Well, one week we are overcharged and the next we have one night out that was disappointing at best. I hope shortly to be blogging about excellent places to eat, places to go and hotels to stay but, for now I seem to be overcoming all sorts of issues.
This week we went to Canterbury. We booked a restaurant and when we arrived once again, they sat us somewhere inappropriate for a wheelchair. Why when a wheelchair user comes in, do people choose to seat you so far into the restaurant it is impossible to get out without moving everyone, it might be empty when you arrive, but rest assured it won’t be when you want to leave. The other position is back-to-back with someone, again this place is not suitable.
Thankfully, another staff member saw us struggling and moved us to a more suitable table.
Believe it or not the table wasn’t the issue, it was the Accessible Toilet. It was almost inaccessible and then it was inaccessible. On the way to it there was all sorts of bits of furniture in the corridor area, making it a bit like a slalom getting to it. On the way out someone was parking a large mobility scooter and had to back up to allow a wheelchair out. What I didn’t know was that afterwards they forwarded and parked up making the toilet completely inaccessible for anyone in a wheelchair.
We were going to the theatre after the meal. However, the seats we had booked were not our usual seats, which are normally the end of a row. We had checked with the theatre, the week before, that there was to be a wheelchair space. They confirmed that they were changing the row and there would be extra wheelchair spaces, so we were happy. You can guess when we arrived there were no extra wheelchair spaces, the tech people hadn’t changed it. There were wheelchairs without spaces and no where to put them. We ended up with a choice of either not sitting together or going to sit in the Circle. We opted for the Circle and then found that due to my husband being tall and his wheelchair being high he could only see just over half the stage.
We came home and cut our losses. Wine and chocolate made the day feel a little better – at least for me!
