Legoland - how accessible?

[heartinthecountry]

Am thinking of taking dd1 to Legoland for her birthday. I know I can get an exit pass for her but just wondering if anyone who has been could tell me how much of it she is likely to be able to access. She can walk but only with support and will need to be in a major buggy/wheelchair though we can of course lift her out and on to things if needs be.

Someone mentioned some kind of castle where the to is wheelchair accessible. Anyone know more?

Thanks

Lots of info here - they claim the park is 95% wheelchair accessible:

www.legoland.co.uk/planyourvisit/GUEST+WITH+DISABILITIES.htm

Most things are genuinely accessible.

The whole park is fairly wheelchair-friendly, we use a Mountain Buggy but see no reason you shouldn't get a Major through the same gaps!

Your issue with the major is that it doesn't obviously "look" like a wheelchair and on some rides you have to leave the buggy some 20 or 30 feet away and carry your LO to the start of the ride as you're not allowed to clutter the boarding area with buggies. I'm not sure if you'd have to do this if it were a wheelchair, and it may be down to the level of training/common sense of the individual staff member, of course. Similarly, you may have to ask them to slow the ride down to get on and off if it's constantly moving, or ask for help - it won't always occur to them.

The only ride I can think of that isn't accessible off the top of my head isn't appropriate anyway - you have to stand up in it - and that sort of guidance isn't posted outside the rides. It is in the small print of the "guests with disabilities" guide but, again, although you are obviously disabled, they don't offer you this unless you very specifically ask and then they have to have a good root round under the desk in guest services to find it.

If getting in and out of things is a pain, you can get her pre-measured; go down to First Aid, and they will measure her height once and for all and write it on a bit of card for you so you just wave that at the start of the ride rather than having to prop her up against a measuring stick each time.

Note what they say on the web site about the exit pass - it is most definitely not open to most wheelchair users (the queues are intentionally made wide enough that folk in wheelchairs can queue), but rather to peeps with diagnoses like ASD who can't do queues. So you need to bring written proof of that with you to get the exit stamp.

Other thoughts about the stamp - you can get 3 other people to queue jump with the person who qualifies, but they have to be stamped at the same time as the main exit pass holder. You can stamp as many people as you like, but they have to take turns to jump the queue. So if you are meeting people, meet up before you go in and all get stamped together.

Oh, and they do a 1-carer-goes-free thing so you shouldn't have to pay for your own entry.

we went & they were so helpful, only proof of disability (other than looking at ds2) was his blue badge & they accepted that no probs.
He wouldn't have his hand stamped, again no problem they stamped mine with his colour & with a carer colour.

He uses a major buggy but can walk short distances but can't queue etc.
We took his buggy right up to the exit, they stopped the ride a while we all got in & there was always somewhere where they kept hold of the buggy for us too.

He really only went on the small family rides so can't comment about accessibility of the bigger ones & he LOVED the model village!

Hope you have fun.

i took ds2 in his wheelchair to legoland, it was fine

bloody hard work going back uphill tho

you can get an exit pass if you have a child with special needs, which enables you to save queuing and go in the exit of rides, if that helps, but you need to bring proof

We've just been with ds in Major buggy and didn't have any problems. If you want to go into the 4D cinema don't be put off by the sign that says 'no buggies' as they don't count Majors in that and there is a space at the front where you can sit. We did have an exit pass (ds's teacher wrote us a letter to explain why he couldn't queue) and there was always someone there to keep an eye on the buggy while we went on the rides. There were only certain rides we could take ds on as he doesn't like the fast scary ones but the only one he couldn't physically go on was the fire station one where you have to pump a lever to make it go along and then jump out to put out a 'fire'.

i got an exit pass without being asked about queuing, they just wanted to see proof of high rate dla iirc

Thanks - some really helpful tips.

There is no way dd1 would queue without shrieking the place down but this is quite a new trait so nothing in her diagnosis/official documentation says anything about it. So thanks so much for mentioning. I'll get school to write something for me.