Wednesday, July 13, 2016

An Open Letter to Universal Studios

To whom it may concern,

Our family recently visited Universal Studios Hollywood.  We have a 20-year-old autistic son who doesn't do well if required to wait a long time in a line, so we availed ourselves of the opportunity to receive the disability pass so graciously offered to those needing it.  The gentleman who assisted us at the Guest Relations desk was extremely cordial and helpful, a true credit to Universal.  It seems to us that you have gone to great lengths to try to accommodate those with special needs, for which we and surely many others are grateful.

With all such efforts, however, we hope that you will appreciate feedback when the results end up being out of line with your intent, and unfortunately our experience in this regard could have been substantially better.

The improvements we would like to see are specifically in relation to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but, given that training for staff is probably standardized throughout the park, it may well apply to other venues as well.

With the disability pass, we were assigned a time later in the day to get on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride.  When we arrived, the young man to whom we showed the pass informed us that we would need to stow our purses and backpacks into lockers provided, and ushered us into line. We were happy to find that the lockers were free, but it took us some time to navigate the crowds and the instructions provided to appropriately stow our belongings.  We then went out of the locker area to find a couple of staffers directing people to general boarding.  We didn't see people going any other direction, and no mention was made of an alternative, so we followed the throng.  After some time, we determined that if there were an entrance for those with disabilities, we were not going toward it, so we made our way back to the aforementioned staffers and found that, yes, there was another direction to go, and it was behind them.  So, we made our way down to that line, where we were asked for "the password" by a Hogwarts-themed staffer.  Not knowing what "the password" was, we made a feeble attempt to play along by saying Harry Potter-themed words.  Then she informed us that "the password" was our disability pass.

Believing that we no longer needed it after showing it at the appropriate point earlier, we had stored our disability pass with the rest of our belongings in the locker.  No mention had been made by the first staffer to keep the pass with us while stowing our things; neither was it noted by the staffers directing riders when we asked about going to a disability entrance.  So we got out of line a second time, made our way back to the locker area, fought the crowds once more, retrieved the pass, and finally made it down to the ride.

But there was a bit more for us regarding Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  It was a terrific ride, and our other two teenage children enjoyed it immensely--they went on it again themselves later.  But, while we didn't have any incidents, our autistic son riding next to me could have very easily had a negative reaction from not understanding the concept of the ride, along with its pronounced gyrations as the characters fly virtually all over Hogwarts.  And given that the ride is not short, any reaction to it could have quickly turned extreme.  While such theme park rides customarily bar those under a certain height and also warn those who are pregnant or with physical limitations, to our knowledge no mention was made (either verbally or in writing) of concerns for those with mental disabilities.

And, while that was the extent of the issues for us regarding the ride, we found that we were still not quite "out of the woods" in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  After the ride, our other children wanted very badly to get into Ollivanders, so we waited the 45 minutes in line there--mostly outside, so we could have taken our older son out easily enough if necessary.  But once finally inside, he started to make noise in response to that being generated before the presentation--about which we were unaware beforehand--began.  In an effort to keep him as quiet as possible, I was whispering various things to him keep him engaged without raising his voice.  Nevertheless, an adult staffer there who had apparently not heard him making noise previously scolded us to keep quiet while the presentation was going on.  My wife was able to tell him that our son has special needs, and he then left us alone-thankfully our son did stay sufficiently quiet after that.  However, we had no idea that going into Ollivanders meant spending a prolonged period in a presentation wherein being quiet was part of the "ambience".  If that is not communicated to attendees in writing before entering, then staff need to be educated on how to deal with special situations.

You may think, with all that I have written, that we did not enjoy our trip to Universal Studios.  But, for the most part, it was enjoyable, and we would like to go again.  We do, however, appreciate you taking the time to read this, and hope that you will take our experiences into consideration to improve training and park policy to make each park-goer's visit as enjoyable as we believe you intend for it to be.

Sincerely,

Anthony's parents