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We spent the weekend in Six Flags and had a great time.  I was a tad leary when Autism Mom told me that the park had a program in place that lets kids with Autism bypass the long lines for the rides.  I am happy to report that Six Flags is VERY Autism friendly, or at least that was our experience this weekend at the St. Louis park.

We followed the instructions we received via phone and after paying to get in the park, we visited the Guest Relations office and they have us a disability pass.  The general idea is that you would schedule a time to get on a certain ride by going in via the EXIT.  In theory, this is great, but a tad bureaucratic for the teenagers operating the rides.  The first ride we tried the pass on, the girl was clueless; but we did get on the ride and she meticulously filled out the form on the pass denoting time, her initials, etc.  After the first ride, I was thinking that the special pass was going to be more of a headache than not.

I was wrong.  Every other time we used the pass, we just walked in and they let us on the next available.  Here was the line for the scrambler, which Caroline loves.

Without the pass, I am pretty sure that Caroline and probably more so, Daddy; would have been miserable waiting in that line so long for a 3 minute ride.  We are pretty lucky on the line waiting issue with Caroline MOST of the time and we did wait in our share of lines this weekend, since not all of the rides were included on the special pass.  However, if we had waited in some of these lines, it would have eventually been a problem and Caroline’s patience would have run out.  If that had happened, I am sure we would have left the park early and not spent near as much money; so this is a very $mart thing for Six Flags to do for Autism parents and we really appreciated it.

We had slight problem on the train when Caroline threw her Bugs Bunny doll off as we passed over a bridge and ravine.  This was no ordinary Bugs Bunny.  It was her FAVORITE toy in the world.  She worships Bugs and we have had this one longer than we have had Caroline.  It belonged to our beloved Shih-Tuz, Ming who passed away many years ago.   Caroline took it over as her best buddy and it goes everywhere and does everything she does.

No telling what she was thinking as she sacrificed him; but ironically right after she gave him the boot, we emerged from the woods at Bugs Bunny Park!  All this time we had Bugs and he was so close to getting home.  :-)  I got her a replacement Bugs even though I thought it was probably rewarding bad behavior. It was more for me than her.  I didn’t come all this way to miss out on such a great photo-op with Caroline, Bugs, and the real Bugs Bunny.

Anyway, I was sure Bugs was gone forever, but we took the train again later in the day and scoped out his exact location.  A very nice security guy who is a teacher in his main job; was very helpful.  He was also knowledgeable about Autism and we chatted while we waited for someone with some authority to come help.   He got the section manager over there and I must say this guy went above and beyond the call of duty to help us.  I didn’t get his name, but if someone knows drop me an email please.  This man deserves a raise!  He went down in the ravine, which was probably eat up with Poison Ivy and rescued Bugs, henceforth known as Bugs #1 or Bugs Classic.; since we now have TWO Bugs Bunny’s to go everywhere with us now.  I was kind of hoping she would chunk the new Bugs somewhere before we left, but no luck.  [UPDATE: Six Flags Super Hero Revealed ...]

All in all, it was a great trip and Caroline slept good after a hard day at the park.

[UPDATE: Six Flags Super Hero Revealed ...]

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