Ian-S

Read my post, nobody with a RAP get's preferential treatment, the only people that get preferential treatment are Merlin VIP pass holders, which in my opinion is quiet acceptable considering how much they pay for them.

This is correct, and is the same at Chessington and Alton, so if there are five disabled waiting and you're sixth, you'll be on the sixth train. They don't stop the GP from going on and hand over a train to disabled, that's just a silly assumption. To those that think otherwise, having the ride access pass doesn't give you instant access, it doesn't allow you to skip queues and it doesn't affect the general throughput of the ride (because when there are no disabled riders waiting those seats are given back to the main queue), if you want unlimited exit gate queue jumping instant access, you buy a Merlin VIP pass. The RAP works like Reserve and Ride, you walk up to the ride exit, show them your wristband and access card, they then shout across to the operator on the other side who closes off one of the cattle pens (you don't get a choice), you then wait, if someone was already in the 'pen', they go first, then you go on the next rain, depending how busy the station is, you can wait up to 10 minutes, when you get on, they mark your card with the queue time displayed on the boards outside (there is a repeater in some control boxes), you then cannot use the ride access pass again until that time is up. So as an example, Colossus has a 90 minute queue, disabled person walks up at 1pm, their card is marked for 2.30pm, they get to ride, they then cannot use the access band again until 2.30. So don't be hating on the disabled because you think they get instant unrestricted access to rides, they don't they queue in a different way, yes their first ride of the day is essentially instant access but the remainder is virtually queued just like the rest of you, and often this system can work against the disabled person, as they always put at least 20 minutes on your card, so if the queue is 10 minutes you wil loose out (this is also why you'll see people with RAP's in the main queue if it short, sometimes it's just not worth using the pass). Before judging the disabled, you should spend the day with one, and experience things from their point of view, the grass is rarely as green on the other side of the fence as it looks.

Begs the question if it was the same seats every time, why send four batches in knowing one lot would have to leave? I had to chuckle on our go, there was some scoucer chavs in group 3, they completely ignored the ride op and barged their way into the 'lift' so they ended up in group 4, we were the 'unlucky' ones who ended up in Group 3 - you can guess what happened, they were the lot that had to leave, karmas a bitch LOL.

LOL no worries, we were far too tired after 2 days on site beforehand anyway to stay much past lunchtime, so we wouldn't have been much company anyway.

Welp sorry we missed you all, late exit from hotel + no contact number meant we could catch any of you, plus the weather was crap so we spent the morning riding air and nemesis over and over, seemed like a good idea at the time LOL

We went on it today, the restraints are a full length lap bar with padding under it, it has a little bit of a plastic screen on the top, don't know if that was there before though. Anyway when we went on the seats immediately to the left as you enter the chamber the harness would not lock down on and we were in the room for a good ten minutes while they were trying to get it to work before the ride ops gave up, evacuated all the people sitting in that row then set off the 'ride' without them, they were asked to wait outside then they went back in after we had been 'evacuated', when we exited they had closed the ride.

Maybe they were looking for management.... /s

Well, having seen the ride myself today, I can safely say that if it turns out the operator couldn't see the car then I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest that it happened, I couldn't tell one section of the track from another and I was standing right next to it, I can't imagine how difficult it would be from a CCTV with no depth of field.

Back when I used my phone as access card for work we used to have to turn the contrast right up before the scanners would read the screen, maybe something to keep in mind for future.

Perhaps it's just me but I've never found coasters nauseating, things like Rush and Enterprise/Zodiac, those I do get a bit light headed on sometimes.

On Colossus? ROFLMAO

Good job the press wasn't at Thorpe the other Sunday as someone had decorated the entire path behind Rush with their lunch after riding it.

I'm secretly hoping they can acquire a looping star, I know many may not consider it heritage, but it was the first coaster I went on that tipped me upside down in 1982/3, right after my first ride experience on the scenic railway, so to me, it's a heritage ride too.

Well, from a legal standpoint, they're still providing free parking for pass holders, so they're on the good side of thing there. I do hope they tell people before entering the North Carpark that it's £10 a day though, ouch. Is this explorer carpark the one that's close to the land of the dragons entrance? For me parking in a field isn't a problem, spent the better part of every weekend during the 80's parked in a field somewhere around the country but I can see that some might not like it lol.

That's a recent change then since we parked in the North car park (the tarmac one) about a month ago.

The Chessington annual pass t&c's are not available on their site, but it's quiet clearly still advertised as including free parking, and knowing Merlin has the same clause about changing terms requires 30 days written notice, so it just depends how bloody minded you are at the exit gate. The terms and conditions of entry couldn't override the passes terms in relation to cost of entry or parking fees, they'd find themselves falling foul of the CPUTR2008 if they tried to pull that one. I'd suspect this is a case of left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing or it could be management trying it on, but someone will pull them up on it eventually (it would only take one person complaining to surrey ts) and I hate to say it, but by comparison, I am a pussycat when it comes to other cultures ability to kick up a fuss over things they don't like.

Or Chinese knockoffs....

I could drive a truck through their terms and conditions they are that bad. A lot of people would just pay it though and not argue, I see it all the time unfortunately, people jut put up with crap because they don't want to be 'that' person.

That is incorrect, even if it were not part of their own terms (which it is, term 31, any changes to t&c must be conveyed to pass holders giving 30 days written notice of the changes), it is the core principles of contract law that no contract can be retrospectively amended or modified without notice, and in most cases, without consent of both parties, this is why when your credit card company change their terms they write to you and say 'in 30 days your terms are changing, if you do nothing we will assume you agree', this is called a tacit agreement, I.e. you agree by silence to the changes, if Merlin were to withdraw the free parking, they would have had to do this over a month go, which they didn't. Management don't really want to get into an argument with me over contracts, since that's kind of my field and I have a 100% success rate in Court over them Edit, you beat me to it lol. The likelyhood is we won't be going back until August so I'd expect the person on the gate will be better trained by then, and I have a copy of the terms that were effective when I ordered the card so I welcome the challenge if Management is willing...

OFCOM is what the FOS is to banking, a regularity body funded by the very people who they are supposed to be keeping in line, it's like the poachers paying the gamekeepers wages, you have to break some serious rules for these bodies to even take notice, let alone do something, unless of course you're Russian or work for PressTV then every complaint is upheld by default.

Oh dear, as a Premium Passholder who has no problem arguing the toss I'll be pointing to the section on my pass which says 'parking included' and telling the person he has a choice, let me out or call management. Chessington is the only place we've been to so far that actively has a person operating the gate instead of you scanning your card though like at Thorpe.

Especially given that it happened before the Smiler which is the media latched onto this, they'd have a field day over, imagine the headlines, Towers staff ignore hysterical teenagers trapped on ride! In the staff's defence though, I can imagine it would be very hard for them to hear and comprehend it, as I expect a lot of kids scream when going through that tunnel.

I thought it was party of the ride when we crashed into the other car coming into the station, dam lol.

I thought it was party of the ride when we crashed into the other car coming into the station, dam lol.

Oh sure if they are then it's understandable, but if it turns out the whole smiler thing was human error then (the non-fans that I know) won't believe that and will point to Saw's closure as evidence etc. I'm just playing devils advocate, I don't like the ride anyway lol.