Ratings

Buggy - suitable throughout the park.*
Carrier - good.
Walking - like most zoo parks, fair bit of walking, but plenty of places to sit down.
Toilets - Changing Places area available.

Wheelchair - good wheelchair access around most of the park.

*buggies are not allowed in the Lemur walkthrough or Lori Landing.

Things to note

Several of the picnic benches around the zoo are adapted to take a wheelchair, as is the Safari Express train. Some of the shops would be rather tight for wheelchair use, although ramps have been installed to replace steps.

The park operates the Sunflower lanyard scheme for invisible disabilities.

One carer can be admitted free with a paying disabled guest - upon proof of eligibility (DLA/PIP, etc.)

Large queues could form at rides during peak times.

Don't forget swimming costumes for fountains.

Good disabled parking facility just inside gates to park.

Drusillas Park

Like a lot of places, we hadn't been to Drusillas for a few years, mainly due to Covid and how it affected us as a family, so it was good to make a return.

We were aware from previous visits that there are a number of small rides available towards the rear of the zoo and also a couple of large play areas and a water park. We had decided that we would head for the rides first, as they would be less busy early on. As it turned out, going on a mid week term time day meant the whole site was less crowded. There were a couple of buses in the car park, for school children, on end of term trips, but predominantly the visitors appeared to be grandparents, or mums with pre-school children.

Drusillas have thoughtfully put a detour in place, so you can get to the rides area, without having to go the whole way round the zoo.

Our Little One is incredibly sensory, and loves movement, particularly sudden drops or accelerations in speed. To give you an idea of what he is like, picture a car, with the window open and a dog in the back, with its head out of the window, tongue out, ears flapping in the breeze. Well that would be our Little One, except of course the flapping ears bit!

Upon entry, and after showing the agent at the till our DLA and PIP, we were given an Access Ride pass. This pass would entitle the holder to "skip" the queue to access the ride, without the need to queue. Each time the card was used it would be signed on one of the 10 available slots on the card.

This on paper seemed like a good idea, but in practise, unlike theme parks we had been to, there didn't appear to be any entry point for people requiring this easy access, instead the process was to enter the ride via the exit gate.

On the day we visited, and because we went to the rides at the start of the day, there wasn't actually a need for the access pass, as there were no queues, so I can't actually tell you how successful this policy is, but it should be noted if you are visiting with a child that has trouble queueing.

Having had a few rides we then decided it was time to have lunch. There is a large picnic area near the rides section, some of the benches here have been adapted to allow a wheelchair to pull up to the table.

At the time of our visit this area was very busy, as all the schoolchildren appeared to have congregated here for lunch! 

Lunch over we decided a ride on the Safari Express would be next on the agenda. The train runs at regular intervals and takes you round the central section of the zoo park. Watch out for the animal related "dad" jokes on the boards as you go round.

The open carriages were again good for our Little One, while it doesn't have the speed of a car, the wind blowing in his hair kept him happy! Again, queuing wasn't an issue on the day we were at the zoo, but I feel this could be a pinch point at busy times, and one to be aware of for a child with queuing issues.

There is a wheelchair friendly carriage on the train for those that need access.  

Once we had our ride on the train we made our way back through the earlier mentioned short-cut to return to the zoo. It should be noted at this point, that while Drusillas calls itself a "zoo park" there isn't any evidence of large animals, excepting their two camels. Don't expect to come to see lions, tigers, giraffes or anything of that nature. They do however have a good selection of small monkeys, like marmosets and tamarins and also colobus monkeys.

Of course no park would be complete without meerkats. The enclosure here has a tunnel, so you can crawl into the middle of their ground and pop your head up in a Perspex dome to be amongst the animals - a good idea, but the dome was very marked and was suffering from condensation, so not much of a view really. the children here just seemed to like going in and out of the tunnel, and weren't too bothered about the meerkats anyway!

I did manage to persuade our Little One to come to the middle of the meerkats, but he didn't really have an idea of what he was supposed to be doing, just like the other children, he enjoyed the tunnel... this may not be for every autistic child as it is quite an enclosed space, and could get very crowded at peak times.

To finish our day off we got Little One changed for the water park - to say he loved this would be an understatement. If you are thinking of following suit, then make sure you bring towel, cossie and swimming nappy if required. Being slightly opportunistic/proactive, the shop in the square sells swimming costumes - convenient that, eh!

Any way, the water park doesn't disappoint if you have a child who adores water - as our does!

I have probably over shared, but below is a "small" selection of some of the photos I took, without getting too many children in the background.

We had a good day at the park, managed to wear Little One out, which isn't an easy task, got to see some animals, went on some rides and best of all - got soaking wet!!!

For him, you just can't beat that sort of day.