Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2024 Discussion

[Skyscraper]

? Introducing a cap is really all Merlin can do because they can't manage capacity through the eligibility criteria. And it's certainly not Nimbus's responsibility to alter their eligibility criteria to suit Merlin's capacity.

Indeed, and Merlin get all the stick. Including court cases

They're dammed if they do and dammed if they don't, through no fault of their own.

 

[Bowser]

Yes I think that's abuse personally. If you're timed out on your own pass you shouldn't really be using someone else's pass. However if (for example) a family have two passes so the two qualifying children can go on different rides at the same time then I wouldn't take issue with that. Of course it's impossible to police so it's up to the individual users to use the system fairly - and we know not everyone will do that.

That might be true, but Merlin have in good faith signed up to the Access Card scheme so it's the organisers of that scheme that are responsible for assessing eligibility. If they're letting more people obtain cards than Merlin have capacity for whose fault is that? Merlin's or Nimbus's? Introducing a cap is really all Merlin can do because they can't manage capacity through the eligibility criteria. And it's certainly not Nimbus's responsibility to alter their eligibility criteria to suit Merlin's capacity.

Oh certainly, I wasn’t attributing blame to Merlin and have in the past said they should be commended for their accessibility.

Unfortunately it’s a double edged sword with Nimbus. Is it better to grant too few or too many access? There is no right answer. Opinions will differ and it’s an emotive subject.

Presumably there is some level of ongoing dialogue between Merlin and Nimbus as to how the system is working and how to improve it, particularly as Merlin seem to be the ones taking a more active role in surveying user experience. I’d guess that Merlin are by a margin the largest user base of the Nimbus queuing facility.

 

[Benzin]

100% that method of 2 people in a group qualifying for RAP using both cards is abuse.

Indeed, given both are disabled it has an issue relating to the "carer" in those situations.


However, limiting 1 pass per group can have some issues. In our case when we visit with others we've used a second RAP person as essentially a parent swap alternative given that you aren't allowed to use that in conjunction with RAP. So wife and caree go on first, then second RAP and carer once off.


Universal will have shows and other non-ride activities to spread the load of people when that opens.

 

[Tophenheim]

We’ve been stung by the RAP. Heading to Towers in a few weeks with our disabled son (wheelchair user). Booked in advance but no RAP available for either day of our visit. Neither Merlin nor Nimbus particularly care, so we have to decide whether to cancel and ruin his holidays or risk trying to go and see if a 9 year old wheelchair user enjoys a visit with fair and equitable access to rides. He just wants to be able to do what other kids his age can do, and as his parents we just want a break sometimes from constant battles to get equitable treatment

 

[Islander]

We’ve been stung by the RAP. Heading to Towers in a few weeks with our disabled son (wheelchair user). Booked in advance but no RAP available for either day of our visit. Neither Merlin nor Nimbus particularly care, so we have to decide whether to cancel and ruin his holidays or risk trying to go and see if a 9 year old wheelchair user enjoys a visit with fair and equitable access to rides. He just wants to be able to do what other kids his age can do, and as his parents we just want a break sometimes from constant battles to get equitable treatment

If you booked the tickets in advance, was there something preventing you booking RAP at the same time?

 

[Tophenheim]

If you booked the tickets in advance, was there something preventing you booking RAP at the same time?

Yes. Nimbus requested more evidence of our son’s disability which required digging out medical documentation. This is our first visit since the new system was brought in, and hadn’t anticipated how difficult it was to get a RAP. Had our initial evidence been accepted by Nimbus we might have been lucky, but not to be.

What I would say is that this is yet again making life harder for disabled families. Non-disabled families don’t have to navigate these extra barriers, put in the extra effort, or worry about one part not perfectly lining up once everything has been researched and paid for. They can just spontaneously turn up. I’m not sure making this their fault is particularly helpful, unless the intention is to discourage disabled families for visiting

 

[Islander]

Yes. Nimbus requested more evidence of our son’s disability which required digging out medical documentation. This is our first visit since the new system was brought in, and hadn’t anticipated how difficult it was to get a RAP. Had our initial evidence been accepted by Nimbus we might have been lucky, but not to be.

In which case this does sound like extenuating circumstances - you definitely tried to do the right thing, and unfortunately came across hurdles that delayed that. I'd hope that in such cases rules could be bent to accommodate, but of course to pay devil's advocate there's a question of where to draw the line.

What I would say is that this is yet again making life harder for disabled families. Non-disabled families don’t have to navigate these extra barriers, put in the extra effort, or worry about one part not perfectly lining up once everything has been researched and paid for. They can just spontaneously turn up. I’m not sure making this their fault is particularly helpful, unless the intention is to discourage disabled families for visiting

This is always the ongoing question, and one that I don't want to comment on too much as no doubt I'll upset someone, but the crux of the matter is that if these extra steps (or 'barriers') aren't put in place, abuse of the system just rises massively, because people are generally terrible. This is then hugely detrimental to everyone.

 

[Skyscraper]

Yes. Nimbus requested more evidence of our son’s disability which required digging out medical documentation. This is our first visit since the new system was brought in, and hadn’t anticipated how difficult it was to get a RAP. Had our initial evidence been accepted by Nimbus we might have been lucky, but not to be.

What I would say is that this is yet again making life harder for disabled families. Non-disabled families don’t have to navigate these extra barriers, put in the extra effort, or worry about one part not perfectly lining up once everything has been researched and paid for. They can just spontaneously turn up. I’m not sure making this their fault is particularly helpful, unless the intention is to discourage disabled families for visiting

The intention is to keep the RAP queues to a tolerable level, otherwise it defeats the entire purpose of the system. That's why the cap was brought in. I know it's not ideal, but what else could they do?

 

[Bowser]

We’ve been stung by the RAP. Heading to Towers in a few weeks with our disabled son (wheelchair user). Booked in advance but no RAP available for either day of our visit. Neither Merlin nor Nimbus particularly care, so we have to decide whether to cancel and ruin his holidays or risk trying to go and see if a 9 year old wheelchair user enjoys a visit with fair and equitable access to rides. He just wants to be able to do what other kids his age can do, and as his parents we just want a break sometimes from constant battles to get equitable treatment

I have a few suggestions i hope are helpful:

1. There is availability currently towards the end of next month so if you can change your visit dates you can potentially guarantee a slot (assuming you now have you accreditation).

2. You could purchase Fast Track tickets though i'm not sure how this would pan out on each ride depending on your sons mobility. For example, WickerMan has a Fast Track queue that i believe is step free and adjacent to the RAP queue and merge point so physically i see no reason why it couldn't be used. If you did want to adopt this plan i'm sure the hive mind of this forum would be able to make a comprehensive list of which rides are technically accessible so you can see if this would be worthwhile.

3. Alton Towers claim they release some additional RAP slots approx 24-48 hours before each day so you could try looking in that window to see if you can nab some. As a test I can't see any for the next few days so either this is incorrect or they're already gone. I'd assume they are released the morning before in which case the latter is more likely. Will try looking tomorrow if i remember. This is probably the riskiest strategy as you won't know till the day before.

Personally i would not recommend visiting without a slot in place. Staff are inundated with such requests and despite their personal sympathy for your circumstances it is extremely unlikely they will be able to offer a satisfying solution. I wonder if they'd allow someone to queue in the main line on his behalf? Would probably be too difficult to coordinate on their part.

 

[TPick]

We’ve been stung by the RAP. Heading to Towers in a few weeks with our disabled son (wheelchair user). Booked in advance but no RAP available for either day of our visit. Neither Merlin nor Nimbus particularly care, so we have to decide whether to cancel and ruin his holidays or risk trying to go and see if a 9 year old wheelchair user enjoys a visit with fair and equitable access to rides. He just wants to be able to do what other kids his age can do, and as his parents we just want a break sometimes from constant battles to get equitable treatment

Keep checking the system for slot availability. We have a trip coming up soon and when we booked it there was no availability for one of the days. We kept constantly checking, like multiple times each day, and eventually at some random time a few days ago a slot became available. I have no idea how/when slots become free with AT, but on the day we finally got the slot we had checked 4 or 5 times and then at around 8pm we checked and a slot was there.