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 ?

Cynically, I’m guessing it could help the parks bottom line too. If everyone could virtually queue for an hour or so, they could go off and spend a small fortune in the shops or food outlets while they wait.

Unfortunately it is so wide in definition now we cannot take dsd at all, she has severe disabilities so cannot walk to a ride, scan in, walk elsewhere then back to the ride, in years gone by you just went to the access point and wait 5 minutes or so. She can’t go on all rides anyway, yet unlike in the past there’s little discount. We would love to take her to CBeebies land at Alton towers but it won’t work for her, they won’t even let her stay in the In the night garden hotel room because she’s over 18, but she needs 2:1 care! (The room has full sized beds)

I believe that virtual queueing should be available for all the big rides, for everyone. It would solve so many issues. And they'd need less space for the queue line itself.

That's what I did with my younger two. Not really possible with my oldest who is severely autistic and we just didn't take him anywhere big or we'd just go with charity services who would supply helpers and had pre-negotiated ride access.

I see a lot of parents just not try and it is not helping their children at all. I saw it for day trips like funparks with queuing and I saw it at school. 'Oh Jack can't do it because he's autistic/adhd' and that's it. No effort to try. No encouragement and no expectation of their child being able to do anything, ever.

I think this is the crux of it. I am neurotypical and I find theme parks a bit stressful and overwhelming so I can completely see how it can trigger ND people and the need for the passes, along with clearly people with physical disabilities. The issue is the minority of people who seem to function absolutely fine until it comes to standing in a queue and then they need lots of extra support.
I agree with the passes for those who really need them but tbh its one of the main things (along with cost) that put us off big days out now. The waits are ridiculous.

Supply, not forge.

x

You're being disingenuous here. No one needs to ask the doctor to lie. Of course if I had a private doctor appointment and said 'hey I have no issues whatsoever but I want a RAP, please can you write that I have autism which means I can't manage crowds' the doctor should refuse to issue that letter.

But I am autistic, and I could personally reasonably go to my doctor and say that I find crowds stressful and hard to manage, and can they write me a letter to confirm my diagnosis and that that is part of that.

I do find crowds stressful and hard to manage. But there's no world where my level of discomfort, whether or not caused by autism, should qualify me for a RAP. The bar should be set higher so that I simply don't qualify rather than relying on me being the better person and not applying.

But can you go on rides which don't have a queue and so don't need the RAP in that time? What do you generally do in the "waiting" time?

Wow - the ableist comments on here are awful

I think the problem Merlin and others are facing is that so many people now have a diagnosis of additional needs. Some of those diagnosed genuinely do need priority access and others perhaps don’t, but I’m not sure how you create a system which can fairly differentiate. That results in theme parks erring on the side of caution and giving the priority access passes to a large group of people, which is difficult to manage in practice.

From my own personal experience, waiting in a queue for an hour with my severely disabled adult sibling would actually be far easier than waiting in a queue for an hour with an overtired toddler.

They allow you to do something else rather than stand in a queue. We'd all like to go and have our lunch whilst 'in the queue' if we're honest.

The issue is that no one should be physically queuing - it should be remote queuing for everyone. There's absolutely no reason in this day and age that it can't be!

My child has a myriad of disabilities but the trickiest in terms of queuing is a postural condition where she faints if she stands still in one spot for too long. She is under a cardiologist and Great Ormond St for this. She is allowed on certain rides- not all- but would be likely to faint in the queue and cause a huge delay for everyone around her. By having a time to come back for the time, she is still in the queue, but it

Dont know what happened to my message! For us, it’s about minding other peoples’ experience as much as ours!

DD1 loves theme parks. She has sensory processing disorder, and I am sure the vestibular input from rollercoasters gives her a thrill.

She can’t queue due to severe life threatening epilepsy. Inactivity and boredom are a trigger for seizures. She can just fall down unconscious and suffer fractures, broken teeth and soft tissue injuries at any time. It’s caused her to regress to the level of a 2 - 3 year old. Basically she needs to be kept on an even keel - not hungry, bored, tired, in pain, having a menstrual cycle, etc. It’s exhausting just managing her life to reduce the number of seizures (and that’s 2,000 a year after all that trying to second guess the epilepsy).

Considering how limited her life is - no university, job, long term relationship, children, home of her own, independence (because she needs 1:1 supervision all her waking hours, and 2:1 in the community as it’s so stressful for the carers), and she’s aware of what she’s lost, then she’s often in tears. She cannot come to terms with it.

Frankly, I would far prefer her to have a normal life, because a RAP or a Motability car in no way, makes up for what she’s lost in life!

How would you motivate her to keep going in life and not sink into depression all the time OP, when it’s at the back of your mind every day “She could die today, or in the night?”

You see, she should qualify. The problem is that people like me also qualify.

And the way to not be pitting different people against each other, is for it to be remote queuing for all, and then potentially some form of actual rapid access (or special waiting room) for people who really need something on top.

It used to be beneficial years ago, DS 18 is autistic with many needs, it helped tremendously but the last like 5 years it’s been ridiculous, tbh we’ve been barely able to even access rap because they are ll sold out. DS and DP done the vip packages last year at fright nights and are again this year. Theme parks are his saving grace and I’m not letting him miss out because people believe that if you can’t stand in queues then you shouldn’t go. Honestly some of the responses on here… it’s about the only public socially thing he will endure and I don’t give a shit if it pisses people off in the other queue. Also it’s not essentially jumping the queue, you still have to wait whatever the ride wait time is before you can even use the ride access pass to get on another ride.

Oh please you can join a shorter ride and come back and slip in

Quite easily - use an APP where you reserve your ride, and you get a notification when your slot is available for that ride. You’re given 15 minutes grace to get to the ride. You could reserve slots for, say, 10 different rides and the app could then give you a timetable of what order you could access those rides over the day.

for us DD needs lots of breaks and also fluid given etc

so we often do a ride, go find somewhere quiet or the Chessington have a medical room we can use. top her up on fluids.
look around a bit if there is time.
We really take chill time other wise she wouldn’t cope with the day.

I would trade my child’s disability if it meant standing in longer lines. No question.

im on the fence about the passes. I can see the benefits for those who cannot stand long periods of time but my son cannot cope with crowds at all so even if we didn’t have to wait for rides he hit could not cope with a theme park so we don’t go. We can not go to the zoo, even a normal park or soft play is frequently too much for him.

I don't go because I don't like queuing and that is what you spend most of your time doing at them. One of my children went to one because there was a school trip. I don't think my other child has ever been. I don't feel bad for my own children. Theme parks are completely optional and are unsuitable for people who don't find the queue worth the activity.

Although I agree to an extent if you have a child that gets so overwhelmed and distressed who are you actually going for them or you.

It's not the RAP access which is the real issue, it's the paid-for fast tracks. Theme parks have found a way to monetise queueing - they want long queues so people will fork out for the fast track passes - they will therefore do nothing to alleviate the situation. RAP users are collateral damage in their drive to make money, and an easy target for disgruntled queuers to complain about.

Only answer - vote with your feet.

They aren’t that hard to get

thats why they’re reforming the entire system. As too many people have one.