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Ride Access Pass Systems and Disabled Access (pre 2024)

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Benzin said:
Instead being forced to queue due to a system that is open to abuse and is openly discussed on various sites for years how to ensure you get away with doing so.

Let's not pretend anyone is happy with the situation as it is. Though maybe we should start limiting who can use things in all public life. Able bodied? No lifts for you and so on.

Towers probably should trial the digital version sooner rather than later.
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I always give up my space in a lift if an elderly person calls it and it's full. Because I don't have to use it
 
Benzin said:
Depends on the definition of significant. The hill up to Alty Mans in Haunted Hollow isn't a complete cake walk (though the worst one is X-Sector).
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Since they opened the path between the singing grave stones in haunted hollow and forbidden valley you can avoid that hill by going down hollow instead of via Katanga and Gloomy wood.
 
Dave said:
Since they opened the path between the singing grave stones in haunted hollow and forbidden valley you can avoid that hill by going down hollow instead of via Katanga and Gloomy wood.
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I meant the hill from the statues up to Alty Mans. One of those annoying long-term inclines that knackers you about half way up.

Don't think I've done the other path with a wheelchair, so can't remember if it's any better.

RIPCorky said:
I always give up my space in a lift if an elderly person calls it and it's full. Because I don't have to use it
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Don't get me started on the judgemental old people who clearly think that young people can't be disabled or think that being old means they have priority. God I enjoyed slamming down the blue badge super theatrically in front of one such person.

Winds me up especially if able-bodied use a lift when there are escalators literally next to them.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
It also raises the question of why the Skyride needs to be closed for this long.

Numerous city and mountain tourist attractions have similar ride systems, which would never be allowed to have this amount of downtime, they’d be losing a fortune.
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This is a good point, but have you checked the price of a ski pass lately? They are costly to maintain.

Also many of the mountain resort systems follow the contours of the land, rather than traverse ravines etc. - which makes general maintenance, running repairs and even evacuation procedures a bit less challenging.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
This is a good point, but have you checked the price of a ski pass lately? They are costly to maintain.

Also many of the mountain resort systems follow the contours of the land, rather than traverse ravines etc. - which makes general maintenance, running repairs and even evacuation procedures a bit less challenging.
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They also tend to be in Schengen, or within the free trade movement area at least (if it is a customs and Brexit compounded issue).
 
NuttySquirrel said:
This is a good point, but have you checked the price of a ski pass lately? They are costly to maintain.

Also many of the mountain resort systems follow the contours of the land, rather than traverse ravines etc. - which makes general maintenance, running repairs and even evacuation procedures a bit less challenging.
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Not just ski lifts. Also cable car systems which operate in cities all around the world. A few examples would be Hong Kong’s cable car up to the Buddha statue, Barcelona’s cable car up Montjuic hill, Gatliburg’s cable car up to the Anakeesta park, the one in Katowice next to Legendia park, I could go on.

I’m not just talking about high priced ski resorts. The ones I mentioned are standalone attractions which charge very reasonable admission fees and run on various different terrains. If these went down, there’s no way they’d stay closed for a year.

Let’s also not forget other theme parks where the cable car systems are essential for getting guests from one bit of the park to the other. Ocean Park in Hong Kong connects the entrance area with the thrill rides section of the park, and Yomiuriland in Tokyo uses a Skyride type system to get people from the train station to the park entrance. I’m sorry but when people say that the issues with the Skyride are out of AT’s hands, I just don’t buy it. Many of the systems I mentioned are more or less identical to Alton’s Skyride.
 
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Enter Valhalla said:
Not just ski lifts. Also cable car systems which operate in cities all around the world. A few examples would be Hong King’s cable car up to the Buddha statue, Barcelona’s cable car up Montjuic hill, Gatliburg’s cable car up to the Anakeesta park, the one in Katowice next to Legendia park, I could go on.

I’m not just talking about high priced ski resorts. The ones I mentioned are standalone attractions which charge very reasonable admission fees and run on various different terrains. If these went down, there’s no way they’d stay closed for a year.

Let’s also not forget other theme parks where the cable car systems are essential for getting guests from one bit of the park to the other. Ocean Park in Hong Kong connects the entrance area with the thrill rides section of the park, and Yomiuriland in Tokyo uses a Skyride type system to get people from the train station to the park entrance. I’m sorry but when people say that the issues with the Skyride are out of AT’s hands, I just don’t buy it. Many of the systems I mentioned are more or less identical to Alton’s Skyride.
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Indeed a cable car at other places where it's absolutely essential to the attraction's existence are hugely important. So important that perhaps the manufacturers of those cable car systems would prioritise those attractions for parts availability over Alton Towers perhaps?
 
Enter Valhalla said:
It also raises the question of why the Skyride needs to be closed for this long.

Numerous city and mountain tourist attractions have similar ride systems, which would never be allowed to have this amount of downtime, they’d be losing a fortune.
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The skyride shouldn't really be relied upon as a mode of transport around the park. Extreme weather conditions will close it for the day anyway. What you can complain about is the way it's been maintained and the communication regarding it's availability
 
Again, when you have relied on the ride for mobility from first opening, for decades, for yourself and clients, yes you can!
It should, could and has been relied upon for decades, by millions of customers, for exactly that.
A mode of transport around the park.
Precisely what it is and has been, however it is described, or marketed.
Extreme weather can close it, often for just an hour or two, but I have personally experienced that on very few occasions.
 
I've removed a number of posts which are completely off topic. Can we please stick to the subject of the Ride Access Pass please.

Posting that you have the permission to post from the person who took the photo is fine, especially when the photo is being uploaded to TowersStreet. It helps the team identify any photos which have been uploaded without permission.

Additionally, and as advised multiple times before - if you find a post is off topic then please report it. You do not need to respond to the off topic post to further take the conversation away from the topic's original subject. Thanks.
 
Let's not go around the circle of discussing eligibility again, it's been done to death in the past 100+ pages . As already mentioned, they're independently assessed. The issue is the capacity to handle the number of eligible guests and the way they are managed at the parks.
 
Skyscraper said:
Except it's not the parks anymore, all applications are processed and reviewed by Nimbus/access card now. The parks don't even view applicants' evidence now either.
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I have the impression that a registered disability company is likely to recognise more areas and types of disability and therefore hand out a lot more than Towers themselves did?

Therefore probably creating the exact opposite effect that they wanted to achieve?
 
Poisson said:
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.
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Stealth at Thorpe has a double air gate for the last car doesn't it?

Reminds me, Towers need to either fix Rita's wheelchair lift or put an "out of order" sign on the door. A group entered it on Sunday and were told by a host that it was broken. 🤦‍♂️
 
At this point, I think that the main solution to this issue would be to try and find some new system that manages the demand more effectively rather than looking at eligibility.

The higher number of people eligible is more likely to be down to the vastly increased awareness of disabilities, particularly hidden disabilities, than it is to be down to abuse. I think the issue is more that the Merlin system in its current guise clearly isn’t very scalable to accommodate high levels of demand.

Mind you, I’m not necessarily sure how you’d solve that.

I do feel that moving Alton and Thorpe to the virtual queue system that the other parks have might go some way towards alleviating the problems, although Chessington has the digital system and the problems don’t seem to have disappeared there.

In my view, I think they need to find some way of managing demand in periods where things aren’t necessarily flowing smoothly (such as in the event of a ride breaking down and reopening), as I’ve noticed that this is often when the RAP situation gets the most out of control.

I imagine that it might help if they treated the RAP queue in the exact same manner as the main queue in the event of something like a long breakdown; if the RAP queue was emptied in the same way that the main queue is, then you wouldn’t have the same backlog and need to shift loads of people through at once that often exists when things like breakdowns occur.
 
I was looking at some statistics on disabilities and discovered that almost a quarter of people in England have a disability. I am not sure how RAP works but assume that another person will typically accompany them in the RAP queue? If so you could be looking at around half the capacity taken up for RAP.

I would say they should work out how many RAP/non-RAP are in the park on any given day, and maintain those ratios on the rides. They should also cap out the RAP queues at sensible limits (remember the "queue at capacity" from the Covid days?). It does not make sense to have RAP queues of one hour. It would be possible to regulate these things using an electronic system, as well as the virtual queue / time-out periods.

Also agree with Matt about queues being emptied during a breakdown. Surprised this wasn't a thing already.
 
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