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Legoland Windsor

They should move on and sell the theme park division. Varney had stated that the focus is on Midway and funding will be cut for theme parks. If they can't be bothered to run them properly let someone else do it.

Chessington and Legoland in particular look absolutely horrendous this season.

Towers have got off to a good start but it could still be so much better. Don't know about Thorpe Park but, well .. it's Thorpe Park.
 
RicketyCricket said:
They should move on and sell the theme park division. Varney had stated that the focus is on Midway and funding will be cut for theme parks. If they can't be bothered to run them properly let someone else do it.

Chessington and Legoland in particular look absolutely horrendous this season.

Towers have got off to a good start but it could still be so much better. Don't know about Thorpe Park but, well .. it's Thorpe Park.
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Well, we've got the meet at Thorpe this Sunday, so we shall see what it's like then.
 
RicketyCricket said:
They should move on and sell the theme park division. Varney had stated that the focus is on Midway and funding will be cut for theme parks. If they can't be bothered to run them properly let someone else do it.
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Legolands aren't part of the theme park division, they form their own division within Merlin. Seems unlikely that Merlin would ever voluntarily drop that division, given the cash it presumably pulls in.
 
Islander said:
Legolands aren't part of the theme park division, they form their own division within Merlin. Seems unlikely that Merlin would ever voluntarily drop that division, given the cash it presumably pulls in.
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Ah yeah forgot about that.

Lego should be concerned that Merlin are potentially damaging their brand.
 
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Might be pulling cash in, but they could pull in a hell lot more if they opened some outlets.

We were going to grab lunch at Legoland before we left, but as 90% of outlets were closed this meant the ones that were open had stupidly long queues, we didn’t bother and went to Sainsbury’s down the road.

I imagine a lot of people also won’t be spending extra cash on ice creams, sweets, etc with so many outlets closed all over the park.
 
There’s an ice cream parlour in Heartlake that just sells crappy machine ice cream. Nothing like the way it represents itself with signage etc.

We went a month ago, on a busy Saturday, and most of the kiosks were shut. My son won’t go in the buffet restaurants as they’re too loud and the fish and chip place is awful - as is the one at Chessington. The burger place was heaving. We ended up getting through the day on snacks from the mum bag where we’d normally spend £20-30 after MAP discount.

Actually, there was a donut place open with a massive queue. They’d serve one person a time, with one person taking the order, cooking the donuts and making the coffee, then taking payment before moving on to another customer. Chessington operate the same MO when it comes to F&B and it gets right on my.....
 
AGL said:
Actually, there was a donut place open with a massive queue. They’d serve one person a time, with one person taking the order, cooking the donuts and making the coffee, then taking payment before moving on to another customer. Chessington operate the same MO when it comes to F&B and it gets right on my.....
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That’s the Merlin way, the donut outlets at Warwick Castle operate the exact same way.
 
What the... how... huh?

How does a company that's second only to Disney run a park so badly?! How can you be one of the busiest UK parks but have so many rides and catering outlets shut? At this rate there'll be no toilets left open soon!

Lego need to force Merlin out ASAP, surely this is massively damaging to their brand?
 
Said it for a few years now. Merlin used to get a lot more of our money when they ran F&B properly, so you got decent food and decent service. This is now an anomaly.

Now instead of spending hundreds on F&B every year, we spend hardly nothing and either take our own or eat off park.

Penny wise, pound stupid.
 
venny said:
Said it for a few years now. Merlin used to get a lot more of our money when they ran F&B properly, so you got decent food and decent service. This is now an anomaly.

Now instead of spending hundreds on F&B every year, we spend hardly nothing and either take our own or eat off park.

Penny wise, pound stupid.
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Couldn’t agree more and we have done exactly the same since the towers fire works disgrace in 2016
 
It’s quite clear that F&B have had massive cuts in parks, often either being closed or ran on very minimal staff. I don’t get it as if there’s a big queue people just won’t bother. When the cost of items are so high the profits must be mega, so adding an extra staff member won’t cost a lot.

Also if Lego can’t afford to operate all these kiosks, why bother wasting the money installing them, or just take the signs down if you have no money to open them.

I feel sorry for the staff the most, as it will be them who get the angry guests and there won’t be any managers around to deal with or help out I’m sure.

Best advice is to keep filling in those IPad surveys and trip advisor. More bad reviews they get the better.
 
djtruefitt said:
It’s quite clear that F&B have had massive cuts in parks, often either being closed or ran on very minimal staff. I don’t get it as if there’s a big queue people just won’t bother. When the cost of items are so high the profits must be mega, so adding an extra staff member won’t cost a lot.

Also if Lego can’t afford to operate all these kiosks, why bother wasting the money installing them, or just take the signs down if you have no money to open them.

I feel sorry for the staff the most, as it will be them who get the angry guests and there won’t be any managers around to deal with or help out I’m sure.

Best advice is to keep filling in those IPad surveys and trip advisor. More bad reviews they get the better.
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I'm honestly surprised merlin have yet to go the Seworld / Bush Gardens route and ban all food being brought in to park by guests in the name of profit
 
Burbs said:
At least there's spoons next to the park which is very easy to get to. Not the case with many other parks. :p
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Exctly, there is bugger all around most of the merlin parks (like seaworld and busch in Orlando) so they would have a nice captive audience for food
 
So since Legoland opened for the 2019 season they have had 390 reviews on trip advisor, with the breakdown being:

Excellent (5 stars): 42
Very Good (4 stars): 56
Average (3 stars): 66
Poor (2 stars): 85
Terrible (1 star): 141

So that is close to 60% poor or terrible reviews. Even by Merlin standards this must be a new low? If I was Lego I wouldn’t be best pleased at what impact this must be having on the brand.
 
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