Siam Park's picnic policy

[Janet]

permission to post as a review on my blog please??

[Nova]

Absolutely 

[Janet]

Done. 

[Michael]

The kids and I always seem to be able to smuggle the lunch in, wrapped in towels etc.

If they made me go outside to eat it . . . then sorry, it would be outside the gate or in the road in front of the entrance. Move me on by force mate, or call the police.

I'd do exactly the same. 

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

If you do go again Nova, demand to speak to the manager, do not be intimidated by some jobsworth, and take pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures.  Post them all over and also send them with a note to the owners of the park. 

Bastards.

[Janet]

It never used to say it, but now the website is explicit about taking your own being absolutely prohibited ....



as I've said in the post on my website, though:

The park's website does in fact say that taking one's own food is "totally prohibited", but it is information in a none-too-bold text at the bottom of the page on restaurants, which is hardly going to be the port of first call for someone checking the site to see what they can expect ... when they intend to take a picnic!

[poker]

Public road!  You can eat where you want I would have thought! 

[Nova]

I should add that we were allowed to take water in with us without a problem, in fact the employee who took our cool bag expressly said that "water and fruit" are allowed and let us remove some of the water from our cool bag to take in with us.  I know that a lot of theme parks don't allow food to be taken in, which I do find unreasonable, especially when entrance to the park itself is expensive and there are special dietary requirements involved which are not catered for, but I know it happens so being sent outside to eat didn't seem all that bad - it was the being forced to eat between a filthy truck and the bins that I found offensive.  In the extreme heat and still in our bikinis from the park, walking down the road to eat on the roadside away from Siam Park itself just wasn't an option.

[Nova]

Ooh Janet, I have to say that some of the comments on your blog are getting me quite wound up - I daren't reply there!  Although the majority of the comments are understanding and supportive, some of them are echoing the same attitude I got from Siam Park - basically if you don't want the food, don't go.  That's the message I got loud and clear from Siam on Friday, in fact I don't know why they don't just stick a sign on the bins saying "Vegetarian Picnic Area" or even say on the entrance "People with special dietary requirements not welcome".  "Buy a burger or don't come in" as though the sale of a tatty piece of junk food is worth more than the sale of an entrance ticket.

Maybe I should have expected that my own food would not be allowed but having been allowed in with the same cool bag on both previous visits and even eaten my own food on the beach in full view with no skulking whatsoever, it wouldn't even have occurred to me to check.

And then I think, if I were to go again, what would I do?  Spend an hour out of the already expensive day wandering around looking for the one food item in the place that's non-meat, non-seafood, non-dairy, non-fried, non-plancha'd and non-cross-contaminated?  And if I don't find such a food item?  I either starve or I take my own food and eat by the bins?  At a world-classs tourist attraction in Europe in the 21st century I think that's a pretty poor business model.  Even if they charge more at the gate to cover any lost revenue Siam Park seriously needs to make itself more inclusive, or at least be less hostile towards visitors with special requirements.  Though when I see ordinary people expressing the same intolerance for diversity I don't hold out much hope...

[Janet]

One encouraging thing .... Clio O'Flynn was sympathetic, and she has the ear of some in power in Adeje. That's never a bad thing.