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[Freddiesdad]

I am over there on Saturday, I will keep my eyes peeled for the buggy...you never know

[mumof2autisticboys]

Bless you x

[nathalie]

I am just wondering, have you yet e-mailed Disney / gotten anything back yet?

[mumof2autisticboys]

No reply! Didn't expect one, just rudeness! :-(

[Adam]

No reply! Didn't expect one, just rudeness! :-(

If you emailed, they can be rather slow based on queries I have emailed them in the past. If you wrote to them, I'd send another copy by recorded delivery.

A letter may be taken more seriously than an email, especially a recorded delivery one.

Good luck with your complaint - totally unacceptable from them and not something you would expect.

[nathalie]

I've heard from people before, that when they finally mailed like 6 times or so, they'd get a reply.
(and sometimes would get replies back like "we didn't recieve your previous copy", yeah right ...)

[mumof2autisticboys]

By the way, my friend has just got back from DLP and her buggy was stolen along with a baby bag and presents for family back home!!!

[jonathan]

It does make for difficult reading and its a massive shame that you were the recipients of such treatment.

I have 2 children with disabilities and have a blue badge myself and we were treated with courtesy and the utmost respect 99% of the time and its a shame that this doesnt happen with everyone.

We received the greatest of help at all rides and attractions and were always looked after apart from in Cafe Mickey where we waited over 30 mins to be seated even though we had a reservation.  And as you are not allowed to take your pushchairs inside this made it very difficult for us to wait with disabilities.  Then they deicided to seat us upstairs and would not listen to my explanation of how and why this would cause us difficulty.  they would not offer any help or asssitance in us getting up the stairs.  If it werent for the fact that my daughter really wanted to see the characters we would have gone elsewhere.  When we eventually made it upstairs we waited another 20 minutes for a highchair.  just wrong in my opinion.

Luckily though this was our only negative experience and nothing compared to yours.

[Zee79]

When it comes to things like this i believe you should be directed to someone who is a native speaker of your language. Language and understanding (or lack of ) is a factor in how you are dealt with at times.

[jonathan]

Often at times like this, they prefer to feign little knowledge of your native tongue lol.

Even when the disabled passes were shown they said 'They dont mean anything to us in here'  Cafe Mickey was awful overall anyway- service and food was awful.  We only tolerated it for the characters photos and autographs for the kids! lol

[nathalie]

You do get weird responses sometimes when showing the disabled pass.

When I was there at Halloween, the girl who was with us had a pass, and wanted a picture with the stepsisters, but it was crowded beyond believe ... she showed to pass to the CM that was with the character, and the CM "if I do this for you, I have to do this for everyone".
Isn't that what the pass is for?  The girl made a complaint the next day at City Hall, and they did not understand the response of that CM at all  :/

[jonathan]

One morning the crowd around Chip 'n' Dale just inside WDS was crazy. I asked one of the CMs with them if the Disabled Pass helped the kids here  and she explained that they didnt really and it was down to each CMs discretion.  As she agreed its hard work trying to get the chipmunks attention she did help us so i guess it all depends on the CM.

As for Cafe Mickey it should just be common sense that a group with 3 disabled passes would ideally need seating on the ground floor especially when you consider that there are no toilets upstairs either. Oh well what can you do lol

[zara-x]

Hi mumof2autisticboys,

Firstly, I would just like to say how sorry I am to hear about what an awful time you've had at Disneyland. I also want to say that I totally understand some of the problems you've encountered - myself and my mother have just read your account and as a sister and mother respectively to an 18 year old severely autistic person we know where you are coming from!

We have also been victims of having our disabled buggy stolen and having our belongings taken from a hired one; we have encountered an enormous amount of rude castmembers (and guests may I add) in relation to my sister's disability and we have often been left at a loss of how to communicate with staff who just point blank refuse to listen or even begin to understand our problems. We have been loyal visitors to DLP since its opening and we have recently booked again to visit in May this year despite the bad experiences we had with the new disabled pass.

I would urge you to keep contacting DLP as a lack of response to such an awful experience is totally unacceptable. I contacted DLP regarding our bad experience a week after our return last year and received a reply within 9 days. My advice  would be to resend your email detailing what you have told us and write DIRECT RESPONSE REQUIRED in your subject box. Our travel rep told us that most emails are ignored, and my first attempt was just met with an automated reply. However my second attempt, in which I stated that a castmember had directed me to Guest Communication and I also stated her name received a fairly quick response. Despite this, the response was less than satisfactory but it is important that you get your message seen. If it was me who read your email I would find it very difficult to ignore given the nature of your experience.

I would also urge you to complain to the coach company - I find this the most distressing part of your account and I think you should definitely ensure you get your point of view across.

There is a lot more I could say on this issue as it is something I am very passionate about and have spent a lot of time writing about the ways in which disability is dealt with in many environments including Disneyland but I won't bore you all with them here! However, please do not hesitate to contact me via direct message on here if you need any more advice on contacting DLP or anything I can help with at all as I really am saddened to hear all this and as I said I can totally empathise with you. This is not what a holiday should be and I wish you the best of luck in gaining a response and also in getting a new buggy for your son as I know what a difference they can make.

Best wishes, Zara xxx

[mumof2autisticboys]

Thank you Zara, I really appreciate what you've said! Good to know that people do understand, although sadly there are many that do not xxx