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2018: General Discussion

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I quite like that idea, Literally visit a handful of times and your pass is paid for!

It's actually cheaper than the on the gate ticket by £1 as well.
 
MakoMania said:
Some people who work during the week have to visit at weekends you know.
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A lot of people won't choose to get a season pass, they will use the voucher from their cereal boxes and be happy with their one visit on an August weekend.

Other people will visit earlier in the year and decide that they can go in March, May, July and September at the weekend and be very happy with their two free visits.

Just because you can't visit during the week, doesn't exclude you from visiting at the weekend. Also I work Monday to Friday but often take annual leave to visit somewhere on a weekday knowing it is quieter and better to visit on a June Monday compared to an August Saturday. Many other people will also take leave to visit a park, or maybe work weekends and have a Monday off they can do something else with.
 
jon81uk said:
A lot of people won't choose to get a season pass, they will use the voucher from their cereal boxes and be happy with their one visit on an August weekend.

Other people will visit earlier in the year and decide that they can go in March, May, July and September at the weekend and be very happy with their two free visits.

Just because you can't visit during the week, doesn't exclude you from visiting at the weekend. Also I work Monday to Friday but often take annual leave to visit somewhere on a weekday knowing it is quieter and better to visit on a June Monday compared to an August Saturday. Many other people will also take leave to visit a park, or maybe work weekends and have a Monday off they can do something else with.
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You're missing my point completely. As an enthusiast who visits enough to justify a pass I now have to pay for a Premium pass if I want to visit on weekends in summer, at Scarefest or during Fireworks. It's yet another cash grab by Merlin forcing people to upgrade to a Premium MAP.

I have no issue with this pass, my issue is that the normal pass with all its benefits has been removed with this as the alternative. I won't be renewing, put it that way.

If only Merlin acted like 99% of other park operators.....
 
Still got my AT annual pass until August. I like it to be honest as it gives me as many visits as I want, discount in the shops and restaurants and free parking. Very convenient. Never have to think about using 2-4-1's or booking online or paying for parking. Just jump in the car whenever I'm off work and the place is open.

This has put a bit of a spanner in the works really and I now have a decision to make come August (could be dead by then, so won't worry too much lol, it's a long time). The £55 headline price may seem good value (it defo is for some), but for someone like me, after I've messed around with paying for parking on many visits, losing out on discounts, having to book extra tickets somehow if I wanna go during Scarefest etc, it's a bit of a ball-ache potentially. Even to the point where I would probably have to look at buying a Merlin Premium again, just for the overall convenience etc. Would probably make me get off my backside and head to Thorpe, Warwick and Sealife again though. Will probably be about time by then though for a year? Who knows. If so, this little ploy by Merlin would have worked.

I like the Alton Towers Annual Pass the way it has been. Fair price and convenient. Not too happy about this new season pass, for me personally. Ah well, it's all good :)
 
As others have already said, based on my previous use of the ATAP, the new season pass is pretty much useless to me. Removing the ATAP it replaces, leaves just the premium MAP offering the full benefits at Towers and represents a massive price-hike. Why would I want to pay for entry to 30 odd attractions just to get unlimited Alton Towers entry?
 
It will be interesting to see if any of the GP try to gain entry at Scarefest with a season pass only to end up coughing up another 50 odd quid to enter to avoid a wasted trip.
 
ASturge21 said:
It will be interesting to see if any of the GP try to gain entry at Scarefest with a season pass only to end up coughing up another 50 odd quid to enter to avoid a wasted trip.
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You pay £10 to enter on blanked out days with the season pass I think?
 
DiogoJ42 said:
So don't pay it then. Free yourselves.
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I completely see where you're coming from mate. However, I don't particularly go to Towers just for the rides sometimes. I have a few annual passes, the others being National Trust and English heritage. I don't really do the annual foreign holiday, but in exchange I like to spend some of my disposable income on having the freedom to get around the country as I please visiting historical places and such-like. Having the AT pass or Merlin pass also adds coasters and other rides to the mix when I feel like it. It's just one of those things that convenient access to AT is one of those things that I like to have year on year, for various reasons. Unless the price gets ridiculous, I will have some sort of pass for the foreseeable future, this latest thing from Merlin has just made it a little bit of a tricky decision. Could just exchange Tesco clubcard vouchers like I used to and pay the extra £50 or whatever for a Premium Merlin pass come the time. Not a major problem at all, just putting the point across like others that the change from AT has not been helpful for some.
 
RoyJess said:
Not as great value as my Merlin Annual Pass, for the past decade, I've been paying £50 (or less) using Tesco club card vouchers :p
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I used to get the clubcard vouchers but since it went up from £40 I have struggled to get the points.

Anyway, I refuse a Merlin pass on principle now.
 
I was thinking of getting an annual Towers pass at the end of the summer, (I will be busy queuing for Icon until then), so I could continue visiting until late summer 2019, but now that half plan has been scuppered...maybe that was part of the reason for doing it, too many people getting double value so to speak, and only getting a pass every second year.
So, no pass at all now, apart from my BPB one.
Sun vouchers for one visit, soap voucher for a half priced second solo visit, and possibly a sneaky bounceback for later if the new coaster deserves it.
 
ringo said:
With the price being the same as on the gate price this is obviously a marketing trick to bolster attendance for the year.

Someone who turns up on the day sees a sign for season pass being the same price as on the gate will 100% buy the season pass instead and then to get value will make return visits and possibly next year then upgrade to the MAP pass instead.

Win win for Merlin
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Same scheme they've been running at Thorpe Park for the last few years, there it's an "upgrade or exchange your entry ticket for a season pass before you leave the park", if you went in on a 2-4-1 you paid £25, if you paid full price you paid nothing but just exchange the ticket for the pass.

Considering by the queues at the Annual Pass building each evening, it was a popular promotion.

I never tried it, but I was often tempted to pickup a full price entry ticket from the floor of the dome and take it to the building and get an AP.
 
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Seems odd for them to devalue their product even further when they've got a brand new coaster to exploit
 
The way they pushed it was don't just return once more this year for another £25, stop off at the annual pass building on your way out and buy an annual pass for that £25 before you leave and come back as many times as you want, just take your entry ticket along, I think they assumed everybody went in on 2-4-1 or advanced booking and nobody paid walk up price.

The one time I ever queued to use a share the fun voucher the guy in front of us had paid full price and three people told him before he'd got to the turnstiles not to chuck his ticket and to exchange it for an annual pass before he left, I think they felt guilty that he'd paid walk up price.
 
Seems as though people who want to exclusively visit AT throughout the year are in a predicament.

Visiting parks like Chessington and Thorpe which are so badly ran does not interest me, however I don't know what to do when my AT AP expires in the summer now!

I get most of my visitation during Scarefest and summer season! :(
 
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