AIBU to think Merlin Ride Access passes are unfairly judged?

[Festivalfanatic]

We went to one of the Merlin parks Easter weekend and over the years I’ve seen many people get angry at Ride access lines and nothing has changed it seems.
this particular day it seemed everyone was on their high horse about it. Including one man exclaiming to his wife “ they let too many specials in “
then social media the last few days now the parks are open have loads of videos about RAP “ queue Jumpers “.

My DD has a RAP card and we wait just as long as everyone else sometimes longer than others to get on rides. It’s not instant access.

the pass times out for the length of time that the main line states and then you can’t use it again until it times back in. Then when it does time back in you have to go and scan in the ride you want and then there is also a line ( ok not as long as the main line ) but we will have to wait that amount of time anyway. Plus the waiting time in the RAP line. They do not let all the RAP line in its usually 1-2 at a time per ride. The rest is from the main line and then we get timed out for the length of time the queue indicates on top of the time we have already waited.
how would removing it or it not existing help the main line ? It would just actually make it longer so you would still be waiting averagely longer to ride anyway !
why do people judge it so much ?

what is the alternative ?

Just ignore any comments OP and forget about SM. Theres always a dickhead with an opinion. Don't let the pricks get you down.

No they wouldn't be in the main line, if they need a RAP they wouldn't be able to queue in an hour plus line.

Even with letting on that many the RAP queue was well over 30 mins, so they had a difficult decision over whether to let it get even longer, or let lots on each time, making the main queue longer.

You’re right - we wouldn’t be in the main queue, my son wouldn’t be able to manage it.

So I guess the top of bottom of it is; are the general public happy to wait slightly longer so disabled people can access the same
experience at all.

It’s a shame in some cases the answer is no.

I'm not complaining about the concession, I use the concession and benefit greatly from it. I never said anywhere that it shouldn't be available to those who would be unable to visit without it.

Yes, I am aware that numbers are limited, I spend 8+ hours refreshing the RAP page on the release dates to try to secure some, and with these limits,there should be no lengthy queues at RAP entrances.

However, some do abuse the system - at legoland I saw families operating the app and a paper pass in parallel - having gone to guest services and said their app wasn't working when it was. Of course I am going to have a negative opinion on this, as its causing those with disabilities to have to wait longer.

The parks don't make much profit, if they didn't sell fast passes, they would have to put up ticket prices. And some of those on fast passes are people with disabilities, using their DLA/PIP to fund them, as they couldn't get a RAP pass due to limits on them. We were talking to a family from abroad who had a son with terminal cancer, massive lego fan, so they bought the passes to make the best experience for him. I don't judge anyone using a fast pass, as I don't know their circumstances or reasons for using. I wouldn't judge anyone using a RAP for same reason.

I had a bit of a Google, and came across loads of “advice” on how to get RAP passes, what to say etc.

I suppose it’s nigh-on impossible to really weed out scammers, or even people who believe they deserve one (but who really don’t).

I think I would for a start ban over18s anxiety passes in the absence of other disabilities. Eg some people can travel to the airport, negotiate airport, fly 9 hours to Florida, suffer long immigration queue (once it was 4 hours for us), travel to accommodation BUT suddenly not be able to queue for a ride because of anxiety.

@Festivalfanaticmy ex has adult diagnosed adhd and anxiety / he has a RAP. I am not convinced he really needs it.

he will take the kids and his sister - none of them would bother going if it wasn’t for RAP.

I remember the day that Wickerman opened at AT a few years ago, the RAP queues were reported (by many people) on fbk RAP groups to be over three hours at some stages during the day. I remember thinking that all the leople using RAP for that ride at three hours clearly can queue.

We took DS to Blackpool pleasure beach that day, we planned it knowing it was likely to be quieter.

One of the issues here is the number of people who can accompany the person with the pass - I understand that it is set so as to allow a “typical” family of four to go on rides together, but really only the person with the RAP plus one other (to care for them) should get the priority as otherwise the system is open to abuse. Wasn’t there a news story relatively recently about a man who was offering (for a fee) to take strangers into Disneyland Paris as his “family members” so they could benefit from his enhanced disability access? Abuse aside (and hopefully those cases are rare) if every person with an RAP brings three others with them the RAP queue gets longer and longer, meaning those who are supposed to benefit - the disabled holder of the pass - are still forced to wait.

The other is that the parks are fundamentally badly managed. I have just returned from a trip to another European country where I took my kids to a brilliant theme park. In seven hours there I saw only one person being given priority access to a ride and he was clearly quite severely disabled and with a carer. There was no need for anyone else to jump the queue because the queues all around the park were pretty short, despite it being the school holidays in that country. Why can’t Merlin manage things better so priority access is less beneficial and therefore desirable? Because they just want to cram more people in and make money from selling fast passes. It’s shit.

@metellaestinatrioyour post is spot on and I particularly identify with your second paragraph (as you can see if you read my previous posts). Merlin are incompetent and greedy and that’s about the height of it. I was thinking about parks in Europe and betting they were better managed than those here.

Life in the UK in many ways just seems increasingly shit TBH.

Apparently not, according to some, they should stay at home. I'm appalled at some of these comments.

I don't think people realise a virtual queue means you still wait for a ride, just not stood in the queue

This is the point, the system is being abused, and you can sometimes see and hear the smug kids and adults in the faster queue crow about being able to take the ride so many times, especially when it’s a popular ride.

are the general public happy to wait slightly longer so disabled people can access the same experience at all.

Absolutely happy with this, but not so happy with those who abuse system, which means you’re not waiting slightly longer, you’re waiting an hour longer.

I can’t understand why you think you would be waiting an hour longer based on this ?

They will hate us at Disney land in a few months 🤣🫣 we are a group of 3 mums with kids and 4 children with priority passes

It’s been explained many many times on here why if people abuse the system that means people in the standard queue (and RAP as well) are waiting extra time.

Yet to explain how though ?
its not jumping the line automatically.
ifnfor example everyone on here is correct and everyone can line up … that is not going to change your wait times as the capacity would be the same.
even if you then see it as well because disabled people wouldn’t be able to go then which is ridiculous the capacity won’t change because in the holidays etc they always reach capacity so there would be less didabled yes but they will fill up with more abled still and everyone will still be in lines just the same line.
wont make a blind bit of difference to how long the lines are.

Let’s say for ease of figures that the capacity of Thorpe park is 1000 families. If no one has any sort of RAP the queues are pretty much well distributed throughout (bigger rides with longer waits as usually happens) and everyone waits the same 30 minutes.
If 100 families then get RAP but use it as should be used, waiting times do not increase for anyone. They wait out the 30 min wait time sitting on a bench or going to the loo etc.
If 300 families get a RAP but 200 of them do not really need it then they have the potential to get on double the rides. If a family is getting on double the rides you may as well have let in 200 extra families. So capacity may not have changed, but you now have 1200+ families waiting for rides instead of 1000.

Would they not make more money from people not standing in a queue and instead spending money on stalls/food/ other entertainment in the park?

In theory yes. But they would need to dramatically increase the things to do. I really don’t know what else you could do for at least 5 hours if not in a queue as it stands now. An hour or two maybe, no more. The fair ground type games would cost loads of money and people already complain about how much a theme park trip costs. And of course they would need to build and staff loads more. Otherwise you’d get huge queues forming for the stalls and games and food. And then people would want to use their RAPs to get to the front of those queues as well. So you’ve just changed the ride queues into stalls queues.

Because of you are using your own money to buy them, that’s fair enough, you are paying heavily for the privilege. A RAP pass is totally unfair as you have not paid for the privilege. There is nothing stopping disabled people buying fast passes is there? Tbh I would never go to one of these parks without a fast pass as I don’t see the fun in spending most of the day queuing. It means we rarely go, but when we do we can really make the most of it.

The RAP is a reasonable adjustment for disabled people, as required by The Equality Act 2010. It seems specious to me, to complain that “normal” people are being inconvenienced by the existence of disabled, by having to queue longer, when the theme park is complying with the law; but they shouldn’t complain about people, who buy fast passes - as that’s completely justified, because they have more money?

I get where you are coming from, but sometimes the whole group needs to go on. A single parent with 3 children for example, they often can't just take their child with a disability on and leave others on their own. Or an adult with a disability and other adult is their carer, they can't leave the 2 children.

But where is it large groups of young adults of whom some at least could queue or wait on their own, I do agree it could be reviewed.

And yes the organisation (or lack of it) at the merlin parks is part of the issue. When they have rides keeping breaking down, it pushes people onto fewer rides and queues for all become longer

I definitely can after my experience at legoland. They were taking 30 from RAP queue and 40 from main queue. Main queue was nearly 2 hours. If they took all 70 from main queue, it would reduce wait time in that queue by about 40%, to just over an hour, rather than nearly 2. The people in the RAP queue wouldn't even be able to wait the hour (otherwise wouldn't have a RAP) so just wouldn't go on. Which is exclusive and not the answer to the issue, but just explaining how no RAP queue would make main queue much quicker.

As I said previously, I benefit hugely from RAP and absolutely want to keep it in place. But it's disingenuous to say that those with RAP don't in many cases get on more rides than those without. I know my children definitely do, compared to before I developed a disability and became eligible for a RAP. We all go on a ride as a family. And then I sit on a bench and wait whilst my husband takes them on rides with shorter queues whilst the timer is counting down. Then we all go on a ride together, and so on. Which potentially could be seen as abusing the system, but most parents are going to do what's best for their children, rather than worrying about other people's wait time.
But I acknowledge that by going on extra rides we make other people's wait times longer. Then there are the 'bigger abuses' such as double RAPS, people getting who don't need etc.

So I get why people get frustrated. And I don't take it personally or think they are wrong to be annoyed. But equally I am going to do what is best for my health and my family.

People with disabilities get shafted all the time so I would say they HAVE paid for the privilege.

Unfortunately one if the reasons we cancelled our merlin passes was due to the Rap/fast track queue
We went on the duplo ride queued for 60 mins. We got fairly near front of the queue and then opened the gate to fast track and rap users which filled most of the ride bar 1 section.

I get there are rap users that need it and can't queue and I'm all for it but it seemed to be a theme each time we attended. It appeared at times 1 rap user with the family of 3 all joining them rather than 1 person.

And before anyone jumps that they should all be together, it's a family day out etc.
The average family often have to spilt up to go on rides due to height restrictions and various reasons so surely a rap user doesn't need all 3 to attend with them ( I know some with physical disabilities do)