Universal Studios Theme Park

I was solicited by Universal Studios to stay at their hotel and purchase 2-Park Annual Park Pass as I have done on and off for the last 19 years. My wheelchair confined daughter, my wife and I decided to take Universal up on their offer. We sign up for yearly passes to different theme parks such as Disney, Sea World and Universal. So in September, I purchased three 2-Park Annual Park Passes then booked hotel stays at the Royal Pacific hotel in the months of October, November and December. My daughter has been in a wheelchair all her life and her 2-Park Annual Park Pass was marked wheelchair so at each ride she enters the employee would know she will need the special wheelchair accessible car that allows her to remain in her wheelchair on the ride.

In October, we went to Universal for 2 days and the trip went fine without any incidents. Then on the second day of the November trip, my daughter was refused access to use one of the special wheelchair accessible cars because she has a strap across her chest that secures her in her wheelchair.

The rides she is being refused access to are not Hulk Coaster or Harry Potter but Cat in the Hat, Caro-Seuss-el (Universals Merry-Go-Round), One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Men in Black etc., most of which are considered by Universal as Ride for Kids or Ride for Families. All these rides have special wheelchair accessible cars designed for wheelchair confined guests. She has been safely using these special wheelchair accessible cars on these rides over the last 19 years, the last time being just the month before in October.

I was also told that now a supervisor must be called to position the guest in one of these special wheelchair accessible cars for these rides. Since the supervisor overseas many rides, this means an additional long wait for a supervisor to be found and then come to the ride. The supervisor then has to wait to remove the guest at the end of the ride. To me, this seems to be the real problem; the disabled guest is just too much trouble and takes up too much time to be profitable.

After talking to several people, I finally went to Guest Relations and spoke to one of the Attraction Supervisors who repeated the same story: for safety reasons anyone needing assistance sitting in their wheelchair by using special adaptive equipment, such as the strap that secures my daughter in her wheelchair, would not be allowed to use the special wheelchair accessible cars on these rides. If these special wheelchair accessible cars were not designed for people like my daughter then who are they for?

I explained that she had been on these rides over 50 times in the past 19 years but saying this made no difference. Does this mean that anyone needing assistance sitting in their wheelchair and using the special wheelchair accessible cars has been put in danger by Universal since the parks opened in 1990? I asked if people injured in car accidents or soldiers returning from the war with injuries that needed special adaptive equipment would also be refused access to these special wheelchair accessible cars for their rides and he said yes.

I had spent a great deal of money and time for the 2-Park Annual Park Passes, hotel stays and dining yet Universal would only return of the 2-Park Annual Park Pass price even though we actually only used 3 days out of an entire year long pass.

I can only hope people will see how Universal treats there guest. Make sure your disability fits into their new policy before purchasing admission to either park from this corporation. Disney is moving forward by designing some of their rides to not only safely accommodate their guests in wheelchairs but to do so as to not disrupt the normal flow of the ride. Check out the Toy Story ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I'm sure this is a great expense for Disney. Disney moves forward while Universal Studios moves backwards.

On May 7, 2000, we visited Universal Studios and received a sudden and powerful, direct water drenching caused by a jet-skier from the attraction called Water World. A jet-skier barreled directly toward us from across the waters at a high speed and suddenly did a u-turn to deliberately cause a powerful stream of water to drench our seating area. We were seated approximately six rows back and near the center of the grandstands which we thought reasonably safe.

The camcorder captured the whole incident and can be viewed at: http://members.xoom.com/RMillerMEDS/0000/drenched.htm As a result of this drenching, my camcorder was left temporarily inoperative, but did eventually dry. Approximately three hours later, about 3:00 pm, it seemed to be okay and appeared to be working normally again. We were still at the park and left about 4:00 pm.

With this assessment, I feel it only right that Universal Studios pay (or reimburse me) for the entire repair cost. The service center -- Colorvision Service Co. -- estimates the cost of repair to be $250.00.

The unit damaged is a 1995 Sony, Hi8 Stereo Camcorder, Model CCDV701. This unit had a retail price of $1,295.00 when new. I have owned it since new and have approximately 200 hours of use. This is a high-end unit and in my estimation, as well as the service center's, it is still worth at least $600.00 if you could find one used in the same, well kept condition.

If Dale really wants to make an issue of this, and it sounds as though he does, the simplest and quickest solution is to sue Universal in Small Claims Court . All he needs is his account of what happened, maybe an eyewitness or two, and the written estimate. The outcome's not guaranteed but at least the issue will be resolved one way or another.