I saw this crap on the TV this morning, as if having the subject of Disabilities on the minutes of a board meetings going to magically make life better for the customers with disabilities, who already have to be accommodated for by law anyway.
I did have to laugh when the presenter innocently said "thanks for coming in to discuss this, it's been great to see you"....
...to the CEO of The Valuable 500 who is blind.
Even funnier when the rest of the breakfast presenters all fell over themselves trying to apologise to views who may have been offended by his comments, and his "what?" reply.
There is nothing wrong with saying "great to see you" to a blind person as there is nothing wrong with saying to a wheelchair user, "let's go for a walk."
I'm all for making attractions, shops, venues etc... more accessible for disable people. But what has been put in place need to be workable and priority should be given to those that need to use them.
So for the RAP system, so what is the solution? First we need to identify the problems.
> People abusing the system
> People applying for a RAP that can easily use the normal queue
> People using fake Dr. letters
> Using the RAP as a free fast track
> People using the RAP and normal Queue line alternatively to cheat the time out system
> Large group of people bringing along a disable person just to use the RAP as a free fast track
> People obtaining multiple RAP cards to cheat the time out system
> Carers using the RAP without the disable person
> Time cards not being marked or being checked properly by ride operators
> People entering the RAP before the time out
So what is the solution?
We need a system that benefits those that are in genuine need of RAP but penalise or offer no benefits/advantage to those that can queue normal.
Below is my personal recommendation and thoughts to changing the system.
Cares Ratio/limit
I don't believe that there should be a limit of carers to a RAP user, provided that the RAP is operated efficiently and correctly.
Should a RAP user have a least one carer? I personally think that this should depend on whether you have obtained a free carers pass/ticket or not.
If you
haven't obtain a free carers pass/ticket, you are saying that you are more than capable of riding/evacuating the rides on your own, so you should be allowed to ride without a carer.
If you have asked for a free carer's ticket or pass, then you are saying that you are in need of a carer and should there for not be allowed to ride without at least one carer.
A workable system
The only way to stop the abuse is to issue all RAP's and carers with a scan-able wrist band. There should be three scanners machines situated at various points at each ride.
The first scanner is at the entrance of the RAP queue line. When scanned at this point, it will tell you whether you are clear to enter the RAP queue line or whether you are still timed out, if you are still timed out, you need to go away and returned once you are no longer timed out to scan your wrist band.
The second scanner will be where the dispatch is, this will tell the ride op if you have been successfully scanned at the first scanner and if you are all clear to ride, if not, the RAP user will need to return to the first scanner to be scanned in.
The third scanner will be at the exit of the ride and when scanned, it will calculate your time out.
The wrist bands should also be fitted with the same type of security tags that you get in main shops. The main queue line will have those security post that you see in main shops and will alert the ride operator that a RAP or Carer has entered the main queue-line.
Both RAP users and Carers need to be scanned as above to ensure that they don't alternate between the main queue line and RAP to bypass the time out.
If the software is a good one for working out the time out, they could also program them so that say for instance that you are in the X-sector and was given a 30 mins time out, it will allow you to re-enter a RAP queue in the X-sector after the 30 mins time out, however if you decide to use your time out to walk across to the Forbidden Valley, the system will not allow you to enter a ride in that area for another 20 or 30, mins on top of your time out to ensure that you do not take full advantage of using up your time out by walking to another area, if you get my drift?
The above idea will stop the system being used as a free Fast Track.
A Deterrent
As well as taking away the free fast track aspect, there need to be a little additional deterrent to deterred the abusers. This deterrent will be a small price to pay for those that really do need the RAP. This may be controversial, but it's no difference for paying for a driving licence or blue badge, I suggest that everyone that uses the RAP and the carers to pay a small fee of £20 per person (including each individual carer and RAP user paying £20 not per group).
Those that pay on the gate, will need to pay the £20 pp with each visit and those that are MAP/Seasonal pass holders only need to pay £20 pp for the year.
The £20 fee could be called an administration cost which could go towards the cost of running the system.
Just an after thought, maybe anyone with a blue badge has the £20 wavered (+1 carer only)
Again like I said, the above are just my thoughts and ideas, please feel free to add, or come up with an better alternative.
), some people have been told they don’t even need to scan the card! And of course, there’s still the forever ongoing issue of ride staff not bothering to sign the time out cards! Seriously, that has been going on for eternity...used to happen when I worked there and that was just over 10 years ago 
