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2023: General Discussion

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This is quite a weak offer really, though outside of a few X% off offers I suppose it's something new - times have changed since the days of the £6 come back tomorrow / 'bounceback' tickets I suppose... when these were around that offer would be worthless. Back in the day the hotels included tickets to the theme park, waterpark (with longer hours/exclusivity) and ERT. Many rooms/packages also came with some form of fastrack.

If only the hotels actually offered a good overall experience that would make it worthwhile staying...
 
Outside of this offer the hotel booking enables you to add a 2nd day for £12. So it’s a £12 saving per person if you were going to book 2 days. If you were only going to book one it’s not officially a ‘saving’ but gives you something extra.
 
Just received an email offering 2nd day free on hotel stays in June/July.

This is the first offer on accommodation I recall seeing since before the pandemic. Perhaps a sign that hotel bookings aren’t as buoyant as they have been over the past couple of years?

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That's all well and good, but where's the benefit for passholders? But I guess that's the point, they're trying to get non-passholders in as they will be spending money on park tickets
 
That's all well and good, but where's the benefit for passholders? But I guess that's the point, they're trying to get non-passholders in as they will be spending money on park tickets

Passholders have separate offers, such as the current 25% off the bed and breakfast rate.

 
It's probably a question of do they make more money on visitor spending by keeping the park open later than they spend on paying the extra hours for the staff. You would think that keeping the park open until 7pm would encourage people to eat dinner at the park too, scraping more money out of the visitors. But then I guess there might be staff overtime pay though if they are working for more than x hours per day, which could counteract the money they made off extra visitor spending.

You would like to think towers and merlin know how many visitors they need to make a profit this way and keep the park open later accordingly, but I'm not fully convinced lol.
 
I'm confused as to why with the park so busy, there are no extensions to 7pm. With an event on to encourage secondary spending, it would be the ideal opportunity.

Confused why park hours are being suppressed.
This is one of the core reasons I keep asking questions with regards to the detail of the Aramark contract.

It may be that there is less flexibility available now for the park to extend on a whim, nor with relatively short notice. Furthermore, depending on how the contract is structured, Merlin may not have a lot of skin in the game from a revenue perspective.

Where they do have skin in the game, with merch and other tat, I am not convinced that there is huge additional spend, it's just spread over a longer period. If people want a pin badge, they're going to buy whether they leave at 4, 5, 6 or 7.

The cost of opening the park for an additional hour is not insignificant.
 
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I remember when I went to Mardi Gras in 2021 and bought two meals on park due a late closing time. One and lunch time and one towards the end of the day. Needless to say this will not be the case when I am there this Saturday and next!
 
Most guests will have already planned to eat dinner on the way home, even if they stay later due to hours being extended I doubt many will spend extra so where is the incentive to extend on the day? Maybe the park should have done it at the weekend once they saw the weather forecast though.
 
Didn't Mardi Gras have 8pm closes in 2021? Oktoberfest definitely did in 2020, as I attended one of them. Would've thought this week would've gotten extensions at least until 7pm.
 
Whilst I agree park hours should be extended from a guest experience perspective, I'm pretty sure we're yet to see the guest numbers to justify it this season, and even on the busier days the park has largely emptied out come 5 o'clock so I can't see it having enough of an impact on revenue to justify the expense.

Of course, this is all a very short term way of looking at it, make later openings routine and guests will start arriving prepared to stay later and spend more, but then the extra expense becomes a longer term investment without much of an immediate return which hasn't really been Merlin's style.
Even advertising closing times more clearly would make a difference I'm sure, there are clearly a lot of people arriving under the assumption of an earlier ride close because that is what they have become accustomed to.
 
Didn't Mardi Gras have 8pm closes in 2021? Oktoberfest definitely did in 2020, as I attended one of them. Would've thought this week would've gotten extensions at least until 7pm.
Yes it did, I remember being there for an 8pm close in May 2021, might have been the bank holiday weekend. I don't know if they were opening as late mid-week. Ostensibly the reason for that was limited capacity due to continued Covid restrictions and social distancing on rides; however it did definitely enhance the event and it would be nice to see them return for at least the busiest days of the mardi gras event.
 
2021 opening hours were the bomb absolutely loved staying until 8pm in lovely June weather, only time I've splashed out big on fast track was on a 8pm close on a busy hot day in 2021 got platinum and was worth every penny.
 
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