Chessington

[Adrienne]

Hi

Someone pm'd me and asked if I would say what is happening with Chessington.

My friend went last week with two diabetic children and asked for an exit pass. This enables children with diabetes to avoid queuing for hours which can be horrendous and they go to the exits of the rides and they and up to 4 friends go on a ride that way.

When you take a child with diabetes to an amusement park it takes a lot of forethought and planning. There are queues are generally over an hour and a half long. Children have to be tested at certain times and have to eat and the adrenaline through the excitment is enough alone to entice the old hypos to appear on and off all day. If they have a hypo you leave the queue, if they are too high a toilet break is no doubt needed and you leave the queue, food is needed. The heat can play havoc and so can the cold - you can't win.

The exit passes make the day a lot easier and takes the pressure off a bit so that the family can enjoy the day more like your average family who don't have to worry about adrenaline etc etc

Anyway Chessington (and the other parks will follow in the winter) have decided to clamp down and have asked for advice from the relevant companies. They asked DUK - whoops bad move. DUK sent them two A4 books one for type 1 for beginners and one for type 2 for beginners. THey apply to adults but don't actually say that. DUK confirmed it to me when I rang them after I had spoken to Chessington. Chessington told me (spoke to a manager) that DUK had told them that 80% of all people with diabetes are stable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What can I say. I think it is the other way around. Anyway for children it is different, very very different.

I said that it has been recently discovered that 80% of children were way above the safe levels and were being failed around the country with HbA1c's over 8.5.

I said that she should speak to JDRF who were the professionals where children were concerned and that DUK weren't quite up in the children stakes. I told them I was from the UK Children with Diabetes Advocacy Group and they said they would look into it.

Well I spoke to the mum who formed the advocacy group and she has written a fab letter on headed paper to Chessington. She has spoken to JDRF who are up in arms and will help. I have spoken to INPUT who will support us as well.

Don't get me wrong those of us who have had the passes before don't abuse them. If the queues are short we join them. If they are too long then we use them. You cannot measure and work out how excitment, adrenaline and exercise will affect the child. It is impossible, you need to be on the ball constantly and occasionally chasing hypos.

Well we've sent our letter and before we get the other agencies involved we will see what they say. We would rather pay full entrance fees and get the exit passes. Its not about the money, its about a day of fun for the family made as less stressful as possible.

I'll keep you posted as to what happens.🙂

 

[Steff]

hi adreinne very interesting post , please do keep us all updated me interesting to see what kind of reply you get

 

[sasha1]

Hi Adrienne,

Please keep us posted how this thread pans out...I am really interested with what Chessington and other parks are going to put in place for our children.
If I can be of any help at all in any aspect of campaigning on behalf of our children please get in touch either pm me through here..or Bev has my telephone number. I will be more than happy/willing to help.

Heidi
🙂

 

[Adrienne]

Thanks Heidi very kind of you.

The lady I spoke to there has phoned my friend who wrote to her as the UK CWD Advocacy Group and said they are taking it seriously and they had a long nice chat. She needs to wait for the big boss man to come back from somewhere and they are collecting new information etc. They were given more info from my friend so we'll see what they say.

 

[Sugarbum]

This is a really interesting thread, something I didnt know anything about but you have explained it very well, Thanks.

Good luck. x

 

[insulinaddict09]

Excellent thread !! 🙂🙂🙂🙂

 

[sofaraway]

Just wondering do they do any kind of pass that enables you to rejoin the queue if you have to leave?
So say you had been queueing for 30 minuites and have to leave to go to the toilet, then you can go back to the front to go on the ride.

I assume that the system has been abused by some for them to be revising their policys. (not by people with diabetes, by the public in general)

 

[Adrienne]

Just wondering do they do any kind of pass that enables you to rejoin the queue if you have to leave?
So say you had been queueing for 30 minuites and have to leave to go to the toilet, then you can go back to the front to go on the ride.

I assume that the system has been abused by some for them to be revising their policys. (not by people with diabetes, by the public in general)

Hi

That would be a good idea but a few things spring to mind. The queues for some rides are very long and windy and go all over the place. If the toilet is needed or even a sit down after a hypo, you could potentially have to squeeze past a few hundred people in a narrow line and then when you need to get back in the queue do it in reverse. If you were to go back to the front in your place then that would be the same as if you were given an exit pass ie you can't queue and have just proved that so might as well go to the front anyway, if you see what I mean.

Yes I think it has been abused rather a lot. People make up all sorts of stuff don't they and it gives us all a bad name and then they pull the exit pass system on us. It is very stressful making the day as normal as possible with a child with diabetes. We, as parents, don't look on them as disabled but days out like this particular one is a potential nightmare due to lots of things, adrenaline and excitment being two. Other kids can get excited and they just jump up and down. Our kids can get excited and through a bit of heat into the mix and instead of jumping up and down, they just go down and hypo !

 

[sofaraway]

My idea was that you queue like everyone else and then if there is a problem then you can get the allowance of going to front of the queue. But I see that would not be practical due to how the queues actually work. It's been a long time since I went to a theme park probabaly 10 years ago!
But what you are saying is that queuing in itself is likely to cause problems, so it's better to take an approach that will assist in preventing problems in the first place.

I wasn't diagnosed until i was 15 and have to remind myself at time that I'm lucky to have a relatively easy type of diabetes to control. But I am always learning from the parents writing their expereinces so I really appreciate your input on this forum.

 

[Adrienne]

My idea was that you queue like everyone else and then if there is a problem then you can get the allowance of going to front of the queue. But I see that would not be practical due to how the queues actually work. It's been a long time since I went to a theme park probabaly 10 years ago!
But what you are saying is that queuing in itself is likely to cause problems, so it's better to take an approach that will assist in preventing problems in the first place.

I wasn't diagnosed until i was 15 and have to remind myself at time that I'm lucky to have a relatively easy type of diabetes to control. But I am always learning from the parents writing their expereinces so I really appreciate your input on this forum.

Hi Nikki

I think its good to get other views and ideas as it then makes you think of other ways of doing things or infact the arguments that people like Chessington can put up. When they ask the same question you did, I now have my answer as you had already asked it !! 🙂

 

[SacredHeart]

Adrienne,

I went to Thorpe Park last month, and had quite a good experience with their system. I wasn't sure I'd be entitled to anything, especially since I didn't have any form of ID that they were asking for, other than my insulin user card in my wallet, my ID bracelet, and obviously my meter, pens etc. They let me in on a disabled ticket price (because I orderered over the phone), and told me to go to their guest services lounge when I got there. I explained I didn't have any ID because I was newly diagnosed, and they made me fill in a quick form, and gave me a yellow wristband, a booklet and card.

The way it works there is that you're entitled to queue jump by going to a different entrance for their top 10 most popular rides. You pick the one you want to start with, and they let you straight on. Then they see what the actual queue time is for the ride and write it on your card. Then for that amount of time, you can't queue jump. You can do whatever you want for that time, and then when that time has passed you can jump the queue again for whatever ride you want off the list. Because I obviously didn't need any help with mobility or similar, I could include up to three people with me on this wristband.

They put my name and address into their computer system, and said they would suggest bringing a letter from my doctor saying how hypos etc could effect me in a long queue, and when they'd seen it, they'd enter that in the system, and that would last for a year before they'd need to see it again. This would cover me for all Merlin owned parks (except one of the children's ones....might have been Chessington? who would need to see it every time) But I found them very helpful actually. Wasn't a bad system. If Chessington isn't Merlin owned (I have no idea), this might be a good system to propose.

Becky x

 

[rossi_mac]

Another interesting an eye opening thread peeps,

Well done you becky forward planning I like it.

 

[Adrienne]

Another interesting an eye opening thread peeps,

Well done you becky forward planning I like it.

Hi Becky

Thanks for that. This is pretty much the exit pass they have stopped. They are saying that if you can't queue then you have to take a letter from your GP or consultant. Children don't see their GP's re their diabetes care. I don't think that consultants would do this. I have been in touch with my team and they can't do a standard template as all children are different and it would have to be tailored per child which is just an added extra job the consultants don't need.

So with that we have a problem.

 

[Proudspirit]

Hi
I double checked with my friend who went to Alton Towers with her T1 daughter aged 5, she had already bought the tickets but took her DLA letter and the party were given wristbands they could go through the exit for all the rides that Katie wanted to go on, they didnt ask her what the disability was or proof that the child named in the letter was indeed with them.

Ive always fast tracked the rides with my daughter, she said it was her bonus for being disabled.. in fact a boy at school was picking on her and she said " well yes i might walk with a limp but you have to queue at Alton towers, I don't" bless... in the words of Tesco's "every little helps"

Julie x

 

[HelenM]

Does (or did this) this work for type 1 grannies (or parents) too?
I went with my family and their friends to legoland in November. A long promised treat with Starwars fireworks at the end. It was a special day,else we would have gone home as it poured all day. Many others had the same idea so there were still big queues. I never got on a ride, after queuing for over an hour in the cold rain with my 3 year old grandson, I had to phone to ask someone to take my place, my level had dropped like a stone. (thankgoodness for mobile phones). After that I couldn't get my BS up all day and couldn't risk another long queue. To be honest it was a miserable day, apart from being soaked to the skin, I was sad and felt guilty that I couldn't take a fullly active part in careing for the children.

In perspective it, it was the weather, so it would not always be a problem.Three months later, Disneyland Paris, a warmish day and I had a fantastic time, no problems despite similar length queues.