Two years ago my girls both earned free tickets to Six Flags Fiesta Texas, in San Antonio, as part of the Read to Succeed program. This was to be my first theme park experience with my then ten year old daughter Regan. She was born prematurely, and later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Now normally in day to day activities she uses a walker, but for an all day outing she has a wheelchair to make things a little easier.
Well two years ago, the experience we had was absolutely wonderful. The park policy for Fiesta Texas, was that she had a separate entrance for most rides, and that she could ride each thing twice in a row, because what is the point of getting someone out of a wheelchair, to only zip through once on a 30 second ride. We completely felt like VIP's, especially on the Gully Washer ride where they pulled a separate boat out of the river for us.
Through my husband's company and encouraged by our great time we did our first ever big family vacation to Disney World as a land and sea combination package (three days in the parks, 4 days on the Disney Cruise). There is no doubt, that Disney is King when it comes to the disabled. There was only one thing in the Magic Kingdom that she couldn't do, and that was climb Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse. Everywhere we went the employees directed us to handicapped special entrances, let us ride everything twice. We had great accommodations at the hotel and aboard ship. Even on Disney's private island, they have sand wheelchairs to go out onto the beach with. The Disney experience was beyond what we thought a vacation with a physically disabled child could be.
Well this summer my girls again won free tickets to Fiesta Texas, and our experience was almost completely changed. Most Park employees had no idea if there was a handicapped policy. Only on one ride did they tell us to stay on to ride twice (the Gully Washer again). Many of the rides, had integrated the wheelchair line, in with the regular line which is fine, but her wheel chair was very difficult to maneuver in the aisles and ramps when you have so many people pushing in from behind. I spent half my time apologizing to people in front of me for clipping their ankles with her chair. We were so disappointed in how cold and uninviting Fiesta Texas seemed to be this time. I am not sure even free tickets could entice us back again.
No comments:
Post a Comment