THORPE PARK DISABLED ACCESS

ruthwxm

When you arrive, you need to be in the LEFT lane all the way around the car park, make sure you let the staff members directing traffic see your Blue Badge so they will let you stay in left lane... the disabled parking is right near the park entrance.

The bag search is now outside the access gates, ordinary bag search queues are to right and left, there are two lanes in the middle, left one is bagless entry and right one for disabled and hotel guests skips almost all the queue.

Once through that there are toilets inc disabled, before you pass thru onto bridge and into Dome, which has coffee shop, shop, etc and a disabled toilet on the left side of the exit from Dome into park proper.

The accessibility hub is just below and to front of the Dome - no lift, you need to follow path round, ask a staff member if you aren’t sure which way to go.

We don’t usually make use of that as Martin can’t do any rides any more, except Teacups which never get long queue anyway! Think would be bit of a wait to get the Ride Acess Pass at busy times, but worth it if you are still able to do the rides - staff normally very helpful and friendly in our experience.

If you are looking for some place to make the heatwave bearable, you could do a lot worse - Tidal Wave splash zone you can get wet and cool off without queueing, lots of free water and sun cream available (inc big glasses of soda water with lashings of ice, in the restaurants!) And of course you are never far from a toilet, lol - Dome has Changing Places one.

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @ruthwxm and thank you so much for writing this up!!

I'm sure this will be really useful and I hope you had a great time!

Adrian_Scope

Thank you for sharing all of this @ruthwxm! Did you enjoy your trip to Thorpe Park? 

ruthwxm

Thanks both, yes we had a great day, love the splash zone at Tidal Wave, it makes us feel young again - and great for keeping cool!!

Chloe_Alumni

That sounds amazing!

April2018mom

Thanks. This is useful. We are planning to visit next May. What rides do you recommend for a 3 year old child with a physical disability? Who do I talk to as well? 

ruthwxm

April2018mom said:

Thanks. This is useful. We are planning to visit next May. What rides do you recommend for a 3 year old child with a physical disability? Who do I talk to as well? 

Martin is 70 and I’m 63, with no kids or grandkids - so can’t shed an awful lot of light on the kids rides etc really I’m afraid!
i do belong to a Facebook group called Merlin Additional Needs Customers Discussion Group, I can ask the question on there for you? Or if you use FB you could join yourself?

April2018mom

ruthwxm said:

April2018mom said:

Thanks. This is useful. We are planning to visit next May. What rides do you recommend for a 3 year old child with a physical disability? Who do I talk to as well? 

Martin is 70 and I’m 63, with no kids or grandkids - so can’t shed an awful lot of light on the kids rides etc really I’m afraid!
i do belong to a Facebook group called Merlin Additional Needs Customers Discussion Group, I can ask the question on there for you? Or if you use FB you could join yourself?

Thanks. I do have FB, how do I join? 

ruthwxm

Just search Merlin Additional Needs Customers Discussion Group, in the search box bar at the top of your Facebook news feed, and it will come up. It’s a closed group so you have to be approved by an admin, I think there are a couple of simple questions to answer, if I remember rightly, nothing complex just what disability you or the friend/family member has, or similar...
well worth it there will be lots of people in same boat as you who know Thorpe well and can help you plan trip in more detail, good luck, enjoy!