Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2026 Discussion

[Dave]

Counter argument: if the cannot follow safety instructions, they should not be allowed to ride in the first place.

Yeah that doesn’t work, it’s not about following instruction, it’s that in an evacuation situation you want someone who understands that disabled persons reasonable adaptations in the heat of the moment and/ or has the Trust of the disabled person.

I’m not exactly the person on here saying RAP should be uncontrolled but on that one I fully understand the reason. Plus going on rides is a social event, why should someone be completely isolated when going to a theme park because they have a disability, sure they don’t need a party of 20 with them but a couple of people is reasonable.

 

[imanautie]

Why exactly do Thorpe not have a desire to do better?
I find general access there far better than at the Towers, where I have to rely on the slow opening skyride for access.

The previous Accessibility manager at thorpe was personally pushing for lifts for nemesis and saw, and if you stopped them to have a chat actually listened and looked into accessibility stuff on the day.
The current one refuses to speak to guests.

 

[Dave]

The previous Accessibility manager at thorpe was personally pushing for lifts for nemesis and saw, and if you stopped them to have a chat actually listened and looked into accessibility stuff on the day.
The current one refuses to speak to guests.

B&M do lifts but I have only seen them on 200ft+ models.

 

[Benzin]

The previous Accessibility manager at thorpe was personally pushing for lifts for nemesis and saw, and if you stopped them to have a chat actually listened and looked into accessibility stuff on the day.
The current one refuses to speak to guests.

You mean the lifts that were "broken" for years?

Presumably that's why they finally fixed them both.

 

[Skyscraper]

B&M do lifts but I have only seen them on 200ft+ models.

He's talking about station lifts (for example Smiler has one, accessed via the shop), not lift hill access.

 

[imanautie]

You mean the lifts that were "broken" for years?

Presumably that's why they finally fixed them both.

Yep, they managed to push and they built new lifts in the existing shafts.

 

[Bowser]

Road tested the new RAP at Legoland.

Generally worked pretty well!

You have to be in the park and have good signal so there were a couple of moments where it stopped working. It didn’t like that and you had to manually reset it.

The QR codes at the ride entrance have to be scanned in very close proximity. Then your timer starts so your time spent queuing physically is now accounted for.

This was good because the queue for Sky Lion was the longest I’ve ever seen! It went back to the lion statue. Obviously this was partly due to being shared with Fast Track and also two of the benches on the ride were closed so throughput was dire. Tbf despite all that we only waited 10-15 minutes.

The only issue here was the scan point was inaccessible till you were halfway down the line so that time wasn’t counted.

Anecdotally, i noticed everyone using RAP was visibly disabled. I suspect this may have been due to the “trial” causing some people to have cancelled so it was a representation of users not including the “crowd” symbol but that’s speculation on my part, could have been a coincidence.

I had another slot (on another date) which i cancelled and noticed it immediately became available so that’s good.

The app also reminds you to check out when you leave so other people can have the slot.

It’s much better being a dedicated app rather than in browser. All self explanatory and well designed.

A friend at Chessington today said the system went down and they had to use time cards.

 

[imanautie]

Road tested the new RAP at Legoland.

Generally worked pretty well!

You have to be in the park and have good signal so there were a couple of moments where it stopped working. It didn’t like that and you had to manually reset it.

The QR codes at the ride entrance have to be scanned in very close proximity. Then your timer starts so your time spent queuing physically is now accounted for.

This was good because the queue for Sky Lion was the longest I’ve ever seen! It went back to the lion statue. Obviously this was partly due to being shared with Fast Track and also two of the benches on the ride were closed so throughput was dire. Tbf despite all that we only waited 10-15 minutes.

The only issue here was the scan point was inaccessible till you were halfway down the line so that time wasn’t counted.

Anecdotally, i noticed everyone using RAP was visibly disabled. I suspect this may have been due to the “trial” causing some people to have cancelled so it was a representation of users not including the “crowd” symbol but that’s speculation on my part, could have been a coincidence.

I had another slot (on another date) which i cancelled and noticed it immediately became available so that’s good.

The app also reminds you to check out when you leave so other people can have the slot.

It’s much better being a dedicated app rather than in browser. All self explanatory and well designed.

A friend at Chessington today said the system went down and they had to use time cards.

YOu one of the first few I've heard saying they'd prefer it as the app it is, I'm curious why?

(Technical reason behind it being app is iOS is a bit iffy around location on web, and they can't block screenshots easily)

 

[Craig]

A further note after removal of some comments in here. This topic is to discuss the issues with RAP and constructive discussion on potential solutions.

What is not welcome on this forum is inflammatory language, generalisations and stereotypes against those who require genuine assistance at the parks. Posts of that nature are not acceptable on TowersStreet and will result in warnings or restrictions from posting in topics or the wider forum.

 

[Bowser]

YOu one of the first few I've heard saying they'd prefer it as the app it is, I'm curious why?

(Technical reason behind it being app is iOS is a bit iffy around location on web, and they can't block screenshots easily)

Well firstly i think it's more convenient having everything in one place in terms of your park bookings and your ride bookings, plus you're always logged in.

Secondly browser i found annoying, especially if i was trying to do anything else browser related simultaneously, meant flicking between things, refreshing etc. The formatting didn't suit it in my opinion.

Sorry, i realise that's not overly descriptive... it just feels intuitive and inherently more pleasant to use!

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

(Technical reason behind it being app is iOS is a bit iffy around location on web, and they can't block screenshots easily)

Whilst preventing screenshots and wrestling with Safari’s location permissions are certainly valid considerations, I fear you are looking at this through a distinctly Apple shaped lens.

The primary driver here is almost certainly development efficiency via a framework like React Native.

Building a "native" app using a cross-platform framework allows them to maintain a single codebase that deploys to both iOS and Android simultaneously. It avoids the headache of maintaining two separate native builds (Swift and Kotlin), whilst offering far deeper hardware integration than a Progressive Web App can reliably provide.

It 's easy to forget in tech discussions that Android users exist, and actually make up about half the UK market. Relying on a web based solution means fighting against the fragmentation of Chrome on Android just as much as Safari on iOS. A wrapper ensures consistency across the board.

As @Bowser noted, regarding signal dropouts, the decision is likely driven by connectivity resilience.

A React Native app allows for robust local state caching. It means your timer can visually continue to count down on your screen even if your phone momentarily loses connection to the mobile mast, resyncing in the background when the signal returns. A web app in a browser is far more likely to hang, refresh, or lose the session entirely in a dead zone.

Blocking screenshots is just a happy bonus. The real win is having a stable app that works on a £100 Samsung as well as it does on an iPhone 16.

 

[imanautie]

Whilst preventing screenshots and wrestling with Safari’s location permissions are certainly valid considerations, I fear you are looking at this through a distinctly Apple shaped lens.

The primary driver here is almost certainly development efficiency via a framework like React Native.

Building a "native" app using a cross-platform framework allows them to maintain a single codebase that deploys to both iOS and Android simultaneously. It avoids the headache of maintaining two separate native builds (Swift and Kotlin), whilst offering far deeper hardware integration than a Progressive Web App can reliably provide.

It 's easy to forget in tech discussions that Android users exist, and actually make up about half the UK market. Relying on a web based solution means fighting against the fragmentation of Chrome on Android just as much as Safari on iOS. A wrapper ensures consistency across the board.

As @Bowser noted, regarding signal dropouts, the decision is likely driven by connectivity resilience.

A React Native app allows for robust local state caching. It means your timer can visually continue to count down on your screen even if your phone momentarily loses connection to the mobile mast, resyncing in the background when the signal returns. A web app in a browser is far more likely to hang, refresh, or lose the session entirely in a dead zone.

Blocking screenshots is just a happy bonus. The real win is having a stable app that works on a £100 Samsung as well as it does on an iPhone 16.

True on all that about react native and similar frameworks (they use ionic if your curious).

It has without a doubt been well through out by a team who understand operational aspects of running theme parks, it appears it's built by the same team Paultons hired to build command center for them (first data), and has been built to support being whitelabelled for other operators.

Could we potentially see other operators adopt branded versions of the app?

 

[Poisson]

QR Codes are prone for tampering, would it be better with some other way of checking in?

 

[Islander]

QR Codes are prone for tampering, would it be better with some other way of checking in?

When there’s obvious potentially lucrative motives for it, eg replacing a parking payment QR code with a scam version, yes absolutely.

But in this instance? What benefit would anyone gain by tampering with an app-specific QR code?

 

[Poisson]

When there’s obvious potentially lucrative motives for it, eg replacing a parking payment QR code with a scam version, yes absolutely.

But in this instance? What benefit would anyone gain by tampering with an app-specific QR code?

I mean you probably could trick a few people. Either that or people picking at the stickers if they're next to the queue would cause an issue.

 

[imanautie]

QR Codes are prone for tampering, would it be better with some other way of checking in?

Personally I actually think there's a clear alternative they could use if they want to, the existing ble beacons they have nearby, that said it doesn't actually cause a problem for the guest scanning an invalid barcode. It gives you a ready to ride screen but one that's red not green instead (and a try again button)

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

QR Codes are prone for tampering, would it be better with some other way of checking in?

QR codes are the ultimate MVP for a rollout of this scale.

From an infrastructure perspective, they're practically free. Printing a unique QR code on a piece of weather proof Dibond costs pennies. Installing hard wired, networked, IP rated NFC readers or Bluetooth beacons at the entrance of every single ride across multiple theme parks is a capital expenditure project running into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

You don't want to commit to expensive hardware that might need ripping out in six months, for a new system which is till finding its feet. If a QR code gets damaged or "tampered" with (i.e., someone sticking a gum wrapper over it), a member of staff can print a replacement in the back office in five minutes. It is a high tech solution running on low tech infrastructure, which is very Merlin.

However, the choice of app architecture is the key here. By building in a modern framework like React Native (or Ionic), they haven't painted themselves into a corner.

The software stack already has the libraries required to access the phone's NFC controller or Bluetooth radio. If the system proves successful and the budget is eventually approved to install "Tap to Check In" points (like Disney's MagicBand touchpoints), the app can be updated to support it without being rebuilt from scratch.

They have built the digital rails; they are just using a steam engine to pull the train for now because it is cheaper than electrifying the line immediately.

 

[imanautie]

QR codes are the ultimate MVP for a rollout of this scale.

From an infrastructure perspective, they're practically free. Printing a unique QR code on a piece of weather proof Dibond costs pennies. Installing hard wired, networked, IP rated NFC readers or Bluetooth beacons at the entrance of every single ride across multiple theme parks is a capital expenditure project running into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

You don't want to commit to expensive hardware that might need ripping out in six months, for a new system which is till finding its feet. If a QR code gets damaged or "tampered" with (i.e., someone sticking a gum wrapper over it), a member of staff can print a replacement in the back office in five minutes. It is a high tech solution running on low tech infrastructure, which is very Merlin.

However, the choice of app architecture is the key here. By building in a modern framework like React Native (or Ionic), they haven't painted themselves into a corner.

The software stack already has the libraries required to access the phone's NFC controller or Bluetooth radio. If the system proves successful and the budget is eventually approved to install "Tap to Check In" points (like Disney's MagicBand touchpoints), the app can be updated to support it without being rebuilt from scratch.

They have built the digital rails; they are just using a steam engine to pull the train for now because it is cheaper than electrifying the line immediately.

They actually already did that at Alton last year,few if the boards had a small QR code sticker on top.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

I don’t want to have a go at Merlin or anyone behind theses decisions but to say as long as you can walk you can use the main queue.
My son has the highest level of Autism who is non verbal, spits a lot and has cryimg fits when his told no.
His bad enough when he has to wait in Drayton Manor easy Access queue but when he spits I do say sorry to the guests around him but they know what we going through.

 

[Bowser]

I mean you probably could trick a few people. Either that or people picking at the stickers if they're next to the queue would cause an issue.

What would you be tricking them into? The app wouldn’t recognise the code, a few people would gather at the queue and complain to the staff member, who would be forced to let them on without a slot until someone replaced it.

The signs are quite inconspicuous too (at Legoland). They are close to the QR codes for translating the safety boards which seem to have survived so far and not fooled customers into handing over bank details to my knowledge!