Morgan’s Wonderland

Several years ago, I heard about a really revolutionary park that opened in Texas. Morgan’s Wonderland, the first (and only) fully accessible park of its kind in the world! I didn’t think I would ever have the opportunity to visit but I was inspired by the idea.

Fast forward six years and I find myself pulling into the parking lot in San Antonio. Wow! What an amazing experience! I’m excited to share about my visit and what I learned.

First, a little background about the park. Morgan’s Wonderland is named for Morgan Hartman, daughter of founders Gordon and Maggie Hartman. Morgan is diagnosed with physical and cognitive differences and has a 1000 watt smile. On vacation in 2005, Morgan’s dad noticed that the other kids at the hotel pool were hesitant to interact with Morgan. He decided then that he was going to create opportunities for kids of all abilities to come together, have fun and most importantly, understand each other better.

The Hartmans stayed true to their commitment, and worked hard to build Morgan’s Wonderland. It opened in 2010 and after being open for over 6 years, Morgan’s Wonderland has welcomed over 1 million guests from all 50 states and 65 different countries! Admission is free to all people with special needs and the entry fee for all others is very affordable.

So, what is Morgan’s Wonderland? It’s a theme park where every aspect has been created with individuals with disabilities in mind. What does that mean? Well, every ride is fully accessible for wheelchairs. Even the Ferris wheel! The carousel has lots of seating options – high backs on some horses, chariots with wheelchair ramps and benches that go up and down just like the horses (and eagles, zebras, giraffe and all the other cool animals!). There is a train ride that has a wheelchair ramp, a really cool off road ride where you can drive a car around a track. Wheelchair accessible – yes!

There are playgrounds all over the place with tons of options for playing together. And more swings than you’ve ever seen in one place! And yes, several wheelchair swings so a chair can be rolled right onto the swing. The Sensory Village (which is air conditioned) has lots of different activities including a “build your own car” area, horse barn, grocery store, TV station where you can do a weather report and a really cool room of interactive screens. During our visit, we didn’t even have time to take advantage of the catch & release fishing, the pirate playground or the pier with remote control boats! We did see a fun puppet and magic show. We finished out our time at Morgan’s Wonderland in the water play area and the kids had a blast!

The entire park is designed so any guest can have fun with all the rides and exhibits. One aspect of the park that I loved was the fact that so many of the workers in the park were young adults with disabilities. When we finished the off road ride, a worker was directing us to the exit. He was blind. There were two young men working at the train station who had Down syndrome. I wish you could have seen the pride they took in their work. One of the guys helpfully directed me to stroller parking while the other guy was picking up a piece of trash. When they told us they hoped we had a good ride, they really meant it.

Want to see a quick tour of the park? Check out the video I made here. 

In addition to the theme park, Wonderland, Texas as it’s known is home to The Academy at Morgan’s Wonderland where young people ages 12-24 learn to be the best they can be. There is also a huge therapy center for children on the property. Guess what – the kids get to practice their therapy skills inside the park. How’s that for motivation?! There is a huge training center known as STRAPS (South Texas Regional Adaptive and Paralympic Sports) as well. Some of the athletes that play on the wheelchair soccer and basketball teams were in the gym doing demos of their sports with a coach. AND next summer will bring the opening of an amazing new splash park that will be – you guessed it – the first and only fully accessible water park in the world. I’m hoping to go back and visit. My sister lives a quick 45 minute drive away from the park.

Besides having a great time and marveling at the incredible opportunities Morgan’s Wonderland provides, I kept thinking back on the words of Katy Wilson. Katy and I went to high school together and Katy’s mom was my English teacher. We had the privilege of having Katy as our Special Guest as the 2015 ConnectAbility 5k/10 Race. As a Global Ambassador for Special Olympics, Katy has travelled the globe to compete in gymnastics as well as spread the message about inclusion. Her speech at our race was so awesome. 

Her final quote – “When we work together, everyone wins.”

So true. And Morgan’s Wonderland shows us that when we play together, everyone wins too!
Thank you Hartman family for the hard work and tens of millions of dollars you secured to bring Morgan’s Wonderland to San Antonio.

If you want to learn even more about Morgan’s Wonderland, how it was founded and how it is supported, check this out.