Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2026 Discussion

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Where were all of these people who ‘need RAP’ 10-15 years ago?

Not born.

 

[Smudgy]

Not born.

Okay, but one generation suddenly can’t suddenly have 10/15x the amount of people that have conditions requiring the use of RAP, that’s just basic genetics. The only explanation is that people using conditions that don’t necessarily need RAP access to get ‘free fast-track’, unless I’m overlooking something.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

unless I’m overlooking something.

Changes and evolutions in how society acknowledges, accepts and assess disabilities.

To use a famous statistical parallel: the rate of left-handedness didn't skyrocket in the 20th century because of a sudden genetic anomaly; it rose because schools stopped forcing children to write with their right hand.

The "explosion" in numbers is merely the data finally catching up with reality, not a necessarily a grand global conspiracy to get free Fastrack for The Smiler.

 

[Plastic Person]

Okay, but one generation suddenly can’t suddenly have 10/15x the amount of people that have conditions requiring the use of RAP, that’s just basic genetics. The only explanation is that people using conditions that don’t necessarily need RAP access to get ‘free fast-track’, unless I’m overlooking something.

What you're overlooking is that medical criteria for neurodivergence has massively increased in those ten or fifteen years. Broadly, I think this is a good thing. It's just not currently tenable at Alton Towers.

My own perspective on this is that it's as much of a MAP problem, as a RAP problem. No chain in the world have the issues with oversubscription to this service as the Merlin parks in the UK. I recall a former user here describing why the parks were understandably such as Godsend for his neurodivergent child; Stimulating, but reliable and orderly. The issue is that the affordability of the parks essentially transform them into hangouts for these guests and their families, and inevitably in some cases, breed entitlement that adds nothing to the balance sheet, only headaches for operations staff.

 

[GaryH]

Thanks to those who replied to my earlier question with such constructive answers.

I’m going to throw another thought in here….

Would it be fair to say that there is a possibly large proportion of people allocated RAP cards who feel they are then entitled to not have to queue, even though they are perfectly capable of doing so?

I read an interesting comment on social media , well, a few similar comments from parents with children who have melt downs in long queues or crowded places. However, these people despite having other benefits haven’t used the RAP system. Not because they can’t, but because they felt it was more beneficial to try and let their children grow up not relying on such things, and to try and adapt to such situations, especially as there will be many more as they grow older. Some mentioned they felt uncomfortable making those who genuinely could not queue have to wait longer.

Also of interest were people who mentioned being loyal to Merlin over the past 10-15 years, now not visiting due to not being able to use their RAP pass. Which begs the question, how did they manage to visit prior to the passes coming into an effect a few years ago?

Daily mail has not surprisingly said Alton are banning neurodivergent guests. This is incorrect. Anyone can still visit and guests are welcome to buy fast tracks if they want to beat the long queues.

There are some really interesting arguments on both sides, and it’s a complete mine field for Merlin. Everyone agrees however something had to be done.

I hope they stick to their guns with this new policy but also hope there is a way that those who genuinely cannot queue are able to prove this and get the necessary passes they require. In the long run, this should benefit those who really need the assistance.

 

[Smudgy]

What you're overlooking is that medical criteria for neurodivergence has massively increased in those ten or fifteen years.

But if were people with the same level of condition were fine waiting in a normal queue ten or fifteen years ago, so should those today with the same level with condition. People are abusing a system that they don’t need. Yes, perhaps it is slightly uncomfortable for them to stand in a normal queue, but if they can do it, then they should do it and avoiding the RAP. As someone with ADHD and Dyspraxia who has never used a RAP, and never will, I find it scummy that many people who are fair better off than me are abusing the system and making it more difficult for those who really need it like wheelchair users.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

But if were people with the same level of condition were fine waiting in a normal queue ten or fifteen years ago, so should those today with the same level with condition.

I fear this is a profoundly flawed argument. Suggesting that because a demographic coped (or appeared to cope) in the past means that the current standard of care or accessibility is unnecessary is a dangerous logical fallacy.

Throughout history, society has "coped" with many things, slavery, the chemical castration of gay men, the institutionalisation of the mentally ill, simply because that was the prevailing legal or social norm of the time. The fact that people survived those eras, or weren't visibly complaining because they had no voice, does not mean we should aspire to return to those standards. Nor does it mean those people weren't suffering in silence.

Just because you did not see neurodivergent people having meltdowns in queue lines in 2005 does not mean they were "fine". It likely means they were excluded from the space entirely, or they visited, had a traumatic experience and never came back. We are seeing more people now not just because diagnosis has improved, but because society has finally started telling them that they are allowed to exist in public spaces without having to mask to the point of exhaustion.

Also of interest were people who mentioned being loyal to Merlin over the past 10-15 years, now not visiting due to not being able to use their RAP pass. Which begs the question, how did they manage to visit prior to the passes coming into an effect a few years ago?

They likely managed by using the previous iterations of the system. RAP (or the Exit Pass system before it) has existed at Merlin parks for decades in various forms. It hasn't just appeared in the last few years. The eligibility criteria were just different (often based on DLA / Blue Badge rather than Nimbus).

As someone with ADHD and Dyspraxia who has never used a RAP, and never will, I find it scummy that many people who are fair better off than me are abusing the system and making it more difficult for those who really need it like wheelchair users.

While your personal resilience is commendable, using your own experience to gatekeep the needs of others is unhelpful. Disability is a spectrum. That you can tolerate a queue with your specific presentation of ADHD does not mean that everyone with ADHD can.

One person with poor eyesight might be able to read a menu with squinting, whilst another needs Braille. The first person calling the second person "scummy" for using the Braille menu because "I manage fine without it" ignores the physiological reality that no two conditions manifest identically.

 

[Bowser]

But if were people with the same level of condition were fine waiting in a normal queue ten or fifteen years ago, so should those today with the same level with condition. People are abusing a system that they don’t need. Yes, perhaps it is slightly uncomfortable for them to stand in a normal queue, but if they can do it, then they should do it and avoiding the RAP. As someone with ADHD and Dyspraxia who has never used a RAP, and never will, I find it scummy that many people who are fair better off than me are abusing the system and making it more difficult for those who really need it like wheelchair users.

And this is precisely why they are attempting to change the criteria, albeit they have made some mistakes.

I get what you are asking about “where were these people 15 years ago” but it’s not productive to generalise.

For us if it was 15 years ago, we either wouldn’t be able to visit or would only if we could obtain fast track.

If it was 40 years ago my son would be in an institution. Progress isn’t always a smooth journey but its usually positive in the long term.

Phantasialand has no RAP so we worked within the parameters of what was available. There are other parks we will never be able to visit and thats life. I will always be grateful Merlin embraced accessibility and enabled us to have some great experiences.

 

[Plastic Person]

But if were people with the same level of condition were fine waiting in a normal queue ten or fifteen years ago, so should those today with the same level with condition. People are abusing a system that they don’t need. Yes, perhaps it is slightly uncomfortable for them to stand in a normal queue, but if they can do it, then they should do it and avoiding the RAP. As someone with ADHD and Dyspraxia who has never used a RAP, and never will, I find it scummy that many people who are fair better off than me are abusing the system and making it more difficult for those who really need it like wheelchair users.

We're heading away from the issue at hand and into something more philosophical here, and as usual @GooseOnTheLoose responded with greater pace and insight, but I disagree with this assessment and have to call it out. I have ADHD myself, recently diagnosed. I wouldn't use RAP as I don't feel I need it, but I'd also be a massive hypocrite to do so, given that I do ultimately think the system at Merlin is deeply flawed. But my own brain chemistry shouldn't dictate the experience or requirements of others.

Fifteen years ago, I was indeed able to queue an hour for Nemesis without having a meltdown, and I still could, if I'd picked the wrong day to visit. I was also depressed, struggling to hold onto jobs and unable to keep my life in order. Now I have a greater reference point and understanding of my own existence. As a result, I actually have the desire to ride Nemesis less than before.

 

[GaryH]

So out of interest, if the system was based on say, people with a blue badge, would this be fairer do we think and result in people who have been assessed (I assume) by a GP to have an inability to stand for long, or with large crowds?

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

and as usual @GooseOnTheLoose responded with greater pace and insight

Flattery will get you everywhere. I simply try to bring a little aerodynamic efficiency to the discourse.

So out of interest, if the system was based on say, people with a blue badge, would this be fairer do we think and result in people who have been assessed (I assume) by a GP to have an inability to stand for long, or with large crowds?

Using the Blue Badge scheme as the sole arbiter for Ride Access Pass eligibility is a blunt instrument that would likely cause more problems than it solves. There are a few reasons why this wouldn't be fairer.

A Blue Badge is primarily awarded based on the inability to walk a certain distance without severe discomfort or danger. It's about locomotion (a chugga, chugga motion, like a railway train now...) RAP is about duration. There are many people who can walk perfectly fine from the car park to the entrance (and thus do not qualify for a Blue Badge), but cannot stand static in a queue for 60 minutes due to conditions like POTS, chronic pain, or severe continence issues. They would be excluded.

Conversely, a permanent wheelchair user automatically qualifies for a Blue Badge. However, under the new Merlin / Nimbus criteria, if a queue line is fully wheelchair accessible (Level Access), a wheelchair user does not automatically require a queue skip. They can wait in the main line in their chair. A Blue Badge system would grant them a RAP they might not operationally need, whilst denying it to the person with colitis who absolutely does.

Although the Blue Badge scheme was expanded in 2019 to include non-visible disabilities, the criteria is strictly focused on whether a journey causes "very considerable psychological distress" or if there is a risk of serious harm (like running into traffic). It sets an incredibly high bar that doesn't necessarily map to the sensory overload of a queue line.

It's also rarely a GP who assesses for a Blue Badge these days; it is usually a local council assessor or an automatic entitlement via a specific tier of PIP. The PIP assessment process is notoriously hostile and flawed. Relying on the DWP's paperwork to police a theme park queue is a recipe for misery.

The Nimbus Access Card is actually the correct mechanism. It's a bespoke assessment for the leisure industry. The problem isn't the card itself, but that the criteria for the Queueing symbol became so broad that it allegedly encompassed a third of the park's population.

 

[John]

An important clarification is also probably needed on the whole 30% thing. This figure won't just be the proportion of guests who have a qualifying disability, it will also include those riding with them.

I strongly suspect that a sizeable chunk of RAP is made up of frequently visiting MAP holder family groups, in which case it could be that a relatively small group of people are over represented in the total.

 

[Dave]

On the flip side is it unreasonable for RAP users to use an attraction with little to no queue?

I’ll confess our typical Chessington routine was to ride Vampire, then when faced with a 90+ minute timeout to visit Room on the Broom on our way to either the sensory room or a quiet lunch location because the queue was always 5 minutes or less.

Historically RAP users were also waiting longer than the main queues as the RAP line waiting time often wasn’t accounted for in the time out, though the new capacity generally eradicated this and it looks like the new system has this built into it via the entrance scans.

If there was a way to properly manage RAP then I genuinely don’t think many people would begrudge someone who was in a 90 min hold hot a big ride being allowed to join a below 10min queue at the same time. I just don’t know how you would manage it.

Whilst this sounds logical on paper to prevent hogging, as you've alluded to it is legally perilous.

Selling a product marketed as "Unlimited Entry" (MAP) but then telling a disabled guest, "Sorry, you have used up your disability quota for the year, please come back when you are cured or start queuing," creates a direct discriminatory barrier that able bodied passholders do not face. It would be an open goal for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, you are penalising a guest for the frequency of their visits solely based on a protected characteristic.


The issue with the Quiet Room solution is scale, even if we assume that they're evenly distributed.

If the statistics regarding 20 - 30% of guests being RAP users are even remotely accurate, you aren't looking for a Quiet Room. You're looking for a holding facility with the capacity of a departure gate at every major attraction.

Let's be generous and assume that the 2,000+ RAP users on a busy Saturday are perfectly split across the "Big 7" coasters. That's roughly 285 people waiting per ride at any given moment.

To house nearly 300 people safely, and importantly, quietly enough to be a valid sensory break, you'd need significant square footage. Standard building occupancy guidelines (roughly 1.5m² per person for a loose waiting area) suggest you would need approximately 430m² of floor space just to hold that single group.

To put that in perspective, a standard tennis court is roughly 260m². You would need a facility nearly double the size of a tennis court, located next to the entrance of every single major coaster, just to house the displaced RAP queue.

And that is just for a waiting room. If you want it to actually be a quiet / sensory room where people aren't practically sitting in each other's laps, you need even more space. If you reduce the size to fit the available land, you are simply creating a crowded indoor queue line, which defeats the entire purpose of the accommodation.

The brutal reality is that Merlin has realised they cannot engineer their way out of this with apps, rooms, or scanners. The volume was simply too high. The only lever they had left to pull was the eligibility criteria itself.

It is a sledgehammer approach, and the communication has been abysmal, but it is the inevitable mathematical conclusion of a system that had collapsed under its own weight.

The quiet rooms would only work if you also kept the park wide caps, and the total number of waiting guests in the quiet rooms was also capped. Which opens up other problems I know.

 

[Bowser]

Lots of media outlets covering it now. I’m somewhat naively surprised that’s it’s exclusively a right wing story. Thus the comments are overwhelmingly in support of it which is no surprise with headlines like this:

Alton Towers bans people with anxiety from using disability pass​

Theme park changes rules after complaints from visitors with mobility problems over longer ‘fast lane’ queues

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/04/alton-towers-bans-people-anxiety-adhd-disability-pass-queue/

 

[Benzin]

On the flip side is it unreasonable for RAP users to use an attraction with little to no queue?

I’ll confess our typical Chessington routine was to ride Vampire, then when faced with a 90+ minute timeout to visit Room on the Broom on our way to either the sensory room or a quiet lunch location because the queue was always 5 minutes or less.

Historically RAP users were also waiting longer than the main queues as the RAP line waiting time often wasn’t accounted for in the time out, though the new capacity generally eradicated this and it looks like the new system has this built into it via the entrance scans.

This is how the system essentially worked at Chessie back in 2007-09. The time restriction was only relevant to the "Big 6" attractions (Vampire, Bubbles, Fury, Tomb, RMT and Dragon Falls), the implication being that you could visit the other attractions via the exit whilst waiting.

Of course back then, you didn't tend to see 30 minute queues for things like Seastorm or Buccaneer on a standard weekend. It also wasn't anywhere near as widely known about, but as time went on and it probably wasn't used correctly (not putting in right times, larger groups on one wristband, etc.) it got that reputation and has since descended into the chaos of today.

Some people though really need to accept that autism is a thing and exists undiagnosed in many adults to some degree. Why else was Nan so obsessed with collecting all those little trinkets or Dad insisting on his specific spot on the chair?

 

[Dave]

Lots of media outlets covering it now. I’m somewhat naively surprised that’s it’s exclusively a right wing story. Thus the comments are overwhelmingly in support of it which is no surprise with headlines like this:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/04/alton-towers-bans-people-anxiety-adhd-disability-pass-queue/

I’m not surprised at all, the majority of main stream media is right wing and people inclined to comment in their comments sections are mostly very right wing themselves.

 

[Benzin]

Lots of media outlets covering it now. I’m somewhat naively surprised that’s it’s exclusively a right wing story. Thus the comments are overwhelmingly in support of it which is no surprise with headlines like this:

Alton Towers bans people with anxiety from using disability pass​

Theme park changes rules after complaints from visitors with mobility problems over longer ‘fast lane’ queues

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/04/alton-towers-bans-people-anxiety-adhd-disability-pass-queue/

How many comments claimed that they just got on with things whilst the War was going on (that they didn't participate in)?

 

[Bert2theSpark]

This isn’t an issue limited to Merlin, and all of the other operators (most notably Disney) pretty much get the same noise towards them. They all have similar ride models across their parks, what they might need is some sort of industry-wide agreement about what is eligible, bring in academics, bring in partners like Nimbus, bring in manufacturers and finally and most importantly bring in disabled people to get their input and perspective.

Then whatever decisions/compromises are made should be made clear and apparent well in advance, not quietly dropped in the run-up to a new season. They can say then “this is a global industry decision informed by best practice and the voice of disabled people” towards guests. There could be regular reviews and changes to the policy but if everywhere is pretty much unified and has the same access, then it would stop a lot of the ‘whataboutism’, inconsistency and abuse of the RAP systems.

 

[Qwerty123]

This isn’t an issue limited to Merlin, and all of the other operators (most notably Disney) pretty much get the same noise towards them. They all have similar ride models across their parks, what they might need is some sort of industry-wide agreement about what is eligible, bring in academics, bring in partners like Nimbus, bring in manufacturers and finally and most importantly bring in disabled people to get their input and perspective.

Then whatever decisions/compromises are made should be made clear and apparent well in advance, not quietly dropped in the run-up to a new season. They can say then “this is a global industry decision informed by best practice and the voice of disabled people” towards guests. Their could be regular reviews and changes to the policy but if everywhere is pretty much unified and has the same access, then it would stop a lot of the ‘whataboutism’, inconsistency and abuse of the RAP systems.

As you say the communication around the changes was extremely poor and creates its own set of problems.
Whilst an industry standard would be great it simply isn’t possible due to the differences between parks, for example Disney makes the main queues accessible to those with physical disabilities and therefore does not have to provide such people with an alternative to the main queue.
There is also an element that adjustments for the disabled cannot have a noticeably negative impact on the other guests as this will (and is) reduce the numbers visiting which isn’t sustainable given the financial position of many operators.
It’s also important to remember that the inability to queue is very much a spectrum so the more the regular queues are slowed down by RAP holders the more people feel in need of a RAP further slowing the main queues.
Unfortunately charities for many hidden disabilities have acted in ways for many years that give some people with such conditions a false sense of what is realistically possible in the real world and which can create further barriers for such people.

 

[GaryH]

Unfortunately charities for many hidden disabilities have acted in ways for many years that give some people with such conditions a false sense of what is realistically possible in the real world and which can create further barriers for such people.

Very important point. This I believe is similar with what I was trying to express in my earlier post today of people having a sense of entitlement even if they are indeed able to queue.