Just broken my ankle, but I want to go to Olympia

[ew96]

I was already looking at Olympia tickets, then broke my ankle yesterday in a freak accident. The horse fell over, my foot stayed in the stirrup and twisted around. I’ve looked at the accessibility seats and apparently I need to be registered as disabled to book these, which I’m not and as far as I can tell, you can only contact their customer services if you have already purchased tickets. Any suggestions?

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

If I were you, I would purchase the ticket, go on your crutches and ask to be moved to either an end of row seat, or an accessible seat. I went to the Great Yorkshire Show on crutches and found that people were helpful and respected my space. The biggest problem was that I had to buy gloves at the end of the day, my hands were too sore to walk across the carpark without protection.

 

[WelshHoarder]

We managed Olympia with the small person on crutches a couple of years ago (first year at ExCeL), but we already had end row tickets because of hubby’s long legs. However it wasn’t too bad. The most unnerving part was the shopping village, as people just didn’t seem to spot him as a child, let alone on crutches, but otherwise everyone was lovely. People genuinely helped on the stairs to the arena seating, waiting while we shuffled him up and down, and were on the whole patient and understanding. We took a rucksack stuffed with hoodies and a blanket so he had a soft footrest while we watched the performances, and there was just enough room for him to sit slightly diagonally to use it. I believe there are wheelchairs you can ask to borrow at guest services, if you get there early enough, but no guarantees.

Definitely take gloves, he did have sore hands by the end of the day, but at least all the surfaces are smooth and level. There’s also a fair bit of seating outside the halls to rest on in between times, although it’s a bit manic at the main mealtimes we usually managed to find something. I won’t pretend it was easy, but it wasn’t as bad as we feared it would be. If you’re thinking of travelling by car they’ve done pre-book parking this year as well, and access from the car park up to the halls was straightforward. Just double check carefully the zoomed in seating plan when you book, to make sure you’re as near to the stairs as possible if you can.

What day are you looking at? we’re there all day Sunday this time (thankfully no crutches this time!) and really looking forward to it.

 

[ew96]

We managed Olympia with the small person on crutches a couple of years ago (first year at ExCeL), but we already had end row tickets because of hubby’s long legs. However it wasn’t too bad. The most unnerving part was the shopping village, as people just didn’t seem to spot him as a child, let alone on crutches, but otherwise everyone was lovely. People genuinely helped on the stairs to the arena seating, waiting while we shuffled him up and down, and were on the whole patient and understanding. We took a rucksack stuffed with hoodies and a blanket so he had a soft footrest while we watched the performances, and there was just enough room for him to sit slightly diagonally to use it. I believe there are wheelchairs you can ask to borrow at guest services, if you get there early enough, but no guarantees.

Definitely take gloves, he did have sore hands by the end of the day, but at least all the surfaces are smooth and level. There’s also a fair bit of seating outside the halls to rest on in between times, although it’s a bit manic at the main mealtimes we usually managed to find something. I won’t pretend it was easy, but it wasn’t as bad as we feared it would be. If you’re thinking of travelling by car they’ve done pre-book parking this year as well, and access from the car park up to the halls was straightforward. Just double check carefully the zoomed in seating plan when you book, to make sure you’re as near to the stairs as possible if you can.

What day are you looking at? we’re there all day Sunday this time (thankfully no crutches this time!) and really looking forward to it.

Thank you, that’s really helpful! I would be going up by car as I’d probably either go there with my mum or boyfriend and they can both drive. I’d most likely be going there on Sunday or Monday evening

 

[WelshHoarder]

Hope you do manage to make it - we were gutted when our youngest did his knee in a freak accident at school in October, having had tickets booked since the spring, but we made it work, and still had a really good time.

 

[Bobthecob15]

If you’re parking on site you’ll be fine, there is a good bit of walking involved as Olympia tends to be in the far corner of Excel down one end, but lots of seats on the way to it and once you are there it’s not too bad and there are seats in lots of places. Definitely pre book parking though as there are other events going on so they want everyone to pre book.

We’ve been the last 2yrs and going again on the Saturday, it’s a fantastic venue! Food isn’t cheap so bring lots of money Hope you enjoy it and try and arrive lunchtime for evening performance as the car parks were chaos mid afternoon last year x