Denied a Roller Coaster Ride!

G'day Everyone!

Today's post is related to my vacation with my friends recently in the Elysburg, PA area. In that particular area of PA is the last Family Amusement Resort called Knoebels Grove. http://www.knoebels.com/ . This place is a family owned amusement park where everything is natural and it's not commercial grade. This is a place that is nice and friendly.

Unfortunately, not everything was nice and friendly on Sunday, June 7th, 2009. My group consisted of me and 4 (4 deaf, one hearing) friends. A sixth friend was my deaf blind friend, "Kyle" (not his real name), from the DC area. Kyle was enjoying the knoebels amusement park as we had hit several rides without any problems until we were going over to the Phoenix roller coaster.

When we stopped there, a few of the guys wanted to go get some tickets for the Phoenix roller coaster. When I asked Kyle if he wanted to go, he said yes. So I walked up to where my friend was at the ticket window, where he was waiting for his friend to finish his transaction, I told my friend Kyle wants to go on the ride and would he take him? He said ok. But the old lady ticket seller stopped and asked my hearing friend if Kyle was deaf blind? When he replied "yes", the lady told my hearing friend that Kyle was NOT to ride the phoenix. When it was interpreted to me what the lady said, I was aghast! This never happened before! Knoebels is suppose to be DEAF friendly. But many of my hearing BLIND friends never had a problem on the Phoenix roller coaster or on the Twister roller coaster. No matter how much talking we did with the lady, she stood her ground.

After that, my other deaf friends went on the roller coaster, I sat with Kyle on the bench. Kyle was very angry. It was the second time in his life that he was denied a ride on the roller coaster. It was discrimination, he said. The first time it happened to him was at the 6 flags park in Maryland.

After my friends had a few more rides, I went to pick up my glasses and hearing aid from the locker. I marched on over to the knoebels staff office with kyle in two. The poor lady at the office was a bit scared to see my big football frame filling the window and I told her I needed to see the Park manger. We were making an ADA complaint.

Well, the park manager came down and we sat for a discussion. We told him what happened at the phoenix roller coaster area. He was upset pretty much. After he went to the office to make a call, he found out what happened. Some park rules requires that people be able to exit a roller coaster ride within 45 seconds if the ride is running in a two train format. The phoenix roller coaster was running in a one train operation format on that day and the lady had pretended to say "She didn't know it was one train. She thought it was two train as we had a large Sunday crowd." as the manger explained. So the manager apologized for what the old lady ticket seller had done and promised that she would be "re-assigned" to a less public sensitive position. He offered to Kyle and me to go on the phoenix ride now. But the lateness of the hour of the park, and we had other plans that Sunday evening. So it was planned that we would come back Monday morning and we'd get to go on the ride. Unfortunately, we slept in that morning and had to take Kyle to the train service in Harrisburg. So next time, we will take up on the manager's offer if Kyle can make a return trip.

Every day, at many of the amusement parks that I've been to in my life time, there are people who guiding the disabled community around in wheelchairs, holding them up, or whatever assistance being provided. Most of the disabled community are hearing people who just cant cope, see, or whatever disability they have. But their hearing supporters give them assistance to ride on the roller coasters and they enjoy it.

So why are the deaf (in some parks) and deaf blind denied to ride a certain ride? One person told me that it has to do with hearing the instructions. In other areas, it has to do with being able to react to an emergency situation on the ride.

It's kind of frustrating to know this. I know the ride operators are doing the safety stuff of prevention. But some amusement parks try to go out of their way to accommodate the disabled community as the best that they can do as per the ADA law. But some parks dont because they're afraid of the insurance industry and the lawsuit happy society.

However, it may be a coming trend happening as roller coaster manufacturers come out with new cars, tracks for their ride equipment that tends to be more safety minded, but doesn't allow for the disabled community to ride. Especially some rides are so small, the large people (like those who have stocky football bodies, not just being fat), will be unable to experience these rides. It is pretty much evident at Hershey park already with some of their rides changed. It's even posted in front of the rides themselves.

I'm sad that Kyle got denied this ride, I hope that his experience at Knoebels grove wasn't lost on him. He enjoyed his time. Especially at the Crystal Pool where the water was SHOCKINGLY COLD! It was half/half! ICE COLD ON TOP, Warm inverted layer on the bottom. But, my friends and I got "roasted" by the sun. That is to say, we got some nice sunburns. OUCH! Wanna cook an egg on my head? hot enough to do just that.

Meanwhile, I watched the 6 game of the NHL Hockey finals last night between Pittsburgh and Detroit. Pittsburgh came out and PUNISHED Detroit in a very bad way. Especially when they made the mistake of tying the game. When they tied that goal, they got hit harder. Then tried to tie it again after Pittsburgh took a 2-1 lead at the end for good. Detroit was told "GO HOME AND STAY THERE"! Shaming Pittsburgh at home during the 5th game? Bad move, Detroit.
So, in two days time, get ready for the final NHL Hockey game. Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Detroit Red Wings in Detroit, Michgan. The Red Wings will finally be CLIPPED FOR GOOD!

Enjoy the week.
Semper FI!