At the start of the year, we went to see Disney on Ice Find Your Hero at the 02. The 02 is also home to the London cable cars. The Emirates Air Line was built for the London 2012 Olympics. We first went on the cable cars during a trip to see In The Night Garden Live in May 2018. Ethan had always shown an interest in them so it was a birthday treat for him. Of course, he always asks to go on them when he sees them so this year was our third trip on the cable cars.
Flying High On The London Cable Cars
It turns out quite a few people wanted to take a trip on the Emirates Air Line. Ethan does struggle with queuing but he was desperate to go on the cable cars that he kept himself busy. I always find that if Ethan can see what he is waiting for it make this process a little easier. It wasn’t long before we were able to purchase our tickets. We got 360 tickets meaning that you don’t have to leave your cable car at the opposite station. Returning you back to the station you leave from. We paid for one adult and two children. I was given a free carers ticket. This was a surprise and I didn’t even think to ask about one.
After purchasing our tickets there was also a queue to get up to the boarding platform. The staff were happy for us to bypass this queue and let us go up and join the queue on the platform. For an autism family, little things like this can really take some stressful moments out of our day and our son’s experiences. You can still tell that people are wondering why you are getting this ‘special treatment’!
Ethan was so excited to take a trip on the cable cars. He declared we were flying as we left the station. Little E thought it was funny that I felt uneasy during our time in the air. I think they are a bit more wobbly in the winter than they are in the summer months. I have noticed I struggle with movement as I have gotten older.
We were able to ride in the cable car by ourselves. I think this might have been a covid precaution this time as both Darren and I also had to wear our facemasks. On all of our previous flights, we have also been in the cars on our own. It is lovely to see the London skyline from the cable cars. If you are visiting the 02 for the day it is definitely worth taking a flight on the London cable cars.
We took this quick video on our phones during our recent flight and we caught Ethan exclaiming that ‘We are flying!’
The cable cars did have stickers of Santa and his reindeer Rodolph decorating them. We also found a festive Christmas photo spot. It looks like they ran some Santa experiences during the month of December. That might be a fun Christmas experience to attend.
