toofpikk
Hyper Poster
It's admittedly been a while since I worked as a ride op but I was there from when it used to be a stamp booklet right up until the digital reservation system. My older brother is severely physically disabled. We have benefitted from using the pass and also dealt with the headache of splitting our group up 'fairly' for a day.
Fundamentally it is really difficult to enforce this. There is definitely an expectation of a group of 4 being okay on RAP at the parks. If an op/host tries to enforce it, it'll just be escalated until a Park manager comes along and makes an 'exception' and winks at the host whilst whispering their apologies for undermining you.
I had a rule of thumb which was pretty simple. If a guest was polite to me and asksed nicely if they could have a larger group without taking the piss (say, they're a group of 5 or 6), I'd say I'd see what I could do and probably let them on. If the ride was rammo, or I was really stressed and busy, I wouldn't make exceptions. If someone came to me moaning about how long they waited and the new system is a pile of dung, I'm not making exceptions.
I had a couple of really ugly interactions where a guest had used up their physical pass and insisted they didn't need to get a new one and held up the RAP queue for half an hour before a PM came down and let them on anyway, F-ing and blinding at me for putting their neurodivergent child through so much stress (they were on their ipad the whole time). Another where a woman tried to ride the attraction twice in a row without getting off because the RAP queue was too long for their liking. I didn't send it until they got off where they gave me a good bollocking before exclaiming I was ableist and had no idea about the stress disabilities cause for days out like this (again, got a disabled sibling so this one stung).
Fundamentally, even as the system becomes more automated, there is always a level of human moderation involved, right from diagnosis through to the people letting you into the queue.
I had a couple of really ugly interactions where a guest had used up their physical pass and insisted they didn't need to get a new one and held up the RAP queue for half an hour before a PM came down and let them on anyway, F-ing and blinding at me for putting their neurodivergent child through so much stress (they were on their ipad the whole time). Another where a woman tried to ride the attraction twice in a row without getting off because the RAP queue was too long for their liking. I didn't send it until they got off where they gave me a good bollocking before exclaiming I was ableist and had no idea about the stress disabilities cause for days out like this (again, got a disabled sibling so this one stung).
Fundamentally, even as the system becomes more automated, there is always a level of human moderation involved, right from diagnosis through to the people letting you into the queue.
IMO they should've started with one companion. This is standard in many parks across Europe and the rest of the world. Then they could've spent more time understanding what 'fair' limits might be on those with contextual, conditional difficulties. Call me naive but I'm quite sure that there's a fair few people who previously had access to passes who will now simply have to visit the parks on off peak days to have an equally enjoyable time.
A lot of the industry are looking at how Merlin deal with this as the problem of being accessible and inclusive grows within theme parks, so I hope they are proactive and use research and innovation to become trailblazers for creating a fair and comfortable environment for as many people as possible.
but it allows him to enjoy the day without getting overwhelmed as quickly.
