may be worth looking into as they are fairly close:

 

http://www.the-malthouse.com/index.htm

 

http://www.bedandbreakfast-accommodation.com/uk/staffordshire/bed_and_breakfast/alton_towers/wisteria_cottage.htm

[lil_me]

http://www.merlinsmagicwand.org/default.asp?css=1

[Sammysnake]

We went in the summer holidays but Beth is OK with waiting so we didn't get any special tickets. The one thing I was surprised by was how long it took to drive from the front gates into the car park, it was then a long walk to the tram line and a massive and hectic queue for the tram to actually get to the theme park. They have a special car park which avoids all that which people pay more for - if you check I think there is probably disabled parking there too. Well worth being sure before you get there! The actual park is very big with lots of steep slopes. Staff were very helpful though - I queued up for the rides with my family but didn't go on the big ones as I get motion sickness. They just let me step straight through the seats and go straight to the exit to wait. This means that if one of your party changes their mind at the last minute, they don't have to ride.

 

There are plenty of smaller rides too and a boating lake etc. There are cable cars which take you over the site and above the trees with a beatuiful view of the stunning gardens. We had a great day.

[Mumble]

Thanks everyone for all your help. We went yesterday, doing it in a day (left at 5:30am, got back just after midnight ) and overall had a really good day (despite sharing the train home sardine style with 100s of footie fans!!), though I think I'm getting too old for this sort of thing and slept through this morning (thank goodness the clocks went back, or I would have missed lunch as well as breakfast ) :lol:

 

The park was very busy (28,000 people ) but because it's so large didn't feel too crowded. They were generally very good in terms of disability/health conditions, and helped me find alternatives/things I could do seeing as they'd decided to put strobe lighting in lots of their attractions for Halloween. However, it's amazing how one little thing can spoil a day : we encountered one very rude ride operator who wouldn't let me or another disabled group go on his ride until the normal people who had paid extra had gone first (pretty much his words ) so we ended up queueing longer than the normal ride queue.

 

One of the roller-coasters broke down when we were on it, but thankfully we were the right-way up (although a long way off the ground), and we had to wait for the engineers to come and release us - still we got a comfortable seat, a good view over the park and could plan where we were going next!! :lol:

[Tally]

Glad you had (mostly) a good day out