Ruthie5671
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2009
- Messages
- 808
I realize that this is the DisBoards and my topic is not Disney, but since there is such a wide variety of people who read these boards, I thought I would do a quick post about our recent family vacation to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. If it's not okay to post this here, a million apologies!
We (me, hubby, mom, brother, sister-in-law, nephews 1 and 2) went to Busch Gardens last week for a quick vacation while my brother was in between army posts. I had done as much research as possible prior to our trip. My mom is in a motorized scooter. She can really only take a few steps - to get from scooter to the van or from scooter to the bathroom facilities - things like that. So she is not able to do any rides that require her to to get out of the scooter. My research didn't get me much farther than the amusement park website, since there are no message boards or any helpful websites that I could find. We went in knowing that there would likely be few rides that she could get on, as the park was mostly roller coasters, and we would hopefully find something for her to do.
What a huge disappointment this trip was for her. The only ride that was fully handicapped accessible was the train that went around the park. There was a lift that enabled her to ride on the back of the train. All of the other rides were completely un-accessible. She was able to get into the shows and restaurants. We did wander over to the children's area - Seasame Place. I did not notice if there were any children with physical disabilities trying to get on any rides, so I'm not too sure about that. I also had issues with some of the bathrooms, as the stalls were not large enough to accommodate the scooter and mom. I spent some time being a human door!
The moral of the story is that while it is a beautiful park, it is just not very handicapped friendly. Oh how I missed Disney!!! I wish we had the time and money to have gone last week. Hope this may help someone with any future planning.
We (me, hubby, mom, brother, sister-in-law, nephews 1 and 2) went to Busch Gardens last week for a quick vacation while my brother was in between army posts. I had done as much research as possible prior to our trip. My mom is in a motorized scooter. She can really only take a few steps - to get from scooter to the van or from scooter to the bathroom facilities - things like that. So she is not able to do any rides that require her to to get out of the scooter. My research didn't get me much farther than the amusement park website, since there are no message boards or any helpful websites that I could find. We went in knowing that there would likely be few rides that she could get on, as the park was mostly roller coasters, and we would hopefully find something for her to do.
What a huge disappointment this trip was for her. The only ride that was fully handicapped accessible was the train that went around the park. There was a lift that enabled her to ride on the back of the train. All of the other rides were completely un-accessible. She was able to get into the shows and restaurants. We did wander over to the children's area - Seasame Place. I did not notice if there were any children with physical disabilities trying to get on any rides, so I'm not too sure about that. I also had issues with some of the bathrooms, as the stalls were not large enough to accommodate the scooter and mom. I spent some time being a human door!
The moral of the story is that while it is a beautiful park, it is just not very handicapped friendly. Oh how I missed Disney!!! I wish we had the time and money to have gone last week. Hope this may help someone with any future planning.
