Ride Access Pass Systems and Disabled Access (pre 2024)

[RIPCorky]

Most theme parks won't allow their staff to manually handle disabled guests for insurance reasons. If something went wrong or a staff member injured themselves they'd be liable.

Yep it's the same with carers, if someone elderly is falling over you have to let them fall.

 

[Bowser]

I have recently found out that I am eligible for a Disability Card through Nimbus which would give me access to the RAP (My issue is stress induced migraines/ PTSD). I don't actually need the RAP as I can queue perfectly well. I would suggest that a surprising number of people could actually [legitimately] get a Disability Card. The issue with the system is we are currently trusting people to assess whether they need to use the RAP themselves as the criteria is surprisingly large.

I do understand why Towers and others have outsourced the eligibility to Nimbus - their is a fear that they can be accused of disability discrimination. This is also the likely reason why the criteria is surprisingly wide ranging. I have a bit of background in Protected Characteristics from work (not an expert by any means), the issue I see now is that parks could potentially be accused of not providing reasonable access due to the size of the RAP queues.

Hi, sorry new here so apologies if this has been covered.

Whilst you may be eligible for a Nimbus card, the card itself has various uses so you may not necessarily qualify for the queue assistance element.

My son is severely disabled but on application we were still required to provide various forms of proof of why he would be unable to queue (which we were happy to do of course).

I'm sure those determined could still bypass the legitimate qualifications but i'm optimistic that over the course of the next year the implementation of the Nimbus card across the Merlin parks will have a positive impact on the RAP applications.

Anecdotally the main issue with the RAP system at Merlin parks seems to be qualified parents giving access to their children and friends, though no doubt this topic has been covered previously too!

 

[Bowser]

Limit the number of RAP. Paultons can do it, so it clearly stands in law. There's a quota of RAP bookings for entry per day, when that's expired, that's your lot. You may still enter as a standard day guest but have no RAP access. RAP to be digital pass only with Q bots available for a large deposit for those without phones.

Limited RAP slots per hour on rides to keep RAP queues to 10 mins or less. Everybody can ride then, even if they are unable to queue, without having to face 1 hour queues that are meant to be accessible.

All future rides should be built with a merge point (similar to FT merge point on Nemesis) and the queue should be flat, wide and a max of 10 minutes after that point. A selected row should have a double wide airgate and the queue wide enough for wheel chair and assistant to be next to each other.

Personally having to pre-book RAP entry would be devastating for us. The nature of my son's disability makes it very difficult to plan trips ahead and we often don't know if we can actually go till on the day. Removing that safety net would essentially stop us attending. I expect you would also have a scenario where people (whether purposely or not) book slots and don't attend. It's not a terrible idea in theory but i think needs finessing.

That system works (so far) at Paultons imo due to the combination of lower crowd numbers and more ride choice (and better operations tbh). And let's face it, it's pretty rare you need to queue for any ride at Paultons for more than 15 minutes so if you're physically able to access the main queue lines the RAP is less essential than at Merlin parks. We always try to access main queues where possible so not to infringe on access for others.

Chessington do already limit RAP slots on the more popular rides (mainly Vampire and Mandrill). In fact one trip they also had a limit of one use per ride on the "Big Five" though i gather that was a trial as i've not seen it since on far busier days (and it's arguably not very fair). I do wonder if incorporating the timed systems of Mandrill/SkyLion for other more popular RAP rides would be beneficial although then you enter a world of crossover/missed slots (plus the mental exhaustion of trying to obtain said slots). Would be especially difficult at large parks like Alton where traversing the distances between rides is a challenge in itself.

Do agree on the merge point idea, though more so that RAP users get to enjoy the full ride experience (such as on WickerMan). The queue time element is of course fair too, though would need vigorous policing lest you have a Legoland Pirate Falls situation.

 

[Alexsniff7]

idk if this is a hot take but i think the rap wait times should include the time you spent in the rap queue

if the main queue is 80 and your are stuck in the rap queue for 20 then your time coming off should be a 60 min wait otherwise you are technically waiting longer than the main queue

 

[Bowser]

idk if this is a hot take but i think the rap wait times should include the time you spent in the rap queue

if the main queue is 80 and your are stuck in the rap queue for 20 then your time coming off should be a 60 min wait otherwise you are technically waiting longer than the main queue

I imagine it's been covered here but certainly something i've complained about in the past.

Tbh the calculations often seem quite random. I've had times where it does seem like that has been accounted for and others where it hasn't. Not sure how there would be any system in place on the digital version to account for it so probably luck based at present.

One trip to Chessington this year they actually had someone at the RAP entrance to Vampire scanning passes to negate the near 30 minute wait but haven't seen that since.

 

[John]

If you know how long the queue is likely to be you can join it early to avoid losing out, plus from what I've seen staff often don't bother marking the cards or write a time less than the advertised queue time so you can already get on another ride early most of the time. On top of this, queue times on busy days are often far longer than stated (due to RAP and FT volumes), so another time saving relative to main queue.

Earlier return times on busy days would just mean longer RAP queues anyway.

No more two-tier systems, VQ for everyone please

 

[George W]

If I'm not mistaken Merlin have taken to Nimbus and changed it earlier this year or even last year so you can't apply for it on site as supposedly there's been lots of grief to staff resulting to them handing it out to anyone.

Which I believe rap cards last for 3 years? So the issues should at least improve within the next couple years, more parks should do reserve and ride on the app like Legoland do because the staff are also very lenient with what time they mark you down as (if they do at all) that would improve things a lot too id imagine.

 

[Alexsniff7]

today was my first day with RAP and i didn't experience any really long queues like people post on twitter but the time thing was strange

sometimes it would be the same as the main queue, sometimes shorter and sometimes nothing at all which is great in the moment but it did make me realize where people get this "free fastrack" idea from

 

[Skyscraper]

From the MAP Disability Facebook Group, this was Wicker Man's RAP queue earlier tonight....



My god it's getting out of control now. Something NEEDS to be done before next season.

 

[James]

What's with all those awful white lights? It's a shame these lighting packages disappear after a few seasons.

But yeah, it's usually the norm to see the Wicker Man RAP queue that bad when the park is full. Flawed system.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

Does anyone know why Alton Towers are still using the booklets when other Merlin parks have moved to digital systems?

 

[Bowser]

What's with all those awful white lights? It's a shame these lighting packages disappear after a few seasons.

But yeah, it's usually the norm to see the Wicker Man RAP queue that bad when the park is full. Flawed system.

I disregarded it earlier but in retrospect there's a case at least for limiting RAP passes on busier days, be it limiting the total number or the number of uses on certain rides.

Perhaps at least when people are booking their tickets there could be an option to indicate you will be using RAP on your visit to give an idea of numbers and when it reaches a threshold, subsequent bookings can be alerted (whilst also with-holding a small number for on the day purchases/no-shows)?

Still find AT decision to remove the viewing of queue times on the app frustrating in this regard.

 

[Poisson]

Even better, you have to book RAP ticket to enter as a RAP guest and when they hit a certain number, no more are sold.

 

[Bowser]

Even better, you have to book RAP ticket to enter as a RAP guest and when they hit a certain number, no more are sold.

Yep that's basically what i meant but explained better

Could also have a height based allocation system as someone say 1.1M likely isn't accessing the major attractions although does start to complicate things again.

 

[Bowser]

Has anyone been to Efteling and used their equivalent Ride Access Pass? Was hoping to go this year and didn't work out but will try again next year. They've recently updated the website page, previously it seemed somewhat vague and implied your wait time could be longer than the regular queue (so the access issues were solely mobility based i'm guessing) whereas now it offers no information on how the system works.

Will ask in the Efteling thread if that's perhaps a better location, just didn't want to double post and have had great responses in here so far!

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Has anyone been to Efteling and used their equivalent Ride Access Pass? Was hoping to go this year and didn't work out but will try again next year. They've recently updated the website page, previously it seemed somewhat vague and implied your wait time could be longer than the regular queue (so the access issues were solely mobility based i'm guessing) whereas now it offers no information on how the system works.

Will ask in the Efteling thread if that's perhaps a better location, just didn't want to double post and have had great responses in here so far!

They do a Facility card which is the equivalent to Merlin's ride access pass. Here are the details: https://www.efteling.com/en/park/information/disabled-visitors/plan-your-visit

If that doesn't answer your questions there are frequent discussions about disability access in the 'Efteling Just for Brits' Facebook group as well.

 

[Bowser]

They do a Facility card which is the equivalent to Merlin's ride access pass. Here are the details: https://www.efteling.com/en/park/information/disabled-visitors/plan-your-visit

If that doesn't answer your questions there are frequent discussions about disability access in the 'Efteling Just for Brits' Facebook group as well.

Thanks. Don't have FB unfortunately (or fortunately!) That was the page i was referencing, doesn't give details of how you access the rides, if there are limits on usage etc and it was the previous version of that page which suggested longer wait times than the main lines.

 

[Rowe]

Has anyone been to Efteling and used their equivalent Ride Access Pass? Was hoping to go this year and didn't work out but will try again next year. They've recently updated the website page, previously it seemed somewhat vague and implied your wait time could be longer than the regular queue (so the access issues were solely mobility based i'm guessing) whereas now it offers no information on how the system works.

Will ask in the Efteling thread if that's perhaps a better location, just didn't want to double post and have had great responses in here so far!

Do read their Discover the Park page, especially the Attractions accessible by wheelchair page which has accessibility videos for most major attractions. I haven't been back since my diagnosis so I'm unable to share an opinion on what the experience is like but I do recommend Freizeitpark Erlebnis' Efteling Accessibility video linked below featuring Tim from Barrierfrei Welt. They also made an hour long video about Europa-Park's accessibility scheme and both videos have English closed captions too!

 

[Bowser]

Do read their Discover the Park page, especially the Attractions accessible by wheelchair page which has accessibility videos for most major attractions. I haven't been back since my diagnosis so I'm unable to share an opinion on what the experience is like but I do recommend Freizeitpark Erlebnis' Efteling Accessibility video linked below featuring Tim from Barrierfrei Welt. They also made an hour long video about Europa-Park's accessibility scheme and both videos have English closed captions too!

Thank you for this. So that is actually the original page i read, not sure why i couldn't find it again. And that's fantastic they've taken the time to make a video demonstrating each ride entrance.

The video featuring Tim was also very interesting!

In the case of my son, he is severely autistic but physically capable of walking most stairs so the access requirements are more about queueing. The Efteling set up seems solely aimed at mobility but presumably my son would still be allowed access by these routes if required? His condition is very visible if that means anything in this context.

I don't know anything about the culture of disability access in the Netherlands so it's hard to gauge if this is a system where conditions such as Autism aren't recognised, whether they are restricting access to only those severely in need or something else? The facility card request form requires no evidence, which seems unfathomable in the UK so i can only assume culturally only those who absolutely could not access the rides without it tend to apply?

 

[Rowe]

In the case of my son, he is severely autistic but physically capable of walking most stairs so the access requirements are more about queueing. The Efteling set up seems solely aimed at mobility but presumably my son would still be allowed access by these routes if required? His condition is very visible if that means anything in this context.

I don't know anything about the culture of disability access in the Netherlands so it's hard to gauge if this is a system where conditions such as Autism aren't recognised, whether they are restricting access to only those severely in need or something else? The facility card request form requires no evidence, which seems unfathomable in the UK so i can only assume culturally only those who absolutely could not access the rides without it tend to apply?

As far as I've read from various sources, the facility card does recognise visitors with autism, ADHD etc alongside physical disabilities and it entitles them and their companions to use the wheelchair entrance/exit. And yes, it is strange they don't immediately ask for any evidence unlike the Access Card for Merlin's RAP scheme, just for you to declare whether or not you can visit with or without the aid of a companion, or don't have you needing times written on a leaflet or have to adhere to a digital queue time. On the 'conditions of the facility card' pop up on the Request Facility Card page, Efteling states they request the two varied declarations (whether a visitor can access with or without a companion) because their employees are often unable to assess the visitor but the park does reserve the right to randomly ask for proof if in doubt. It also states that wheelchair access queues are not a priority and are likely to be as long as the regular queues, just like RAP. I've screenshotted the facility card conditions below in spoilers (it's also appearing as a separate attachment, oh ok then).

Spoiler: Efteling Facility Card conditions

Also, if it helps, I've also located a Facility Card pdf example from Fibromyalgieblog.nl (yay, fibro, my condition) that you can also take a look at, as well as her experience visiting the park plus An Englishman's Guide to the Efteling's physical card example. In spoilers below.

Spoiler: Facility Card example via fibromyalgieblog.nl and AEGTTE

That's the most I'm able to cover on this for you without having any Efteling Facility Card experience myself. I highly recommend a thorough Efteling website reading on everything you need to know, including the Facility Card conditions. There's also the FB Efteling Fans UK group (the link will work irrespective of FB account or not, I've checked via Chrome incognito), Mumset and so on. And you're always welcome to call Efteling if you need further reassurance and clarification.