To think the fast track queues at Thorpe park are unfair?

[NameChangedSummer]

Disagreement with DH.

we have an annual pass for Chessington and I don’t mind waiting there as we can easily go another day. However on a busy Saturday there are so many RAP users and Fast Track that the main queues can take 2 hours and move very slowly. As I say i don’t really mind as are annual pass holders but the young DC get quite impatient! DH does get annoyed that people can pay to literally queue jump.

However, DS has just reached 1.4m and is desperate to go to Thorpe Park in the Easter holidays for his birthday (the ticket being his main 10th bday gift). It will be his first time, the only time he goes this year, we won’t be buying annual passes. I’ve looked and for £200 (x2) we can buy a ‘ultimate’ pass that would allow fast track to every ride and very little queueing. We can afford this and I think it would just make the whole day so much more enjoyable and special for DS’s 10th Birthday, rather than queuing all day and getting on a handful of rides.

DH however thinks that people who pay to queue jump are dicks and it just makes it worse for the main queue on busy days, so is very reluctant and just wants to get a normal ticket and deal with the queues. And put the money towards a Merlin pass next year when the younger DC is taller and we can just do more often.

is DH being unreasonable to say they are unfair?

Just buy the pass. Thorpe park is 80% gangs of teenagers happy to queue and giggle together. As an adult I would rather tear my own arms off than wait for 3 hours for a ride. It’s miserable. DS won’t want to hang out with a parent for hours either.

I’ve only ever once been to a theme park on a regular Saturday. It was for a hen night about 20 years ago at Chessington and we went on precisely three whole rides, and spent the rest of the day queuing. That would be zero fun for a special occasion for your son.

I won't go to UK theme parks anymore, the rides are not great, the park facilities are poor and you spend most of the day queuing. We took ds to Efteling last year during school holidays and didn't queue more than 35 minutes for anything and the whole park was much nicer.

Agreed. We went to Europa last year and it was fabulous. I’d spent the £200 on flights and do a European one instead!

Never considered fast track unfair or unethical, weird that some people do! I’ve never bought it though, we only go on bank holidays as the cheaper merlin passes are now restricted and most people avoid as they think everyone will be there, so they are the quietest days (don’t tell anyone!). Would never go on an inset day after a horror experience at legoland a few years ago on a Friday inset day in June! Otherwise a wet weekend in April or September is the way to go.

as an aside, Merlin restrict their RAP (disability) passes now (ie how many people can use them each day, not eligibility) which should improve normal queue times.

When I was at Eurodisney they filled 3/4 of the ride with fast pass / disabled queue if they were there the last quarter with us plebs so you did move but v. Slowly.

OP please consider that not everybody is a dick who buys these passes. My 8yo son is disabled and because he has a blue badge we normally get them thrown in at theme parks. He can’t queue for a long time due to his disability so this means we can actually enjoy these days out like everyone else. It means that life for disabled people is just that bit less shit. Nothing dickish about it.

I'd skip Thorpe Park altogether and take a trip to Germany. The theme parks are amazing and make our parks look absolutely shite. Cheaper, cleaner, shorter queues , rides break down far less, fabulous food and brilliant rides. Europa Park, Hansa Park, Phantasialand to name some.

We buy them and I do feel bad skipping straight onto a ride when the standard queue is long, and did get comments once when we did the same ride twice whilst others had barely moved in the queue. But we’d paid to improve our experience so….

just be aware the the rides at Thorpe park are pretty ‘brutal’!
I find that you need the queueing time to recover! 🤣 But maybe I’m just old now!
We live very close by and I avoid going if I can. It’s stupidly busy the whole summer, even before schools have broken up. And then you can be queuing for an hour and the ride breaks down so that time is basically wasted as they give you a choice of continue queuing in case it’s fixed or walk away. No fast pass or queue jump even though you’ve sunk an hour already.
Worth waiting if it’s shut for ‘cleaning’ as that’s usually pretty quick to deal with (and quite common!) 🤮

I go to Alton towers for 1 day, once a year and always get fast passes, yes it's expensive but it ensures we get on all the good rides. Years ago, we'd manage 3/4 rides after queuing for hours, never again.

The OP didn't even hint that disabled people who need fast track passes are dicks 😳

Fast track is an extra, is not unfair or fair is just an extra. You may have to wait if there is many people fast tracking in a busy day.
I think none of you is unreasonable I think you both want the money for different thing.
Sometimes we have to be a bit of a dick to make the most of a day. I would get the fast track if I were you.

It's an entertainment business, it is a treat to go there, and so I don't consider fast track passes immoral or unfair. Whilst it would be good for a ten year old to learn patience and waiting, I don't think that is the best place to do it.

I really dislike these too, although have been known to pay for them (my husband is less of a hypocrite and won't pay for them). I think it's different to paying to travel first class etc because you're not making other people's experience in economy worse by doing so, whereas using a fast pass means other people have to wait longer.

I'd far rather each ticket came with eg two tickets to skip the queue- I'd find it less uncomfortable to walk past a queue if I knew that they could all have chosen to do the same and are just saving their fast ticket for another ride. However that would mean prices rising overall- selling fast passes effectively allows the park to price discriminate (so people who can afford more end up paying more). Get rid of the fast passes and ordinary ticket prices would need to rise for everyone. It's a moral quandary- thank God my kids are too old for parks these days (and by the time I'm a granny I'll be able to justify buying a fast pass on account of my great age 😉)

Are you married to Will?

INCONSIDERATE ARSEHOLES

Because are too tight to buy fast passes themselves but bitter and jealous about those that do

Given that fast pass exists, your dh should realise that whether you pay money you can afford for your kids to go on every ride and not spend 8 hrs queuing, or in fact stoically queue, will make no difference to the universe. But will make a huge difference to your day.

At Europa there’s a free app that lets you prebook a ride time on the most popular rides through the day. You have to keep checking it and be quick off the mark but it’s open to every visitor and there’s no cost. Other than that, no fast passes other than accessibility. We went in the middle of the summer holidays and the longest queue was an hour, and if you waited till the evening, you could get on most things with a very minimal queue.

Well, I pay for fasttrack because DS1 has autism and learning difficulties and it's carnage if he has to queue for too long. Just like I pay for fast track at the airport and ask for special assistance at times.

If that makes me selfish and immoral I just consider it trying to even out the playing field so he can have fun like kids without his difficulties. Life is already stacked against him.

Capitalism in its purest form I suppose. If I had lots of money I would, but I do wonder how fast they actually are given so many people seem to get them

And on a plane the expensive seats gets on and off first and get a nicer meal etc. Funny how people often strop about (usually) people of normal wealth buying little privileges while ambivalent to the huge inequalities across the country.

My sympathies, I can’t imagine a worse place for a hen do

Ahhh the fabulous ‘hard work’ analogy used by idiots to justify why they ‘deserve’ their privilege and minimum wage workers don’t. I drive a clapped out car and can’t afford £200 fast pass tickets despite having post grad qualifications and a professional job. Silly old me, the answer was easy, I should’ve just ‘worked harder’…🙄