Priority queues at theme parks!

[Bridget1983]

Who does this?! Cause I’m looking and thinking I would be mortified to be the person pushing in front of a 6 year old who has just queued an hour and a half for a ride!!

@HappyLone they definitely weren't disabled the man who did the ride told me the pass was for the man in the wheelchair and it's a loophole a lot take advantage of.

Would you prefer it if they didn't offer it and just hiked the tickets up even more to cover the lost income? It would then be less affordable to to all and maybe shorter normal queue times?

Very good point.

It’s not often that I rtft but this is great.

I am in no way rich but our annual trip to a theme park would be unbearable without the fast pass.
There is no way I’m queuing with my 6yo for 60/90 minutes, especially in the uk where the queues have no shade (I’m looking at you legoland!)
Our trip to legoland this year would have been £50 a head if paid on the door. With prebooking or using 241 vouchers and adding a qbot it was still £50 but much more enjoyable. BTW the qbot doesn’t allow you to jump the queue, it is a virtual queue. We still waited 45/60 minutes but we could sit in the shade and enjoy an ice cream until our allotted time slot. Then you have to book another time slot for another ride and wait again. Still a great day out.

Single rider lines are great too. I do think that all theme parks should run a system like Disney where everyone gets a few fast passes, but these again aren’t queue jumper passes, you get a slip with your allotted time, go off to do something else and come back when it’s your turn.

Even on the escorted Disney VIP tour you use the fast pass line rather than just jump the queue. You can taken in side doors and driven on service roads between parks though to save time.
The only one I have seen where it is a very blatant queue jump is the Universal VIP tour on the attractions that don’t have a fast pass line, they just put a rope across the queue to bring people in.

Thats true inniu

Ive seen that...wasn’t anybody ‘interesting ‘ though

My kids have sen and we use priority lines and yes I do get embarrassed as people think they don't have sen and you get dirty looks.

I don't agree with fast passes or whatever you want to call them. Theme parks are expensive enough and to charge more to queue jump is shameful. It sends out the wrong message to kids is if you have money you don't have to waste your day lining up behind all those that are on a budget. It's hard for parents to explain to their kids why some kids don't have to queue for ages. Totally disgusted with the whole idea.

This thread reminds me of the woman going batty over people without children going to Disneyland!

Ive seen that...wasn’t anybody ‘interesting ‘ though

For the proper celebs they often use side exits that take them right to the actual ride itself, by passing the whole queuing system.

They sometimes close of the whole ride whilst the celebs ride. I know my sister ended up ages in a queue at one of the water parks in wdw which was stopped entirely as Tom Cruise and his family were there, many years back now. We've had it happen at Magic Kingdom before too, on one of the coasters.

There are also different toes of VIP and the ones that the biggest celebs use are either very very expensive or not available to actually purchase.

Which thread is that? I haven't seen it.

You'd have to pay me to go to Disneyland; if I had children I wouldn't take them there, but I'd defend the right of any childfree person to go there if they were mad enough to want to!

That was to @Butters83, sorry.

I can't see the difference between these and people staying at hotels on site and getting in an hour earlier. Or people paying for premium economy flights. Or people paying for a cab home instead of using the bus.

The Disney ones are free and just allow you to allocate your time better. You can't book ahead until you've used the pass you've got but you can time them - so if you know the kids are getting hungry you can get a ticket, zip off for a bite to eat and come back later. And usually the people operating the ride only let so many through at one time - it's not a case of everyone gets on ahead of time. It's merged.

Can't see the problem - and we've been in queues where we've not paid for fast passes or their equivalent. We've still got on within 15 minutes or so of the people who've 'queue jumped' because we were near the front and the people directing the ride allowed 10 people through from the fast passes, then ten of the rest.

For the proper celebs they often use side exits that take them right to the actual ride itself, by passing the whole queuing system

Yeah thats what the ones i saw did

Didn’t recognise them...doesnt mean they werent celebs obviously. They were on rip ride rocket

I'll give you the fact my son's not going to make old bones and his additional needs and priority pass for your queueing any day of the week...we get called and disgusted looks as he walks and looks the picture of robust health and happiness too but we can't do over busy theme parks or queuing.. we do DLP a lot as it's cheap to go from where we are and we do it out of season as he is a little thrill seeker. My sister came with us last time and was embarrassed walking passed everyone but I think I am immune nowadays

OJ

I think you’d have to be a special kind of fucked up to begrudge your child

Fast passes are free and everybody can get them

op's buggered off, on account of not being unanimously agreed with.

I took my 3 teenagers to Alton Towers earlier this year. I'd always said no before as it was so expensive, but I found out I could put Tesco Clubcard points towards it to bring the cost down. Instead of paying £33 X 4, the fee was £60-odd. So after a lot of thought about the fast passes, we decided to buy just the basic level ones for the "big 4" rides, that cost £24 per head. Bringing the cost to about £150, which I'd saved up over a number of months. We scrimped on other things (parking in a further away car park, taking a packed lunch etc) so I definitely wouldn't be happy if someone observing us using the fast track entrance complained about "rich people" jumping the queue!! Which as PPs have said, is inaccurate anyway as it's a separate queue, you don't literally barge in front of people.
It's all about prioritising. We'd never been there before and wanted to maximize our time there, so didn't want to spend hours and hours queuing. Other people may not have bought fast passes but splurged on dinner in the rollercoaster cafe, etc. I don't feel remotely bad or guilty for my choice, just as I wouldn't if I'd paid more for a theatre ticket with a better view, a plane seat with extra leg room, or a suite over a hotel room.

Exactly, thesockgap.

We go to Disneyworld often (and no, YOU DON"T PAY FOR FAST PASSES!!!!!!) and boy, do we economise on other things in order to be able to do so. Staying at a Disneyworld resort hotel enables you to access some parks before the masses, and you can book restaurants up to six months in advance.

What about theatres, concerts, football matches etc? Pay more = better seat. It would just promote another kind of hierarchy if it was first come first served for everything: strong, fit people who could sit in a tent for three days would be in the front row every time.

Can't stand theme parks, but given Legoland is virtually in our back garden when daughter was small we had annual season tickets (Merlin Card - in those days free entry to all their things whatever time of year, no restrictions).
We ONLY used it term time after school and ONLY on wet days in the holidays or after it had chucked down with rain in the mid afternoon, but treated it like a local play park and went frequently, not minding if we only populated 3 or 4 rides. Never queued for anything more than 3 minutes.

I can see both sides.

I go off-peak to avoid the massive queues, as I don't think I could handle the queue jump thing. It is a bit grim.

"mummy, why are they going in that short queue, can we go in the short queue?"

"No, we have to wait for an hour as we've got less money than them."

More money = less queuing.

Merlin ain't about customer satisfaction, it's about making money.

If there were no fast passes at all, the queues would be less. Making a fast pass system, encourages longer queue times for the main queue, and therefore encourages MORE fastpass purchases. It's not to help you skip the queues. It's all about the money.

Only read the OP and first few responses but was shocked by them. I understand that some people regularly use these special passes -I have no problem with that-their money, their choice. What shocked me was the implication people who didn’t were somehow being bad parents. Comments such as it’s irresponsible to wait in a queue with a six year old for 90 minutes. Or, those that didn’t buy the passes would have to explain to their children that they had chosen not to and why-subtext stingy parent not prepared to spend as much on their dc’s day out as other parents.
Must admit I am extremely glad that our dc are grown up and we escaped with only two theme park visits, LEGO land Windsor the year it opened and Europapark in Germany. Don’t think they had fast passes then but queues were only 20-30 minutes
I thoroughly agree with the sensible person who asked what would happen if everyone bought the passes? Back to square one. Everyone (except disabled of course) waits their turn and the park owners have the chance to charge even more for a super-fast fast pass probably

This just in, people with money have it easier in terms of services they can afford to access. Shocker. Who'd have thought it.
And I'm a single mum and a student so not in the slightest bit well off, but I don't begrudge others having more money.

I got really pissed off once when I took a long haul flight and was given a cramped seat to sit in when they let some other cheeky bugger you paid four times my ticket price sit in some nicer wider set towards the front of the plane