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Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2024 Discussion

Leigh said:
Looks like pre-booking is coming to RAP starting this season. Taken from the MAP Facebook group:

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Don’t know about other people but I see this as fantastic news.
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Yes that is good news given how popular it is at Towers. Will be interesting to see what the cap is on busy days though.

Also, what if you need to collect your photo card from the park? Can you still make a reservation? I'd expect the photo card number to be used for reservations.
 
The card I imagine is neither here nor there. As long as you can prove it is yours, it'll work.
 
Whilst i'm optimistic about the impact this will have within the park i'm quite anxious as to how the numbers will be controlled.

What's to stop people booking sessions and not attending, creating low availability for others?

And if there is a system to prevent this, will you be punished for not attending in genuine circumstances? Will there be an option to cancel your booking?

My sons condition means we generally don't know if we are attending till on the morning of a visit so now i'm worried about being unable to obtain a RAP on the day.
 
Probably view it in a similar vein to pre-booking MAP holders. Though less likely to kick up a fuss if you don't turn up due to the nature. Another step to make for those who think they can just turn up with a note which should hopefully help.

Shame digital version hasn't hit Towers though. Worked well at Chessie for me.
 
Just seems like another needless level of booking/form filling to be done, which limits being able to attend and use RAP at relatively short notice. You're already supposed to have a valid RAP pass to be able to get a time-card for the day, so (looking at the statement) I don't see how this actually helps anyone at all? There is no mention of capping RAP numbers on any given day in the statement or the video, so why is it being assumed that this is the case? At the end of the day, if a family with a disabled child (for example) turn up but havn't sorted out an acceess pass or RAP and start having a moan at the people in guest services they're still just as likely to back down and give them one for the day as they were without this extra level of booking madness. It seems - in theory - to me like Merlin looking to be doing something but in reality it won't do much but cause extra hassle to people who will just use the system like they were previously.
 
BarryZola said:
Just seems like another needless level of booking/form filling to be done, which limits being able to attend and use RAP at relatively short notice. You're already supposed to have a valid RAP pass to be able to get a time-card for the day, so (looking at the statement) I don't see how this actually helps anyone at all? There is no mention of capping RAP numbers on any given day in the statement or the video, so why is it being assumed that this is the case? At the end of the day, if a family with a disabled child (for example) turn up but havn't sorted out an acceess pass or RAP and start having a moan at the people in guest services they're still just as likely to back down and give them one for the day as they were without this extra level of booking madness. It seems - in theory - to me like Merlin looking to be doing something but in reality it won't do much but cause extra hassle to people who will just use the system like they were previously.
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The intention is to cap numbers, this has been communicated to administrators by Merlin, on the dedicated RAP pages on FB
 
tayspru said:
The intention is to cap numbers, this has been communicated to administrators by Merlin, on the dedicated RAP pages on FB
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I wasn't aware of that. Might have been an idea to add it to their statement that they put out, instead of drip-feeding it to certain people or groups. Merlin at their best as usual. Good luck to them with the media stories if they actually do try to cap it :tearsofjoy:
 
BarryZola said:
I wasn't aware of that. Might have been an idea to add it to their statement that they put out, instead of drip-feeding it to certain people or groups. Merlin at their best as usual. Good luck to them with the media stories if they actually do try to cap it :tearsofjoy:
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With the statement starting with admission that the current system has long queues and as a result doesn't serve those who actually need it I'd say it is quite clearly implied the intent is to limit numbers, even if it doesn't explicitly state that.

This is excellent excellent news for those who are not able to queue, and for those in a standby queue who would like it to move forward occasionally.
 
Yeah, I get what you're saying. But my point was that I understand from the statement that they want to limit numbers, but it didn't actually explain how they were going to do it. Terrible statement. They left out the most important bit. Are they scared to speak the truth? They can't handle the truth!! But yeah, whatever. We'll see how it turns out.
 
Yeah, they basically are saying how it works... without saying how it works. Hopefully there's some clarification before it launches.
 
My only concern is how quickly they can find the balance between slot availability and pass usability. Hopefully they can use existing data to estimate how many RAP users the park can cope with.
 
BarryZola said:
Are they scared to speak the truth?
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I'm going to guess they are little bit scared of people being dumb and not getting it so have avoided using the words limited or restricted, even though it will make the service usable for those who need it.

Describing the result rather than the method might well be a sensible choice.
 
I see it as really good news. I’ve never understood on busy days now the normal queue can be, say, 1hr 45 and the RAP queue (for those unable to queue for long) can be the same be queue time. Surely if people can wait that long then they should be in the normal queue and allow those who can’t to have faster access on to the ride?

Either way, less RAP means less queues for everyone particularly those who really can’t queue for long. I see it as good news.
 
tayspru said:
And let’s nip it in the bud now, Paultons have a cap and didn’t get bad press, they also haven’t been victim to any legal issues.
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There's no bad press (i assume, i haven't looked) because the system works very well at Paultons, much helped by the fact that the nature of the park means only those who truly need to use RAP do so. They also manage to have far more rides always operating and place a single RAP use policy on most rides, so overall it's a slightly different system.

They also make it clear that should you not be able to attend you should cancel your RAP booking and whilst not stated they will still distribute them on the day if available.

If Merlin are capping numbers then they need to ensure people aren't bulk booking days/repeatedly not cancelling.
 
Bowser said:
If Merlin are capping numbers then they need to ensure people aren't bulk booking days/repeatedly not cancelling.
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There’s a limit of 3 bookings per attraction. Obviously it won’t stop people using all of them but it’ll help mitigate against it a bit.
 
Leigh said:
There’s a limit of 3 bookings per attraction. Obviously it won’t stop people using all of them but it’ll help mitigate against it a bit.
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What does this mean? You can only use it at say Alton Towers 3 times in a year? Where is this information from?
 
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