I completely agree with you. I’ve had disgraceful experiences over the past 2 weeks at both Chessington and Thorpe Park. This new system does nothing but make disabled guest’s lives harder. It’s discriminatory and probably illegal. I wonder what it would take for them to realise what they are doing is WRONG. Maybe if everyone affected started taking legal action against them?
Absolutely agree it’s clear discrimination and there were many other ways they could’ve improved things. They’ve also got rid of half the disabled parking at Alton and we all know there already wasn’t enough. I’ve listed all the reasons it definitely is discrimination to the woman in charge of access and the CEO. They just don’t want disabled people there. Clearly. If you’ve been through Merlin’s complaints though you can get in touch with Carrie Clewes (who I reckon has had a few emails). She is a specialist disability rights lawyer. It just really sucks because I don’t know about you but last year I’ve had such a positive experience with Merlin attractions for my disability and it was a guaranteed accessible day out. And I absolutely loved how many other wheelchair users and disabled folk I came across. I went today and there was barely any and the rap was supposedly fully booked. It’s made me quite sad. No rap queues but also no disabled people which I guess was the goal.
Totally get this and it understandable that you and others are not happy. We wanted to go to Chessington for their passholder day as we first time merlin members but guess what we couldn't get RAP but we went to legoland and we got it easy. It seems to me watching your video and chatting to others it seems Merlin and theme parks like customers who do fast track. We have children with autism and adhd who cannot wait very long so a RAP is important to us. We have Merlin Ride Pass not the access card but we will be getting one sometime soon. We been to Blackpool Pleasure beach last year myself and my husband and hope one day to take the kids.
If they run their system like Disney and merged the rap with the main queue immediately rather than making you wait at a barrier then there wouldn't be massive rap queues
The new system is awful. My son has trouble getting out of the house due to his special needs. So, planning is difficult. We hace a Merlin pass. The RAP was gone the day we went. In order to get the ultimate fast track I was told I had to pay £350 for both even though I am in free as a carer.
Tried to pre book a rap pass but the system wouldn’t accept the barcode. Went to guest services at Alton Towers where they admitted the barcode was printed incorrectly but they still wouldn’t give us a booklet for the day. Had to leave
Was pissed off about this I was very exited about trip tomorrow was gonna be the best day ever with going to the roller coaster went on at 10 and it was gone! I wasn’t able to get in and was unable to go😢
i lost my rap pass i tried to order a replacment but they couldn't do it and just gave me the money back for the new one that i orded no clue what imma do
Seems a shambles in regards to communication and system opening times for sure and feel for you. however the pre booking is a positive change when you look at the bigger picture. Merlin are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. Knowing you’ll have a better day and more rides , surely beats the convenience of just going whenever and having a crap day stuck on long queues. They have to do something for health and safety reasons and this is in line with other non Merlin parks. Hopefully when you can get booked in you will start to see the possitives in this change as you get in more rides. I’m also convinced Merlin will support with systems and will accept guests on the day if capacity has not yet been met. Chin up dude.
At the end of the day, they're greedy bastards. Happy to take your money, but let in far too many people at a time, to create a situation where no one is having a good time.
As someone who doesnt use RAP, or fast track, i do agree with the move merlin is making here. This makes it fair, for everyone involved, as we aren't going to see insanely large queues in RAP, which then will translate to smaller queues in general admission as well. I understand its a big change, and was maybe bought in too suddenly, but at the end of the year, most people i think will agree it was a good idea. Please dont take this as me attacking you, or saying i dont want you to visit. This is exactly the same as pass pre booking.
Im glad somone sees reason. People complained last year that the RAP queues were too long so one way to stop this is to limit numbers. No its no discrimination its health and safety for their benefit to stop the queues getting too long as those with RAP passes are supposed to not be able to queue for long period. Agreed it was too sudden and should have been announced a long time ago before the nemesis opening date to avoid those who had booked any dissappoint. But its moronic to call the act of limiting RAP passes discrimination.
Been watching this, feeling really angry, as my son who needs his rap to go to merlin parks cant go to legoland for the entire month of august. Paid alot of money for a gold merlin pass. I wish he could cope without it but sadly he cant. Complete devalues what we paid for annual passes. Bit strong to call people moronic for using the term discrminatory. I do feel like my son is being midly discriminatory against, and i am far from a moron. Really pleased you’ve made this video, you have my full support. I agree there must be a better solution. How is it ok that for the whole of the summer holidays my son cant access legoland, but every other pass holder can. Dont know how anyone cant see that as discrimination! Going to write to merlin. Seems like a consultation with rap users would be a good idea!
I can see what you mean but they clearly aren’t following the law. If this was in the US then Merlin could be threatened to be shut down unless they change how they work.
@@NuggetHQ What law exactly? if you are referring to the equality act 2010 which most people seem to be you might want to actually read up on the act. Tt states to make reasonable adjustments and I'd say the whole RAP queue is a reasonable adjustment and it would actually be negligent of Merlin to handout excessive RAP passes as the RAP queues then become too long and goes against the health and safety of those guests for which the queue was created for. Yes it sucks you might not be able to go when you always wanted to. But it happen a lot last year where people complained how the RAP queues were almost as long as standard queue. There were also users at Alton towers this weekend who would use the RAP for nemisis, get a 4 hour time added to the card and then spend those 4 hours queueing up in normal queues (funny that they can now suddenly cope with the t standard queueing??) and then use the RAP queue once the time is up.
@@rambo3852yep..I was at scarefest for 2 days last year.i paid a lot of money for platinum fast track and hardly got on any rides with it due to the ridiculous rap queues(and normal queues)..too many freeloaders with the genuine disabled guest.and I blatantly saw quite often people I had seen in rap queues for certain rides..queuing up normally when it suited them in normal queues when queue was going to get them onto the ride faster than rap.people like this gave ruined it for the genuine candidates unfortunately
@@rambo3852 I don't know if you have a ride access pass, but they are a pain to get hold of. I had to send in documentation for myself and my son about our medical conditions. We now have 2 cards each, but apparently this still isn't enough. They want disabled people to jump through some more hoops. I pre-booked my tickets months ago, but only just got the email saying that the system has changed and we now need to pre-book ride access passes. I went to do that, and the date we booked is unavailable. I asked for a refund
![Kodak Black - Sharp Vibes [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oEV0OoLJeIs/mqdefault.jpg)
I completely agree with you. I’ve had disgraceful experiences over the past 2 weeks at both Chessington and Thorpe Park.
This new system does nothing but make disabled guest’s lives harder. It’s discriminatory and probably illegal.
I wonder what it would take for them to realise what they are doing is WRONG.
Maybe if everyone affected started taking legal action against them?
Stay tuned for a follow up video coming soon! 👀👀
I agree. I don’t accept they are trying to keep numbers low as people can still buy ride access (non disabled) on day. It’s all about money.
Solidarity! This new system is appalling. You’ve put the case very well and Merlin should be ashamed - and take action. Time to get the placards out…
Makes me wonder how they treat the disabled people they care for in their charity
Absolutely agree it’s clear discrimination and there were many other ways they could’ve improved things. They’ve also got rid of half the disabled parking at Alton and we all know there already wasn’t enough.
I’ve listed all the reasons it definitely is discrimination to the woman in charge of access and the CEO.
They just don’t want disabled people there. Clearly. If you’ve been through Merlin’s complaints though you can get in touch with Carrie Clewes (who I reckon has had a few emails). She is a specialist disability rights lawyer.
It just really sucks because I don’t know about you but last year I’ve had such a positive experience with Merlin attractions for my disability and it was a guaranteed accessible day out. And I absolutely loved how many other wheelchair users and disabled folk I came across.
I went today and there was barely any and the rap was supposedly fully booked. It’s made me quite sad. No rap queues but also no disabled people which I guess was the goal.
Totally get this and it understandable that you and others are not happy. We wanted to go to Chessington for their passholder day as we first time merlin members but guess what we couldn't get RAP but we went to legoland and we got it easy. It seems to me watching your video and chatting to others it seems Merlin and theme parks like customers who do fast track. We have children with autism and adhd who cannot wait very long so a RAP is important to us. We have Merlin Ride Pass not the access card but we will be getting one sometime soon. We been to Blackpool Pleasure beach last year myself and my husband and hope one day to take the kids.
Scott O'Neil is ceo. He should be held responsible for this. They should check rap ids on every ride yet they don't. It's ridiculous
If they run their system like Disney and merged the rap with the main queue immediately rather than making you wait at a barrier then there wouldn't be massive rap queues
Agreed, it would help significantly.
The new system is awful. My son has trouble getting out of the house due to his special needs. So, planning is difficult. We hace a Merlin pass. The RAP was gone the day we went. In order to get the ultimate fast track I was told I had to pay £350 for both even though I am in free as a carer.
Tried to pre book a rap pass but the system wouldn’t accept the barcode. Went to guest services at Alton Towers where they admitted the barcode was printed incorrectly but they still wouldn’t give us a booklet for the day. Had to leave
Terrible! I'm sorry to hear that!
And now there is the same for the fireworks event. No comms relating to rap and they all booked out! It is clear discrimination!
Was pissed off about this I was very exited about trip tomorrow was gonna be the best day ever with going to the roller coaster went on at 10 and it was gone! I wasn’t able to get in and was unable to go😢
i lost my rap pass i tried to order a replacment but they couldn't do it and just gave me the money back for the new one that i orded no clue what imma do
Seems a shambles in regards to communication and system opening times for sure and feel for you. however the pre booking is a positive change when you look at the bigger picture. Merlin are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. Knowing you’ll have a better day and more rides , surely beats the convenience of just going whenever and having a crap day stuck on long queues. They have to do something for health and safety reasons and this is in line with other non Merlin parks. Hopefully when you can get booked in you will start to see the possitives in this change as you get in more rides. I’m also convinced Merlin will support with systems and will accept guests on the day if capacity has not yet been met. Chin up dude.
At the end of the day, they're greedy bastards. Happy to take your money, but let in far too many people at a time, to create a situation where no one is having a good time.
As someone who doesnt use RAP, or fast track, i do agree with the move merlin is making here.
This makes it fair, for everyone involved, as we aren't going to see insanely large queues in RAP, which then will translate to smaller queues in general admission as well.
I understand its a big change, and was maybe bought in too suddenly, but at the end of the year, most people i think will agree it was a good idea.
Please dont take this as me attacking you, or saying i dont want you to visit. This is exactly the same as pass pre booking.
Im glad somone sees reason. People complained last year that the RAP queues were too long so one way to stop this is to limit numbers. No its no discrimination its health and safety for their benefit to stop the queues getting too long as those with RAP passes are supposed to not be able to queue for long period. Agreed it was too sudden and should have been announced a long time ago before the nemesis opening date to avoid those who had booked any dissappoint. But its moronic to call the act of limiting RAP passes discrimination.
Was going to say this, sometimes there seems to be so many RAP passes given out, and the main queues never seems to move
Been watching this, feeling really angry, as my son who needs his rap to go to merlin parks cant go to legoland for the entire month of august. Paid alot of money for a gold merlin pass. I wish he could cope without it but sadly he cant. Complete devalues what we paid for annual passes.
Bit strong to call people moronic for using the term discrminatory.
I do feel like my son is being midly discriminatory against, and i am far from a moron.
Really pleased you’ve made this video, you have my full support.
I agree there must be a better solution. How is it ok that for the whole of the summer holidays my son cant access legoland, but every other pass holder can.
Dont know how anyone cant see that as discrimination!
Going to write to merlin. Seems like a consultation with rap users would be a good idea!
Merlin did not release it early it was the ticket company accesso they are well known for it !!
Merlin are responsible.
@@andrewtopliff6990 no there not an its the ticket company themselves
actually i take that bk i don't wont towers shut down!!!!!!! lol
😓 P r o m o S M
No there not discriminating ! It’s in the equality act 2010 that they can make reasonable adjustments
I can see what you mean but they clearly aren’t following the law. If this was in the US then Merlin could be threatened to be shut down unless they change how they work.
@@NuggetHQ this is the Uk and not the US !
@@NuggetHQ What law exactly? if you are referring to the equality act 2010 which most people seem to be you might want to actually read up on the act. Tt states to make reasonable adjustments and I'd say the whole RAP queue is a reasonable adjustment and it would actually be negligent of Merlin to handout excessive RAP passes as the RAP queues then become too long and goes against the health and safety of those guests for which the queue was created for. Yes it sucks you might not be able to go when you always wanted to. But it happen a lot last year where people complained how the RAP queues were almost as long as standard queue. There were also users at Alton towers this weekend who would use the RAP for nemisis, get a 4 hour time added to the card and then spend those 4 hours queueing up in normal queues (funny that they can now suddenly cope with the t standard queueing??) and then use the RAP queue once the time is up.
@@rambo3852yep..I was at scarefest for 2 days last year.i paid a lot of money for platinum fast track and hardly got on any rides with it due to the ridiculous rap queues(and normal queues)..too many freeloaders with the genuine disabled guest.and I blatantly saw quite often people I had seen in rap queues for certain rides..queuing up normally when it suited them in normal queues when queue was going to get them onto the ride faster than rap.people like this gave ruined it for the genuine candidates unfortunately
@@rambo3852 I don't know if you have a ride access pass, but they are a pain to get hold of. I had to send in documentation for myself and my son about our medical conditions. We now have 2 cards each, but apparently this still isn't enough. They want disabled people to jump through some more hoops. I pre-booked my tickets months ago, but only just got the email saying that the system has changed and we now need to pre-book ride access passes. I went to do that, and the date we booked is unavailable. I asked for a refund
make a claim bro!!! lol!!!