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Skyride General Discussion

The Skyride used to be a lifesaver for my mum, who has heart problems. Her mobility is limited now, so theme parks are now a no-go, but when we used to go as a family, the Skyride was vital for getting from A to B.

I just hope they look at monorail next.

Many people forget the sheer amount of walking you can do at Towers (this year was my first visit for a while, and I forgot how much walking you do!) and the distances between areas. These transportation systems help a lot to ease that.
 
James said:
The Skyride used to be a lifesaver for my mum, who has heart problems. Her mobility is limited now, so theme parks are now a no-go, but when we used to go as a family, the Skyride was vital for getting from A to B.

I just hope they look at monorail next.

Many people forget the sheer amount of walking you can do at Towers (this year was my first visit for a while, and I forgot how much walking you do!) and the distances between areas. These transportation systems help a lot to ease that.
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Hehe, they could bring back that old train they used to have, if I'm not mistaken!
Although we'd best not divert too far from the topic of Skyride.
 
Jb85 said:
Transportation is key across the resort - it is huge. Shouldn’t have been left this long but it’s a positive step
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There are parks far bigger than Towers without transport rides. I don’t doubt that it’s a great help for people with mobility issues but even before this refurb it was often closed for technical reasons for part or all day. So whenever I have gone to the park with friends or family with mobility issues I have never depended on it being available.
 
Dave said:
There are parks far bigger than Towers without transport rides. I don’t doubt that it’s a great help for people with mobility issues but even before this refurb it was often closed for technical reasons for part or all day. So whenever I have gone to the park with friends or family with mobility issues I have never depended on it being available.
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Whilst that may be true, not many of those bigger parks contain as many elevation changes as Towers.
 
I relied on it, every visit, for three decades.
Sometimes for disabled clients, sometimes for elderly relatives, now sometimes for me.
Often opening late, or, later on, having issues during the day, but you could rely on it for shortening the circuit over the day 99% of the time.
I rarely visit at busy times, so usually walk on or a two minute wait.
Only once was it closed all day for us...near the end of course.
Other parks may be bigger, but do they have the massive gaps between attractions..that is the issue, together with the terrain.

Nice to see it back...hopefully, and about time.
 
AltonLover123 said:
Whilst that may be true, not many of those bigger parks contain as many elevation changes as Towers.
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You can actually get to every station on the skyride without a huge hill to navigate since they opened the path between haunted hollow and valley. The two parts of the park you cannot navigate without a severe incline (excluding the gardens) are gloomy wood and X-sector, neither of which the Skyride serves.

Never used to be the case but the opening of that path has made accessing valley a lot easier with a wheelchair without the Skyride. Just as a top tip if anyone needs it. You can actually do gloomy if you take a circuitous route and go from Mutiny bay, then do valley rides then go back on yourself to gloomy, you still have a steep hill to go down but it’s not up.

Obviously if your issue is length of time walking then the Skyride helps you regardless of incline issues.

Anyway that’s migrated marginally off topic.
 
Skyscraper said:
No timeout I think, and I'm pretty sure you can only bypass the queue at the FV station. Don't think you can at TS or DF.
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There is a wheelchair entrance by the side of the vending machines on the Dark Forest station, it runs parallel to the main queue leading to the doorway onto the platform. I remember it because a family of able-bodied adults used it when I was near the front - and they probably didn't have a RAP pass as none of them made any attempt to present anything to the ride op and he just let them in without checking anything - that is what makes a mockery of the whole RAP system.
 
Steve74 said:
There is a wheelchair entrance by the side of the vending machines on the Dark Forest station, it runs parallel to the main queue leading to the doorway onto the platform. I remember it because a family of able-bodied adults used it when I was near the front - and they probably didn't have a RAP pass as none of them made any attempt to present anything to the ride op and he just let them in without checking anything - that is what makes a mockery of the whole RAP system.
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"Probably".
All disabilities are not visible, able bodied is often an uninformed judgement, and the staff member may have identified the group from a previous use that day or earlier visits.

Again, I have rarely had an issue with the ride queue, usually swift and reasonably short, but I don't do peak.
 
rob666 said:
"Probably".
All disabilities are not visible, able bodied is often an uninformed judgement, and the staff member may have identified the group from a previous use that day or earlier visits.

Again, I have rarely had an issue with the ride queue, usually swift and reasonably short, but I don't do peak.
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Yeah it can get very long on peak days, and moves slowly especially if they only load one group per gondola.
 
Even if they enforce sharing the queue can move at a snail's pace at FV (DF direction) if people aren't getting off.

RAP doesn't get timed out on it. What's the point when any queue length would be cancelled out by the ride duration and the often necessity of it for RAP users with mobility issues?
 
rob666 said:
"Probably".
All disabilities are not visible, able bodied is often an uninformed judgement, and the staff member may have identified the group from a previous use that day or earlier visits.

Again, I have rarely had an issue with the ride queue, usually swift and reasonably short, but I don't do peak.
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I'm well aware of that fact, I don't need telling for the umpteenth time. My original point is not whether they are disabled or not but the fact they nor the ride op made any attempt to look at their RAP pass. Put yourself in my position and others in the queue who had been waiting for 20+ minutes in a slow moving queue. Into the empty disabled/wheelchair entrance walks a group of grown adults, they wait for the next gondola for 30 seconds or so and make absolutely no effort to show a pass while waiting, then the ride op lets them on with no attempt to ask them for a pass. What are we all meant to think? The fault here is clearly with the ride op.

Regardless of whether they were already known to the ride op, he should've at least made the effort to look at their passes as equally they should have made an effort to show him it. If he did know them from before, he certainly never acknowledged it.

Goes back to my idea that for RAP passes to work effectively for everyone, they need some sort of electronic turnstile that'll only let you into the queue with a valid pass and queue wait time (where relevant). Would take all the potential aggression and stress away from the ride op when they (rightly) stick to the rules and some people kick off when they don't get their own way.

Anyway this is going way off topic.
 
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