Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2026 Discussion

[shakey]

The amount of people that have been using disability passes in recent years is ridiculous and I would have a guess that 90% don't need them.

On many occasions when i have visited a busy park i have seen a fairly long disability queue, with people quite happily standing and queuing without any problems.

I am sorry but having a very mild learning disability or a mild aversion to crowds is not a reason to have a disability pass.

And i know people personally that have disability passes that definitely don't need them.

 

[Bowser]

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.

In fairness until December there was a UK industry wide agreement in that all parks (to my knowledge) accepted the same Nimbus approved criteria. Having an internationally recognised system will never be viable due to many things such as different healthcare systems and cultural variations.

The problem has been this is an issue limited to Merlin because other UK parks, either intentionally through overall queue management (via capacity and maintenance) or unintentionally through lack of demand, have so far been immune to it. Thus Merlin are the only parks deviating from the previously agreed criteria, rightly or wrongly as already discussed at length.

 

[fearnwood]

To be honest I thought that the introduction of virtual queuing this year was the ideal solution. I think that a lot of people on here complaining that RAP was an unlimited fast pass haven't seen how the system actually works.

We would be issued with a card at GS, and when we got to a ride via the RAP access the ride operator should write on the card a time which is the earliest we could use the card again. This time was supposed to represent the length of the queue at the time the RAP card was presented. So for example if we arrived a Wicker Man at 2pm, and the queue was 50 minutes the card should have 2:50pm written on it at the earliest, so there was in theory no advantage to being a RAP guest as opposed to a guest that queued for the ride. Now this also was highly variable experience and entirely dependant on the ride operator, sometimes they would write a time that was way longer than the advertised queue time for that ride, and sometimes they would write less. The virtual queue system would have made this consistent (and accurate to the actual queue), and meant that we could have spent time in a quiet space while the time to ride came around.

I've been reading the news articles on this today, which seem in the main to be talking about the exclusion of ADHD and Anxiety sufferers - which if I am being honest, (and not trying to conflate the whole 'my disability is worse than yours' debate which also seems to be going on behind the scenes at Nimbus) I am not sure why they are being approved for RAP passes in the first place. As I said post yesterday I think that the issue with RAP is that the people who are supposed to be policing the rules aren't doing their jobs for whatever reason, and that if the rules that exist were being robustly applied it would not be as out of control as it seems to have become...

 

[Thameslink Rail]

Well the story has risen up the news ladder to the BBC although I have to question some of the writing, they haven't mentioned Thorpe and they've called Legoland Windsor "Windsor Legoland".
BBC News - Alton Towers to restrict disability pass for people with ADHD and anxiety

Alton Towers to restrict disability pass for people with ADHD and anxiety

Operator Merlin Entertainments said the pass was no longer working as intended because of increasing demand.

www.bbc.co.uk

Edit: At the rate we're going, I wouldn't be surprised to hear it mentioned in Parliament in the next few days.

 

[Smiley]

So for example if we arrived a Wicker Man at 2pm, and the queue was 50 minutes the card should have 2:50pm written on it at the earliest, so there was in theory no advantage to being a RAP guest as opposed to a guest that queued for the ride.

Apart from RAP users that use that 50 mins to queue for another ride (perhaps a smaller queue, or one more acceptable to their needs). What happens when the queue is 90 mins or longer - do RAP users just wait around??

The bottom line is that RAP (virtual queue) users should be treated exactly the same as regular guests:
- you can only queue for one ride at a time (for all members of a party)
- the wait time is accurate and enforced, which means sometimes you'll only get on a handful of rides on busy days - just like regular guests

Being inclusive and accommodating to guests' needs does not mean they get special treatment to "jump the queue", and that's the nub of the issue - it gets abused exactly because that's how it's treated. Hence where we are. There isn't a "right solution", but from my observations the current system does a pretty poor job.

 

[sock]

Well the story has risen up the news ladder to the BBC although I have to question some of the writing, they haven't mentioned Thorpe and they've called Legoland Windsor "Windsor Legoland".
BBC News - Alton Towers to restrict disability pass for people with ADHD and anxiety

Alton Towers to restrict disability pass for people with ADHD and anxiety

Operator Merlin Entertainments said the pass was no longer working as intended because of increasing demand.

www.bbc.co.uk

It's interesting how all the article titles posted in this thread (unless I missed some) only mention ADHD/or anxiety- even though autism is also something people use the pass for and is a not typically a physical condition. It seems like the focus in the press is really on those 2 conditions specifically.

I think in general it's good to restrict the pass more though. It is a shame it will exclude some who really do need it, but luckily at least in the UK we do have plenty of other theme parks that can accomadate them (like Paultons). The merlin parks are so busy I'm suprised people who have problems with crowds even want to visit! I find it an incredibly overstimulating environment whether you have RAP or not, but of course that's only my personal opinion and everyone has different needs/perspectives.

 

[fearnwood]

Well the story has risen up the news ladder to the BBC although I have to question some of the writing, they haven't mentioned Thorpe and they've called Legoland Windsor "Windsor Legoland".
BBC News - Alton Towers to restrict disability pass for people with ADHD and anxiety

Alton Towers to restrict disability pass for people with ADHD and anxiety

Operator Merlin Entertainments said the pass was no longer working as intended because of increasing demand.

www.bbc.co.uk

Edit: At the rate we're going, I wouldn't be surprised to hear it mentioned in Parliament in the next few days.

And the BBC quote a Merlin spokesperson - "They say the number of people requesting the pass has been increasing, adding that disabled visitors have said the system "simply isn't working for them" and that "queue times for these guests have increased"." - odd that Merlin think neurodiverse guests are not disabled....

 

[Benzin]

It's interesting how all the article titles posted in this thread (unless I missed some) only mention ADHD/or anxiety- even though autism is also something people use the pass for and is a not typically a physical condition. It seems like the focus in the press is really on those 2 conditions specifically.

Gets good clicks from the right wing mob who are fully behind such instances as being "not real disabilities".


Edit - I'm not really sure what good a trial will do during half term dates given most of the park isn't open.

 

[AT86]

Edit - I'm not really sure what good a trial will do during half term dates given most of the park isn't open.

I have no proof of course - but this feels like a bit of PR spin.

Tell the press it’s a trial to tide them over the initial ‘outrage’ and by the time the policy really kicks in (in March) it will be old
news by then and they won’t be interested in re-running the story.

 

[Petals]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.

I have to say I'm quite heartbroken by the changes to RAP. I've been using RAP - and its past equivalents - since the mid 2000s, and as a visually impaired person it's been an essential part of me accessing a place that I've been obsessed with since I was 11 years old. I can't manage stairs in standard queue lines - I've tried, and being pushed on the Nemesis queue line steps (even while using my white cane) made me really unsafe in that environment. Part of my visual impairment is that I have no depth perception and it takes me a long time to navigate steps and other physical barriers, as well as changes in lighting and dark queue lines being difficult (which is a common feature of many of the standard queue lines at Alton Towers). I use the non-ambulant access on rides like The Smiler, where I can't manage in the ambulant RAP or standard queues due to strobe lights and the crowded stairs. But my Nimbus card has now put me under the category of 'difficulty with crowds', so I'm no longer eligible for RAP.

So much of the discourse around the changes has focused on neurodivergence, but it feels like those of us who are blind or partially sighted aren't being recognised as affected by this too. I've often felt like visual impairment gets forgotten when people talk about access, and it feels like Merlin have forgotten about us too.

 

[Dave]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.

I have to say I'm quite heartbroken by the changes to RAP. I've been using RAP - and its past equivalents - since the mid 2000s, and as a visually impaired person it's been an essential part of me accessing a place that I've been obsessed with since I was 11 years old. I can't manage stairs in standard queue lines - I've tried, and being pushed on the Nemesis queue line steps (even while using my white cane) made me really unsafe in that environment. Part of my visual impairment is that I have no depth perception and it takes me a long time to navigate steps and other physical barriers, as well as changes in lighting and dark queue lines being difficult (which is a common feature of many of the standard queue lines at Alton Towers). I use the non-ambulant access on rides like The Smiler, where I can't manage in the ambulant RAP or standard queues due to strobe lights and the crowded stairs. But my Nimbus card has now put me under the category of 'difficulty with crowds', so I'm no longer eligible for RAP.

So much of the discourse around the changes has focused on neurodivergence, but it feels like those of us who are blind or partially sighted aren't being recognised as affected by this too. I've often felt like visual impairment gets forgotten when people talk about access, and it feels like Merlin have forgotten about us too.

I think this goes back to Nimbus, I’m amazed they don’t have a visually impaired symbol. I’m sure if they did it would be valid for Merlin.

 

[That Guy]

Edit - I'm not really sure what good a trial will do during half term dates given most of the park isn't open.

I think a fair proportion of Legoland will be open which might give them some data? The larger problem might be however many reservations were made prior to the changes being enforced.

 

[Wilko]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.

I have to say I'm quite heartbroken by the changes to RAP. I've been using RAP - and its past equivalents - since the mid 2000s, and as a visually impaired person it's been an essential part of me accessing a place that I've been obsessed with since I was 11 years old. I can't manage stairs in standard queue lines - I've tried, and being pushed on the Nemesis queue line steps (even while using my white cane) made me really unsafe in that environment. Part of my visual impairment is that I have no depth perception and it takes me a long time to navigate steps and other physical barriers, as well as changes in lighting and dark queue lines being difficult (which is a common feature of many of the standard queue lines at Alton Towers). I use the non-ambulant access on rides like The Smiler, where I can't manage in the ambulant RAP or standard queues due to strobe lights and the crowded stairs. But my Nimbus card has now put me under the category of 'difficulty with crowds', so I'm no longer eligible for RAP.

So much of the discourse around the changes has focused on neurodivergence, but it feels like those of us who are blind or partially sighted aren't being recognised as affected by this too. I've often felt like visual impairment gets forgotten when people talk about access, and it feels like Merlin have forgotten about us too.

I would email Nimbus. My daughter is VI and she has the crowds and standing symbols for a lot of the same reasons you’ve mentioned here. You can’t have people with VI standing on stairways etc.

Edit: There’s an argument it could/should be level access, but for RAP purposes they are both covered I believe.

 

[Mick]

From: https://x.com/ziayusufuk/status/2019426954181484582?s=46&t=3fmWWCBeIheUsdyTLTV1Tg


It’s been politicised, yuck.

 

[Bowser]

It's interesting how all the article titles posted in this thread (unless I missed some) only mention ADHD/or anxiety- even though autism is also something people use the pass for and is a not typically a physical condition. It seems like the focus in the press is really on those 2 conditions specifically.

It mentions autism in the opening line of the article. I expect not including it in the headline is a deliberate ploy to get more clicks as people are more likely to be outraged by anxiety being cited as a disability. You'd think the BBC would be better than that but the journalism in that article is very poor.

What happens when the queue is 90 mins or longer - do RAP users just wait around??

This is precisely what happens. It makes the day incredibly challenging as the reality of finding suitable spaces for that length of time is very difficult.

We'd usually try and make the longest queue be our last ride of the day. At Chessington only Vampire regularly exceeds 60 minutes (and probably Dragon Fury but we don't ride that). If it's particularly busy early in the day i'll sometimes have to relent and purchase a One Shot as it's not possible for my son to endure consecutive waits that long.

 

[Petals]

I would email Nimbus. My daughter is VI and she has the crowds and standing symbols for a lot of the same reasons you’ve mentioned here. You can’t have people with VI standing on stairways etc.

Edit: There’s an argument it could/should be level access, but for RAP purposes they are both covered I believe.

Thank you for this - I'll get in contact with Nimbus and see if they can amend it.

It makes me wonder how they went about reviewing all past applications in light of this change, and whether there are other people who've not been given the correct symbols.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.

I have to say I'm quite heartbroken by the changes to RAP. I've been using RAP - and its past equivalents - since the mid 2000s, and as a visually impaired person it's been an essential part of me accessing a place that I've been obsessed with since I was 11 years old. I can't manage stairs in standard queue lines - I've tried, and being pushed on the Nemesis queue line steps (even while using my white cane) made me really unsafe in that environment. Part of my visual impairment is that I have no depth perception and it takes me a long time to navigate steps and other physical barriers, as well as changes in lighting and dark queue lines being difficult (which is a common feature of many of the standard queue lines at Alton Towers). I use the non-ambulant access on rides like The Smiler, where I can't manage in the ambulant RAP or standard queues due to strobe lights and the crowded stairs. But my Nimbus card has now put me under the category of 'difficulty with crowds', so I'm no longer eligible for RAP.

So much of the discourse around the changes has focused on neurodivergence, but it feels like those of us who are blind or partially sighted aren't being recognised as affected by this too. I've often felt like visual impairment gets forgotten when people talk about access, and it feels like Merlin have forgotten about us too.

First of all, a very big welcome @Petals! Thank you for sharing your experience, though I was genuinely appalled to read of your particular situation.

Whilst I appreciate that you're feeling a lot of strong emotions at the moment, it's not Merlin who have forgotten you. In fact, the new RAP system is supposed to cater exactly for people in your position. It's Nimbus who have forgotten you.

This absolutely goes back to something I attempted to bring up yesterday, regarding Nimbus's flawed and opaque recategorisation process.

It is interesting that there appears to be a general lack of ire targeted at Nimbus.

When they unilaterally decided to decouple the Standing symbol and retire the Queuing symbol, they claimed to have retrospectively reassessed every single cardholder's eligibility based on the information provided in their original applications. As far as I am aware, they conducted this massive administrative recategorisation without actually speaking to, or gathering new evidence from, the Access Card holders themselves.

They performed a desktop exercise that fundamentally altered the utility of the card for thousands of users, seemingly without verifying if their interpretation of the original evidence matched the reality of the user's needs under the new definitions.

Nimbus claims that they have reassessed every Access Card holder, using the information that they originally submitted, to assign them new symbols. They've done this despite claiming that they also only retain medical information for 90 days.

Nimbus have decided that you, as someone who is visually impaired, and has documented physical access needs, qualifies only for the "Difficulty with crowds" symbol, which is frankly preposterous.

This is precisely the danger of outsourcing critical access decisions to a system that appears to prioritise categorisation over individual circumstance. I would strongly urge you to appeal this decision with Nimbus directly, citing the clear physical barriers you face which make the standard queue line not just difficult, but unsafe for you to use. This isn't about crowds, it is about physical access, which is exactly the situation which Merlin now exclusively accommodate for with RAP.

 

[TPick]

Towers site now calling it a trial:

https://support.altontowers.com/hc/en-us/articles/33688386756765-Ride-Access-Pass-Changes-to-Nimbus-Symbols

Not sure if this has been changed on other sites.

Find it a bit odd that they would send out emails, make all the web site changes etc. etc. and no-one noticed that they had missed out the 'trial' part

 

[RIPCorky]

It mentions autism in the opening line of the article. I expect not including it in the headline is a deliberate ploy to get more clicks as people are more likely to be outraged by anxiety being cited as a disability. You'd think the BBC would be better than that but the journalism in that article is very poor.



This is precisely what happens. It makes the day incredibly challenging as the reality of finding suitable spaces for that length of time is very difficult.

We'd usually try and make the longest queue be our last ride of the day. At Chessington only Vampire regularly exceeds 60 minutes (and probably Dragon Fury but we don't ride that). If it's particularly busy early in the day i'll sometimes have to relent and purchase a One Shot as it's not possible for my son to endure consecutive waits that long.

Indeed. The bbc have a long history of honesty and integrity......

 

[fearnwood]

Apart from RAP users that use that 50 mins to queue for another ride (perhaps a smaller queue, or one more acceptable to their needs). What happens when the queue is 90 mins or longer - do RAP users just wait around??

The bottom line is that RAP (virtual queue) users should be treated exactly the same as regular guests:
- you can only queue for one ride at a time (for all members of a party)
- the wait time is accurate and enforced, which means sometimes you'll only get on a handful of rides on busy days - just like regular guests

Being inclusive and accommodating to guests' needs does not mean they get special treatment to "jump the queue", and that's the nub of the issue - it gets abused exactly because that's how it's treated. Hence where we are. There isn't a "right solution", but from my observations the current system does a pretty poor job.

We've never done that, and to assume that all RAP users are using it in that way is just wrong. I have no objection to virtual queuing being extended to all guests, I already said I thought that this was a good solution to the problem and neutralised the whole issue. When we went to Euro Disney 13 years ago they had a form of virtual queuing for their RAP guests and it worked fine. What you are referring to is abuse of the RAP system by people in the park, whereas what Merlin have introduced is a widescale reduction in people able to access RAP in the first place which is a totally different issue....