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Which Merlin park has improved the most?

Which UK Merlin park has improved the most since the acquisitions?

  • Alton Towers

    Votes: 3 8.8%

  • Chessington

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Legoland

    Votes: 3 8.8%

  • Thorpe Park

    Votes: 13 38.2%

  • None of them have improved

    Votes: 13 38.2%
  • Total voters
    34
Bowser

Bowser

TS Member
My return to theme park enthusiasm is relatively recent (around 2021) though i have a combination of learned knowledge since joining this forum (from both it and other sources) and intermittent personal experience in the decades prior.

I hadn't visited Legoland before this time so it's difficult for me to know in comparison to the others so for that reason it won't get my vote. Objectively i expect it's probably the most improved as i believe it has gained more attractions and grown in other ways.

For me it's between Thorpe Park and Chessington. Currently i'd lean towards Thorpe Park, it feels like it's had the most major attractions added in that period, certainly that appeal to me. It feels like quite a different park to how it was 20 years ago in terms of the overall ride offering and is in a better place. Retaining the food franchises is retrospectively another big plus though not sure that qualifies as an improvement per se.

I expect Chessington might take the lead in a couple more years with all the new investments. The initial Merlin years were rather dire with a heavy reliance on the classic attractions and it's only post Jumanji things have started picking up imo. Arguably a 15 year lull with only recent improvement.

Alton Towers is the bottom unfortunately. Whilst they had a few excellent additions in that period overall it feels like they lost more than they gained and the reliability fell of a cliff in recent years. It's hard to argue the park has improved in the last 20 years with most of the major additions being replacements rather than growth, though they are excellent rides.
 
Bowser said:
My return to theme park enthusiasm is relatively recent (around 2021) though i have a combination of learned knowledge since joining this forum (from both it and other sources) and intermittent personal experience in the decades prior.

I hadn't visited Legoland before this time so it's difficult for me to know in comparison to the others so for that reason it won't get my vote. Objectively i expect it's probably the most improved as i believe it has gained more attractions and grown in other ways.

For me it's between Thorpe Park and Chessington. Currently i'd lean towards Thorpe Park, it feels like it's had the most major attractions added in that period, certainly that appeal to me. It feels like quite a different park to how it was 20 years ago in terms of the overall ride offering and is in a better place. Retaining the food franchises is retrospectively another big plus though not sure that qualifies as an improvement per se.

I expect Chessington might take the lead in a couple more years with all the new investments. The initial Merlin years were rather dire with a heavy reliance on the classic attractions and it's only post Jumanji things have started picking up imo. Arguably a 15 year lull with only recent improvement.

Alton Towers is the bottom unfortunately. Whilst they had a few excellent additions in that period overall it feels like they lost more than they gained and the reliability fell of a cliff in recent years. It's hard to argue the park has improved in the last 20 years with most of the major additions being replacements rather than growth, though they are excellent rides.
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Legoland Windsor has been by far the most improved they have so many more rides now then they used evident by the fact Dragon rarely gets over 35mins when before it would get 75 Min queues.

Alton Towers is a tricky one as its certainly has gotten a lot a ride availability is improved this year. From its acquisition into Merlin it has had Mutiny Bay, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Nemesis Sub-Terra, The Smiler, CBeebies Land, Wickerman, Gangsta Granny the Ride, Curse of Alton Manor, Nemesis Reborn and Toxicator. All whilst not forgetting they brought us The Sanctuary and Sub Species: The End Games 2 of the best ever Scare Mazes. Now thats not to say it hasn't had a rough period the smiler incident really giving it a tough time overall I don't think Alton has gotten better nor do I think it has gotten as bad as people make it out to be.

Thorpe Park is in 2nd due to having the whole project sparkle plus Hyperia but on the whole it did have years of neglect between 2013-2022 and lost its identity really.

Chessington has had a real mixed bag while they did have a lot of Flat Rides brought there hasn't been much in the way of major new additions until now Zufari and World of Jumanji was the most major addition Merlin made to Chessington. Another problem they stripped a lot of the excellent high quality theming back from rides like Tiger Rock cool log flume very poor theming. The biggest change I think Chessington made which was a mistake was removal of Bubbleworks whilst I don't mind IPs Bubbleworks is a case of it being a downgrade in my opinion
 
AT86 said:
Some things at all parks have improved during Merlin’s ownership whilst at the same time other things have deteriorated.

Overall I don’t think any park has materially improved since they took over. Just bobbed along at best.
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Could you imagine what the UK Theme Park industry would look like if all our parks were in their Golden Era's, Combined with Paultons of today and Universal
 
I haven’t visited Legoland for a very long time, so can’t comment on that park. It would have to be Thorpe Park though. They haven’t done anything special, but the Sparkles project cleaned the place up a bit and love it or hate it, Hyperia has brought a lot of people in
 
Operations have significantly improved at Thorpe after being really dire at one point.

All the parks are in a one step forward, two steps back situation under Merlin unfortunately. Chessie has the most potential to come good with the new investments though.
 
Warwick Castle, but sadly you haven't included it as an option. I genuinely believe it's the one attraction which has flourished, or certainly improved the most, under Merlin.

The shows are strong, the accomodation offerings are of decent quality, the seasonal events are enjoyable and well done, the castle's grounds are expertly well maintained. Warwick Castle Live is a genuine success.

I'm sure there's a metaphor hidden in here somewhere, that Merlin's most improved UK attraction is a centuries old ruin, but there we have it.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Warwick Castle, but sadly you haven't included it as an option. I genuinely believe it's the one attraction which has flourished, or certainly improved the most, under Merlin.

The shows are strong, the accomodation offerings are of decent quality, the seasonal events are enjoyable and well done, the castle's grounds are expertly well maintained. Warwick Castle Live is a genuine success.

I'm sure there's a metaphor hidden in here somewhere, that Merlin's most improved UK attraction is a centuries old ruin, but there we have it.
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I didn't include it as it's not a theme park so didn't seem a cohesive comparison point and also in the name of simplicity as the list would be rather long if we included all the various Merlin acquisitions!

I Imagine Gardaland might fare more positively for Merlin if it was included...
 
Bowser said:
I didn't include it as it's not a theme park so didn't seem a cohesive comparison point and also in the name of simplicity as the list would be rather long if we included all the various Merlin acquisitions!

I Imagine Gardaland might fare more positively for Merlin if it was included...
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In complete tongue in cheek fairness, your posed question only said "park", and until very recently it was accounted as under the remit of Resorts and Theme Parks!

Not that geese have cheeks.
 
None of them have improved in the decade or so I've been doing them regularly. Honestly, when I look at, all these parks were better a decade ago than they are now.

Whilst some areas make positive steps, other areas deteriorating just bring the overall experience back down again.
 
PhalanaxOperativeA1127 said:
None of them have improved in the decade or so I've been doing them regularly. Honestly, when I look at, all these parks were better a decade ago than they are now.

Whilst some areas make positive steps, other areas deteriorating just bring the overall experience back down again.
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How can you say Legoland hasn't improved when its ride offering is far bigger than it used to be.
 
I think we’re confusing stagnated and regressed…

The only park to my mind that has improved in the past 15 years is Paultons.

Thorpe hasn’t got any worse…

Alton has regressed
 
Ash said:
Thorpe hasn’t got any worse…
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I don’t think that’s fair personally.

Merlin have built Hyperia, Swarm and SAW in that time, 3 notable and very popular coasters without the loss of any coasters.

The only major ride to close I believe is the log flume but they also built Storm Surge so have always had 3 major water rides, more than any UK park.

So in terms of ride offering the park has improved.

I suspect the Fright Night offering has grown and improved too.
 
Storm Surge is terrible though. Part of that "must be something new every year" trend and was going for cheap from another park.

Considering even the Tussauds era went from great to terrible in the cases of Towers and Chessie (2004/05 were diabolical years) whilst Thorpe had a lot of expansion, can we truthfully say any of the parks are in a genuine improved condition from an overall standpoint? Sure the ride hardware has improved but there's currently a lot of flaws that are causing massive problems to at least two. Thorpe is bound to have another identity crisis soon though.

Legoland losing a number of the interactive walkthroughs will always be a negative. But yay a Disko solves those issues right?

Was discussing a similar thing with a friend the other week whilst on Skyride playing the old music. If we travelled back to the early 2000s would the place be good or is it just nostalgia clouding our view? Honestly because of the closure of a number of rides over the years, empty shop buildings, terrible food and poor decisions I couldn't say that I preferred modern Towers to when I first visited.

Now we mainly go for CBeebies Land and because we get RAP. And when looking at queue and down times increasing when we do visit we're glad we haven't paid through the nose to go.
 
I'm actually studying this at the moment in relation to International Business Management models. At the moment, I'm looking at business strategies reviewing the approach of Comcast with Universal GB.

When the approach, compared against established models and theory is analysed, the stats don't lie. DIC Tussaud's, and especially Merlin, have adopted a Cost Management approach in regard to their RTP portfolio, conditioning consumer market expectations with the low cost pass holder strategic mechanic. I've actually concluded the synthesis with "Disney's failure in France left the door open, and Merlin's strategy created the perfect welcome mat."

The parks have strategically been downgraded around the overall goals of the business.
 
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