AIBU to hate the concept of fast passes?

[IloveConkers]

Hi, we went to a theme park recently and purchased fast passes. I will never do it again. It felt so wrong for my kids to walk past people in the other queue and take priority because we had paid extra. My husband thinks I am being ridiculous. AIBU?

@XenoBitch I did but only because I wanted all the tickets on my phone as it was easy. People certainly still get 2 for 1 tickets from cereal boxes and so on

Ah right. The tickets are so expensive. Years ago, it cost £25 for entry and a coach for Alton Towers. Isn't it something like £50 to get in now?

but surely children are shrieking…. Everywhere at theme parks.

it is one place where even adults are free to shriek in public!

Whether they are moral or not depends a lot on their context.

only on mumsnet would fast track passes become a morality issue 😂

Special occasion - I splurge
A day out for just the fun of it - I don’t (and just think “lucky sods” as the fast passers whizz by. Just like I do when I clock the passengers turning left to first class on long haul if I’m not doing so!)

I hope you’re not all bitching and grumpy with a mouth like a cat’s bum as the fast passers by you (must also be a bit shite for your children if mum is a raging at them (yes yes of course - you give no indication whatsoever you are steaming with the unfairness of it all!) 😂)

We did Alton towers last October. It was awful. The kids liked it, but I’ll never go again, unless I can pay for super-premium-fast-everything or go in term time. We were there until ten, and got on 7 or so rides in 12 hours. It’s a complete non-essential recreational activity, and there’s limited moral argument for having different service levels for different prices. Not like the widespread disparity in public and private education, healthcare, wealth etc etc etc.

Having said that, if I never went again anyway I wouldn’t be devastated. If I did, I’d pay up and do another free day out, or go do a big day out half as often. It’s not like it’s a cheap day out if you do queue, and even if you stay late it doesn’t quieten down.

It’s not for everyone, but we live an hour from a ‘minor’ theme park. I bought season passes one year with grandparents birthday money and we went every Friday after school, all season. They close at five, so we only got an hour, but it was an hour when it was virtually empty and really worth it. I took snacks and we got chips afterwards. We watched a film on the iPad in the old camper, got her into PJ’s and she went to sleep on the way home. Then I had a few drinks in the camper while she slept on the drive. (She was an awful sleeper, so they clinched it for me) It felt like SUCH a treat and was fairly cheap costed out per outing, given it was a theme park!

Of course, that was back when petrol didn’t cost a kidney. The pool of people that could do it is pretty limited anyway, I imagine. And shrinking!

I’m gutted to hear the Disney fast passes have changed so much, and are no longer included in the price. I last went 6 years ago and the whole system couldn’t have been more perfect. Sad that they have changed something that made such a dramatic improvement to their guests experience for the sake of profit.

I know what you’re saying but I went to Legoland a few months ago. It was absurdly expensive. After 30 mins it was clear the queues were dire and we went online and booked passes because at that point we were stuck with a 3 year old and a 1 year old bored in the queue and it was clear the day would be pointless otherwise. Basically now I think theme parks are a once a year event which require the fast passes. 30-60 mins queue time for children is absurd.

Posted earlier in the thread but there are usually lots of Alton Towers tickets available on eBay.

DH & DS went earlier in the year. DS was away from school due to MH issues so we wanted to get him out of the house and have a bloody awesome day!

DH ‘won’ the tickets on eBay for £10!! He then bought premium fastrack tickets, they said it was THE best decision! Premium fastrack allows you on every ride however many times you like! First time either of them had sat at the front on Rita & The Smiler, Wickerman too which was a totally different experience.

I would have loved to have gone too but we decided the budget for premium would stretch to two people and it was something which totally made DS’s bloody year and boy did he need it.

As a yearly treat this is something definitely recommended if you can afford it and like I mentioned above, always search eBay for The Sun Alton Tower’s tickets, we’ve always done well.

So the money we saved on the entry fee part paid for the Fastrack passes.

Exactly! So ridiculous. I'm pretty sure anyone would choose a fast pass rather than standing for hours, especially with kids. I think you would be a liar to say you would choose not to.

I get where you are coming from. I felt similarly when I was getting treated in a fancy private hospital. It made me feel really uncomfortable that I was potentially receiving better and faster treatment in luxury surroundings just because I have managed to get a good job with healthcare insurance included. I don’t feel like I have any more right to this than someone who has worked hard all their life without this benefit included or even someone who doesn’t have a good career. The entire experience unsettled me a lot. It is hard to explain but I don’t want to be unfairly privileged and I get that the fast pass scenario is similar.

It made me feel really uncomfortable that I was potentially receiving better and faster treatment in luxury surroundings just because I have managed to get a good job with healthcare insurance included.

Isnt this sort of thing the whole point for encouraging kids to work hard to get a good job? So they have more money and a better life? I’m just musing, not decided either way!

I agree. We recently went to DL Paris and the tickets aren't cheap anyway. Queued for 2 hours for one ride and gave up as the queue barely moved. We realised it was due to so many people buying fast pass tickets (18 euros EACH that day for that one ride) that the main queue wasn't going down. So disappointing for the kids, we only got on 4 rides all day. Just feels off when you've already paid a lot of money to get in.

It's not the same though.

You paying for these things has no detriment to anyone who can't afford them.

You buying fast passes means those who can't afford them having to queue for even longer because of all the fast passes effectively queue jumping in front of them.

We can afford them but I will never pay for them for this reason.

We've been to Alton Towers 3 times and to Thorpe Park twice in the last year. We've got on every single one of the big rides, multiple times in a day on every occasion. Didn't need fast passes.

Fast passes aren't comparable to most of those other things because they don't actively take things away from poorer people.

Most posters are brushing off the fact this inflicts actual physical pain and damage on disabled people, whose access needs are being eroded because people with money can pay for disabled rights access.

Would you be okay with disabled parking spaces being available to anyone who can afford to pay, meaning they are taken away from disabled people? Or other disabled services being available to anyone with money? Do disabled people deserve nothing of our own?

Disabled people who cannot medically stand without extreme pain are forced to stand in long queues because rich people pay to queue jump in front of disabled people. That actively inflicts physical pain and damage on disabled people. How anyone can defend causing disabled people pain is beyond me.

Isnt this sort of thing the whole point for encouraging kids to work hard to get a good job? So they have more money and a better life? I’m just musing, not decided either way!

A lot of disabled people aren't able to work, either because they are too disabled to work, or due to ableism and the fact so many companies hate disabled people and refuse to hire them or refuse to meet access accommodations.

The whole "WELL if you don't like it just work hard and get a good job and earn pots of money so you too can shove disabled and poor people out of the way then!" is a fundamentally very ableist one.

There not free anymore. They introduced a new paid system

YANBU.

If you are disabled, you get a free fast track ticket anyway.
In theme parks, there is the usual entry, the fast track entry, and the disabled entry.

If you are disabled, you get a free fast track ticket anyway. In theme parks, there is the usual entry, the fast track entry, and the disabled entry.

I know. The point is something that is supposed to be ring-fenced for disabled people, now disabled people are forced to share with anyone with a tiny bit of dosh. So a disability access right is lost.

If you're disabled and unable to stand without pain, but 20 non-disabled people who shelled out got there first, then the disabled person has to queue behind 20 able-bodied people.

If 100 able-bodied people shelled out (and fast passes are not all that expensive, so it's likely large amounts of people will be paying for the privilege of going in front of disabled people) then that's 100 able-bodied people being able to go in front of a disabled person who's then forced to stand for much longer, and may not be able to stand for that long and they may even have to leave.

I don't like fast pass systems but lumping disabled people and anyone with a bit of dosh together clearly harms disabled people. But if you have to have fast passes I see no reason why they can't have a system where disabled people who can't stand or wait in queues can't go to the front, then able-bodied people who have paid go behind them.

Every fast pass user makes those queuing normally wait even longer.

Not all disabled people are eligible for fast passes, too.

Obviously every company is different and some are better than others, but a lot of disability access schemes are created by non-disabled people who don't know anything about disability and expect disabled people to jump through hoops to "prove" that they are disabled.

A lot of places including a some of the big amusement parks require the 'Access Card' but you have to pay for that, and the Access Card scheme doesn't accept medical letters as proof of disability (their website also says they don't consider blue badges or ESA as proof of disability). Many disabled people don't meet the Access Card's extremely strict criterion for evidence.

I know a few schemes where you need to be a blue badge holder in order to be eligible, but to have a blue badge you need to be medically able to drive a car and be able to afford a car (or live in a household with a car and a driver). If you have a disability than means you're medically not allowed to drive, then you're fucked.

Other places assume all disabled people are on benefits and don't work (which is bigoted), so if you're a disabled person who does work and who has chosen not to apply for benefits, you're not eligible.

The theatre company Punchdrunk asked me if I was "registered disabled" (which does not exist; there's no such thing as a "disability register" in this country, and the concept of disability registers have a very frightening history) and another disability activist I follow on Twitter was asked for her "registration number from the disability register" before she was allowed to book a wheelchair space for an event.

Parents with autistic children who are still fighting for a formal diagnosis (even getting an assessment can take forever) might also not have "proof."

This exactly.

I agree completely. They charge enough to just get through the gate without the added insult of the wealthiest waltzing past the rest of us.

You don't know the reason why people are buying fast passes. We do it because dd has autism. You wouldn't know that from looking at her though but it's nice to know we're being judged by the rest of the queue.