By: OrlandoInformer

OrlandoInformer — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 14:30:21 +0000

Vicky sent this message to us after her trip:
Well we’re back from our holiday in Florida and had a great time!
Thanks for all your advice. I did get my son’s doctor to write a note
about his condition, but were surprised by the different attitudes from
the theme parks. Universal Studios were absolutely brilliant. It was
the first park we visited, and due to jet lag, I’d actually forgotten to
take the diagnosis letter with me. Expecting to be refused, I went to
guest services and the lady behind the desk was very sympathetic and
said no problem. She gave us a special pass which allowed all six of us
in our party (two of whom are autistic) to fast pass the ride or if the
queue was longer than 30minutes, then a time to come back. The pass
was valid for both sections of the park, and as my son didn’t have a
meltdown, I can say it was the most enjoyable.
Expecting similar
understanding at Disney, we went to Hollywood Studios armed this time
with the letter. The lady in guest services was unsympathetic and in
fact quite rude, and dismissive. Fortunately the tickets we had
included fast passes, but it was very hard for my son to wait for his
brothers whilst they enjoyed the rides.
Whilst I realize
that Disney have thousands of disabled and some quite ill people
visiting every year, I can’t understand why they cant be more supportive
people with ASD but Universal can. Needless to say I’ve been left with
a very poor impression of the Disney company. My 13 year old son, didn’t really like the rides but adored the cartoon characters, and this was the highlight of his trip.
Interestingly,
when queuing for the flight back home, the family in front (who were a
party of 10 and also had an autistic child) said they had no problems at
Disney…but they went to Magic Kingdom first. So maybe we just had
the bad luck to have unhelpful assistant. I’m planning on writing to
both universal and Disney to say about our impressions.
Anyway, I thought I’d update you on our experiences and say thanks again for your help. Regards, Vicky.

By: Maureen

Maureen — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 01:03:41 +0000

Excellent information and suggestions! Also, thanks for mentioning my website. 🙂 FYI, we have been asked which one of us is “my son’s name” a few times as we showed the pass at Disney and Universal, but not every time (about 10% of the time), if that helps.

Comments on: Special needs are Universal: Visiting Disney World with two Autistic boys – can we still use the accelerated entrances even if the boys aren’t riding?

By: OrlandoInformer

By: Maureen