A woman whose autistic son was burnt by a fog machine on the opening weekend of a Nickelodeon event has labelled it “a huge anti-climax”.
Danielle Hunter forked out over £100 to travel from Glasgow to Edinburgh for the experience with her partner and three children.
However, she was left furious after claiming parts of the event were unavailable and seeing her son injure himself in part of the attraction.
Danielle says her autistic son was burnt by a fog machine which had not been covered at the Saughton Park event.
The 26-year-old said her family were extremely "let down" when they arrived in Edinburgh.
Bringing her six-year-old son and three-year-old twins, Danielle and her partner had initially bought the tickets after it was advertised that it would include a huge SpongeBob and Baby Shark exhibit, which she says did not exist when they turned up.
With two of her sons diagnosed as autistic, the mum-of-three had taken them through the Henry's Danger maze, a sensory experience which she added had initially been "great".
However, with holes in the wall of the darkened room actually hosting fog machines behind them, her three-year-old had been quickly burnt after he unsuspectingly put his hand through it.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Danielle said: "The maze was dark and there were loads of strobe lights but it wasn't bright.
"There was a cut out in the wall and the fog machines are obviously behind it, but there was no grate or cover on it and he just stuck his hand right through just as it blasted and it burnt his hand.
"He's autistic and non verbal so he wasn't able to communicate with me what had happened but he was hiding his hand away and making distressed noises, so I took him straight out and to the medical tent."
Praising the quick actions of the medical staff, Danielle said they had been extremely helpful, but left feeling unsurprisingly let down by the expensive experience.
She added: "The map of the event showed two halves and there was just one half including the Spongebob section that just literally wasn't there.
"My two kids are autistic and they love Spongebob and Baby Shark so when I saw it that's what made me book it, but when we got there it was just a huge anti-climax.
"I was really looking forward to it and we'd come all the way through from Glasgow for it, it kind of felt like we had been robbed a bit."
In response to the complaint, The Nickelodeon Experience said: "We had a very successful opening of the Nickelodeon Experience in Edinburgh over the weekend.
“After more than two years of planning, Saturday was the very first day of the run, in its very first city - and we’re hugely excited that we could begin it in Edinburgh.
"We had an overwhelmingly positive response from those who attended our opening day on Saturday.
“We firmly believe that the ticket price offers good value for money, with Nickelodeon fans getting to explore a site full of adventure and interactive experiences.
"Just to give a little insight into what is available to ticket holders… the site is divided into zones each celebrating a famous Nickelodeon show.
“All in all it’s a fantastic day out for families.
"We can’t comment on specific incidents on site, as any injury or illness reports are looked after by our team of professional health and safety advisors.
“Luna takes the health and safety of all of our visitors very seriously, and appoint trained and experienced Health and Safety advisors to oversee the safety of the event."
