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Ride Access Pass Systems and Disabled Access (pre 2024)

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How old is The Smiler? About 10 years old? Even just ten years ago I can't ever remember there being much of a RAP queue for that ride. Nemesis? Occasionally a couple of people. Pretty much all of this has manifested itself in the past 10 years. The only way to somewhat dig themselves out of this now is to introduce the virtual queue with strict enforcement, and a clear message to all users that the pass is to enable not physically standing in a queue, NOT to not wait at all.
 
The third party to process applications is good to see. Hopefully that will eliminate those exploiting the previous system.

How does the virtual queueing system fair in the southern parks? Towers need this desperately.

I feel an issue that needs sorting is the amount of ‘carers’ a person has with them. I’ve witnessed in previous years RAP users with 3, 4 or even 5 ‘carers’ accompanying them on a ride, and I’ve seen individuals gloat about this on social media.

The Alton Towers website states 3 people may accompany the RAP users. I personally feel the RAP user should either be limited to one person to accompany them, or more if it would be required for an evacuation or other medical needs.

On busy days, it’s likely the RAP queue consists more of family and friends tagging along than actual RAP users, and likely the primary reason RAP queues appear to become incredibly long.
 
Craig said:
The problem is all queues were crazy, RAP or not - and that's what people need to realise and accept. If the park is a shambles, then the RAP queue will be a shambles. That doesn't mean that suddenly everyone with a RAP should be let off with not queueing, or suddenly let in over the main queue by staff for fear of complaints. You wouldn't get a host letting people who'd been chucked out earlier ahead in the main queue, so it shouldn't be the case in the RAP queue. Likewise if a ride isn't open and they don't know when it will open (a la Alty Mans), they shouldn't yet be dishing out return times/allowing people to form a queue.

As I've mentioned before, RAP should get equal treatment to the main queue. If the main queue is chucked out due to the ride going down, so should the RAP queue to prevent bunching up when it reopens. Obviously that's difficult to do at the moment, but with a Q Bot system that should be achievable. Yes, it'll produce complaints, but the priority for RAP is not to keep everyone happy in the event of unforeseen circumstances - it's to completely minimise the length that people queue.
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Yes I agree. At this point I’d be reluctant to recommend Towers to anyone when I think about it, not just rap users. Maybe when Nemesis is back things will improve but so far the start of the season hasn’t been great for Towers. Will have to see how things go into the summer.

Also agree with you regarding equal treatment of both queues. Rap isn’t to give an advantage to some guests, it’s to level the playing field for them. The fact that some view it as some sort of fast track is a sign the system isn’t working and/or isn’t being implemented correctly.

The staff on Thirteen I’m pretty sure were filling every other train with rap people when we were queueing for it on opening day. The staff member in the cabin even asked another staff member on the platform over the tannoy if they should fill the next train with rap. It then made sense as to why the stand by line was moving at snails pace. They simply couldn’t cope with the volume of rap users and it was affecting all guests in a negative way which obviously isn’t their goal. I’m not an expert on this stuff but surely there has to be a better way.

It’s a combination of people taking advantage of the system, the system being garbage and staff not enforcing it properly, imo.
 
James said:
I feel an issue that needs sorting is the amount of ‘carers’ a person has with them. I’ve witnessed in previous years RAP users with 3, 4 or even 5 ‘carers’ accompanying them on a ride, and I’ve seen individuals gloat about this on social media.

The Alton Towers website states 3 people may accompany the RAP users. I personally feel the RAP user should either be limited to one person to accompany them, or more if it would be required for an evacuation or other medical needs.

On busy days, it’s likely the RAP queue consists more of family and friends tagging along than actual RAP users, and likely the primary reason RAP queues appear to become incredibly long.
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The 3 people aren't 'carers'.

There are situations where a disabled person might require 2 or more carers, but that won't be the majority case at Alton Towers - realistically if you require more than one carer it is likely that other restrictions would stop you from riding the majority of the attractions in the park.

The reason that a disabled person is allowed up to three people with them will be to allow them to have a normal day out at the park. And a normal day out involves being allowed to spend your day with more than one person for the majority of the day.

Ultimately, it is the queue system itself that needs fixing, because everything suggests that the number of people in the RAP queues is about right based on national statistics.
 
My cousin is in a wheelchair so we have to use RAP when he comes with me, which is only once a year. It always makes me angry to hear other people talking about it being a fast track whilst on park. It hasn’t completely ruined our day yet but it’s gotten to the point where we are waiting just as long as main queue and then having the same amount of time stamped down, even if another rides main queue is shorter than that, we couldn’t join. Don’t even get me started on the amount of people who barge past us in the Wicker Man pre show room as if my cousin doesn’t exist either. I’m not saying we have right of way at all, but some people are very rude.
 
Yeah I remember reading somewhere (possibly a disability charity) that around 1/5 people consider themselves to have a disability, if that number was reflected in the proportion of people eligible for RAP and if each had at least one person accompanying them that's at least 40% of guests that could be using RAP entrances - potentially far higher.

At that point it doesn't matter how you manage the system, the result is main queues that simply don't move. If they move over to a digital system with a return time for each individual ride (as they should), I'd rather everyone be allowed to use it as main queues are just going to keep on getting worse.
 
John said:
Yeah I remember reading somewhere (possibly a disability charity) that around 1/5 people consider themselves to have a disability, if that number was reflected in the proportion of people eligible for RAP and if each had at least one person accompanying them that's at least 40% of guests that could be using RAP entrances - potentially far higher.

At that point it doesn't matter how you manage the system, the result is main queues that simply don't move. If they move over to a digital system with a return time for each individual ride (as they should), I'd rather everyone be allowed to use it as main queues are just going to keep on getting worse.
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A quick search online and people are already complaining about the virtual queuing and having to actually wait the length of time it takes in the main queue. Whilst not being in the queue you still wait the same as everyone else, not sure if you can plan this so you can book 2-3 rides in say an hour? It's a shame that most are highlighting the not getting on a ride quickly, rather than not being in an enclosed space queueing or getting your disabled party member safely on and off rides.
 
RIPCorky said:
A quick search online and people are already complaining about the virtual queuing and having to actually wait the length of time it takes in the main queue. Whilst not being in the queue you still wait the same as everyone else, not sure if you can plan this so you can book 2-3 rides in say an hour? It's a shame that most are highlighting the not getting on a ride quickly, rather than not being in an enclosed space queueing or getting your disabled party member safely on and off rides.
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That's the problem, too many people have got used to seeing it as a free Fastrack.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
I think it can be made simpler than what has already been said.

You probably won’t be asked to queue like you do at a theme park anywhere else in any other situation. Theme parks are not designed to accommodate for people who can’t queue (for whatever their disability prevents them). This is a great shame.

Queueing is 90%+ of your theme park day. If you can’t do it then it equals a bad time for you. Can you eliminate queuing in a theme park? No, not without limiting the amount of people through the door.

Having never used RAP, what did AT offer in the past for this, or what did people do in the 90’s for example. Did they just not go to theme parks?
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Queueing is 90%+ of your theme park day.
Errr...no, not for the last decade or two.
Off peak, even weekends, away from the holidays, and bad weather days.
50% of my time is in the bar at Crevettes.
10% rides with queues of less than ten minutes most of the time.
Rarely wait more than 20 minutes.
I have bad knees and hips, but don't like to use rap when I can avoid it.
 
The opening day queue for Alton Manor shows that people are abusing the RAP pass. People stood in that for nearly 2hrs yet state they cannot queue?

The issue is not every disability prevents queueing, strictly speaking I have a recognised “disability” but it doesn’t prevent me from queueing so I don’t need RAP access. People who abuse the system prevent those who need it (whether this a visible or hidden disability) having a good day. This is what annoys me, not so much my queue is lengthened but people who need the services queue is lengthened.

I have a family member with considerable physical and mental disabilities. I would never take her to Towers on a peak day as she would not understand why she is queuing 40min in a RAP queue. The system is broken and if Towers don’t fix it soon people with a genuine disability that causes an inability to queue will have grounds to take them to task on it.

I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already.
 
Dave said:
The opening day queue for Alton Manor shows that people are abusing the RAP pass. People stood in that for nearly 2hrs yet state they cannot queue?

The issue is not every disability prevents queueing, strictly speaking I have a recognised “disability” but it doesn’t prevent me from queueing so I don’t need RAP access. People who abuse the system prevent those who need it (whether this a visible or hidden disability) having a good day. This is what annoys me, not so much my queue is lengthened but people who need the services queue is lengthened.

I have a family member with considerable physical and mental disabilities. I would never take her to Towers on a peak day as she would not understand why she is queuing 40min in a RAP queue. The system is broken and if Towers don’t fix it soon people with a genuine disability that causes an inability to queue will have grounds to take them to task on it.

I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already.
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What makes it extra tricky is disabilities being fluid and people burning through spoons for one key ride (a smiler fan springs to mind here), technically yes can put up with the silly long queues but it takes a toll.
 
if WiFi access is this much of a problem it really wouldn't be that hard to come up with a system which works offline using people's phones with some sort of scanning station near the rap entrance
 
BenTechy66 said:
if WiFi access is this much of a problem it really wouldn't be that hard to come up with a system which works offline using people's phones with some sort of scanning station near the rap entrance
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I mean that would be an entirely new system, with huge development costs and implementation of new hardware at the rides, whereas on the other hand just improving wifi coverage and using the existing solution has multiple other guest and staff benefits as well, so bit of a no-brainer.
 
To my knowledge loqueue scanners which staff have are offline first (which has its own exploitable issues), so guests don't need working internet everywhere, just enough to book then get the qr code
 
imanautie said:
To my knowledge loqueue scanners which staff have are offline first (which has its own exploitable issues), so guests don't need working internet everywhere, just enough to book then get the qr code
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Don't believe that's correct. They can operate offline, but primarily operate online.
 
I've been thinking about the virtual queue system a fair bit recently (due to the near total collapse of the current system at Towers) and been wondering how (or if) it could be set up to deal with unexpected changes in ride capacity. If you allowed a certain number of people to reserve a ride (say an hour or more in advance) and that ride then went to lower capacity, would there be any way they could deal with that? I'm imagining Galactica dropping from 3 trains to 2 and things quickly getting messy as there's still hundreds of people with reservations and the only way to honour them would be to deny access to anyone else. Is the system even smart enough to deal with known reduced capacity operation or will it allocate nearly the entire capacity to reservations (I'm thinking of Chessington in particular here where none of the rides seem to be running at full capacity right now).
 
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