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Food & Beverage 2015

I'm gutted I've booked my stays for this year and my annual pass has been paid for. It wouldn't have been such a kick in the teeth if they advertised this before the start of the season and before people renewed.

I won't be buying alcohol in the hotel now, but I'll certainly be flagging it up when they serve drunk guests as they always do.

I won't be renewing next year, towers have now priced themselves out

Oh and by the way, chessington hotels still offer the 20% discount so stop spouting crap towers and admit it's all about the profit
 
This directive will come from Merlin, you can guarantee it will be the case everywhere before long.
 
Graeme said:
I won't be buying alcohol in the hotel now, but I'll certainly be flagging it up when they serve drunk guests as they always do.
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I find it hard to believe anyone has ever got drunk at the hotels. The use of quarter-shots in cocktails, combined with the deliberately slow service sees to that.
 
One more reason not to renew my pass. These reasons are mounting up.

After a day on park we always went to the hotel for a pint to unwind and wait for the queues to die down. Now that pint has gone up by 20% which takes it from being afforable normal pub price to an expensive hotel price, which means we wont do it. There is usually 7-8 of us so that is the profit on at least 7 pints per visit (once every 2 weeks or so) they have lost.

independant pubs pay the brewery around 40-80p for a pint, avg =60p. So simplifying of 15 visits per year and 7 pints per visit and approx 2.80 per pint (after map discount or 3.60 without)

3.60 - 0.60 = 3.00 * 15 * 7 = £315

2.8 - 0.60 = 2.2 * 15 * 7 = £231

that is actually loosing them £231, even though they think it is going to make them £84 per year. Admitedly there is tax and duty on that, that reduces the profit considerably, but that just makes the percentage gap between the two bigger.

Seems a bit daft to me, especially when the bars are always pretty empty when we go.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I find it hard to believe anyone has ever got drunk at the hotels. The use of quarter-shots in cocktails, combined with the deliberately slow service sees to that.
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Last few seasons service hasn't been too bad at the bars.

would be amusing if this was an error and they are not getting rid of the discount.....
 
I dont understand how people are saying they are not going to renew their MAP over such a small thing as a few pence saving on a pint of beer. Seams a bit drastic to me.
 
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bluesonichd said:
I dont understand how people are saying they are not going to renew their MAP over such a small thing as a few pence saving on a pint of beer. Seams a bit drastic to me.
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It's not just this though. It's lots of things building up, and this is just one of many factors and issues that some people have with the parks at the moment.

:)
 
bluesonichd said:
I dont understand how people are saying they are not going to renew their MAP over such a small thing as a few pence saving on a pint of beer. Seams a bit drastic to me.
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No one is really saying that, Merlin annoyed a lot of people with their fake sale, this is just a bit of an annoyance that solidifies the opinion of those who didn't buy one.

... Unless it's a mistake
 
My pass just run out as at midnight just gone. I'm not renewing it for the first time in, god knows how many years.

Why? Well, as Dave said above, the fake sale REALLY annoyed me, hugely, as did the £20 price increase. Then there has been the removal of perks every year, such as the free drink refills, the free hot drink in the afternoon, and now the discount off alcohol, which, to be honest, I dont drink in the park, but I do enjoy when i'm staying in the hotels.

Then there are the huge price rises across the resort and the hotels. The park looks tatty, lack of investment, reduced opening hours, same stuff every Scarefest etc. Plus. the other attractions on the pass, Thorpe Park doesnt really warrant more than 1 visit a year, Chessington doesnt really interest me anymore, Legoland is for kids and I believe you cant get in without kids anyway, London Eye done it loads of times, Dungeons, pretty much the same each time you go in them, Sealife centres get boring and are pretty samey....

Basically, theres nothing majorly new which interests me which on top of the price increases, removal of perks and basically feeling like Merlin's cash cow rather than a respected loyal customer I wont be renewing my pass. I will visit Alton once more in Scarefest and once for Fireworks and thats it for this year. I usually go 8-9 times a year, but , I really dont have the enthusiasm to do it anymore. Merlin have magic'd the magic away and replaced it with corporate greed on a grand scale.
 
Similar story for me, I despise Thorpe Park, Chessington bores me and Towers is been run into the ground.
 
If it is a mistake as Dave keeps hinting then I simply put it down to more back tracking than an actual mistake. Guests have already been declined discount on park when buying alcohol and the park have said on Twitter than they are phasing out the discount. That's two different departments in the park that have been saying the same thing. At some stage a decision higher up has been taking to stop offering the discount. Any 'mistake' is merely a change of heart/someone more senior finding out and not agreeing (a la Crabbe finding out about one of the cuts last year or the year before and reverting it immediately).

:)
 
To be fair the hot drink perk only lasted a few months anyway, that was a nice perk for the start of the season really, nothing more.
I think the pass has got too expensive for me, back when it was a Tussaud's pass it was around £80-£100 and I was fine with that. As I kept renewels up the Merlin pass wasn't too expensive, I was willing to pay up to £120, as you now got Sea Life & Dungeons included, also I then new someone who worked at Merlin and could get me a half price pass, so it was back to £95 (premium).
However I realised I am bored with doing the same parks all the time. This year I might finally get round to going all the way up to Lightwater Valley or over to PortAventura. It isn't that the quality of the Merlin parks has changed dramatically for me, just I have spent 12 years visiting them several times a year. At least Merlin try to open something new each year at the moment. I would love to go back to Florida, but the only thing Disney opened since my last trip almost five years ago is Seven Dwarves mine and Little Mermaid (which I rode in California). I think we all need to explore new parks, rather than repeating the same experiances over and over again.
 
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Towers have stated it was an error and discount is still available on booze.

It's hardly their best season for stuff like this but in this case (I can't really go into why) I believe this is a genuine error and was never something signed off by senior management.
 
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I don't drink so this wouldn't really affect me but even if I did, I doubt I would care that much. The 20% AP discount on food is a nice perk but to be honest, I often forget to use it and if it wasn't there, it wouldn't exactly ruin my day.

Everyone's entitled to protect their own interests but I do find it a bit sad that it's only when the annual pass perks are threatened that the enthusiast community goes completely up in arms. It was the same with the change in drinks refill policy. The backlash for that was completely ridiculous. The difference in price was a matter of pence. It's just a drinks bottle! Who cares!? There are much bigger issues with Alton right now than refillable soft drinks!

No one becomes a theme park enthusiast because of annual pass discounts, it's because they've been inspired by the atmosphere and the experience that a theme park can create. The continuing decline in quality for the average guest is the real problem. That's the reason people should be threatening not to renew passes.

It's not that I don't expect people to complain but the level of response seems disproportionate compared to some of the wider issues in the park. It makes the community seem quite petty in my view.
 
The backlash is fairly constant for anything Towers do really, but people will always defend something they invest money into
I suppose.
 
I know Its not as interesting but I do believe this one to be an error rather than a u-turn.
 
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