The Square Peg checks out….Blackpool!

Have you ever taken your autistic child to Blackpool? During October half term, the family Square Peg decided to take a mini break in Blackpool. It was quite an adventure for Mummy of a Square Peg as she’d never been that far north before and found it to be very cold.

The Tram

I think Edward’s favourite part of the whole trip was the tram rides. He was so excited and kept repeating the announcements to everyone on the tram at the top of his voice.

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The Blackpool Tower

Once you’ve decided that you want to visit the Blackpool Tower you‘ll need to decipher the myriad of different ticket combinations. After much deliberation we decided on a ticket for the Tower Eye and the Circus.

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The evening before, we found out the ballroom was open from 6pm until 10pm so we took the chance to go in there for free. Matthew and I love watching Strictly Come Dancing so now when they have the show at Blackpool, we can shout ‘We’ve been there!!’

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The Tower Eye

First of all, you walk into a lift that takes you up outside the tower, so beautiful views all round. Once at the top, you pick up some groovy spectacles and in you go to the cinema. No surprises that Edward refused to put the glasses on.

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The 4D film is all about Blackpool, the illuminations and of the course the tower. Being a 4D cinema be prepared to be blown around in the wind and have a dump of snow.

Once the 4D film is over you walk out onto the glass floor. Edward was not phased by this at all and happily walked out onto the glass.

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You also have the option to take another flight of stairs to climb up to 390 ft up the tower and then again to 410 ft. Again Edward was more than happy to do this.

The Circus

We had booked the circus performance for 4pm. By this time we needed to change Edward’s nappy. Fortunately in the tower they have a changing places changing room so a member of staff took us there to change him.

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This was the second time we have been to a circus in a month except this one is not a travelling circus but one that has stayed put since 1894. It’s very historical and traditional circus. No animals have been used since 1990 but the stables and animal pens are still there because it is a listed building.

Mooky the clown and Mr Boo

The Endresz family have been in charge of entertainment at the circus for the past 25 years. Laci Endresz enlists his two sons to play a fab double act of Mooky the clown and Mr Boo.

The Illuminations

Well, what can I say? The Blackpool Illuminations are incredible. They start at Bispham where they are tableaux and go all the way down to the Pleasure Beach where they look like amazing Christmas lights.

If you wanted to, you could pick up a tram that was in the shape of a train or a boat. These were also illuminated so you could actually be part of the illuminations.

We actually didn’t manage to ride on one of these trams but it was fabulous to see them going up and down.

The Square Peg loved Blackpool so much that he has been telling his teachers at school about it.