Sunday, August 8, 2010

Morgan's Wonderland






Morgan's Wonderland is an amusement park designed by a father for his special needs daughter. It opened this last Spring, and when it opened we had so many people tell us about it. So, we decided this definitely needed to be on our "To Do List". Boy are we so glad that it was!!

When you walk in the front door, you are greeted by kind, friendly people, eager to get you started on your day of fun. They give every family member a bracelet that allows you to walk up to monitors throughout the park, and see where everyone in your group is in the park at any given time. Thankfully we didn't have to find anyone this way, but if we did, it would have been very helpful!! We loved the sculpture at the front of the park, too!
The train was an attraction we wanted to see first, as well as the carousel. The kids all had fun taking a tour of the park on the train. The neat thing about the park is that everything is wheelchair accessible. The park is in San Antonio, TX, and it worked out just so that we visited the park on August 3. Needless to say it was HOT, and we had been up late the night before. Despite the parks efforts of making the park as comfortable as possible with misting fans and canopies where possible, we did have our occasional meltdown. This is one that was documented.
Thankfully they were few and far between, and didn't last long, but just a little taste of reality for you, the reader.

One of the highlights of the park was the Sensory Building. Not only was it relief from the heat, but it had some really fun rooms furnished to stimulate a child's imagination. One room was equipped with green screens, allowing kids to be weather forecasters, and having their own few minutes of fame. Another room was set up as a miniature grocery store. There were grocery baskets and shelves stocked with all the essentials, not to mention the meat counter (complete with the lobster tank) and bakery, and to top it all there were two checkout lanes with registers that beeped when you swiped your products. Definitely a favorite. Another room had touch screens that allowed the kids to pick their ride and decorate it. You can see Hanna's green speedster below.
Next to this room was the one you can see below. It was positively one of the favorites. These images are being projected from the ceiling of the room, and somehow are sensitive to people and movement. The butterflies are flittering around until someone stands still long enough, allowing them to land on your arm or body.
The one below was a coi pond that responded to movement across the floor. Hanna really liked this particular one!

Jim's favorite was the one you see below. The rocks or colored pebbles run down in straight lines until someone stands in front of them. Jim was catching them in his arms, and when it's piled as high as it will go, they start to spill over the edge... Lot's of fun!!
Ruby wanted in on this action, too!


If you ever want to go back in time and feel like a kid again, a carousel is definitely a way of getting there. We rode this ride twice, and loved every minute of it!

Even Zoe, at 13 yrs old finally decided it was okay to get on the second time around!
This was by far, Ruby's favorite part of the whole park. We started out on the carousel, and ended our day right back where we started, thanks to her persistence!! This may have been the reason for the meltdown previously noted :)










































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