Warning to anyone intending to visit Merlin Attractions

[supportman]

I went to Chessington's today with one of my service users and have usually quoted the name and postcode of the child for the queue pass as have been registered previously, but today was asked for proof as they are re-registing people. Obviously we didn't have any but was allowed the wristband for today. (others might not be so lucky) There are new rules and was given a letter explaining them as follows:

Dear Guest

Our disabled policy is offered to assist those that are unable to queue in the main queue line, providing them with alternative access point to allow easier access to rides wherever possible.

The policy has now become widely used by guests for whom the service is not a necessity and subsequently, those guests that require this policy as a priority, have not been receiving the assistance as it was intended.

It is with this in mind that the disabled ride access policy has been reviewed and ammended. Effective of March 2009, those guest that are physically anable to queue or stand for sustained periods of time, those that are unable to access the main queue line and those that mentally do not understand the concept of queueing, will be the only guests that we will provide with the ride access policy and wristband at Chessington World of Adventures and Zoo.

All guests will be required to re-register with Guest Services in Market Square and provide photographic identification along with either: a letter from own doctor or consultant clearly stating why the guest is unable to queue or photographic identification issued by registered organisation or charity that states what the disability is.

Guest services reserves the right to make decision based on requirement for this service on for health and saftey reasons.

Photographic identification will be required to be presented to Guest Services on all subsequent visits or guests will not be provided with Ride Access Pass and wristband.

Guest Services will be avaliable to offer assistance to all disabled guests with ride seftey and general park access information.

We do hope you understand that these changes are to improve the service provided to those
guests for which this provides a safe and magical day out.

Yours sincerely

Guest Services Team
Chessington World of Adventures and Zoo.

Back to Supportman: It says about it being for CWOA, but I assume this new policy covers the other Merlin attractions.

The policy before was that if disability was obvious then proof would not be required and that is now not the case and no matter how obvious, they will still require proof. I asked if a disabled parking card was good enough to prove disability, as you can't get them without being disabled and they said that they still want to know the exact disability.

There are plans to go with three different kids in the Easter holidays and I know that with two of them having photographic identification is a problem, so will have to look at those plans again

I can understand that they want to stop people misusing the service, which is a good thing, but they are going a bit too far I think.

There does seem to be a focus on providing proof for all kinds of things at the moment...examples: the elderly shoppers who are disallowed from purchasing alcohol because they have no I.D. or the middle-aged mum who was unable to buy alcohol because the store thought she may give it to her teenage daughter, and so on. It's beaurocracy being taken to silly lengths.

Not sure how you could take a person's photo for it to be close and clear enough for I.D. puposes but without their knowing about it but perhaps somebody else will know...

DLA is what I have used to register one of the kids before, and I can't see the gov giving that if there is no disability.

Hmm, headbutting them might help I should have asked today when my client was attacking me because he had to wait ten minutes for something. Good job I don't bruise easily and the "kind hands" thing we do at school eventually worked.

How bloody ridiculous! Why on earth would they expect you to provide all this evidence just to "jump" the queue.

people do take the piss though.

And while the DLA rules might have changed recently making it harder, there are a lot of people entitled to DLA and/or disabled parking badges who are perfectly capable of queuing.

I am entitled to a disabled parking badge despite the fact that I walk everywhere so there is therefore absolutely no need for me to have one, so it could be argued that I could present such badge (if I actually had one which I don't) and be entitled to queu jump purely because I have a disability.

I agree it's a pain but I do think the rules are being changed purely because so many people abuse the current system.

I agree that people take the piss. I'm sure that ds1 headbutting the floor whilst we talked through pass issues would give them all the evidence they need that he find queueing difficult.

In fact if they follow through with this & apply it strictly then it would make something like chessingtons accessible to ds1- at the moment it isn't because there are so many people with access passes that he still has to queue, whch he can't do.

icarry letter signed by dr that i bascially wrote her sectary typed up on headed paper and Dr then signed but photographic im guessing thats to stop people going inwith someone elses dla letter etc which I sadly doknow of people doing,even been asked to lend ds for that same reason

We had the same when we went to Chessingtons, its not the waiting that ds2 can't cope with its having people in front & behind him that causes him to lay on the floor sobbing. So even with the exit pass on some rides if there were other disabled guests we still couldn't get ds2 on.He also uses a wheelchair (mild CP)so has a viable disability as well as his ASD.

Legoland were fantastic though, in fact we didn't know about the exit scheme & it was after one of the staff witnessed ds2's distress as we tried to queue & soted out the pass for us.
We must of been there at a quiet time because we didn't seem to see any others using the pass.
Think I may check that legoland haven't changed their criterea as planning to go back.

When we went to Legoland last year I had a letter from ds's teacher on his special school headed-notepaper stating the reasons why he couldn't cope with queuing. They were happy to accept this. Sounds like we would have trouble getting a pass at Chessingtons now as apart from having ASD ds is pretty healthy and rarely troubles his GP. When I asked for him to fill out the doctor's part of a request form for a RADAR key it was obvious he didn't know anything about ds or his difficulties. It's so long since we've seen a consultant that I wouldn't have a clue who I could ask to write a letter and we are not members of any organisations or charities. No passports either as we can neither afford or face holidays abroad.

Perhaps we will have to wait until ds is old enough to get a driving licence .

You have given me an idea Pixel, would a special school be an appropriate organisation to them? Although it does say photo ID stating dissability from an organisation, where as a letter and photo ID from a doctor. If thats the case then that would be alot easier for people to get than going through GP or consultant.

Busy, I have a carers ID card from KCC! I also wonder if they would accept photo ID from the parents, who are more likely to have some than the child?

ds1 has a photo bus pass - one of the free ones all people in receipt of higher rate DLA were given.

supportman I don't have any knowledge of your school but is it possible you could get letters from some of the professionals that work with the children in question to save having to go to a gp?

Presumably the children do come into contact with people such as SALT/OT etc during their time at school, so perhaps one of these professionals could provide the written evidence required?

I think sadly it's all too common for people to use the facilities available even if they don't need them iyswim, thus making things harder for those who do genuinely have the need, which totally defeats the object. I know my own mother would happily use my disability to go through the exit so she didn't have to queue, will ask without shame whether "we have to pay as my daughter is blind [shoc], was most put out that I refused to have a blue badge as it meant she couldn't get free parking

I wonder if they will accept their own Photo ID card - ie. the Carer Merlin Pass. Guess they might not... will be fun, expect I will get to test this out quite soon.

Well yes Wannabe, we have various professionals in and out quite a lot, but I was hoping that a letter signed by the Head would be sufficiant, as I can get that sorted out in the week as there is only 5 days of school left. As for the other two that I am taking, they don't go to my school so thats not in my control.

It's such a shame that these kids (and anyone else who might be caught out) could miss a fun day out just because of a needing very persific documentation even though all 3 are statmented, recieve DLA and DPs and two have blue badges.

I think legoland are even stricter. On their website it says that only people unnable to understand the concept of queueing will be given a pass as most queues are wheelchair accessible.

ds1 doesn't use a wheelchair but still finds it very hard to stand in queues or stand still at all. He understands the concept though, so doesn't really qualify for an exit pass. So he'd have to stand in queues until he can't walk any more for the day. I really don't think they have thought this through properly. There must be lots of people with physical disabilities that are capable of walking but not for standing for hours.

How do you establish if a child with dx ASD who is non-verbal has a concept of queuing?

Also how long is acceptable for them to queue... when I last went to Chessington, we didn't exit-pass on rides where the queue length I felt was under 10 minutes. It was fairly quiet on that visit. However on some days at Chessington, queues can build such that they are 30, 45, 60 minutes. So even if you can establish that a child has ann understanding of the concept of queueing, does that then mean that such a child will be able to stand in a queue for a long period of time? At what point does it become dangerous for that child, and those around them (including other park guests).

Well ds1 has no concept of queuing. He pushes to the front of any queue, and if it takes too long will headbutt the ground. I really wouldn't try Chessingtons with him, even with exit passes tbh.

I don't think the blue badges or bus passes will be accepted on their own, as it says the photographic id has to be accompanied by a description of the nature of the disability.

'All guests will be required to re-register with Guest Services in Market Square and provide photographic identification along with either: a letter from own doctor or consultant clearly stating why the guest is unable to queue or photographic identification issued by registered organisation or charity that states what the disability is.'

Ah yes Pixel, documentation is needed but half the issue is not all kids having some form of photo ID. I found out today that all three of the kids that are planned to go have a blue badge so thats not a problem now for us. Initially I thought only one had and remembered another had and found out today that all three have got them.

Will check with CWOA that a dx letter is good enough as it sits half-way between the one of two things that they require.

The first one I am taking sounds just like your DS Mrsturnip...

Do you think they will accept a photocopy of the blue badge? I'm just wondering how we can manage to park near the gate if we have to take the badge in with us. (Ds is getting better at walking without lying down but crossing a large carpark still isn't very safe, I avoid it if I can).