Disneyland Paris – No Disabled Kids Please!

by | Mar 8, 2007 | Holiday | 0 comments

It was my wifes 40th birthday at the weekend and she wanted to do something with the family. What better way than to get the Disney experience or so I thought.

We have never been to a Disney park and were planning to go to Florida in 2008 for 3 weeks.

So I thought it would be a great introduction to hop on the Eurostar for 2 and a half hours straight to the Disney park.

I should have known this was going to be a disaster from the start. Just booking the seats on the Eurostar were complicated as my youngest son has a wheelchair and so needs disabled access.

Easy you would think but here’s the problem. All the wheelchair positions on the train are in first class. So my wife has to sit with Matthew for the entire journey and I have to site in a standard class with my other son.

The Eurostar customer service didn’t find this was unfair and after many phone calls I had to pay for 2 first class tickets, which cost more than the hotel and park.

When we arrived at the park we were greated by a lady, no smile to the kids and practicaly pushed us though the door to let the wheelchair in.

Next we had to get a special blue pass that allowed us to access disability areas, so we went to an information office and once again we were greeted by a very unplesant lady.

She asked for our blue badge to prove Matthews disability. This made me angy an it was obvious he was disabled just by the fact we had brought his own wheelchair. We didn’t have any proof of disability with us, which she wanted to see.

After some time she finally agreed to give us the pass but made as if she was doing us a favor and told us like a teacher telling a child off for forgetting their homework, that we must bring proof next time (Oh as if there was going to be a next time).

The place was totaly packed with locals who had no concideration for Matthew in his wheelchair and would just push past.

There were no representatives with the characters in the park, so it was a struggle to get Matthew to great them.

On many of the rides the assistants spoke hardly a word of english so it was hard to know where ment to go with the wheelchair.

Basically it ended up to be a very expensive disaster and the letter to Disney is on its way!

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