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

After covid. They brought in paid versions instead.

UK theme parks are terrible when you compare them to Europe and USA. The biggest issue for me is early closing times. Why does Alton Towers close at 5 or 6pm most nights? Including weekends and summer holidays. Surely if they stayed open till 9 or 10pm then there will be less people trying to pack in as much as possible between 10-5. Would also be better for season pass holders or locals who could pop along in the evening.

I lived right near it during my teenage years, enjoyed many many visits there with barely any queuing.

How long ago was that?

No, they were restricted so only certain rides had them. You had to register for a ride and it gave you a time to go on the ride, but you could only have 1 ride activated at any time.

Nothing’s changed, I went to Alton towers on a school trip in the 80s and only went on about half a dozen rides due to the queues

We did fast pass before they started ridiculously charging and now the kids are just told look you have to queue and you’ll have a laugh and the. We’ll get to the ride. It does suck watching the queue go by you in some cases

But surely they meant absolutely squat all if free and everyone could get one??

We were at a theme park recently and won’t be going back.

Each ride was minimum one hour queue time.

one ride broke down while we were on it

They don’t open until 10 so those with children up at the arse crack of dawn don’t get to go in early when it might be less busy.

Im sure they will be more that close down because they can’t balance the books.

I went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach once and there was a family in front of me being made to throw their sandwiches away. You could tell they were genuinely gutted and embarrassed

If capacity was reduced the price of everything would have to increase quite dramatically as the theme park exists to make profit. The food and beverage outlets and shops would have lower footfall, the same volume of employees would still need to be paid and the operating costs would still be the same.

I remember when Disney had free fast passes. Those were the days. I don't buy the fast passes because they are only one use per ride so I use the app to see what each ride is showing as for the queue time and then if there is one I really want to go on and the queue isn't shifting or I am running out of time, I just buy the pass for that ride.

“They” being disabled children and their families, presumably?

The RAP pass means that my son (profoundly autistic with ADHD, oh and a Lego nut) can access Legoland. TBH even the RAP queues can be long there, but I’m not complaining because I know a RAP is not easy to get. We had to submit the same medical evidence that qualified DS for DLA, and it’s a massive ballache to get the Nimbus card in the first place….

We were gifted some fast passes by a lovely family who were just leaving when they saw me struggling with DS. I think the passesare absolutely worth it, but the price!! She gifted us £75 worth iirc, and that was only the remaining 5 or 6!

We went last summer and had a much better time than at Thorpe Park. No more than 20 mins queue and that was the log flume.

I wouldn't even entertain the idea of not having fast pass as I see nothing appealing about standing in queues for hours on end.

Yep.
We went to a theme park in Spain a few weeks ago on holiday. Waited in the sunshine for over an hour to discover the reason the queue hadn’t moved was because for every 1 person put through the “normal” queue, 10 people from fast pass were given.

UK Theme Parks are absolutely rubbish, been so disappointing to see Alton Towers run into the ground over the past 30 years. Long queues, rides breaking down, theming is terrible, food and drink options are shocking. I can just about tolerate it on an inset day.

We have visited a few European parks and they are worlds away...amazing theming, so many places to eat and drink reasonably. Loads of little fun filler rides. So mych cleaner! We went to europa park in peak August season in 35 degree heat. Was so shady, ice cream stands all around and about 3 euros for a cone and the longest queue for a big ride (silver star) was 40 mins. Highly recommend Europa Park, Phantasialand and Hansa park in Germany, Plopsaland in Belgium and liseberg in Sweden .

When you compare them to how Merlin runs Alton Towers and Thorpe park it is worlds away and I can't understand why Merlin cannot run them in the same way.

Lots of people saying that’s just life and how it is but other countries manage to run theme parks without the same money grabbing mentality we have here. I’ve been to parks in several other countries that are clean, fun, busy but not hideously so and everything is much quicker. I don’t understand why ours are so shit in comparison!

I've just looked at the list we kept for the two days (Friday and Saturday) at Legoland in June and we went on 31 rides plus time in the splash area and other non-ride activities like the clubhouse. No fast pass involved, and we had a wonderful time - I think 35 minutes was the longest queue. It's a once a year treat for us so we want to make the most of it.

Queue times at places like Disney put me off completely. A friend went to Disneyland and only managed a few rides because each had over an hour to wait.

Lower the cap is what I mean so it's more enjoyable for all.

Go to efteling! Fantastic park, never queued more than 30 minutes even in August. I agree about UK parks in school holidays, they are also concrete deserts filled with wasps (I love a rollercoaster btw)

Op many amazing theme parks don't need them. Europa park in Germany has amazing queue times 40 mins max mostly ,without using any special passes. It's far superior to any other then park in the UK and some say it's better than the huge us ones.

Other amazing theme parks are efterling in Netherlands /phanstia land Germany and Tivoli gardens Copenhagen

Yes we do this it's an excellent day out if you go as soon as the doors open you almost get the park to yourself till it gets busier.

Kindly, OP, these places are businesses and it’s long been the case that those with the deepest pockets tend to be those who prosper the most.

I took DD to Pleasurewood Hills when we were in the UK a few years ago, was brilliant, we went on the Cannonball Express, got off and ran back around to go back on again about 10 times in a row, didn't have to queue at all

Was at an amusement park in Finland recently and talking to a family that had come over from Britain, they said they much prefer to come here to go to amusement parks precisely because you don't get those issues here, even the most popular ride only had a 40 minute queue (and was only 40 minutes because we wanted to get the front seats which had a separate longer queue), everything else was 5-20 minutes, some we walked straight on. There was a fast pass system but it was only in use for a couple of rides and doesn't seem to be used much, only saw one couple come up on the fast pass line while we were waiting for the most popular ride. But the parks are smaller, not so many big rides, so its a trade off.

I remember we went to one park once during covid times when visitors were restricted and it was bloody brilliant, basically no queues for anything.