To think the fast track queues at Thorpe park are unfair?

No it’s not. The people who have to queue longer still get to experience the whole of the ride. It’s like making the people in the cheap seats have to arrive early and wait.

If it makes you / your DH feel any better, Merlin have restricted the availability of RAP passes so significantly that we have to book months ahead in order to have any hope of our disabled DC being able to access any rides at all.

yes agree. Then it's up to people if they want to pay or not. I'm like the OP and I'd choose to pay! leave the husband at home OP or let him stand in the long queue if he's that keen!

Thatcher's Britain

I think most people who can afford theme park tickets in the first place can probably afford to save up for longer if they really want a more expensive ticket.

For example some will pay eye watering prices for lunch, drinks and snacks whilst there and some will bring their own to save money.

I don't really think what they choose to do for a living has any relevance.

I’m not a fan of fast passes as it’s only those who can afford it that can buy them. I can only just about afford to take the kids to a theme park in the first place, let alone adding on another £400++ on fast passes! That’s the equivalent to a caravan holiday in Easter holidays for 4 nights. It’s just nuts. Luckily we do have a blue light card so we only go when it’s a member day and the queues tend to be a lot better. Otherwise we would just have to suck it up and wait. If only it was like the good old days when Disney world used to let you book fast passes for certain rides for free. Even they don’t offer that anymore. It’s all greed and money making and the ones losing out are the ones who can’t afford it.

I think as part of a birthday treat it’s absolutely fine. It’s not like you do it as Chessington too! It’s a one off. And you not paying for fast track won’t stop others paying for it - so you’re the only ones losing out by not doing so.

@Screamingabdabz ok I over simplified. Not just hard work but also making good life choices and decisions. Choose a career which pays well. Presumably your postgrad wasn't in a high paying industry. Which is fine, totally your choice. But it was a choice rather than fluke. I'm just saying that if having the money to buy fast passes is something you value then barring the obvious lack of academic aptitude it is possible to strive towards and achieve that goal. So a good lesson to children that they can aim for that if they want.

Your DH sounds a bit silly, to be honest - the fast tracks are clearly advertised, fair and square, and they cost extra. Everyone who doesn’t pay for them isn’t being diddled - they’ve made an informed choice.

I assume he never pays extra for a better quality of anything? Always gets the cheapest seats and lives off budget brand foods? I’m guessing not.

Oh God so the OP forgot a caveat.

No need to assume that because there was no disclaimer, her DH thinks people with disabilities are dicks 🙄

Pay the money, it’s so worthwhile! If you don’t you’ll queue much of the day. If DH thinks they are socks for paying, you and DS get them and DH can watch you. Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with fast passes they are a giant money spinner so parks do have them and if you are able to pay you sometimes have to join in for an enjoyable day.

She didn’t say it specifically but they’re included in the group of “dicks” being referred to. And I’m sure they think people like DS who has an invisible disability has skipped the queue. It’s REALLY fucking shit being a disabled person or their carer right now - Labour have basically reduced their status and we could do with fewer people grouping us in to any sort of “dick” category

Your dh sounds tedious. Buy the pass
Spending more money gets you a better time, it's just how the world works

Why is it OK to pay money for a "normal" theme park ticket when others can't afford to go at all?

I honestly can't see the difference between choosing to do that, and choosing to pay money for a fast pass when others can't afford to pay for a fast pass.

Both times you are just paying money to get a nicer day. I don't see why your DH would have a ethical problem with one, but not with the other.

If anyone is being unethical here, it's the theme parks who don't put a decent limit on the number of tickets they sell per day. So they cram in massive numbers of people, who then have to queue for hours.

Ahhh the fabulous ‘hard work’ analogy used by idiots to justify why they ‘deserve’ their privilege and minimum wage workers don’t. I drive a clapped out car and can’t afford £200 fast pass tickets despite having post grad qualifications and a professional job. Silly old me, the answer was easy, I should’ve just ‘worked harder’…🙄

My sympathies, I can’t imagine a worse place for a hen do

And on a plane the expensive seats gets on and off first and get a nicer meal etc. Funny how people often strop about (usually) people of normal wealth buying little privileges while ambivalent to the huge inequalities across the country.

Capitalism in its purest form I suppose. If I had lots of money I would, but I do wonder how fast they actually are given so many people seem to get them

Well, I pay for fasttrack because DS1 has autism and learning difficulties and it's carnage if he has to queue for too long. Just like I pay for fast track at the airport and ask for special assistance at times.

If that makes me selfish and immoral I just consider it trying to even out the playing field so he can have fun like kids without his difficulties. Life is already stacked against him.

At Europa there’s a free app that lets you prebook a ride time on the most popular rides through the day. You have to keep checking it and be quick off the mark but it’s open to every visitor and there’s no cost. Other than that, no fast passes other than accessibility. We went in the middle of the summer holidays and the longest queue was an hour, and if you waited till the evening, you could get on most things with a very minimal queue.

Given that fast pass exists, your dh should realise that whether you pay money you can afford for your kids to go on every ride and not spend 8 hrs queuing, or in fact stoically queue, will make no difference to the universe. But will make a huge difference to your day.

Because are too tight to buy fast passes themselves but bitter and jealous about those that do

Are you married to Will?

INCONSIDERATE ARSEHOLES

I really dislike these too, although have been known to pay for them (my husband is less of a hypocrite and won't pay for them). I think it's different to paying to travel first class etc because you're not making other people's experience in economy worse by doing so, whereas using a fast pass means other people have to wait longer.

I'd far rather each ticket came with eg two tickets to skip the queue- I'd find it less uncomfortable to walk past a queue if I knew that they could all have chosen to do the same and are just saving their fast ticket for another ride. However that would mean prices rising overall- selling fast passes effectively allows the park to price discriminate (so people who can afford more end up paying more). Get rid of the fast passes and ordinary ticket prices would need to rise for everyone. It's a moral quandary- thank God my kids are too old for parks these days (and by the time I'm a granny I'll be able to justify buying a fast pass on account of my great age 😉)