Six Flags - Autism Friendly Park
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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Six Flags is no longer an autism friendly park. They used to issue a no-wait pass to kids with autism…. Now you have to walk into the exit, get a time, then walk out, which for autism kids is a nightmare. They think they are getting on the ride, and then they have to leave and come back.
My son, 13, had a meltdown EVERY time this happened. We can no longer go there because of this.
It’s no wonder this park is going bankrupt. Tens of thousands of kids with autism go there. I’m sure that number is going to go way down with th is new policy.
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That was the official policy too when we went, but they were not following policy. I told them that the scheduled time thing was a disaster for kids with autism.
I’ll revisit this topic in a new post soon and tell them how pathetic the current plan is for kids with autism.
[...] take her Bugs Bunny doll with her lots of times. He is her most beloved doll. So much so, that she threw Buggs off of a moving train while we were going over a bridge in a heavily wooded area at …! Buggs was rescued by a brave Six Flags employee. Why would she do such a thing? At first [...]
i am planning with my family including my autistic brother to got to six flags magic mountain this summer and i finf it shocking that a policy was changed in order to discriminate against autistic people who have a lack of patience like my brother. Now we are seriously considering not going to the park this summer
At Six Flags Discovery Kingdom there are two types of passes: disability and special needs. Disability passes are given a wait time according to the queue length, but they do not have to physically wait in line. The special needs pass allows up to four people to enter the ride from the flash pass entrance. They are given priority boarding immediately at the next cycle/train of the ride.
We are going to try and take our family for the very first time this weekend, I’m REALLY nervous…we’ve never gone because he can’t do the lines…hoping it goes well and we dont’ have to do the whole get a time and come back thing
At hersheypark in pa, we used the diability pass as well, you don’t have to walk them back there to get the time, if there are 2 adults one can walk back get the time, and you can do other things until you comeback.
Hershey doesn’t really let you get on the line immediately the policy has always been to go get a time and come back. We did that last summer and actually had THE best time