Theme parks are ruined if you don't pay for a fast pass?

They do, because people are prepared to buy them.

Some people are wealthy enough not to notice the expense.
Some people are prepared to save, or sacrifice other leisure activities to buy fast passes.

Personally, I stopped going to theme parks when fast passes became a thing. I don't mind queuing if the queue is moving steadily, but standing still in the queue while fast-trackers go to the front of it (excepting for disabled access) - nope - and I'm certainly not spending my hard-earned on fast passes when the ordinary entrance fees aren't exactly minimal.

Nemesis always had multi hour queues when I went. Oblivion and the Black Hole (that is going back some as it is no longer there.. Smiler in its place now), you could go on, and run back round the line and go straight back on.

Defo and they get away with it.

Wow I don't remember any of that. I do remember walking back onto Nemesis for a second go once.

We used to go for 2 days though so maybe that's the secret to going during peak time.

Theme park operators have found a way to monetise queuing, absolutely zero incentive for them to do anything to reduce the queues, because while people are buying fast passes, they're laughing all the way to the bank.

How odd. Not what the website says at all

Not for us - had to send EHCP and get a GP letter (as well as DLA evidence) so it was a major faff.

if I’d known, I would have just bought fast passes (and probably will next time). At least I can use the fast passes while I wait for the RAP slot.

lets face it, the majority of things like this are better in Europe, not sure why or if people demand better , but it seems we have all sleep walked into expecting bad service and treatment and nobody has stopped the rot have they.

Added to which, Germany is just a teeny tiny bit bigger than the UK

If you're questioning that then going to worship at the cathedral of capitalism is probably not for you!

Land in the UK is five times more expensive than in Germany

Two and a half hours is a joke isn’t it.
It’s sad there isn’t a better way of doing all of it, but it sounds like it’s also crowd control too.

My husband and daughter waited 2 1/2 hours to go on the vampire at Chessington 2 years ago. Never going back

The last time I ever visited a theme park was when I was a teenager, and I so t be going again because if the queues are so long you need to spend £300 on a ‘fast pass’, then frankly it’s not worth it 🙄

Its part of people management. Removing all physical queues when the park is busy would make all services overwhelmed.

what question capitalism?

um no.

I used to go to Alton Towers a couple of times a year. Never in the school holiday (I have no kids).
Then we started going to Scarefest, and fast passes were essential. The park was heaving. 3 hour queues not unusual at all.
We always stayed in the hotel, and you would get an hour long fast pass for any ride during the first hour that the park was open. The trouble was, you had to run to it, because that hour would be spent waiting to get on the monorail.

You do not have to send loads of info to nimbus!!

literally one document with proof of receipt of PIP or DLA etc

I have 3 near me have never been

Shareholders come first ! It’s always the same isn’t it.

8 rides x a generous 5 minutes per ride is 40 minutes of ride time. The rest of your entire day walking/queueing/spending money while managing children's disappointment about waiting waiting waiting ... doesn't seem worth it tbh

And it never occurs to you to question this ?

Absolutely this. If you just blindly turn up with no planning or research that’s on you. We never have an issue and never buy fast passes.

Firstly I'm another big fan of Paulton's Park - clean, well themed, no fast passes but they keep their queues to a reasonable length - whenever we've been (used to have a season ticket when the kids were small) we've always managed to go on all the rides at least once. Top tip is to go to the Peppa Pig later in the day as the majority of users are toddlers and run out of steam by about 3pm.

My other tip would be to wait til the children are old enough to queue whilst scrolling their phones. We've just come back from Florida (where theme park numbers are admittedly down this summer due to Trump & higher fuel prices). We didn't get fast passes but instead used the Single Rider queues - it cut the wait from from over an hour to about 15 mins. You're mainly screaming on a ride so we didn't feel we needed to be sitting next to each other.

We actually did this. It was buying the fast pass factored in or not going at all. There was absolutely no way I was standing around in the blazing heat or freezing cold for 45mins for a 2 minute ride, let alone my toddler. We got to do everything we wanted in one day. And spent the other 2 days being so very relaxed and doing rides if the queues were very short. We were able to do shows and other
stuff at leisure.
I really think the parks are just insanely over capacity. Magic hour is also such a con. It is heaving in the morning.