Autism and Merlin RAP

This is the same with my son with ADHD. I can keep him in line for a short while. But not more than 10 minutes max. Less if he is somewhere exciting.

His ride access card was valid until 2027. But apparently now will not be valid. We do not live near a park, Legoland was an occasional treat. I have hEDS and am still entitled to use a ride access card. But quite frankly, I would rather not give this company any business after this.

It’s not carer’s admission I’m talking about, it’s the number of companions that the RAP includes. Which is separate to carer’s tickets. As explained in the post you’ve just quoted 🤦‍♀️

The issue is, when we got the access card they used a single symbol for cannot queue. This is now been reclassified as crowds. And they have a different one for physically standing. But this is based on whether you can physically stand.

They are taking away support from many children with ADHD.

But not all non-physical issues with queues are about crowds. My DD has Down’s syndrome and simply doesn’t understand lengthy queues and why she can’t go where she wants, when she wants. Sensory rooms and “quiet periods” won’t make any difference to her issues with queues.

Yep. Best park ever.

If you restricted it like that, I'd have to work on my muscles I guess, as that would be the only way the park would be accessible to her, if I carried her in queues. A parent shouldn't have to carry a school age child for it to be accessible.

For purely physical disabilities the bar is set at 50m for walking. It's too strict imo. There's a chasm between being able to walk and stand in a regular queue and not being able to manage 50m, which means large numbers of visitors with limited mobility couldn't attend. Thank goodness for parent and child spaces at present at least.

In PP the blue badge parking is more than 50m from the entrance. If you can walk it, you don't qualify. I think some of the frustration some of us feel is seeing how strict the criteria are for physical disabilities whilst it appears (to the outside at least) that the requirements are less strict for people with ND.

Before they brought nimbus in we submitted letters of diagnosis from her consultants and DLA stuff.

No, you’re conflating RAP with the carer’s tickets. Most places, Merlin parks included, offer one free carer’s ticket per disabled person.

RAP tickets are in addition to purchased entry tickets or carer’s tickets, so they allow 3 people in addition to the main RAP ticket holder to join the RAP queue. Which allowed us (me, DH and our two DDs, aged 7 and 10) to visit Legoland, Chessington etc as a family trip, without having to queue separately with DD10 and one of us in the RAP queue, whilst DD7 and the other parent go in the standard queue and we’d be like passing ships the entire day…

It hasn’t. We have recently came back from DLP and they still have the same system of Access Card for priority pass.

It's shit, and I think people with "invisible" disabilities will end up being the canaries in the coal mine for a big, much more generalised "fuck the disabled" push. They're trying to make it so that inconvenient, not-immediately-apparent disabilities are "made-up" or "exaggerated" - ack to work! Get to the back of the queue! But don't worry, it won't affect people with real disabilities that are apparent to the untrained eye. For now.

About time. The issue is that private companies are handing out diagnosis without scrutiny, and private companies are then handing out passes, without scrutiny. Too many people are trying to game the system. Attending at quieter times if the issue is crowds, sounds perfectly reasonable.

I feel for your brother. And this is a direct consequence of criteria changing and the blurring of distinctions between ‘Asperger’s’ and other forms of autism.

I get the logic. But however hard I try, I struggle to see my family friend in his fifties who lives in a care home and only repeats cartoon quotes on repeat and can’t function independently, as having similar struggles to my cousin’s son who got offers from three medical schools last year. I know the latter young man has his own problems but in no way should he be considered in the same diagnostic category as my family friend.

I think it would make more sense for them to just say if you get the mobility element of DLA you will qualify. No idea about PIP but I'd assume it should qualify as it's so much harder to get than DLA.

Actually my daughter wouldn't get a blue badge, but her case was clear cut enough that the theme park nurses told us to get the pass for her when tending to her injuries that she'd gained from falling in the queue.

She can walk further than the 50m of whatever it is for a blue badge for physical disability. She can't stand for prolonged periods and often uses a pushchair to help with mobility when tired. The more tired she gets the more she falls.

Unfortunately, for physical disabilities, blue badges are incredibly difficult to get. In most supermarkets, if you park in the nearest to the door blue badge space you'd have walked too far by the time you got in the door.

I think the issue is how many people now either have ADHD/autism/anxiety diagnoses or believe they have traits. Professionals are often being contacted to write letters so kids can skip the queue at theme parks. Often the difficulties are not related to a disability or symptoms are minor but people get a pass anyway and so the queues for people with disabilities are getting longer and longer and people who actually need them are being disadvantaged. Unfortunately those with ADHD/ASD/anxiety who do actually need support are being disadvantaged due to people who don't really need the support.

It depends on the nature of your difficulty with standing in a queue?

I get the rap because of a hidden disability but it’s not SEN. Does that mean all hidden disability’s are now defunct???

I have a physical condition. But hidden. Or is it just autism and adhd?

Where I work we offer free carers tickets - we ask for proof of PIP or DLA or a blue badge Would something like this work ? It's such a shame for the people missing out .

My daughter has a physical disability which impacts her ability to queue for a prolonged amount of time. We received DLA as a result of her physical disability. My understanding is that DLA/PIP is awarded to cover the additional support needed due to these disabilities. We have used her DLA to pay for various things that she needs above and beyond those of a child that doesn't have this disability.

We visit Alton Towers once per year and part of her DLA goes towards paying for a fast track pass to get round the fact that queueing is a problem. We, as a family, consider that a use of the funds to provide additional support

I don't know about Merlin ones but with our theme park that we've got an annual pass for, you can only have 2 live reserved dates. Fair enough, but we're in the same situation where she's not always up to us, so having to pick in June two specific dates in August, and then hoping, doesn't feel like value for money anymore.

It was fine a couple of years ago, when they didn't restrict the number of passes in a day because they didn't need to. But it seems to have exploded, and like with many of these things, when that happens they pull back.