Ride Access Pass and Disabled Access - 2024 Discussion

[dave___]

That's a well known empty threat, in part because they don't know who's actually not scanned in.

I know it’s an obvious question but how does this work then, do the scanners just cross check whether the pass is valid or not valid and base entry on that?

Last time at Chessington the people at the gate were checking every single person’s bookings but I’d have thought the system would at least show if there was a booking or not.

 

[Benzin]

RAP bookings only ask for your RAP access card number.

And presumably because pre-booking RAP is different to pre-booking your MAP they can't tell who is visiting with who.

 

[Bowser]

RAP bookings only ask for your RAP access card number.

And presumably because pre-booking RAP is different to pre-booking your MAP they can't tell who is visiting with who.

It’s linked to your account though, be it checking in digitally at those parks or having it verified by guest services at the paper parks so the data exists no? We always get an email survey afterwards.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Talking about MAP bookings as opposed to RAP bookings, I'm pretty sure there is no way for the scanners at the turnstiles to flag up whether you have or haven't pre-booked. Hence the apparent penalty for booking with MAP and not turning up would appear to be unenforceable.

I don't really see them bringing in such a policy for RAP as there could be good reasons why a RAP user and their group might not be able to make it on the day and penalising accordingly could amount to discrimination.

 

[Bowser]

I don't really see them bringing in such a policy for RAP as there could be good reasons why a RAP user and their group might not be able to make it on the day and penalising accordingly could amount to discrimination.

Sure but you have all day to cancel the booking and three chances.

First step of course would be actually allowing people to cancel bookings themselves.

 

[John]

For all we know the reported shorter RAP waits at Towers could be largely due to large numbers of people booking speculatively and not showing up

 

[Bowser]

For all we know the reported shorter RAP waits at Towers could be largely due to large numbers of people booking speculatively and not showing up

I did think that could be happening but you'd imagine at the weekends at least most people are honouring the bookings.

 

[imanautie]

I know it’s an obvious question but how does this work then, do the scanners just cross check whether the pass is valid or not valid and base entry on that?

Last time at Chessington the people at the gate were checking every single person’s bookings but I’d have thought the system would at least show if there was a booking or not.

For admission prebooks is visual verification only, for rap at cwoa and llw prebooking is identical flow to pre purchasing loqueue access, it just adds an entitlement to your email address and it pops up on the day to use, for the other parks they scan the Prebook, but they are known for not handling things in a way that enables them to say for sure someone didn't turn up.

Putting aside the whole issue of punishing disabled people even further for being ill last minute

 

[Bowser]

Putting aside the whole issue of punishing disabled people even further for being ill last minute

It's not about punishing people (especially as we are those people), it's about making the system viable for everyone. A few clicks to cancel a booking isn't an unreasonable request, make it as easy as possible. Maybe people are mostly cancelling unused slots and not block booking, we don't have that information, only suspicions which I am using to make suggestions for improvements.

Ultimately Merlin have changed the system and whilst it has arguably improved the park experience, it has also created a situation where disabled people are being forced to compete for access. One hardship has been replaced with another. The more people see unavailable slots, the more they're going to get booked up in advance, the more essential it becomes that unused slots are managed accordingly.

 

[imanautie]

Talking about MAP bookings as opposed to RAP bookings, I'm pretty sure there is no way for the scanners at the turnstiles to flag up whether you have or haven't pre-booked. Hence the apparent penalty for booking with MAP and not turning up would appear to be unenforceable.

I don't really see them bringing in such a policy for RAP as there could be good reasons why a RAP user and their group might not be able to make it on the day and penalising accordingly could amount to discrimination.

There's actually a really obvious way to handle that, the bpb approach! Season passes don't scan they just issue a day ticket when you book.
They also appear to have built a complete in-house ticketing and POS system replacing their earlier stuff stuck onto accesso sirusware, it works reallllly well together, with accessibility requirements just being linked to the pass

 

[D4n]

You can cut the RAP numbers however much you like but when those people then all choose to converge upon the same rides (Smiler and Thirteen at Towers, Vampire at Chessington) a long RAP line is still inevitable.

The new system does seem to have improved things elsewhere in the park though. High throughput rides like Nemesis and Oblivion no longer seem to have any kind of problem .

RAP abuse is definitely still happening. Witnessed several people move queues on Raj last weekend when they realised the staff member wasn’t stamping the RAP cards. They “didn’t want to waste it” on that ride apparently so were in the main queue but were keen to join the RAP queue if it was just a free fast pass