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Original poster

Theme parks are ruined if you don't pay for a fast pass?

414 replies

Twoweeksinaugust · 09/08/2026 14:33

AIBU to think it's hardly worth even going to a theme park on a sunny day unless you want to pay the £300 extra for a fast pass?
The queues are absolutely awful, and it's very hard for the dc to understand that although it looks like we'll be on the next turn, a dozen people come through woth a fast pass and teh queue doesn't move at all.
It just feels beyond the reach of a normal (but expensive) day out, and is now in the realms of a once every two years thing if you want to buy the passes?

OP posts:
GasPanic · 10/08/2026 14:17

MrsOni · 10/08/2026 13:55

You are still completely missing the point.

The existence of business class doesn't actively make the experience of economy worse. Fast passes do make the experience worse for everyone.

Worse for the people who buy them because it's really the only way to have good day at the time they can go e.g. weekends/ school holidays etc. They are ~£100 per person for a full day's unlimited fast pass, and that makes a single day out at Alton towers for a family of four £500+. Which is fucking ridiculous.

Worse for the people who don't have fast passes, as the existence of a separate fast pass queue results in the main queue running slower. What happens is that the fast pass queue is emptied before the main q, so if you are running a fast pass q larger than the capacity of a single train then the main q basically comes to a standstill. I've literally been at Alton Towers and watched it happen.

The only reason to have them is to make money, and once you introduce them there is then an incentive for parks to then run slower operations in order to make the fast passes look more attractive. Nobody is buying a fast pass if the average q is 20 minutes, but if it's an hour? So then you run your rides with 1 less train or less people operating them.

The fact is people are voting with their feet. The major theme parks in the UK are losing money, and attendance is down, so it's clearly not working whereas parks which don't have fast passes such as Paultons are doing well. Soo.....

Edited
Show quote history

Well surely it does. Or at least someone with the same skewed mindset could claim it does.

Because if there was no business class, the spare room in the plane could be used for economy. There would be more flight attendants available for the whole cabin. The cost of the food could go to making the economy meals better. People in economy would not have to wait to deplane.

And probably a whole bunch of other things could be claimed.

And the economics would probably stack up in the same way. In the respect that without business class the plane wouldn't be able to run and everything would get more expensive, as the business class effectively subsidises the economy, in the same way fast passes subsidise normal passes.

The fact is people are voting with their feet. The major theme parks in the UK are losing money, and attendance is down, so it's clearly not working whereas parks which don't have fast passes such as Paultons are doing well. Soo.....

Reduced attendence is probably more indicative of the cost of living crisis than fast passes. Theme parks have pretty good market research. If they thought fast passes were bringing in less benefit than they bought in in profit then they would end them.

MrsOni · 10/08/2026 14:22

Itchysidefoot · 10/08/2026 14:00

The “point” is… if you don’t like how a business model works… don’t use the business.

It really is that simple.

This is a theme park. A theme park.

Show quote history

Yes, but what happens if you, as the operator of a theme park, piss off your customer base and start losing money?

I used to go to the merlin parks multiple times a year. Now I don't, because the experience at places like Europa Park is just so much better.

Reinventedfortheburbs · 10/08/2026 14:29

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

CasperGutman · 10/08/2026 14:29

Hate fast passes. UK and Florida parks are terrible for this, as is Portaventura in Spain. I hate going to Disneyland Paris since they abolished the free passes you could pick up from machines by some of the rides.

I recommend Efteling in the Netherlands and Europa Park in Germany as really good parks where fast passes aren't essential. The focus is on efficient operations and they keep the main queues moving that way instead (with single rider lines to fill the odd gap).

ETA: oh, and Paultons Park is good too. Don't think they have fast passes.

ETA2: If you like Legoland then we found the Danish one LOADS better than Windsor. It's still operated by Merlin (I think) but even if there was some kind of fast pass option the queues were much better.

Timeforachange26 · 10/08/2026 14:56

Itchysidefoot · 10/08/2026 09:29

Well it is tumbleweed during the months they are closed isn’t it?

Show quote history

Do they close? Thought they were open allyear

the80sweregreat · 10/08/2026 15:01

Some parks close for months during the winter times.

DraigCymraeg · 10/08/2026 15:02

Twoweeksinaugust · 09/08/2026 14:33

AIBU to think it's hardly worth even going to a theme park on a sunny day unless you want to pay the £300 extra for a fast pass?
The queues are absolutely awful, and it's very hard for the dc to understand that although it looks like we'll be on the next turn, a dozen people come through woth a fast pass and teh queue doesn't move at all.
It just feels beyond the reach of a normal (but expensive) day out, and is now in the realms of a once every two years thing if you want to buy the passes?

Not at all unreasonable.
But then that type of day out is my idea of utter hell!

MrsOni · 10/08/2026 15:21

GasPanic · 10/08/2026 14:17

Well surely it does. Or at least someone with the same skewed mindset could claim it does.

Because if there was no business class, the spare room in the plane could be used for economy. There would be more flight attendants available for the whole cabin. The cost of the food could go to making the economy meals better. People in economy would not have to wait to deplane.

And probably a whole bunch of other things could be claimed.

And the economics would probably stack up in the same way. In the respect that without business class the plane wouldn't be able to run and everything would get more expensive, as the business class effectively subsidises the economy, in the same way fast passes subsidise normal passes.

The fact is people are voting with their feet. The major theme parks in the UK are losing money, and attendance is down, so it's clearly not working whereas parks which don't have fast passes such as Paultons are doing well. Soo.....

Reduced attendence is probably more indicative of the cost of living crisis than fast passes. Theme parks have pretty good market research. If they thought fast passes were bringing in less benefit than they bought in in profit then they would end them.

Show quote history

You are really just arguing yourself into the ground. The fact is that fast passes make a day out at a theme park more expensive and less fun for your customers as a whole and this is obviously going to piss people off who will then, as you say, vote with their feet. Plenty of people on this thread have pointed out that parks without fast passes just work better and have shorter queues.

Can you not see how deeply cynical fast passes are? The park is financially incentivised to offer a poorer experience to paying customers in order to artificially increase queuing times and so flog more fast passes. The original question was whether the passes make visiting a theme park experience worse, and the answer to that is yes. Absolutely they do. Plenty of parks manage without them and the experience of queuing for rides at those parks is almost always better.

Economy class is the same regardless of whether there is a business class section on the same plane, or not. I You still get on the plane, you fly to where you want to go, you get off. Just because there are people in nicer seats than you doesn't make the actual service objectively worse. It's a completely false equivalence.

BlueFahrenheit · 10/08/2026 15:25

I only take the kids during term-time.

DonaldWheresMaTweezers · 10/08/2026 15:38

MrsOni · 10/08/2026 15:21

You are really just arguing yourself into the ground. The fact is that fast passes make a day out at a theme park more expensive and less fun for your customers as a whole and this is obviously going to piss people off who will then, as you say, vote with their feet. Plenty of people on this thread have pointed out that parks without fast passes just work better and have shorter queues.

Can you not see how deeply cynical fast passes are? The park is financially incentivised to offer a poorer experience to paying customers in order to artificially increase queuing times and so flog more fast passes. The original question was whether the passes make visiting a theme park experience worse, and the answer to that is yes. Absolutely they do. Plenty of parks manage without them and the experience of queuing for rides at those parks is almost always better.

Economy class is the same regardless of whether there is a business class section on the same plane, or not. I You still get on the plane, you fly to where you want to go, you get off. Just because there are people in nicer seats than you doesn't make the actual service objectively worse. It's a completely false equivalence.

Show quote history

Added to that, you don't usually see the Business Class section from the economy section, so you're not watching people in big chairs quaffing free champagne for the duration of the flight while you try to get comfy in economy. Whereas in a theme park queue, you can see other people getting onto the ride while your queue is barely moving.

YellowBearLaptop · 10/08/2026 17:41

I'm a theme park enthusiast. I've been to different parks across the US, Canada, France and Germany as well as the UK.

The two-tier system created by fast passes is a big part of the problem. I see loads of people have already mentioned Europa-Park in Germany, where they do not have this system. It is, without any doubt, the best theme park I have been to. It does not have my favourite ever ride - that's in Florida. But it definitely has the best line-up and experience overall.

It is SO well run, and even on busy days (I've had 4 holidays there, and only ever been at peak times), you will not queue more than about 40 minutes for anything if you watch the queues carefully. It works because it's big, it has lots of filler attractions that are usually walk-on (and these take the pressure off the bigger rides), rides are very well-run with multiple operators getting people in and out, and over the years I've noticed that the same people are working the same rides year after year, which I think makes them super efficient. Without a paid fast track, almost everyone is in the main queue. They do have a limited virtual queue as well, which allows you to bypass the main queue and is free. It doesn't disrupt the main queues all that much because they keep the numbers low.

Food is great there too. It's head and shoulders above any of our UK parks. It is run by the Mack family, who are very good at this sort of thing and make rides for other parks (they built Hyperia at Thorpe Park, and will be building Serpent's Curse, the new water coaster at Paulton's Park).

In the UK, the best theme park in terms of how it's run, queue times and theming is Paulton's Park, in my opinion. But our daughter is 13 now and has been on lots of big rides in Orlando and elsewhere, so she has outgrown Paulton's a bit.

People mentioned the previous 'Fast Pass +' system at Disney. It took a bit of organising but it was quite good because it was free. Prior to that, they used to have machines that churned out paper tickets with a time you could come back to go on the ride. They kept that system longer at Disneyland Paris. But Disney has always felt like it needs military precision to be enjoyed properly, even when 'Fast Pass +' existed. That's why I like Europa-Park so much. You don't need to plan your day precisely. Having been there a number of times, I know I can go on a sold-out day and do everything I want to, and I don't need a spreadsheet or precise plan. It is a bit of a trek but if you do like theme parks I really cannot recommend it highly enough. The food is also great, and good value. They also have two restaurants with Michelin stars if you want to splash out!

littlemousebigcheese · 10/08/2026 17:53

There is an interesting paper on fast passes by J Li - Analysis of queue management in theme parks introducing the fast pass system - where they find that people either value time so buy a pass or value money/savings so just queue in the first come first served queue. It’s interesting in that it says the theme parks are happy with the profit from passes, and fast pass holders are happy with their experience of using one BUT paper doesn’t look at impact on those who have to queue longer or have their day impacted! It also ignores the fact that not everyone can afford a fast pass. For some families the £100 to get in is a huge amount so adding £100s to skip queues is unthinkable; the paper presents this as a simple binary time/money choice where reality is that people might not have the money to spend. I hate fast passes. Think disability queues should stay and fast passes should go but that’ll never happen

Jorge14 · 10/08/2026 17:55

I won’t even contemplate a theme park in school holidays without a fast pass. We usually go every other year to justify it but it makes the day enjoyable rather than stressful.

BringBackCatsEyes · 10/08/2026 17:58

Jorge14 · 10/08/2026 17:55

I won’t even contemplate a theme park in school holidays without a fast pass. We usually go every other year to justify it but it makes the day enjoyable rather than stressful.

...and also out of reach for an increasing amount of the population.
As I said above - it's the way of the world.

Goneforalotto · 10/08/2026 18:04

MrsOni · 10/08/2026 14:22

Yes, but what happens if you, as the operator of a theme park, piss off your customer base and start losing money?

I used to go to the merlin parks multiple times a year. Now I don't, because the experience at places like Europa Park is just so much better.

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What happens? You change the business model or you go out of business.

Neither of which is happening with those theme parks that introduced fast passes years ago

Wolverine23 · 10/08/2026 18:05

CasperGutman · 10/08/2026 14:29

Hate fast passes. UK and Florida parks are terrible for this, as is Portaventura in Spain. I hate going to Disneyland Paris since they abolished the free passes you could pick up from machines by some of the rides.

I recommend Efteling in the Netherlands and Europa Park in Germany as really good parks where fast passes aren't essential. The focus is on efficient operations and they keep the main queues moving that way instead (with single rider lines to fill the odd gap).

ETA: oh, and Paultons Park is good too. Don't think they have fast passes.

ETA2: If you like Legoland then we found the Danish one LOADS better than Windsor. It's still operated by Merlin (I think) but even if there was some kind of fast pass option the queues were much better.

Edited

The Germans are so efficient at everything. Come snow or heatwaves , theme parks, airports, train stations, just about everything!

Goneforalotto · 10/08/2026 18:05

DonaldWheresMaTweezers · 10/08/2026 15:38

Added to that, you don't usually see the Business Class section from the economy section, so you're not watching people in big chairs quaffing free champagne for the duration of the flight while you try to get comfy in economy. Whereas in a theme park queue, you can see other people getting onto the ride while your queue is barely moving.

Show quote history

Well you see them stroll on past as they board first

restingbitchface30 · 10/08/2026 18:07

I’m lucky we have platinum annual passes for Merlin so every visit we get one free fast pass each. However the rest of the day we are on the app checking the queue times. You’ll find some times get short at certain points of the day. No way I’m waiting any longer than 45 mins per ride.

Lampzade · 10/08/2026 18:10

I have stopped going to theme parks during Summer months after we went to Disney Land Paris some years ago and spent most of the time in a bloody queue

Lizchapman · 10/08/2026 18:15

I actually loved the queueing. Where else can you get your teenagers to talk to each other and to you for hours at a time and call it fun???

NeedSomeHeadspace · 10/08/2026 18:21

I once took my son and friend to Legoland. It was a few years ago, a blisteringly hot day and no shade whilst queuing, some peoole felt faint, and we accomplished 3 rides in the time we were there because the queues were horrendous. Everyone was complaining and wanting refunds. The staff issued tickets to go again on another day, which we did. But Legoland was a farce.

DonaldWheresMaTweezers · 10/08/2026 18:43

Goneforalotto · 10/08/2026 18:05

Well you see them stroll on past as they board first

Show quote history

You do, but they're not leaving any faster. Everyone will take off at the same time! I appreciate it might be different for some people but personally I'd rather be standing and able to move about while I can before having to be seated for the duration of the flight.

Mapletreelane · 10/08/2026 18:48

YellowBearLaptop · 10/08/2026 17:41

I'm a theme park enthusiast. I've been to different parks across the US, Canada, France and Germany as well as the UK.

The two-tier system created by fast passes is a big part of the problem. I see loads of people have already mentioned Europa-Park in Germany, where they do not have this system. It is, without any doubt, the best theme park I have been to. It does not have my favourite ever ride - that's in Florida. But it definitely has the best line-up and experience overall.

It is SO well run, and even on busy days (I've had 4 holidays there, and only ever been at peak times), you will not queue more than about 40 minutes for anything if you watch the queues carefully. It works because it's big, it has lots of filler attractions that are usually walk-on (and these take the pressure off the bigger rides), rides are very well-run with multiple operators getting people in and out, and over the years I've noticed that the same people are working the same rides year after year, which I think makes them super efficient. Without a paid fast track, almost everyone is in the main queue. They do have a limited virtual queue as well, which allows you to bypass the main queue and is free. It doesn't disrupt the main queues all that much because they keep the numbers low.

Food is great there too. It's head and shoulders above any of our UK parks. It is run by the Mack family, who are very good at this sort of thing and make rides for other parks (they built Hyperia at Thorpe Park, and will be building Serpent's Curse, the new water coaster at Paulton's Park).

In the UK, the best theme park in terms of how it's run, queue times and theming is Paulton's Park, in my opinion. But our daughter is 13 now and has been on lots of big rides in Orlando and elsewhere, so she has outgrown Paulton's a bit.

People mentioned the previous 'Fast Pass +' system at Disney. It took a bit of organising but it was quite good because it was free. Prior to that, they used to have machines that churned out paper tickets with a time you could come back to go on the ride. They kept that system longer at Disneyland Paris. But Disney has always felt like it needs military precision to be enjoyed properly, even when 'Fast Pass +' existed. That's why I like Europa-Park so much. You don't need to plan your day precisely. Having been there a number of times, I know I can go on a sold-out day and do everything I want to, and I don't need a spreadsheet or precise plan. It is a bit of a trek but if you do like theme parks I really cannot recommend it highly enough. The food is also great, and good value. They also have two restaurants with Michelin stars if you want to splash out!

Funny you say that about planning. We're really strategic when we go to Alton Towers or Disney land Paris. We got Paris down to a fine art (with the old fast pass paper tickets). But reading up on europa park saw a lot of comments that you don't need to plan because there are little rides here there and everywhere. And was so true. Even at peak in August was a dream. Phantasialand is also like this albeit on a smaller scale...and both gave such great food options. It gives me rage how good they are compared to UK.

Vaguelyclassical · 10/08/2026 19:32

Itchysidefoot · 09/08/2026 17:13

Well that isn’t sad either! If I find something shite… then I don’t return.

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What is truly sad is that people have so little imagination that they only go to the wildly commercialized & exploitative theme parks and don't explore all the other wonderful places that the UK can offer. (The other sad thing is the people on this thread saying "Well, we had a great experience at X and only had to queue for 40 minutes for the rides." WTF?)

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