2025: General Discussion

[Hid]

The problem there, though, is that the last time a significant amount of people voted with their feet in 2015, Merlin only doubled down further on the bad stuff.

Admittedly, it might be different now Merlin are both private and under different management, but the substantial attendance decline in 2015 only led to an accelerated timetable of cuts, so I wouldn’t be so sure that reduced attendance will necessarily lead to a positive change in direction.

There is a difference Merlin today is not the same Merlin.

Merlin Tussards were the ones that were back then they are now different with Merlin Lego.

So it may take some time but more investments may come

 

[Islander]

There is a difference Merlin today is not the same Merlin.

Merlin Tussards were the ones that were back then they are now different with Merlin Lego.

So it may take some time but more investments may come

So... you're blaming current conditions on Lego? Lol.

 

[jon81uk]

Merlin Tussards were the ones that were back then they are now different with Merlin Lego.

What is Merlin Tussards and Merlin Lego?

Merlin Entertainments has previously been owned by Blackstone, who then bought ownership of the Legoland parks and Kirkbi got a share in Merlin. Then Merlin merged with Tussauds Group so Dubai Investment Capital got a stake as they were the previous owners of Tussauds. Later on Kirkbi increased their share in the company and some was floated on the stock market. But it went back to private ownership with with a consortium of Blackstone, Kirkbi and Canadian Pension Plan.

But overall the ownership has been fairly similar over the last twenty years, just different ratios of Blackstone, DIC, CPP and Kirkbi. It was a bit different when they were on the stock market and therefore they wanted to look good to investors and there was some changes due to that, but Blackstone have been one of the major investors in Merlin the whole time and Kirkbi since the acquisition of the Legoland parks.

The biggest effect hasn't really been ownership but knee-jerk reactions to changing visitor habits, they slashed things after the Smiler incident and have done at other times too.

 

[Glowstone_King]

The usual behaviour of a Merlin park that isn’t hitting budget is to pull back on opening hours and staff costs through staggered openings etc. We aren’t seeing that at Towers so far this year - the 7pm closes for Aug are still there

To back this up, last year we didn’t have full 6pm closure until 2nd August (there were gaps in July) whereas this year we’ve had full time 6pm closure since 11th July.

If attendance was drastically lower I’d imagine they’d save on operating costs by reducing to 5pm closure.

 

[flyingguitar]

It’s worth remembering that people also said there were drastically fewer visitors in 2023 and 2024, yet any official figure we had regarding these suggested that visitor figures were higher than ever.

The last iteration of the Merlin graph suggested that 2023 had the highest attendance since at least 2010, and Bianca suggested that attendance grew again in 2024. Yet at the time, you’d have thought that attendance was through the floor based on online correspondence.

I would agree with this, 2024 and 2023 it felt much more quieter than it did prevously (you used to have to queue in your car up further than the oak and chains to get to the car park, but now it is usually just drive in with very little queue.

I think toxicator, and reopening of nemesis, hex, sky ride has helped spread the crowds out a lot more, as previously most the park would be in X sector or DF, and the improved reliability and opps have helped reduce queue times.

 

[Matt N]

I would agree with this, 2024 and 2023 it felt much more quieter than it did prevously (you used to have to queue in your car up further than the oak and chains to get to the car park, but now it is usually just drive in with very little queue.

I think toxicator, and reopening of nemesis, hex, sky ride has helped spread the crowds out a lot more, as previously most the park would be in X sector or DF, and the improved reliability and opps have helped reduce queue times.

I feel it’s more likely that crowds have spread across the week to make weekdays busier and weekends quieter. While the weekends are supposedly quieter, weekday visit regulars such as @rob666 and @Matt.GC have said before about how the weekdays are a lot busier than they used to be, in no small part due to the £80 Discovery Pass. I’d also hazard a guess that a rise in remote and flexible working following COVID might potentially have made weekday visits more feasible for many people.

Given that there are 5 weekdays and 2 weekend days, any rise in weekday visitation would more than offset a fall in weekend visitation.

That’s the most plausible theory I’ve heard to explain why overall attendance is supposedly near a record high while the park doesn’t feel as busy on peak days as it did in, say, 2010. It would also partially explain why guest spend is apparently very poor given the attendance; people coming in midweek on £80 annual passes likely aren’t going to be big spenders.

 

[Poisson]

They are seemingly operating rides better than the past few years too. I'm not complaining at shorter queues with them getting on with ops.

 

[AT86]

Queues are certainly picking up as we head into August, given availability is good I suspect this is a sign guest numbers are increasing.

Suggests the quieter queues last week were just the usual summer holiday pattern. First couple of weeks surprisingly quiet getting steadily busier peaking at end of August.

 

[djtruefitt]

Queues are certainly picking up as we head into August, given availability is good I suspect this is a sign guest numbers are increasing.

Suggests the quieter queues last week were just the usual summer holiday pattern. First couple of weeks surprisingly quiet getting steadily busier peaking at end of August.

And it usually only gets worse as the summer holidays come to an end.