Morgan’s Wonderland – world’s first theme park designed with special-needs individuals in mind & completely wheelchair-accessible…

all photos taken with our phone… feel free to click on each photo to see a larger view but then use your back button to return to post… 🙂

MORGAN’S WONDERLAND, San Antonio, TX

While mom was researching things to do on our way to and back home from Galveston, Texas mom came across Morgan’s Wonderland – the world’s first theme park designed with special-needs individuals in mind and built for everyone’s enjoyment. The park is 100% wheelchair-accessible. There are rides, playgrounds, sensory activities, and other colorful attractions.

HISTORY: While on a family vacation a father witnessed his special needs daughter wanting to play with other children at a hotel swimming pool but the other children were leery of her and didn’t want to interact with her. He knew then that special needs children and adults needed a fun place to go for the day. He wanted to create a place where those with disabilities and without disabilities can come together not only for fun but also for a better understanding of one another.  Morgan’s Wonderland opened on April 10, 2010.

Those with a qualified special need get in for free under their special-needs admittance and I, Miss Kayla was able to when mom and I went last month. Mom paid $17 which is cheap in our opinion and it goes to a good cause.

Here I, Miss Kayla and Cubby are on the swing…

Morgan’s Wonderland is in the process of expanding – not necessarily the park itself, but they are building a camp so many miles away. They have a water splash park called Morgans Inspiration Island. This park is like a tropical island paradise with colorful splash pads, the River Boat Adventure ride that is sensory-friendly & wheelchair accessible and revolutionary waterproof wheelchairs for use. Their wheelchairs they provide for you to use to go in the water activities are waterproof and they come in different sizes and levels of support. Very cool. Inspiration Island was not open when we visited Morgan’s Wonderland but it is next to Morgans Wonderland and we were able to get a glimpse of some of it.

Most of the time when mom hears about a special needs place, wheelchair accessible place and so on it turns out to be mostly for someone that isn’t as severe as me on a cognitive level so I usually still can not participate and so on. Mom didn’t know what to think of Morgan’s Wonderland as she didn’t know how restrictive things would be for me and she was worried there might only be a couple of things I could do and then we would be done but like always, she goes with an open mind and hope there will be much more for me. And guess what??? I, Miss Kayla LOVED Morgan’s Wonderland! We stayed from opening to closing and would have loved to have gone back the next day but they were close.  Even if they were open like two days later we probably would have stayed to go back another day but they didn’t open for five more days. From what I remember looking at their calendar on the website, they were only open Friday-Sundays and we went on a Sunday. But mom really wants to bring me back. I, Miss Kayla and mom wishes we lived closer.

Morgan’s Wonderland gave me, Miss Kayla some new firsts: first time on a Ferris wheel and I even got to stay in my wheelchair….

views from the Ferris wheel……

AND
I got to “sway” on a maybe boat looking like platform with sides but shaped kind of like a boat and mom had to make it go in a sway motion (it was labeled “sway”). It was connected to a jungle gym in the playground area. I loved it. Here I am on it in this video…

And another first, I got to go on the Carousel all by myself – twice!! 🙂 Yep, mom stayed outside the gate and watched. Well, you know what she did???? Yep, that is right – she took pics and even a video.. The video didn’t really turn out well so here are the pics..

Anyway, it was an AMAZING park with so much to do and I LOVED it as well as mom.

It was a very chilly gloomy start but the sun came out and warmed things up a bit…

Here is what I did.

I strolled around a lot checking out every inch of the park. These are just misc spots throughout that don’t go with the others that I posted.

Playground including the “sway” and the bells and I strolled each path (platforms) until I reached the end. Not sure what they are called. Mom posted the video of me on the Sway above but here is a video of me playing the bells (of course with moms assistance…  🙂

Played Instruments which a couple of them were so cool as I could wheel right up underneath them. Do you know how difficult it is to do a video and help me play????

There is a lake there that you can walk/stroll around the entire lake stopping in different “villages” or take the train. Mom and I did both.

Mom did a pano image of the train coming around the turn at this part of our walk/stroll around the lake. Across the lake is Morgans Wonderland park.

I loved the train ride around some of the park and lake. They have a spot for those in a wheelchair like me right behind the engineer.

There is a “commercial” building called Sensory Village which on the outside it looks like there are different stores inside it, but the different stores / rooms inside it are full of sensory activities plus a market (a practice market for play).

There is a fishing dock where you can catch and release I believe. I didn’t do this but we strolled on the dock.

Saw where the Amphitheater and waterworks area are but didn’t do any waterworks (station in Morgan’s Wonderland)

I took about 45-minute nap midday (about halfway through our time there) as I was so tired from all the fun, but then once I woke up I was ready for more.

And of course, on my way out I, Miss Kayla did some shopping in their small gift shop.

Unfortunately, they never were able to open the car ride (I think cars should never need maintenance – always run perfectly all the time) so hopefully, I can go on that next time.

www.morganswonderland.com

Love,
Miss Kayla