To use a disabled access pass at Legoland.

[MarioandLuigi]

Having read a big debate on another forum where they are vilified and any able bodied (albeit still disabled) person shouldnt use them.

We are off to Legoland in July having being given tickets by a charity. We went last year and used an exit pass. My DS2 has ASD and is 4.

According to the other fourm, as long as you should stand you shouldnt have the privelage of using one, however using one last year made the day out much less stressful and we actually enjoyed a day out for once. I know they have tightened the rules on them but I dont have a problem with the new conditions.

AIBU to use the service again?

Nailak, you cannot compare your 2 year old having a tantrum because she wanted to stay on the bouncy castle with my 4 year old with ASD who would become so physically stressed by the crowd and sensory overload that she might shut down/almost pass out.

Hth

Funnily enough, no-one complained about the big group, they were obviously disabled though.

We hardly queued when we went though. The only thing we queued for was the boats. Tell me why is this so popular? We queued for about an hour just to be in boat behind some woman who couldn't steer hers.

Yes, it was you I was referring to changebags Thank you :) really looking forward to going!

Sorry hijack again, about the Qbot - is it used for ALL rides or just some (IE the more popular ones)? Because my DD won't be bothered about going on the big rides I expect (she's not quite 4 and not a metre tall yet if that makes a difference to what she would be allowed on) - she's never been to a theme park and will just be happy to be there I expect.

d'you think it would be possible to have a decent day there just focusing on the little rides with less queues? Or am I kidding myself?

(sorry again for hijack)

Used for all rides I think now, except for perhaps Duplo Train, though even that may be included.

Just looked at the FAQ... these are the rides that Qbot is used for:

Pirate Falls Dynamite Drench
Jolly Rocker
Vikings' River Splash
Spinning Spider
Driving School
Balloon School
Fire Academy
Laser Raiders
Aero Nomad
Desert Chase
Thunder Blazer
The Dragon

Dragon's Apprentice
Knight's Quest
Extreme Team Challenge
Fairy Tale Brook
Chopper Squadron
Orient Expedition
Sky Rider

Bob the Builder? In 4D*

Spellbreaker 4D*

LEGO® Racers 4D*
Clutch Powers 4D*

Of those, I take toddlers on (depending on height - some are restricted to those over 0.9m):

Spinning Spider
Balloon School
Desert Chase
Dragon's Apprentice
Knight's Quest
Fairy Tale Brook
Chopper Squadron
Orient Expedition
Sky Rider

Bob the Builder? In 4D*

Spellbreaker 4D*

LEGO® Racers 4D*
Clutch Powers 4D*

Dino Safari I can't see being mentioned... have I missed it from the FAQ page? That is also a popular ride for young children 0.9m or higher. Think Qbot was used on that last season.

FreudianSlip - measure your DD. If she is 0.9m then she will be able to do a lot more rides at Legoland than if she is under 0.9m. See rides listings.

d'you think it would be possible to have a decent day there just focusing on the little rides with less queues?

Yes, though define a day. When I go with babies, toddlers, we tend to go 10am-2pm as that fits with doing the school run. It is also about the right length of time for most young children to enjoy the things they can do. The puppet show is popular. Fairy Tale Brook is also a popular ride. Some of the children will spend quite a while looking at the models in MiniLand especially the moving boats and trains.

Would not be worth it in my view if buying a day ticket. If you have annual pass, then it's more viable as you can go many times during the season.

for my DS who has ASD its not so much the queuing as the feeling of being enclosed in the line and no way of escaping and also if you can imagine everyone suished together it can get loud with many people having lots of different conversations. By using the exit pass we actually had space for him to move (involentary muscle movements and twitches means he dances and make vocal noise when anxious) which meant even if we did have to wait a little while he wasnt so stressed!

Don't listen to moaners for one second. Miserable, stupid and selfish gits. That line about 'if you want my disabled parking badge, have my disability too' applies just as much to theme park disabled passes, I think.

I hate queuing at effing theme parks but I am capable of doing it and so are dh and ds. Would be ridiculous to bitch about children who are NOT capable of queuing due to SN, or who would become anxious and upset in a queue.

Of course use them, and YANBU at all.

However my totally "normal" DS who is 5 couldn't queue for more than around 20 mins without getting totally bored. For that reason I wouldn't go to Legoland unless I took him off school and me off work for the day etc. Queuing for more than 20-30 mins IME isn't a life skill that any 5 year old needs, and I don't really see the attraction in theme parks for that reason.

YANBU.
I used one for the first time last year for my 13yr old DS who has AS. We went to universal studios and it was a lifesaver!

I didn't Qbot for anything. Tip: When you get there head for Duplo/Miniland/Traffic and work your way around from there (clockwise I think). Everyone else seemed to start the other way around. When we got to the Rapids and things there was no-one there, we walked straight on. DS even went on the rapids twice.

Just read the MSE thread and I am shocked at some of the posts there.
I used an exit pass for DD last year, it was well worth it.
I came across ome moaning from a couple of Q-Bot users as we took precedence over them getting onto the ride first. I felt for them, obviously they had paid for a service and were still having to wait a considerable length of time due to the amount of people with ride exit passes and other Q-Bot users!
Although we had the exit passes, we did try to queue as normal sometimes, as not all of our party were included on the pass and we ended up being seperated which was a little annoying! All in all though, the day was so much easier, DD was alot calmer than she would of been. We can't even queue in the supermarket without trouble from her usually!

The MSE thread is horrid - some peoples attitudes really make me :(

Weekdays during school term time, nice and quiet usually - though sometimes a few school groups who hog a ride for a while and trample over us when we have lunch watching the pirate show (for anyone who has been recently, is the show back on now?).

How busy the park is will certainly make a difference, weekends, bank holidays and school holidays are the busy times.

Changebagsandgladrags - agree with starting at Duplo... that's what I do when I take young children. Walk down past imagination and down to duplo playground for a play, go on fairy tale brook and watch the puppet show.

forget what these idiots are saying

if your dc and you get to enjoy the day with a less stress than is needed what could possibly be unfair about that

shouldn't we be striving to have everyones needs looked after not just conform to the so called norm and if you do not well thats tough deal with it

:o