Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2026 Discussion

[Wilko]

I expect you were lucky with perhaps the benefit of booking quite far in advance when availability of slots was typically at its highest. If you were looking in February for a trip in August then yes you'd likely get a slot whereas if you were looking for Easter then they'd be long gone.

My experience of checking very frequently was the slots for peak dates typically went 4-6 weeks in advance (and more so for the Halloween events at Thorpe and Alton).

Obviously now the difference is you can only book a few months in advance so demand will always be high. I think if you're a RAP user then the hotels need to offer free cancellation.

Very good point, yes, we would have booked well in advance and they wouldn't have been 'event' days.

I didn’t visit those parks in that time frame but was it fine for all the other visitors? Were queues manageable for those not on RAP or was the majority of ride capacity being given to RAP to manage the demand leaving everyone else waiting hours?

Genuine question as I did not attend those parks, but whether a RAP system works or not also has to factor in all the other guests access to attractions as well as RAP guests.

They all seemed fine to me. We were always split between me and my eldest on the bigger rides (no RAP) and my daughter and wife on your smaller rides (with RAP) and we all had a good day and got on plenty of rides, no more or less than any trips I've made to parks without my kids and RAP use.

 

[TPick]

I didn’t visit those parks in that time frame but was it fine for all the other visitors? Were queues manageable for those not on RAP or was the majority of ride capacity being given to RAP to manage the demand leaving everyone else waiting hours?

Genuine question as I did not attend those parks, but whether a RAP system works or not also has to factor in all the other guests access to attractions as well as RAP guests.

Please keep in mind that for a lot of the queues at Legoland and Chessington RAP and Fast Track are the same queue, so you can't differentiate between the two.

 

[Benjsh]

It’s almost like a new eligibility plan to focus the resource towards the people who need it is required……….

Very good!

We cant be having common sense ideas and approaches in the UK in 2026 though. We dont do that here anymore.

 

[Dave]

There would be so much less aggro with proper ratios on rides. Needs to be 95% main queue, let RAP and FT fight over the rest.

If you limit RAP to 5% of a rides capacity but don’t limit the number of RAP guests on park you create a situation where RAP guests might get on very little in a day.

 

[DiogoJ42]

If you limit RAP to 5% of a rides capacity but don’t limit the number of RAP guests on park you create a situation where RAP guests might get on very little in a day.

Just like the rest of us then.

 

[Dave]

Just like the rest of us then.

Yes but the parks have a guest limit (we see them sell out) so it’s the same principle, we can argue about the rights or wrongs of the limits they choose but it’s not like Towers would allow 60,000 people to enter the park, so yes there is a limit to all guests.

 

[Poisson]

Is that not what the pre-booked system does? There's currently a RAP cap in park for this very reason. How tight eligibility is doesn't massively matter for throughput, just the % of people in park that's RAP.

 

[imanautie]

Is that not what the pre-booked system does? There's currently a RAP cap in park for this very reason. How tight eligibility is doesn't massively matter for throughput, just the % of people in park that's RAP.

Yep, just it assumes all rap users will go on the same rides at the same times, it's not responsive as such

 

[Bowser]

Might be common knowledge but just did our Nimbus Access renewal and it's now £15 as opposed to £10.