Do not take my Lucazade away from me!

[Matt Cycle]

In the early to mid 90's my brother worked as a steward as a part time job at music events and he said they were told if anyone said they had a medical condition to allow them to take in what they required, including hypo treatments for T1 of whatever sort. I personally wouldn't want to make a fuss. I realise T1 is classed as a disability but I've never played that card. A few years ago I took my children to Alton Towers and they said great we can get priority access to avoid the queues. I said forget it I'm not paying extra for an express pass and they said no you can get to the front because you're Type 1 (T1 children at their school had done it). My first thought was why? What stops someone with T1 queuing like everyone else. I looked it up on the website and it said you needed a letter from a nurse or doctor. I told them no chance we were queuing with the everybody else. I thought we want to be seen as fitting in as normal people with occasional allowances, I certainly do. Getting a pass to avoid the queues at Alton Towers because you've got Type 1 to me just sends the wrong impression about the condition.

 

[Sally71]

It's because some of the fastest roller coasters are powered with electro-magnetics which would kill your pump if you got near. Which means you have to remove your pump before you join the queue, and some of the queues can be 3 hours long. Can you do without your pump for 3 hours, or would you be happy doing correction jabs in a queue in front of loads of other people? Maybe some would but my daughter wouldn't. Although she has now decided that she hates theme parks so it isn't an issue for us any more anyway.

 

[Matt Cycle]

It's because some of the fastest roller coasters are powered with electro-magnetics which would kill your pump if you got near. Which means you have to remove your pump before you join the queue, and some of the queues can be 3 hours long. Can you do without your pump for 3 hours, or would you be happy doing correction jabs in a queue in front of loads of other people? Maybe some would but my daughter wouldn't. Although she has now decided that she hates theme parks so it isn't an issue for us any more anyway.

I didn't realise that Sally although these were kids who weren't using pumps. I didn't know about it and wouldn't have given it a second thought. I've just been reading where people have been to Alton Towers with pumps and done the same without issue. There are places to store items (bags etc) just before getting on the ride itself but it's whether you would want to leave the pump there - would it be too close, how close do you have to be, walking under one of the loops?

 

[Sally71]

I don't know actually, that's just what I was told and obviously wouldn't want to risk it! I do agree with you actually that if you aren't on a pump there is no reason not to queue up with everyone else. We went to Alton Towers once with a group of T1 kids, spent ages lining up with our DSN letters to get queue jump passes, then went on the log flume. Daughter hated it and we spent the rest of the time on the smaller rides where we didn't need the pass anyway so it was more hassle than it was worth really! They give you a card for all the most popular rides which the ride operator will put the time on and then you aren't allowed another go on any of those rides within an hour, to make it a bit fairer for those people who do have to queue! Although I've heard since then that Alton Towers don't give out queue jump passes just for T1 any more.

 

[Radders]

It wasn’t a problem, I just told the guys on the gate that I carried my snacks for medical reasons and they were fine. They were also allowing sealed bottles of water up to 1 litre in, and they had drinking fountains where you could fill your own bottles.
I did check out a few of the food stalls and they didn’t appea4 to have anything I would eat so
I was glad I had taken my own in. Also glad because having to wait for food would have meant missing the acts I had paid to see! They didn’t schedule long enough gaps between them to allow for this.
I was distressed to see the amount of throwaway packaging generated, most of which was not recyclable.
Re the security issue I am really not convinced this was the reason since there were none of the type of screening and tests that you get at an airport. Nobody was patted down, bags were searched peremptorily but not xrayed, nobody was told they couldn’t bring any other liquids such as cosmetics etc in.

 

[Radders]

It's easy to claim every thing is about money, but again though, this does raise security issues.
You're taking several large amounts of untestable substances into a crowded public event, in the form of heavily flavoured/scented solids and semi solids, which no one can physically handle or inspect.

I don’t understand this at all. There were no restrictions on toiletries, cosmetics, or any other items except in terms of the size of the bag and obvious things like knives, explosives etc. My food was all open to inspection. Why does it make a difference if the items are highly flavoured? Toiletries are highly scented... sorry!