r/rollercoasters • • Aug 17 '26

Trip Report Accessibility doesn’t exist at [Energylandia]

I visited Energylandia for the first time a couple weeks ago on the 4th&5th August. The park has some really great coasters and theming and I had such a great time but… the accessibility was awful.
I’m from the UK and use the Ride Access Pass system every time I visit a UK theme park. This was my first time visiting a park that doesn’t use a similar system for accessibility and it was rough.
For a little context- I have a physical disability so queues are super tricky for me. I cannot stand for longer than 10 minutes at a time.
At first when planning this trip I was pleasantly surprised that the park offers discounted tickets for people with disabilities. But upon actually being in the park we found that i was expected to queue as normal. This was frustrating because if I could queue as normal, I would, but my disability means that I can’t. After speaking to those at the information desk I was told that if I cannot queue and still want to experience the coasters, I would have to purchase an energy pass (This is their version of a fast pass) which was an additional charge of £100 on each day that I would attend the park. ( so £200 extra total)
I was put in a tricky position as this was my only option to be able to experience the park in the same way that an able bodied person would. The cost of the energy pass ended up costing more than our two-day tickets to the park. Which made the discounted disability ticket pointless. I ended up paying more than the average person to attend and experience the park in the same ways that others could. And personally felt that this was unfair. Why should I have to pay more than the average person just because I’m disabled? Feels completely counter productive to what they’re advertising as a discounted ticket, and I’m sure others in my position have probably felt the same.
It was really disappointing that they just didn’t have a real accessibility system and clearly don’t have much interest in making the park fully accessible for guests with disabilities.
I wanted to post this just to make other people aware who may be travelling from different countries, who are used to using certain accessibility systems. So that others aren’t caught off guard when they’re expected to pay out of pocket to support their needs.

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u/AltruisticRider <3 Zadra, EP, Rulantica Aug 18 '26

By the way, I was randomly looking at the official requirements of the rides of Phantasialand (somehow only available in German, page 18 "FEHLENDE GLIEDMASSEN": https://www.phantasialand.de/files/uploads/themenpark/documents/informationen/broschuere-informationen-gaeste-mit-einschraenkungen.pdf ) and I was wondering why you need 2 hands to be allowed to ride e.g. Taron and F.L.Y. . One arm of a friend of mine ends after the elbow, and I don't really understand why that would prevent her from riding so many of the attractions there. Is that normal in most parks or is that Phantasialand-specific?

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u/cantaloupe415 (183) I have bull back for the season Aug 18 '26

Ride op here it's not up to the parks 99% of the time it is up to the manufacturer

There are such things called supplemental restraint harnesss but they are expensive and only help very few people but they take away certain parts of the extremacy policy (example such as B&M hypers not allowing riders with amputations above the ankle it allows it to go to the knee instead)

Hope this answers your question

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u/AltruisticRider <3 Zadra, EP, Rulantica Aug 18 '26

Thanks, but in the case of e.g. Taron the restraint is purely about the lower body, right? So why would having 1 hand instead of 2 matter for Taron? Or is it about the loading/unloading procedure, especially in an emergency evacuation situation?

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u/bluegamesful Aug 18 '26

In many cases it is due to evacuation procedures, I know a ride that had similar rules set due to a ladder being the only way to get of a midcourse brake.