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Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2024 Discussion
- Thread starter Leigh
- Start date
Bowser
TS Member
Another odd day at Legoland.
We arrived late and the disabled car park was half empty which was unusual and advertised queue times were short so thought we were in for a good day.
However despite this, immediately at least 5 attractions were listed as "queue full'. This included Haunted House where there was literally nobody queuing for RAP or Fast Track. We did the main queue as it was visibly very short so didn't matter in that sense but it's all very suspicious.
Meanwhile Sky Lion had the longest RAP/Fast-track queue i've ever seen, well out the building. They did power through it fairly quickly in fairness but i saw one poor RAP user have to abandon it as they couldn't stand for that long.
NinjaGo was back to no merge host so had to push your way into the queue to glaring looks which is always fun.
We arrived late and the disabled car park was half empty which was unusual and advertised queue times were short so thought we were in for a good day.
However despite this, immediately at least 5 attractions were listed as "queue full'. This included Haunted House where there was literally nobody queuing for RAP or Fast Track. We did the main queue as it was visibly very short so didn't matter in that sense but it's all very suspicious.
Meanwhile Sky Lion had the longest RAP/Fast-track queue i've ever seen, well out the building. They did power through it fairly quickly in fairness but i saw one poor RAP user have to abandon it as they couldn't stand for that long.
NinjaGo was back to no merge host so had to push your way into the queue to glaring looks which is always fun.
Leigh
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- EGF
I don’t know if it was otherwise mentioned - but people with RAP bookings to Towers and Thorpe can now cancel them without having to email or phone in via the “Manage Booking” link in the confirmation email.
Very welcome change, and hopefully should result in some more slots being made available by people cancelling, but you do have to wonder a pretty simple cancellation system took so long into the season to be implemented and even then only at two parks.
Very welcome change, and hopefully should result in some more slots being made available by people cancelling, but you do have to wonder a pretty simple cancellation system took so long into the season to be implemented and even then only at two parks.
After it seemed like I wouldn't be able to go to either Scarefest or Fright Nights this year due to needing a RAP for my visit but it being fully booked on all October weekends, my dad decided to take time off of work on weekdays so I could still go this year. It was a pretty big inconvenience for him since he's self-employed, so no holiday pay for those missed days. He knows that the usual scare stuff is what I look forward to more than anything in the year though, so he didn't want me to miss out.
We visited both on a 2-day ticket, both on a Thursday + Friday as it was possible to book RAP for those days (still had to book them in September though!)
There was a pretty huge difference in RAP experience between AT and Thorpe.
At Towers, it seemed like the system worked close to perfectly. We've had to leave Smiler and Wickerman access queues at past Scarefests due to them being too long, but this year, we didn't wait any longer than 10 mins in RAP queues despite the park being pretty busy in general.
That meant we were able to retreat to quieter corners of the park to wait out the long queue times, which was very much appreciated as the sheer volume of people in the park on both days (but especially on Thursday, weirdly) was quite overwhelming. But more importantly, it meant I was better able to handle my toilet needs for a much more comfortable visit.
Thorpe was a totally different story! Capping RAP appeared to have no positive impact there whatsoever. We joined the RAP queue for Hyperia once it eventually opened, and never having ridden it before, were clueless as to how long the queue line was.
After waiting for around 30 minutes, we had no choice but to leave as one of my medical conditions means I have to go to the loo regularly. My dad asked the people in front of us if they had any idea how long the queue might actually be, and they said they weren't sure, but the last time they waited from that point, it took about 1 full hour to get on. The main queue was listed as 100 minutes when we joined it, so why RAP would take a full hour is baffling to me. Someone else nearby who overheard my dad asking recommended using the single rider queue instead!
We were staying in one of The Swarm cabins, so had complimentary fast track on Swarm for the whole of our 2nd day. Sometimes it enabled us to get on in around 25 minutes, but other times, we had to leave. The fast track queue was consistently smaller than the RAP one, so we joined fast track instead, but at one point when we were at the end of the fast track queue waiting by the chain, a member of staff let around 30 people from RAP in one go through without even checking fast track, so RAP would've worked out faster after all even though more people were in it.
At one point when we were in the fast track queue for Swarm, the RAP queue for it was bigger than we've ever seen it before, looking like it would've taken 40+ mins to get through, while the couple behind us asked us if they were in the right queue for fast track. My dad replied, yes, this is fast track, and the lady laughed and responded with "It's not very fast, is it!" to which we laughed along with her. Then she started sucking on her vape, and we had to leave the queue altogether (not solely because of the vape, though I struggle to tolerate people vaping near me, but because we'd waited around 20 mins without even moving!)
We also had an issue with Hyperia when we did eventually manage to ride it on our first day after waiting 25 mins in RAP. The queue time on the entrance board and on the app was 120 mins, but the staff member marked my card with 4 hours. We didn't realise until we got off the ride, did a double take on the app and the entrance, still 120.
We headed to the access kiosk (guest services wasn't open at the time) to say we thought the staff member had made a mistake, they confirmed it was indeed 120, but said they could not change the time on the card as "it wouldn't be fair to other visitors". I'm not very good at speaking for myself, especially when I need help or to explain something, so my dad tried to make our point politely. He again tried to explain that it was unfair the card had been marked with 4 hours when no one in the park had queued 4 hours for the ride because that was never the queue time at any point in the day so far.
Well, he went around in circles with the guy at the access kiosk refusing to budge, show any sort of empathy or understanding for our situation, and repeatedly saying nothing could be done because it wouldn't be fair on other guests. I was on the verge of having a meltdown because he was being quite rude with the tone he was speaking to my dad in and just making me feel extremely uncomfortable in general, so we just left.
I asked my dad if we could leave because after that, I didn't want to stay for the rest of the day, or for our night in the cabin and our 2nd day in the park. The access kiosk guy's attitude made me feel sick and like they didn't want us to be there. Thankfully, the trip was saved by an off-duty staff member visiting as a guest. He said he overheard some of what was happening, and that it wasn't right to have had the card marked with a 4 hour wait time on a queue that was nowhere near that. He said it had to be an error, and it should be corrected. He advised we wait until guest services was opened and manned, and speak to staff there instead.
His recommendation was extremely helpful, and guest services staff agreed it shouldn't have happened. They said they couldn't correct the time on the card so would just give us a new card altogether. It took so long to sort it all out that over 120 mins had passed, so they didn't fill out an amended time on the clean card.
The problem is, despite the fact that it was all sorted eventually, the access kiosk guy's attitude had already done so much damage and left a really foul taste in our mouths, like an ominous black cloud hanging over the rest of the day. To be a paying guest (and staying at the hotel too, so no carer's ticket for my dad or the like, as tickets were included in our cabin stay) and be treated like crap just made me feel awful, as though his opinion was that because I have some medical issues, I should suffer. He was just so unnecessarily mean.
On a brighter note, staff at guest services and the box office in Towers were beyond helpful. They took the time to explain to us how having a carer would work in the mazes, and even helped with some of my worries about doing the Daz one. I'm not a competitive person, and while I'm generally fine sensory-wise in scare attractions, I prefer not to be separated from my dad as I am unable to ask for help if I need it, and my dyspraxia means I quite often walk into objects in the dark, especially when strobes are involved, haha. I've had a few maze injuries over the years, mainly from walking into walls.
We were planning to completely skip Daz as it seemed it would be unsuitable, but the lovely ladies who helped us said we should be able to do it together if we explain everything to the staff at the attraction entrance, and if not for any reason, that we would be able to come back to them and get a partial refund for the maze combo ticket I had purchased.
We did speak to staff, and we did do Daz together. We were able to stay together throughout, and although it wasn't exactly amazing, I was glad to have at least been able to experience it.
Not really sure if the below counts as spoilers when it's information that's available in the warnings outside of the attraction, but I'll put a spoiler thingy below regarding what staff told us about Compound.
Sorry for the ramble anyhow! Overall, the tldr version would be: RAP worked a hell of a lot better at Towers than at Thorpe.
We visited both on a 2-day ticket, both on a Thursday + Friday as it was possible to book RAP for those days (still had to book them in September though!)
There was a pretty huge difference in RAP experience between AT and Thorpe.
At Towers, it seemed like the system worked close to perfectly. We've had to leave Smiler and Wickerman access queues at past Scarefests due to them being too long, but this year, we didn't wait any longer than 10 mins in RAP queues despite the park being pretty busy in general.
That meant we were able to retreat to quieter corners of the park to wait out the long queue times, which was very much appreciated as the sheer volume of people in the park on both days (but especially on Thursday, weirdly) was quite overwhelming. But more importantly, it meant I was better able to handle my toilet needs for a much more comfortable visit.
Thorpe was a totally different story! Capping RAP appeared to have no positive impact there whatsoever. We joined the RAP queue for Hyperia once it eventually opened, and never having ridden it before, were clueless as to how long the queue line was.
After waiting for around 30 minutes, we had no choice but to leave as one of my medical conditions means I have to go to the loo regularly. My dad asked the people in front of us if they had any idea how long the queue might actually be, and they said they weren't sure, but the last time they waited from that point, it took about 1 full hour to get on. The main queue was listed as 100 minutes when we joined it, so why RAP would take a full hour is baffling to me. Someone else nearby who overheard my dad asking recommended using the single rider queue instead!
We were staying in one of The Swarm cabins, so had complimentary fast track on Swarm for the whole of our 2nd day. Sometimes it enabled us to get on in around 25 minutes, but other times, we had to leave. The fast track queue was consistently smaller than the RAP one, so we joined fast track instead, but at one point when we were at the end of the fast track queue waiting by the chain, a member of staff let around 30 people from RAP in one go through without even checking fast track, so RAP would've worked out faster after all even though more people were in it.
At one point when we were in the fast track queue for Swarm, the RAP queue for it was bigger than we've ever seen it before, looking like it would've taken 40+ mins to get through, while the couple behind us asked us if they were in the right queue for fast track. My dad replied, yes, this is fast track, and the lady laughed and responded with "It's not very fast, is it!" to which we laughed along with her. Then she started sucking on her vape, and we had to leave the queue altogether (not solely because of the vape, though I struggle to tolerate people vaping near me, but because we'd waited around 20 mins without even moving!)
We also had an issue with Hyperia when we did eventually manage to ride it on our first day after waiting 25 mins in RAP. The queue time on the entrance board and on the app was 120 mins, but the staff member marked my card with 4 hours. We didn't realise until we got off the ride, did a double take on the app and the entrance, still 120.
We headed to the access kiosk (guest services wasn't open at the time) to say we thought the staff member had made a mistake, they confirmed it was indeed 120, but said they could not change the time on the card as "it wouldn't be fair to other visitors". I'm not very good at speaking for myself, especially when I need help or to explain something, so my dad tried to make our point politely. He again tried to explain that it was unfair the card had been marked with 4 hours when no one in the park had queued 4 hours for the ride because that was never the queue time at any point in the day so far.
Well, he went around in circles with the guy at the access kiosk refusing to budge, show any sort of empathy or understanding for our situation, and repeatedly saying nothing could be done because it wouldn't be fair on other guests. I was on the verge of having a meltdown because he was being quite rude with the tone he was speaking to my dad in and just making me feel extremely uncomfortable in general, so we just left.
I asked my dad if we could leave because after that, I didn't want to stay for the rest of the day, or for our night in the cabin and our 2nd day in the park. The access kiosk guy's attitude made me feel sick and like they didn't want us to be there. Thankfully, the trip was saved by an off-duty staff member visiting as a guest. He said he overheard some of what was happening, and that it wasn't right to have had the card marked with a 4 hour wait time on a queue that was nowhere near that. He said it had to be an error, and it should be corrected. He advised we wait until guest services was opened and manned, and speak to staff there instead.
His recommendation was extremely helpful, and guest services staff agreed it shouldn't have happened. They said they couldn't correct the time on the card so would just give us a new card altogether. It took so long to sort it all out that over 120 mins had passed, so they didn't fill out an amended time on the clean card.
The problem is, despite the fact that it was all sorted eventually, the access kiosk guy's attitude had already done so much damage and left a really foul taste in our mouths, like an ominous black cloud hanging over the rest of the day. To be a paying guest (and staying at the hotel too, so no carer's ticket for my dad or the like, as tickets were included in our cabin stay) and be treated like crap just made me feel awful, as though his opinion was that because I have some medical issues, I should suffer. He was just so unnecessarily mean.
On a brighter note, staff at guest services and the box office in Towers were beyond helpful. They took the time to explain to us how having a carer would work in the mazes, and even helped with some of my worries about doing the Daz one. I'm not a competitive person, and while I'm generally fine sensory-wise in scare attractions, I prefer not to be separated from my dad as I am unable to ask for help if I need it, and my dyspraxia means I quite often walk into objects in the dark, especially when strobes are involved, haha. I've had a few maze injuries over the years, mainly from walking into walls.
We were planning to completely skip Daz as it seemed it would be unsuitable, but the lovely ladies who helped us said we should be able to do it together if we explain everything to the staff at the attraction entrance, and if not for any reason, that we would be able to come back to them and get a partial refund for the maze combo ticket I had purchased.
We did speak to staff, and we did do Daz together. We were able to stay together throughout, and although it wasn't exactly amazing, I was glad to have at least been able to experience it.
Not really sure if the below counts as spoilers when it's information that's available in the warnings outside of the attraction, but I'll put a spoiler thingy below regarding what staff told us about Compound.
They also warned us that we were likely to be split up in Compound, and again advised we speak to the attraction staff and/or get a refund if it wasn't possible to go through. Staff at the attraction said they couldn't make any promises on us staying together in there, so it was up to us to decide if we wanted to go in or not. Since they said we could ignore actor commands and stick together, we went in.
We did get to stay together for a fair chunk of the maze, but at one point were forcibly separated. I dealt with it okay, but I did injure myself in the time I was alone xD I walked face first into the corner of a cage wall with no padding and now have a black eye, haha. Another injury I can chalk up to dyspraxia and strobes! Maybe most people would have been fine, but I have another condition that causes me to bruise and bleed far more easily than the average person. Not that I'm complaining! Staff did all they could to give us enough information to make a choice, and I still enjoyed the maze despite the injury, haha.
I generally just accept that theme park trips come with a degree of pain as all ride restraints leave me bruised! I leave looking like someone has pushed me down several flights of stairs, but I love thrill rides and I love scare attractions, so for me personally, the pain is worth it xD I just need a while to recover afterwards!
We did get to stay together for a fair chunk of the maze, but at one point were forcibly separated. I dealt with it okay, but I did injure myself in the time I was alone xD I walked face first into the corner of a cage wall with no padding and now have a black eye, haha. Another injury I can chalk up to dyspraxia and strobes! Maybe most people would have been fine, but I have another condition that causes me to bruise and bleed far more easily than the average person. Not that I'm complaining! Staff did all they could to give us enough information to make a choice, and I still enjoyed the maze despite the injury, haha.
I generally just accept that theme park trips come with a degree of pain as all ride restraints leave me bruised! I leave looking like someone has pushed me down several flights of stairs, but I love thrill rides and I love scare attractions, so for me personally, the pain is worth it xD I just need a while to recover afterwards!
Sorry for the ramble anyhow! Overall, the tldr version would be: RAP worked a hell of a lot better at Towers than at Thorpe.
I must say. With my boy we’ve also only had positive experiences at Towers with RAP this year. Only frustrating aspect is, even with limited numbers… if everyone gravitates to the same ride (smiler and 13 I’m looking at you) the RAP queue can still be too long. Which is fine… but getting around Towers is such a treck.
Estimating RAP queue in the app would help a lot
Estimating RAP queue in the app would help a lot
Bowser
TS Member
This is a good idea if they’re not going digital any time soon.
Only issue would be queue estimates are notoriously poor.
Live stream of the queue might help
John
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
So much depends on the whim of the merge host - we were having a similar conversation at Thorpe yesterday. At times they won't bother marking the card, other times they'll put down a time longer than the stated main queue (though at times yesterday many queues looked longer than stated, I wasn't about to join a Colossus queue that was spilling out the entrance to see if I really would get in in "only" 100 min).
Merge hosts can also choose how to manage their long queues. I've seen a Smiler host let through one RAP group every 5 minutes or so whilst at the other end of the scale I've also seen Rita giving 1/3 of total ride capacity to RAP. This inconsistency is not helpful.
Ultimately though, unless they further reduce overall demand further AND manage demand on an individual ride basis, they're going to end up with long RAP waits for popular rides. For much of yesterday, Hyperia had a main queue stretching out the area plus full FT, RAP and SRQs.
Merge hosts can also choose how to manage their long queues. I've seen a Smiler host let through one RAP group every 5 minutes or so whilst at the other end of the scale I've also seen Rita giving 1/3 of total ride capacity to RAP. This inconsistency is not helpful.
Ultimately though, unless they further reduce overall demand further AND manage demand on an individual ride basis, they're going to end up with long RAP waits for popular rides. For much of yesterday, Hyperia had a main queue stretching out the area plus full FT, RAP and SRQs.
imanautie
TS Member
There was a major loophole in the old booking portal cancel flow, which a fair few people spotted, accesso have fairly recently begun rolling out a brand new portal that combines the billing portal and booking portal.
Bowser
TS Member
Went to Chessington for a few hours. Only points of note:
- There were two staff manning Vampire. When i arrived there was no queue and they asked when i had booked. I said several hours ago and we hadn't used it yet, which they were ok with and let us through. There was nobody inside. Very odd, can't quite figure out what was going on there. If they were artificially capping slots because the queue was too long it would make sense but there was nobody there so why were they surprised i had a slot?
- Later on we went back (queue had been "full" for quite a while but frantic refreshing paid off) and there was an almighty argument at the same spot with a family and 3 members of staff. They weren't rude or aggressive but it was very heated.
- There were two staff manning Vampire. When i arrived there was no queue and they asked when i had booked. I said several hours ago and we hadn't used it yet, which they were ok with and let us through. There was nobody inside. Very odd, can't quite figure out what was going on there. If they were artificially capping slots because the queue was too long it would make sense but there was nobody there so why were they surprised i had a slot?
- Later on we went back (queue had been "full" for quite a while but frantic refreshing paid off) and there was an almighty argument at the same spot with a family and 3 members of staff. They weren't rude or aggressive but it was very heated.
Bowser
TS Member
Sorry for double post but noticed a complaint on Twitter about 30+ minute queues to pick up a RAP sheet at AT and the FV guest services not being open so guests subsequently having to walk all the way to the main entrance 
From: https://twitter.com/joe16061984/status/1850493490003587405?s=46&t=0gSA6DB3t11tFWJ4xv8eFA
From: https://twitter.com/joe16061984/status/1850493490003587405?s=46&t=0gSA6DB3t11tFWJ4xv8eFA
Bowser
TS Member
Was posted at 1103am so either then or earlier. Would imagine it gets quieter as the day goes on.
Bowser
TS Member
The photo they provided (sorry it won’t embed but the link works) is of the guest services queue.
Benzin
TS Member
When I visited on the first Scarefest Saturday the FV kiosk was closed so we did have to go to main entrance.
Made worse that the CBeebies hotel didn't have any cards so we couldn't get it sorted there. Could've gone into one of the other hotels instead but that's not the point. Park is advertising you can sort it at these locations but to find them closed is very poor.
Made worse that the CBeebies hotel didn't have any cards so we couldn't get it sorted there. Could've gone into one of the other hotels instead but that's not the point. Park is advertising you can sort it at these locations but to find them closed is very poor.
It's 2024 and we are in the age of the IoT. At home I can unlock the door remotely, lights switch on when I enter a room or dim when the TV is switched on etc. (even my oven and bath are internet connected).This is a good idea if they’re not going digital any time soon.
Only issue would be queue estimates are notoriously poor.
Live stream of the queue might help
A few motion/presence sensors on each queue would give accurate queue times automatically. Not Disney MagicBands magic, but simple and cheap to implement.
Bowser
TS Member
This seems such an obvious idea i'm wondering why nobody has implemented it and assuming there must be a valid reason?
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Ug Bugs
It's not dissimilar from how queue calculation used to work, wasn't quite as high tech, but you'd use cameras and reference points and dispatch times to make a guess.
The problem is that you can't give accurate times for the main queue anymore, whilst you have two other queues which take priority. It's entirely up at the merge host's discretion, as to the makeup of the queue after the dispatch.
If all three queues were rammed at the same time, you can predict accurately and control the flow fairly, the same can be said if the queues are light. Problems occur when you have surges, or the ride goes into a temporary stoppage.
I look forward to hearing it
If I can implement it at home with a Phillips SmartHub and an app - nothing else (inc auto connection to Alexa etc) it can't be rocket science. Sensors just connect to the park WiFi and are powered by 5v so no issue running LV around the queue lines. I have done a bit of programming with the SmartThings API, and it really is simple to probe/control devices if you want to do something more bespoke.