Texas' Peppa Pig Theme Park offers autism-friendly facilities for all

Autism-friendly theme parks provide safe, supportive spaces where neurodivergent children can feel included with ease. Photos: Instagram/Peppapigthemeparkdfw

On a recent weekday, a small child frolicked under a spotless sky and a bright sun in north Texas, the United States, shouting at his father as he made a beeline for playscape called “Granny Pig’s Garden.”

A life-sized pig welcomed him in a British accent, while the child rolled around in turf made to look like rabbit burrows.

The whole scene played out at the new Peppa Pig Theme Park, which aims to bring young kids and their families in North Richland Hills in Texas.

The Peppa Pig Theme Park creates a safe and inclusive space where every child can play.Operated by Merlin Entertainments, the facility opened to the public in March. It has been in development for two years, but a planned 2024 opening was delayed after a rainy season impacted construction.

Now that it is live, “... just to see the guests, all the smiling faces coming in, I get super, super emotional,” said Jeremy Aguilen, the park’s general manager.

Merlin Entertainments operates other attractions in the state, including the Legoland Discovery Centre and Sea Life Aquarium in Grapevine in Tarrant County, plus the Peppa Pig World of Play in the Grapevine Mills shopping mall in Grapevine.

After the success of Peppa Pig World of Play, building a theme park around the long-running cartoon in the Dallas-Fort Worth area made sense, Aguilen said.

Catering to everyone

Like the British cartoon on which it’s based, the park is geared toward preschool-age kids. Counting and reading exercises line the waiting areas for rides, and nothing is too big or scary for young ones.

“Families, that’s what we’re here for,” Aguilen said. “To create memories for all our families that bring their children. And we just want to be accessible to everyone.”

The park is also a Certified Autism Centre by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards. This means that each ride has informational signs, and there’s a quiet room with tools available to children with autism and their parents.

Also, the park publishes accessibility and sensory guides to help families navigate the park comfortably.

Informational signs help children with autism and their families know what to expect at the theme park.The most invigorating ride at the park, Daddy Pig’s Roller Coaster, has enough speed to excite children – and keep their parents entertained – but not so much as to be frightening.

The minimum ride height is 91.5cm, and kids taller than 106cm can ride alone, an important note as the ride may be too tight a squeeze for some parents.

Each attraction in the park offers something different, from the soaring Peppa Pig’s Balloon Ride – a cross between a merry-go-round and a Ferris wheel – to Grampy Rabbit’s Dinosaur Adventure, a prehistoric departure from a 5.6ha sea of mostly farm animals.

Aside from rides, there is a splash pad, a pillow-filled arena for live shows, a tricycle track and myriad play areas.

Recently, Peppa Pig and her brother George came out for a meet-and-greet at the arena. Four-year-old Blair Frohman was a bit nervous to meet Peppa after watching her show and reading her books. But the child was soothed after Peppa, George and the park staff sang happy birthday to her one-year-old brother, Dawson.

“It’s kind of like a Six Flags for little kids. And I really think that it’s a big attraction for North Richland Hills that’s going to draw in people with families and younger kids,” said Blair’s mum, Alison Frohman, a resident of North Richland Hills.

On the radar

Mayor Jack McCarty said the park may help North Richland Hills serve a demographic that has been underserved: families with really young children.

McCarty spoke about his grandsons, ages three and five, and the difficulty of finding age-appropriate places to take them.

North Richland Hills, though, is looking to fill that gap with a variety of attractions, such as an adventure park and Peppa Pig’s neighbour, the long-standing NRH2O water park. The city is in talks to pursue a “dual-ticketing relationship” between the two locales, McCarty said.

For its part, NRH2O receives around 250,000 guests in the four and a half months a year it’s open, according to McCarty; he estimated Peppa’s arrival could attract more than triple that.

“The bigger parks are really targeting the older ages, not the littles I have,” McCarty said. “I love that (Peppa Pig Theme Park) is marketing the Dallas-Fort Worth area, too, because it’ll pull a lot of visitors here.”

The goal, ultimately, is to attract young families to the community. According to economic development director Craig Hulse, the addition of young families to a city feeds schools, restaurants, youth sports leagues and other avenues that facilitate a city’s growth.

The new attraction “just puts us on the map,” Hulse said. “There’s over 100 cities in Dallas-Fort Worth, and people knew us before as NRH2O, not just North Richland Hills. But now with Peppa Pig here, I think it’s going to add another focus on our community and what we have to offer, especially for young families.” – The Dallas Morning News/Tribune News Service