imanautie
TS Member
Does the Disney site actually say it's once every 120 days? It sounds more like they aren't requiring renewals as often?
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Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2024 Discussion
- Thread starter Leigh
- Start date
Bowser
TS Member
Is there likely to be a queue for guest services on an off peak Monday next week at AT? Guessing not...
We're visiting for a few hours and i don't really want to arrive before 10am (possibly later) because based on this week most of the rides don't seem to be operational till 11am at the earliest but equally we have to leave by early afternoon.
Which also made me think, why don't they have a dedicated RAP desk at the entrance? They have one at Legoland and it's not like it needs staffing all day.
We're visiting for a few hours and i don't really want to arrive before 10am (possibly later) because based on this week most of the rides don't seem to be operational till 11am at the earliest but equally we have to leave by early afternoon.
Which also made me think, why don't they have a dedicated RAP desk at the entrance? They have one at Legoland and it's not like it needs staffing all day.
imanautie
TS Member
That's the thing. They effectively do...
pluk
TS Member
Did the main queue seem to be moving quicker as a result?
I would say so, there wasn't many/any fast pass as well so it was quite quick, nemesis queue is still as fast as it was opening weekend and wickerman felt nice and fast compared to last year, over all the RAP and fastpass queues looks very good, I didn't get to see 13 or oblivion, but for the rest I rarely saw someone waiting, I went in single rider on the smiler and when an rap/fast pass came they were usually sent up within a couple of mins, after the entire day, the only time I saw a busy fastpass/rap queue was when nemesis broke down and RAP/fastpass people stated to gather waiting for it to reopen, after it did the fastpass/RAP queue droped to nothing.
edit: I am not an RAP user so I didn't experience the queue, just what I saw
We saw that there were signs up outside the various Guest Services booths saying RAP system at capacity. The main queues were moving well and tended to be under the times stated. Best Sunday we've had at Towers in a long time.This from AT fan Facebook would corroborate the above. Looks like the limit is net positive for sure
Bowser
TS Member
This from AT fan Facebook would corroborate the above. Looks like the limit is net positive for sure
Must have been a very quiet and lucky day to do all those in 3 hours! Technically anyone in the main lines should have been able to do the same.
I checked the queues from 10-1 and it wasn’t so bad tbh
Bowser
TS Member
Little report from today, with the caveat that obviously it was a very wet Monday in April during term time so don't know how much of a reflection of anything it is but i digress:
- The longest queue of the day was guest services. In fact the only queue. There's a sign outside before the security check saying "tickets and ride access passes" that wasn't there before but it had a fairly long queue. There were loads and loads of teenagers arriving the same time as us. I asked security if we can still get the time card inside as we have our pass, he said "they prefer you go to over there but yes you can" so i took my chances and took us inside. Wasn't too bad, 10 minutes or so though i never understand what takes everyone so long. I went up with our pre-book displayed on our phone, showed them my card and the transaction was over in 30 seconds. Which all leads me on to my second point...
- Every area i went to i checked for phone signal and WiFi coverage. The only area i didn't check is by Galactica and X-Sector but i'd be surprised if they were any different. So i remain baffled as to why they aren't adopting the digital system. The guest services is the biggest issue imo because 10 minutes on a very quiet day is potentially 1 hour on a busy day when people could be checking themselves in. Particularly frustrating when you have a child desperate to get moving and unable to understand why you're standing outside an office.
- Staff properly checked our card and ID on every single ride so i was very impressed with that.
- Beyond that, it worked exactly as intended. Every ride was walk on except 13 where we waited for one train on both of our rides. But like i say, it was very quiet. Twice on WickerMan they didn't even give us a time because it was basically walk-on (which was actually very thoughtful as meant it didn't waste space on the card, again another reason for going digital because on a quiet day it's plausible users will be able to go on more than 10 rides and they're making those with likely mobility issues have to traipse all the way back to guest services).
So despite it raining constantly it was easily the best day we've ever had at AT (boosted by all advertised rides being operational all day).
- The longest queue of the day was guest services. In fact the only queue. There's a sign outside before the security check saying "tickets and ride access passes" that wasn't there before but it had a fairly long queue. There were loads and loads of teenagers arriving the same time as us. I asked security if we can still get the time card inside as we have our pass, he said "they prefer you go to over there but yes you can" so i took my chances and took us inside. Wasn't too bad, 10 minutes or so though i never understand what takes everyone so long. I went up with our pre-book displayed on our phone, showed them my card and the transaction was over in 30 seconds. Which all leads me on to my second point...
- Every area i went to i checked for phone signal and WiFi coverage. The only area i didn't check is by Galactica and X-Sector but i'd be surprised if they were any different. So i remain baffled as to why they aren't adopting the digital system. The guest services is the biggest issue imo because 10 minutes on a very quiet day is potentially 1 hour on a busy day when people could be checking themselves in. Particularly frustrating when you have a child desperate to get moving and unable to understand why you're standing outside an office.
- Staff properly checked our card and ID on every single ride so i was very impressed with that.
- Beyond that, it worked exactly as intended. Every ride was walk on except 13 where we waited for one train on both of our rides. But like i say, it was very quiet. Twice on WickerMan they didn't even give us a time because it was basically walk-on (which was actually very thoughtful as meant it didn't waste space on the card, again another reason for going digital because on a quiet day it's plausible users will be able to go on more than 10 rides and they're making those with likely mobility issues have to traipse all the way back to guest services).
So despite it raining constantly it was easily the best day we've ever had at AT (boosted by all advertised rides being operational all day).
Dave
TS Founding Member
On mobile phone signal it’s not signal reach its line capacity. If you get more than 10,000 people
on park the data drops all the time.
No reason they couldn’t use a wifi system though. I do wonder if they are testing the cap and if it doesn’t fail then they might get a Q-Bot as then they only have to purchase 1000 or so units rather than infinitely more under the un-capped model?
imanautie
TS Member
The beauty of it is they can do both systems and it just works together with loqueue and prism (I'm assuming accesso won't sell the older qbot devices now) from a guest pov, same waits either way
Dave
TS Founding Member
I think if they attempted the mobile phone app model they will just get complaints if the network falls over (which it does all the time) and phones won’t connect to wifi which sometimes happens.
Whereas a device given to guests will be linked to an internal WiFi network dedicated to RAP.
Other alternative would be Bluetooth but that would require guests going to specific spots to make bookings.
Bowser
TS Member
But again why is this an issue exclusively at AT and TP when so many other parks are using it?
In theory according to OFCOM all the networks have outdoor data but it’s always very nuanced. Practically speaking I’ve never had an issue on either 3 or Vodafone and most of the time my phone is connected to the park wifi anyway. Wifi seems much more ubiquitous this year too.
Either way if you mandated an app people would be crying from the rooftops about how it’s discrimination because they don’t have a smartphone or shouldn’t use their mobile data or something.
Either way if you mandated an app people would be crying from the rooftops about how it’s discrimination because they don’t have a smartphone or shouldn’t use their mobile data or something.
Bowser
TS Member
And if you did you’d switch to WiFi which has full park coverage, unlike CWOA and Legoland, who despite that successfully use the system.
Realistically you’re only looking at a few hundred people actively using it and simultaneously far less due to the nature of the park.
Again nobody cries at the other Merlin parks afaik, people prefer it. And it doesn’t require an app (works in browser), doesn’t use data if you’re on WiFi (not that it uses much data).