Overview

The Wales Millennium Centre is a lovely theatre with good access and is in theory very disabled friendly.

Transport & Parking

3.5

We drove to Cardiff, there is a multi story car park opposite the centre that does have disabled parking on every level. I was with my husband but if I had been travelling on my own I would have struggled with the heavy , strong springed doors that you have to go through to access the elevators. These doors are heavy and to manoeuvre through, whilst manually using a wheelchair is very difficult. The Centre does allow you to purchase special blue badge parking for a small fee. I have done this twice in the past, both times I've had emails later on saying ,no parking available all booked up, and then waited to be refunded

Access

4.5

Wheelchair access throughout the centre is excellent, I can't really fault it. A small quibble, majority of wheelchair spaces come with a single companion seat. Not much opportunity to sit with a family group. In the stalls there is a row, where there is a wheelchair space 3 seats, and another wheelchair space. This is available on both sides on the auditorium. I've ordered these seats twice, for myself and 3 members of my family, I've also ordered for myself and my daughter because they are great seats, but because I haven't wanted the group of 2 wheelchair spaces and 3 standard seats it's caused lots of issues purchasing online and in the end I've needed to phone the centre to sort out my purchase. The staff have always been helpful and kind, but I should be able to purchase them online like any other seat. The elevators/ lifts are an absolute nightmare, totally inadequate for the size of the theatre. The Centre has been revamped in the last 2yrs, the lifts should have been priority. The lifts I would say accommodate 4/5 wheelchairs at a time, the centre do generally have a member of staff in the lift at the end of a show and they do try to encourage all able bodied people to walk down the stairs but they are still awful. I went to see Calamity Jane with my daughter. We were on level 1, there are 5 levels. We left last from the auditorium, we didn't rush. We went to the lift there was around 6 people waiting, we waited at least 10 mins and the lift didn't even open on our level. By this time several other wheelchair users and people with walking aids were waiting. So I went to use the toilet. I was in the facilities about a further 10 mins, we went back to the lift and exactly the same people were still waiting. An elderly couple both using walking aides, the gentleman was very frail decided to try walking down the stairs. Eventually the lift comes. The member of staff was apologetic. His approach was to clear each level one at a time, starting from the top down. I was fine, I was in a chair. Apart from being irritated by having to wait, but there was a lady waiting and she was using crutches, she was exhausted standing waiting for the lift as there wasn't any seating there. As I said the lifts are terrible.

Toilets

3.5

There are two disabled toilets downstairs, both are excellent, lots of room to manouver around in a wheelchair, excellent facilities, grab rails, emergency cords. Brilliant. When it's busy, there is a member of staff on duty by the toilets. Only issue it's a single line for all toilets, there should be another access for the disabled toilets. We've also been there and the staff member was allowing everyone to use the disabled toilets. There is a single disabled toilet on the 5 levels, not particularly well sign posted. These are smaller. They do have grab rails and emergency cord but that's it. There is not enough room to turn around in a wheelchair, to lock the door is a nightmare. I have severe lymphodema and I don't wear shoes as I can't get any to fit. The toilet the other night had not been checked and the floor was drenched, so my wheels kept slipping and my feet were soaked, which frankly was disgusting.

Staff

4.5

On the whole very kind and helpful