AIBU to think Merlin Ride Access passes are unfairly judged?

To you it is worth it. For me, the travel, the cost, the queuing , the crowds all seem pretty hellish.

I dont know if I felt emotion writing my post about why my daughter has to “come back later” for a ride instead of joining a (long) queue. I just felt that people with hidden disabilities (or not hidden if things go wrong) were being understood in this thread. Theme parks are a bit of fun. Disabled people face far, far worse things in life which really do make them emotional. Everyone should have fair access to fun things in life if at all workable.

It’s so difficult to resolve this issue because it’s understandably very emotive. All the posters jumping on to explain why they / their child need to have a priority access pass are proving that point.

I think the vast majority of people agree that priority access should be provided for those who need it, but so many people now seem to be eligible which has created a system which is unmanageable and unfair and leads to questions over whether ALL of those people should be entitled to priority access. I have no idea how you create an objectively fair way to decide that though.

There solution is remote queues for everyone. It’s bonkers in this day and age that anyone can tolerate 2 hour queues while paying a fortune for the experience. I haven’t been to a theme park for years but recall a virtual queuing system at Disney for the popular rides. It worked well and meant when you lined up it was only about 10 mins.

They will need to cap entry and ticket prices will need to rise. They make a fortune off the back of fast passes and people being stuck in queues all day (therefore only getting on a handful of rides). This would probably mean the end of Merlin passes. But the status quo is miserable.

As a parent of a child with a medical condition which makes queuing difficult if not impossible I am very grateful for these passes and it means he has an opportunity to experience these places just as any other child can. I can assure you I would much rather he was "normal", didn't have to have an invasive medical procedure on a daily basis, be pain free and not have regular hospital visits and admissions so I you can be damn sure I'm going to take advantage where we can to compensate for his enjoyment

And yet again Mumsnet letting the ablists scream and shout about hard their lives are because a disabled child gets to go on a ride.

It stinks here.

What about people who suffer with bowel or bladder issues, who very much want to ride the rides but could shit themselves waiting in the queue 😆 (I say that as a wife of someone who has ulcerative colitis!)

The other issue is it’s very much a one size fits all approach.

DS has a very limited period he can cope with being anywhere that isn’t home. Even somewhere he has really looked forward to after an hour and a half he is at his limit generally. He hates it but it is what it is.

For him it would be better if the pass gave immediate access to whatever number of rides people could normally access in a full day on average somehow so he could go do it and then leave when at his limit. A virtual queue for him would add to the stress and would still be pointless as he would only manage one ride anyway.

as I said before there isn’t an easy answer but the current approach is very flawed!

I agree wholeheartedly when my ds moved from his local primary school to a specialist high school placement it ment he'd have to get a taxi (he cant do ordinary buses let alone school ones and its too far to walk to) i spent months before getting him used to being in a taxi without me we used the same taxi driver and he just went around the block at 1st and slowly extended it until he could do the school trip. It was hard work but now he can get in a taxi and go somewhere as long as someone he trusts puts him in it and someone he trusts is at the other end. Id love for him yo be able to use buses but as he still has meltdowns on them with myself and/or other trusted people its a long way off but we keep trying, though at some point if things don't improve we will have yo give up trying.
The problem is so many parents can't or won't put in the effort they seem to think that it means that these things set in stone rather than things that maybe improved with hard work and the right strategies.

And people definitely do judge on appearances. My daughter is 15 but is very very tall and looks older. She has had to jump up and down etc even in the RAP queue to ensure shes ok posturally, and shes had young people much older than her make horrible remarks and challenge why she is there. Even the staff have been tricky with her. It is awful if these disabilities rule your entire life (as her does) and you've planned in even more detail than a military operation just to be there. It’s hard if people then drag your mind back to reality when you’re meant to be having frivolous fun with your friend/s.

No it’s not. Unless you paid for genie+ where you booked lightening lane slot (or is you’ve been recently whatever the new system is now as they’ve scrapped genie+)
A few of the new rides are often on virtual queue when they first open. But otherwise every single ride has the standby queue (normal queue) or lightening lane which is accessed by paying for it or as it used to be paying for genie+ and then selecting which ride you want every 2 hours. Either way, you still pay for it.

They aren’t that hard to get

thats why they’re reforming the entire system. As too many people have one.

It's not the RAP access which is the real issue, it's the paid-for fast tracks. Theme parks have found a way to monetise queueing - they want long queues so people will fork out for the fast track passes - they will therefore do nothing to alleviate the situation. RAP users are collateral damage in their drive to make money, and an easy target for disgruntled queuers to complain about.

Only answer - vote with your feet.

Although I agree to an extent if you have a child that gets so overwhelmed and distressed who are you actually going for them or you.

I don't go because I don't like queuing and that is what you spend most of your time doing at them. One of my children went to one because there was a school trip. I don't think my other child has ever been. I don't feel bad for my own children. Theme parks are completely optional and are unsuitable for people who don't find the queue worth the activity.

I would trade my child’s disability if it meant standing in longer lines. No question.

im on the fence about the passes. I can see the benefits for those who cannot stand long periods of time but my son cannot cope with crowds at all so even if we didn’t have to wait for rides he hit could not cope with a theme park so we don’t go. We can not go to the zoo, even a normal park or soft play is frequently too much for him.

Quite easily - use an APP where you reserve your ride, and you get a notification when your slot is available for that ride. You’re given 15 minutes grace to get to the ride. You could reserve slots for, say, 10 different rides and the app could then give you a timetable of what order you could access those rides over the day.

Oh please you can join a shorter ride and come back and slip in

It used to be beneficial years ago, DS 18 is autistic with many needs, it helped tremendously but the last like 5 years it’s been ridiculous, tbh we’ve been barely able to even access rap because they are ll sold out. DS and DP done the vip packages last year at fright nights and are again this year. Theme parks are his saving grace and I’m not letting him miss out because people believe that if you can’t stand in queues then you shouldn’t go. Honestly some of the responses on here… it’s about the only public socially thing he will endure and I don’t give a shit if it pisses people off in the other queue. Also it’s not essentially jumping the queue, you still have to wait whatever the ride wait time is before you can even use the ride access pass to get on another ride.

You see, she should qualify. The problem is that people like me also qualify.

And the way to not be pitting different people against each other, is for it to be remote queuing for all, and then potentially some form of actual rapid access (or special waiting room) for people who really need something on top.

DD1 loves theme parks. She has sensory processing disorder, and I am sure the vestibular input from rollercoasters gives her a thrill.

She can’t queue due to severe life threatening epilepsy. Inactivity and boredom are a trigger for seizures. She can just fall down unconscious and suffer fractures, broken teeth and soft tissue injuries at any time. It’s caused her to regress to the level of a 2 - 3 year old. Basically she needs to be kept on an even keel - not hungry, bored, tired, in pain, having a menstrual cycle, etc. It’s exhausting just managing her life to reduce the number of seizures (and that’s 2,000 a year after all that trying to second guess the epilepsy).

Considering how limited her life is - no university, job, long term relationship, children, home of her own, independence (because she needs 1:1 supervision all her waking hours, and 2:1 in the community as it’s so stressful for the carers), and she’s aware of what she’s lost, then she’s often in tears. She cannot come to terms with it.

Frankly, I would far prefer her to have a normal life, because a RAP or a Motability car in no way, makes up for what she’s lost in life!

How would you motivate her to keep going in life and not sink into depression all the time OP, when it’s at the back of your mind every day “She could die today, or in the night?”

Dont know what happened to my message! For us, it’s about minding other peoples’ experience as much as ours!