AIBU that fast passes and disabled access lines should be different.

[2021isnottheyear]

We went to a well known theme park yesterday with daughter who is disabled.
The ride access passes are now moved to virtual queues so you wait the same length of time as everyone else but just not in the actual line. This is absolutely fine. However the issue is you wait the same length of time and then when it is your time you go to the access and end up waiting in a line / longer because it’s the same system they use for people who have purchased fast passes.

1. It means you still end up waiting in a line and 2 actually end up waiting longer than without a ride access pass ?

Also in terms of the other customers who don’t have fast passes this then makes their usual long waits even longer.

The system seems very flawed.

@2021isnottheyear this was at legoland ? I havent take my DC to any big theme parks but had been co sidering legoland this year, then decided to wait til nextvyr when dc is a bit taller. Sounds horrendous though!!

@NailsNeedDoing you wait longer because of example below

They have a time that the not al line is going take so say 60 minutes.

That’s how long we would be waiting in the line physically.

So our app will list it as a 60 minute wait, it then alerts us when to head to to ride when it’s our time however when you arrive what used to be the disabled access line is now also the fast pass line. Only one ride access is allowed on each go of the ride.
Additionally to this you have the fast pass customers lined up with immediate access they also have to allow a certain amount of people from the ordinary line.
So the we start lining up once the 60 minutes is already up.

Averaged at some rides for 20 minutes one at least 30 minutes.

But you are not physically waiting at all you can be on other rides, in the cafe, anywhere. Yabu (I use this too as have a disabled child)

So you don’t physically end up waiting longer, as knowing what time your slot is booked for doesn’t really mean waiting.

It does sound like you still end up waiting an unacceptably long time though if they are giving out so many fast passes that it still creates an average of a 20 minute wait. A half an hour wait seems very unfair to people who have paid an extra fortune to not have to wait as well.

Big we are not going on other rides 🤣

Because they also are virtual lines and you can’t go in to 2 virtual lines at once. You can only have one at a time. She physically can not line up so we are not in another line for a ride whilst the other is in virtual.

@DeflatedGinDrinker we are the line when got the ride access point was 20-30 minutes.
Which defeats the object. So after waiting virtually for an hour a child who can’t line up and needs an access pass has to line up.

I think YABU about what they do with their fast passes but YANBU that they have not taken into consideration their disabled riders’ needs. I would contact them because it sounds like they are no longer making suitable and reasonable adjustments for those who are entitled to them.

It is true that at other Merlin parks you can go on smaller rides while waiting for your time to elapse for a bigger ride (can at Chessington this year, could when I last went to Alton Towers, don’t know about Thorpe park), but you can’t at legoland - afaik, all rides are listed on the virtual ride access pass, and you cannot enter any queue until your countdown had finished, so you can’t virtually queue for a big ride while riding small rides, as the small ride also needs a countdown.

And yes, you do end up waiting longer in between rides (just not waiting in the queue), as you wait the established queue time (eg 60 minutes), then enter the fast pass queue and wait a further 20 minutes at least, meaning waiting 80 minutes between ride times, not 60 minutes if able to go in the normal queue.

I hate the whole idea of fast passes or pushing in for money for the same experience.They should be banned in my opinion. I cannot understand why people pay so much money to have hardly any rides at all. At the very least these passes should be very limited.

Disabled access is a different matter and it looks like this has been mismanaged with the new system.

Last time I went to Disney in Florida I was really impressed with their fast pass system. It may have changed now, but at the time you didn’t have to pay any extra for 3 fast pass rides per day, and you could access more for free once you’d done the first three. There was minimal waiting, if any when your slot came up. Disabled riders went straight to the front and it was all very efficient. Merlin needs to take some lessons from Disney.

You maybe waiting longer than if you just joined the normal queue in the first place but your queueing time is greatly reduced. Instead of queueing for 60 minutes you can get a coffee, shop, go on a less popular ride with no queue etc and then queue for 15 minutes
This. The whole point of the benefit is that you are not standing in the queue as you would otherwise, so can enjoy doing other things during that time whilst others are stood there moving very slowly. It is not intended to be to wait less over time so you can enjoy more of the popular rides.

The fact that you still had to wait to get on is another issue. 15 minutes is reasonable, 20 mns ok, 1/2 hour does make the whole thing a bit redundant. Maybe they had a particularly busy day with more fast pass and disabled people.

I hate the whole idea of fast passes or pushing in for money for the same experience.They should be banned in my opinion. I cannot understand why people pay so much money to have hardly any rides at all. At the very least these passes should be very limited
Of course money buys privileges. You will have those who can afford fast passes whilst others have to wait in queues. Those who wait in queues will still be privileged compared to kids whose parents can only afford their local lower scale activities. These children will be more fortunate than those whose parents can't afford to take them out at all. Then you have the celebrities who get to have the park just for themselves. My friend was given quite a large sum of money at the time to cancel her trip because the Beckhams had decided to hire the park of one of the kids birthday party.

I did not experience this with access pass last week.
Stand in disabled queue and wait. That was It. A couple of rides waits were longer, but we had space to move.

We have rap and thankfully merlin passes as we have had days where we have only got on a handful of rides.

We basically either avoid summer holidays or go with no real expectation of managing a lot of rides. If the ride access queue is long we dont do it. There is no way we will do legoland in summer as it would be pointless for us so have booked September. Chessington/At there are things to do and places to walk at least.

Inset days are the way forwards. Pre rap we only ever went very low season or inset days.

As an aside. Does anyone know how Disneyland Paris green cards work?

We want to go next year (covid permitting) and just as we wouldnt book a uk park when it would be unmanageable really need to know how things work there...

I think theme parks are hellish places.

Should get fast passes if you can comfortably afford it. But becomes a joke if everyone has one.

If you can’t afford a fast pass, then there are better ways you should be spending your money full stop

@HarebrightCedarmoon

All these fast passes should be banned and theme parks required by law to limit the numbers. Already costs a small fortune to go. They are just greedy bastards.

By law??

Come on… you have a choice here:

• spend £££ in a place that makes you unhappy and complain about it
• or do something else

@5329871e this was the first time we went in the holidays the last time we went the ride access was completely different if I had known trust me I would if spent my money else where.

It does start to get to you especially when you see how things are changing regarding disabled people

Bus spaces and people wanting purity for pushchairs, access lines which were for disabled now being used for abled guests if they have the money, amongst other things.

TP was awful, we didn’t have FP and got on 3 rides in 10 hours!! The FP queue seemed to join the main queue half way to the front, so even the FP holders had to wait over an hour (as compared to normal ticket holders queueing for 2+ hours for one ride).

Never again. Go on a term time day in April / May / September or don’t bother.

Merlin need to tighten up the documentation needed for ride access passes. They allow Dr's letters stating a person cannot queue for any reason, which many people pay for. In real life if you cannot queue you would have other evidence of such eg blue badge (currently allowed as evidence), dla/pip(allowed depending on rate), social support package, for children an ehcp which states cannot queue, social worker documentation, specialist dr eg paediatrician letter rather than gp.

Paulson's park have a nurse onsite you have to go to see with documentation which I think works better.

We go alot to merlin parks as we have passes and the ride access pass system is massively abused and you can hear people openly showing off about it sometimes in the queues. Something really needs to be done as it isn't free fast pass it's a reasonable adjustment so some people can access the park.

@2021isnottheyear

It’s honestly not worth the money for families who can only afforded the usual park tickets anymore.

I totally agree. There's just no point in going for a day out to stand in queues all day. Which is why so many people pay for the fast track tickets...and the lines for everyone else are even longer.