The Smiler is certainly the worst culprit. With that said, the exposed concrete on Wicker Man's drop out of the station is also looking worse for wear; less than two years from opening.
It's an embarrassment really. Merlin simply do not believe cleanliness is a contributing factor to the guest experience. My stint with them saw the phasing out of the in-house cleaners gradually, replacing them with a minimum wage agency who simply failed to pull their weight. Yet we as front line staff got the bollocking for it?
Whilst there are prescribed cleaning checks to cover the minimum, particularly on rides, these are never conducted properly and are seen as a hindrance at the end of the day. Why shouldn't they be? Staff aren't paid nor trained in the proper manner to effectively conduct frequent deep cleans; those that do are doing so off their own back, time and passion which Merlin refuse to acknowledge. It's deeply tragic.
Merlin take no pride in the appearance of their attractions, that much is obvious. Perhaps the higher ups and the powers that be need to get off their arses, get out of Poole and actually spend time looking at the state of their front line assets; rather than cowering behind KPI numbers that are largely influenced based on staff asking those who have had positive experiences to fill them out as opposed to those with a negative experience.
Paulton's looks immaculate. Thomas Land whilst looking cheaper and cheaper as time progresses still manages to sustain cleanliness generally. Even Pleasure Beach are at least having a stab at tidying some of the decaying areas of the park; the former Trauma Towers site looks so much better now as does the Bowl-a-drome.
There is no excuse to not have the parks looking great at the start of the season. Disney run the whole damn thing as a 24/7 operation, with an entire night team dedicated to maintaining the cleanliness overnight. Whilst Merlin will never have the budget for that, it is simply inexcusable to pretend to care about making memories and the guest experience when the parks are looking grubbier than a fast food restaurant's bin.
Edit: In hindsight, I should have just left my post as "what do you expect from the company who washes Lego bricks in dirty pillow cases in a washing machine, then throws them straight back out into the attraction with the toe nail clippings and crisps they were swept up with in the first place?".