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Merlin Entertainments: General Discussion

I would be surprised if they even include free parking with those. Couldn't see a chart showing perks when I looked.
 
Are the parks really that quiet?

I thought we had left the dirt cheap season passes back in 2019.

I don't get the logic of these, will they really make that much secondary spend on food from those third visits in three months? Or will Thorpe Park just be used as a creche for teenagers again as parents see it as a cheap place to dump their children for £59 all summer.

A ticket offering three visits for £59 would have made a bit more sense.

Also doesn't seem to exclude fireworks at Alton Towers (assuming the passes are still on sale past 1st August)
 
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You can buy a silver season pass for Towers for £99 right now which includes parking and the usual discounts etc. Renewal cost me around £80 last time. The 3 month pass for £60 seems a bit pricey if I'm honest, especially considering the lack of perks.

Edit - But as Jon says, maybe it'll be useful for parks such as Thorpe where people can jump on a bus and basically live there for a few weeks.
 
jon81uk said:
Also doesn't seem to exclude fireworks at Alton Towers (assuming the passes are still on sale past 1st August)
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Whilst it doesn't cover the dates explicitly, yet, there is the clause below, so it's probably coming:
Merlin may, at any time, in its absolute discretion, add any further exclusions which shall be applicable to the Alton Towers Seasonal Pass as determined by Merlin.
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Source: https://www.altontowers.com/terms-a...xNzUwMzQ4NTQ0JGozMCRsMCRoMA..#altonannualpass
 
AT86 said:
Looks like Merlin have launched ‘3 month passes’ across their 4 UK theme parks today.

£59pp, valid for one park for 3 months (with a couple of exclusion dates in late August and peak October).

Available until 31st July.

Wonder if they are seeing a drop in renewals and hoping to catch folks wanting days out over the summer?
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Think it is rightfully deserved they have a drop in numbers after all they have done hopefully either means the Merlin Group will be split a part by new owners or they change there ways
 
Clearly we don’t have any verifiable overall figures, but anecdotally, the number of people (including us) who we know who have not renewed their passes over the last 12 months is astounding. I’d say of all the pass holders we know, the majority have not renewed. I’m sure that number isn’t as high across the entirety of the MAP demographic, but there has to be quite a hemmorage of passholders.

There’s two obvious reactions to that drop; either improving the offering or racing to the bottom. I see they’ve very clearly made that choice.
 
venny said:
Clearly we don’t have any verifiable overall figures, but anecdotally, the number of people (including us) who we know who have not renewed their passes over the last 12 months is astounding. I’d say of all the pass holders we know, the majority have not renewed. I’m sure that number isn’t as high across the entirety of the MAP demographic, but there has to be quite a hemmorage of passholders.

There’s two obvious reactions to that drop; either improving the offering or racing to the bottom. I see they’ve very clearly made that choice.
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and I don't think making the full annual pass cheaper would be the answer, but is likely to come.

Merlin seem to value quantity of guests over quality of spend. I would think guests spending a higher gate price is better (as Paultons aim for), but Merlin obviously prefer just trying to get people in no matter how much they actually spend.
 
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Hid said:
Is this a good or bad thing as it has been since 2015 Merlin became worse and all the management a responsible for the problems back then.
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As much as I’m always suspicious of people leaving, 16 years is a long old time to be in one business now. Where I work the general turnaround is around 3-5 years because job hopping seems to be the only way to guarantee salary rises nowadays.
 
Yup, my brother in law went to the boss (sort of) cap in hand, explaining he was being penalised for loyalty by remaining at the firm for over a decade without moving on...
Got the advertised gaffers job and a thirty percent payrise before the end of the week.
 
dave___ said:
As much as I’m always suspicious of people leaving, 16 years is a long old time to be in one business now. Where I work the general turnaround is around 3-5 years because job hopping seems to be the only way to guarantee salary rises nowadays.
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Yeah it is a long time - I've been with my company for 24 years this year. There are others I work with that have been with them since they left school at 16 and joined as an apprentice. They are all in their mid-50s now!
 
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I've been in two minds about cancelling my pass over the past month, having only used it twice thus far this year, reminded of the far better quality on other continents, and seeing the offering be diminished further. Not that this email, thanking me for my loyalty, does anything to swing that decision.
 
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