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Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2024 Discussion

Skyscraper said:
Ambulant RAP users could buy (actual) Fastrack if (IF) they wanted, whereas those who need level access can't as the FT queues aren't accessible.
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If you are non-ambulant and buy fast track can you not use the lift if one is available, such as on Rita for example?
 
Matt N said:
I’m not suggesting people visit on a whim, as I know that’s not feasible for many RAP users. I was more suggesting strategies such as looking at crowd calendars and trying to avoid the very busiest days. I know many will be unable to visit on off-peak weekdays, but some weekends and holiday days are much, much quieter than others. I’d argue my recent visit is evidence that the start of the summer holidays can actually be surprisingly quiet, so if you are trying to avoid crowds, it might be worth doing your research and going in a weekend in late July rather than, say, October half term. I’m not saying the Merlin RAP system doesn’t have flaws, but I think there are things an RAP user can do to lessen their own struggles with it, such as trying to avoid the very busiest days (as I would advise anyone to do regardless of disability status).

If you turn up on a slammed day in October half term, for example, you cannot expect a seamless experience with many, many rides. On a super peak day, there will be crowds and there will be queues; that is unavoidable to some extent.

How exactly do you feel my recent visit “isn’t particularly reflective of the average real life experience”, out of curiosity? Granted, I did use single rider queues on occasion, but I visited on a weekend in the summer holidays, which is a peak period. I also did not pay for any kind of Fastrack. I got on 28 rides across the 2 days (17 on day 1, 11 on day 2), and I should add that I got dragged out at 1:30pm on day 2!

While we’re on the subject, I should add that RAP queues appeared minimal to non-existent on my recent visit. I did not notice any kind of notable “queue” for RAP as I used to see in the past. It seemed better managed than it has been historically!

I’m not advocating for ambulant RAP to not be there by any stretch. I know how important it is to a great many people. I was purely trying to refute the suggestion that “smaller queues don’t exist in Merlin parks”, because from what I can see, that is plainly untrue regardless of what demographic you’re discussing. I do think that queue times at Alton in particular are greatly exaggerated on here at times.

I do get your point, however, that other parks are not the same as Alton. Chessington in particular does seem to acutely struggle on peak days in a way that none of the other 3 do.
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As @TPick exemplifies, this is all moot as the parks are only viable for genuine users (imo) with a pre booked RAP.

We tend to aim for quieter days for general crowd levels and shorter time outs but if we don’t have a slot we can’t attend, simple as that.

So the notion of “smaller queues” becomes semantics. You cited 35 minutes which simply isn’t possible for some. You also described it as “surprisingly quiet” which was my whole point, RAP users can’t attend without a slot hoping for that.

Glad to hear you observed minimal RAP queues though, which is how it should be regardless of how busy the park is.
 
Bowser said:
As @TPick exemplifies, this is all moot as the parks are only viable for genuine users (imo) with a pre booked RAP.

We tend to aim for quieter days for general crowd levels and shorter time outs but if we don’t have a slot we can’t attend, simple as that.

So the notion of “smaller queues” becomes semantics. You cited 35 minutes which simply isn’t possible for some. You also described it as “surprisingly quiet” which was my whole point, RAP users can’t attend without a slot hoping for that.

Glad to hear you observed minimal RAP queues though, which is how it should be regardless of how busy the park is.
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I guess the only thing I could suggest is booking slots further in advance.

How early do the slots release? If you looked at a crowd calendar (Queue-Times.com is a good one), you could book on a peak weekend that seems quieter as soon as the slots release.

Obviously you can’t predict with perfect certainty how busy a day will be, but you can gauge an idea. A park like Alton Towers will have a certain degree of seasonality to it, so if you book on a day that has historically been quite quiet, chances are that it will be again.

For future reference, I myself have visited in the last weekend of July for the last two years in a row, and both times, I have found it surprisingly quiet for what is supposedly a peak period. Of the “peak” periods you can visit in, I’d 100% recommend that one.

For clarity, I should also clarify that 35 minutes was the longest queue I personally waited in, not an average.

RAP usage honestly appeared minimal all trip. Not nonexistent, but definitely very minimal, and hardly even noticeable at all compared to prior visits. If I remember back to visits a couple of years back, where rides had legitimate queues of RAP users (Wicker Man during Alton After Dark in March 2024 was a particularly horrific example) , it honestly seemed like night and day. I’m not a RAP user, admittedly, but I do feel that the booking requirement has made a notable difference to the on-park RAP queues (from appearances, at least)!
 
Matt N said:
I guess the only thing I could suggest is booking slots further in advance.

How early do the slots release? If you looked at a crowd calendar (Queue-Times.com is a good one), you could book on a peak weekend that seems quieter as soon as the slots release.
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It varies but the discussion wasn’t about slot availability, it was other people (not you) saying the parks were accessible to ambulant RAP users without a booking which I strongly disagreed with.

Yes on a technicality one could pre-book FastTrack if available but that’s not an equivalent and if it’s the only way to attend becomes a morally repugnant disability tax.

We’re actually facing this for our visit to Phantasialand as they offer no RAP service so it’s an incredibly expensive trip as a result. I’ll always appreciate how Merlin and the UK in general are leaders in accessibility even if there’s room for improvement.
 
In my diary i have written that i have an upcoming Thorpe Park RAP booking. I wanted to change the date but i can't find the email confirmation of the original booking. Is there any way to check? Presume i'm going to have to contact them directly?

Side note, I was going to book a new date anyway in the meantime but no availability for September (same with Chessington), sigh.
 
This sign was spotted in Wicker Man's RAP queue and other places recently...

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Could Towers be preparing to move RAP to a digital system? 👀
 
Alphe86 said:
Your next ride time starts after this scan?
What the heck does that mean. You check in to say your there? To do away with staff? Seems very exploitable
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Every ride will still need a staff member to check ID or the fraud will continue.

That Guy said:
Potentially it removes the benefit of a rap timeout going down as you move between rides.
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Part of the purpose of RAP at a park like Alton Towers is some users require additional time to travel between attractions, particularly as the Skyride continues to be very unreliable. If they're having a different system where you receive a timeout upon arrival on top of that time they're going to receive a lot of backlash. It would certainly be the nail in the coffin for us, particularly as many attractions have inadequate facilities in the vicinity.
 
The way I interpret that sign, it sounds like a digital system where you can select another ride after scanning in at the first. You can start to wait virtually for the next ride whilst still physically queueing for the one you're about to board.
 
Why would they use a system that differs from Chessington and Legoland? You scan in at the ride, get your time out based on current queue time, then select the next ride when that expires subject to availability.

Choosing a ride prior to time out makes no sense and makes managing the real time numbers of people approaching the queue more difficult.
 
Bowser said:
Why would they use a system that differs from Chessington and Legoland?
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You mean why would they continue to use a different system from Chessington and Legoland?

It's likely that it's a similar system, with some modification either based on feedback or adapted to suit Alton Towers.

Alton Towers and Thorpe Park also choose to operate a fast track system that differs from Chessington and Legoland, with the latter adopting reserve and ride.
 
I can see a wholesale move to mirror the changes to the Disney DAS passes in future however it will be a cobbled together mess as none of the queuelines will be made wheelchair-accessible.
 
RAP today at Chessington was very busy.

Vampire was ok first thing in the morning, staff member scanning at stairs and 5 minute wait. Late afternoon no staff member and queue to the zoo like the old days. We fortunately joined it quite early (only saw the length when I went to the bin). They had to do at least one RAP train to get it down. The disappearing staff member seems to happen every visit.

Mandrill was backed up to the entrance. This is presumably due to it being shared with FT but pretty poor. The merge host seemed to be struggling with unruly members of the public too. I’m definitely not at USJ anymore.

I’m somewhat confused as to why it was so busy today as considering every visit RAP is at capacity, it should always be similar no? Are they increasing capacity for busy days because there are supposedly more staff working? Or was it just unlucky people were swarming on rides simultaneously? The digital system should prevent that…
 
I have never liked Cwoa and LL RAP system because is not updated really Quick with the actual times.

Sometimes you show up at a ride with 10 minutes and on RAP says 40 and then you are timedout for 40

Plus operators always take off 15-20 minutes off in AT/TP because you are actually waiting them.

It has happened to us in the past that we join the Reserve and ride queue in Legoland, waiting time is 60 minutes. We wait 20 minutes on the queue and then the online system times out for 60, so we ended up queueing for 80. Not fair and unreliable.

Also cwoa and legoland RAP queues are non existent, you just join the Reserve and ride queue which is their fast pass, so you end up queueing with a lot of people.
 
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ramon018 said:
Also cwoa and legoland RAP queues are non existent, you just join the Reserve and ride queue which is their fast pass, so you end up queueing with a lot of people
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That’s not the case at Chesssington, I believe Mandrill is the only shared queue, all the other major attractions have dedicated RAP lines.
 
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