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Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2024 Discussion

imanautie said:
Merlin in general but espically Thorpe have a hell of a lot for neuro divergent staff, seemingly almost all of ents for example
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I know that it's very common for actors to be neurodivergent as it can help some people with their communication and can also be an escape. Bradley Riches (Heartstopper and Celebrity Big Brother) is a well known neurodivergent actor.

I know Theme Parks are a common interest and a lot of enthusiasts are neurodivergent with a good number using RAP queues and a even bigger number including those who don't require RAP.

I can imagine there being a lot of staff in all areas including Entertainments and Rides being neurodivergent.
 
Merlin's requirement to pre-book RAP slots has finally hit the papers, though probably not the outlet you were thinking of.

The Telegraph claims that RAP passes are "sold out" because of an increase in ADHD diagnoses.

Truck loads of salt time, obviously, and the article is clearly written with an agenda to whip people into a frenzy.
www.telegraph.co.uk

Theme park disability priority passes sell out after surge in ADHD diagnoses

Disabled visitors denied on-the-day access as parks shift to online-only bookings
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk

Paywall removed link: https://archive.ph/uft4r
 
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GooseOnTheLoose said:
Merlin's requirement to pre-book RAP slots has finally hit the papers, though probably not the outlet you were thinking of.

The Telegraph claims that RAP passes are "sold out" because of an increase in ADHD diagnoses.

Truck loads of salt time, obviously, and the article is clearly written with an agenda to whip people into a frenzy.
www.telegraph.co.uk

Theme park disability priority passes sell out after surge in ADHD diagnoses

Disabled visitors denied on-the-day access as parks shift to online-only bookings
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
Click to expand...
Looks like it's behind a paywall? A shame, would've been an interesting read.
 
Islander said:
Looks like it's behind a paywall? A shame, would've been an interesting read.
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My apologies, it wasn't behind a paywall for me and I most certainly do not have a subscription. I came across it in my Google News feed. If I'd known I'd have run it through Archive.is, thankfully @Bowser has beaten me to it!
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Merlin's requirement to pre-book RAP slots has finally hit the papers, though probably not the outlet you were thinking of.

The Telegraph claims that RAP passes are "sold out" because of an increase in ADHD diagnoses.

Truck loads of salt time, obviously, and the article is clearly written with an agenda to whip people into a frenzy.
www.telegraph.co.uk

Theme park disability priority passes sell out after surge in ADHD diagnoses

Disabled visitors denied on-the-day access as parks shift to online-only bookings
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
Click to expand...
I've just read this and I'm going to be honest, this isn't accurate at all.

It spent a lot of time writing about the rise in ADHD diagnosises rather than talking about the actual issue at hand, was aimed at Thorpe Park when it's a problem across all Merlin parks and also mentions that RAP sells out as if it's a paid product. It was written to paint a certain picture.

It didn't appear to mention that slots are fully booked way in advance, how some people including the Karens know the system and book as many as they physically can which it ends up getting fully booked as a result along with the fact that Merlin has a big RAP problem due to people seeing it as free fast track. There seems to be a lot of complaints on social media about it from both people who need it and people who want it.
If The Telegraph wrote it accurately, it'd be titled "Theme park disability priority passes fully booked due to high scrounger uptake".

It's clearly written with an agenda.
 
Skyscraper said:
It's just a sign-up thing, enter an email address and you can read it.
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It's not, you have to sign up for a trial and provide payment information; it autorenews unless you cancel it.

Not worth doing for an article I intended to rip to shreds, suffice to say anything the Telegraph has to say about ADHD will be nonsense.

(Archive.ph link not working for me)
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Is this any better for you?
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Thanks @GooseOnTheLoose - though now I feel compelled to read it, which will only make me annoyed.

EDIT: Having read it it's a complete mess. It doesn't explain the Nimbus application system at all and mixes up Access Cards with RAP allocations on the day. There's also no connection at all established between the rise in ADHD diagnoses and the procedural changes.

If this was written by AI it would have made more sense.
 
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GooseOnTheLoose said:
Merlin's requirement to pre-book RAP slots has finally hit the papers, though probably not the outlet you were thinking of.

The Telegraph claims that RAP passes are "sold out" because of an increase in ADHD diagnoses.

Truck loads of salt time, obviously, and the article is clearly written with an agenda to whip people into a frenzy.
www.telegraph.co.uk

Theme park disability priority passes sell out after surge in ADHD diagnoses

Disabled visitors denied on-the-day access as parks shift to online-only bookings
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk

Paywall removed link: https://archive.ph/uft4r
Click to expand...
My friend showed me this article after it appeared on her news feed on Friday (she has ADHD herself, and is aware of my ASD), and the original headline was infuriating.

It was first published as:
"Theme park disability queue jump passes sell out after surge in ADHD diagnoses"

She was so angered by all the inaccuracies in the article that she went through the complaints procedure, citing how it breached the accuracy clause of the editorial code by repeatedly referring to the ride access system as queue jump passes for the disabled. She took the time to explain how the system actually works in the hope they would correct the article.

She didn't anticipate much coming of the complaint since the article was clearly written to be inflammatory, but she got an email back later in the day saying they agreed it was wrong to have called them queue jump passes, and that they had amended the headline.

Neither of us have re-read the article since then to see if they changed any of the wording throughout or literally just the headline itself.

When I first read it though, it was extremely frustrating, but to make matters worse, I made the mistake of reading the 105 comments that were already there only to end up in tears, and later a meltdown from absorbing the sheer hatred towards neurodivergent people that it seemed to stir up in the commenters.

It's not like I was expecting it to be sunshine and roses with only Telegraph subscribers being allowed to comment, but I wasn't prepared for some of the really vile things people were saying. The fact that even a fraction of society sees neurodivergent people in such a way is both sickening and disturbing.
 
Bowser said:
That will be fun next weekend if it's still the case :eek:
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I should clarify, it's more of a split and RAP and Fastrack usually go into separate lanes. One lane was closed so everyone went up the same way to the station.

Also they were only using one station as well.
 
I was chatting to a fellow parent at school today and it hit home how ironically inaccessible the system has become at this point.

Conversation was something like:

- Any plans for Halloween?

- I think we are going to Alton Towers and LegoLand, they have Halloween events.

- Oh i'd love to take our son Legoland but he'd never be able to queue for more than 5 minutes. How does yours manage?

- Well they have a system for people with disabilities where you don't really have to queue but instead get a waiting time between rides.

- Oh that sounds good, maybe we'll try that!

- Yes but first you need to get a photo (a challenge in of itself with our children), then fill out an application with supporting documentation and wait a week. Then if you're approved you need to set up a Merlin account and sync them. Then you need to book a slot at the theme park but unfortunately you'll likely have to do this several months in advance so you won't actually be going this year. Anyway once you have a slot next year you'll need to download an app. Once on site you can log in but one of the rides only has pre-book slots so you'll need to check the app every 20 minutes for availability. And the remaining rides can often reach capacity so you'll need to carefully plan your day if you want a good chance of going on the things you want to. You'll also need to redo all this every 3 years whilst keeping an eye on the system which is likely to change without notice and competing with people who are far more adept at navigating said system.

*Other parent has left the conversation

Compared to non-RAP user:

- I think we are going to Alton Towers and LegoLand, they have Halloween events.
- Oh we might do one of those.

Fin

I'm going to be away for work a lot next year and think i'm going to have to remotely manage theme park trips for my wife 😂
 
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