imanautie
TS Member
Ranges from not being Autistic/ADHD to just a medical professional letter saying no carer required m
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Ride Access Pass Systems and Disabled Access (pre 2024)
- Thread starter Skyscraper
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Thameslink Rail
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
My parents literally asked "please can he have a yellow band" and they gave me one! They even redid my RAP pass so I will always get a yellow one now.
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
That's good to know, I'll get whoever goes to the counter with me to back me up when I ask.
Danscott22
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
My thoughts on that video posted earlier, I feel so sorry for Hannah and her family! I've seen some pretty rude members of staff at Towers before and can picture in my head exactly what they would've been like. Genuinely, letting her get up to The Smiler, shouting across to a colleague and closing the door on them, and then letting them get on Rita ready to go only to be taken off and humiliated is absolutely unacceptable. Honestly, shame on the members of staff that allowed any of that to happen!
The rules of staff "assisting" with transfer from a wheelchair onto a ride changed back when I worked there (so sometime between 1998-2004). When I started there, you could assist the carer in transferring a disabled guest onto a ride, i.e. help with lifting.
The rules changed to ban staff from assisting with any lifting. There had been a claim somewhere at another UK park (can't remember which one) that a guest had been inappropriately touched by a staff member who was lifting / assisting with the lifting onto / off a ride. The only assistance we could then give was guiding the guest onto the ride - you could let them hold onto your arm to steady themselves if need be - i.e. so they touched you, not the other way round. Any lifting was a complete no-no. The Towers guide for disabled guests had made this clear for years - hosts cannot help with any lifting, this is the responsibility of the carer(s).
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
I think It's also partly because Towers would be responsible if a staff member injured themselves when lifting a guest. They would be open to being sued.
Have just looked at the Ride Access Guide for disabled guests on Towers website. For all the Thrill rides, it states that wheelchair guests myst be able to transfer onto the ride unaided.
This does beg the question of what the Rita staff were doing when they saw Hannah's carer lift her onto the ride - as that is hardly an unaided transfer.
This does beg the question of what the Rita staff were doing when they saw Hannah's carer lift her onto the ride - as that is hardly an unaided transfer.
delta79
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis, Air
Also an incorrect lift can injury the disabled guest. And without manual handling of patient training, any lifting would have merlin responsible as they did not provide necessary training.
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Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Do you have to still sit in the RAP seats if you have the yellow band, or can you sit anywhere?
I know Towers says only one RAP guest per train/car/boat/cycle, but does that only cover non-ambulant guests or everyone?
Thameslink Rail
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
On the yellow band they still insist on back row for Nemesis, Galactica, Rita and Th13teen. And it's only one RAP group per cycle (even if there is no queue)
Last Friday there was no queue on Rita and the train was empty except an RAP group on row 10, I asked if I could go on the train and they said no, had to wait for rows 1-9 to be filled and the train launched. Next train came in and the said row 10, I asked if I could have another row as the station was empty and they said no. This was actually quite annoying!
Last Friday there was no queue on Rita and the train was empty except an RAP group on row 10, I asked if I could go on the train and they said no, had to wait for rows 1-9 to be filled and the train launched. Next train came in and the said row 10, I asked if I could have another row as the station was empty and they said no. This was actually quite annoying!
That’s the thing that really annoys me, a yellow band means you don’t need any help getting on and off so we shouldn’t be restricted to the rap rows/1 rap group per train, there’s one host who’s thinks the rules need adjusting and has told us to mention it at the box office, we didn’t because I’ve got the feeling it will be ignored.
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Couldn't agree more!
imanautie
TS Member
it's not.
Speaking to rides staff there's confusion with management telling staff to apply all of the same rap rules (apart from no solo) to yellow rap they have had for years whilst guests get told diffently by non rides (aka RBO)
Dave
TS Founding Member
Going to ask the maybe controversial question. Appreciating the many subtleties of disabilities but you cant create a blanket approach for every persons individual subtleties relating to disability. If you are ambulant disabled it suggests your disability makes queues intolerable. Now putting aside disabilities such as those that may require an urgency for facilities such as toilets, the most likely reason you have a yellow ambulant band is related to autism spectrum/ learning needs that make queues difficult.
It’s a fair assumption that if a queue line is stressful then so potentially is an evacuation. In that situation it is probably sensible not to have multiple people potentially struggling with a situation on one train and a limit is reasonable as this would make evacuation difficult.
As I say I get that there will be plenty of people that the above doesn’t apply but how far can you practically ask a park to tailor access to individuals. It becomes impractical after a while.
Also I think capacity creep is an issue, sadly I find a lot of the guests with ambulant RAP get a return time for Smiler and suddenly find they can tolerate the queue for Oblivion (not everyone but a significant minority), If RAP comes without restriction then anyone without a RAP is going to struggle to get on rides soon.
It’s a fair assumption that if a queue line is stressful then so potentially is an evacuation. In that situation it is probably sensible not to have multiple people potentially struggling with a situation on one train and a limit is reasonable as this would make evacuation difficult.
As I say I get that there will be plenty of people that the above doesn’t apply but how far can you practically ask a park to tailor access to individuals. It becomes impractical after a while.
Also I think capacity creep is an issue, sadly I find a lot of the guests with ambulant RAP get a return time for Smiler and suddenly find they can tolerate the queue for Oblivion (not everyone but a significant minority), If RAP comes without restriction then anyone without a RAP is going to struggle to get on rides soon.
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
This is one of the problems myself and @imanautie have. We can get distressed in long/slow moving queues, but if a queue is short or walk-on we have no problem.
Also, am I right in thinking the max number of carers changed for this season? It says 3 on the website but I'm sure it was 4 last year, as I used my pass on Galactica with 4 others.
Dave
TS Founding Member
I understand that but in respect to the entirety of the park guest population if you are using RAP, flitting between RAP and normal queues is impacting the ride capacity for everyone else. By default if the normal queue is short so is the RAP queue so why not follow in the spirit of the system instead of effectively queueing for 2 rides at once?
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