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Legoland Windsor

Legoland are over the cliff at present.

I believe they cannot recruit staff.

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Really not surprised by tripadvisor, after my visit last week I gave them a 1 star review and that’s my first theme park review on there!

Looking at the reviews the constant issues come up:
Closed rides
Badly operate rides
Expensive
Closed food outlets

Clearly a major issue with staffing, and I’m pretty sure most of the closed rides are staffing issues and not technical, looking at tripadvisor the closed rides seem to change on a daily basis. Almost like they are on secret rotation!
 
I was one of the 1 star reviews. Genuinely one of the worst days I have ever experienced in a theme park.

It was terrible the amount of stuff that was shut for Easter Holidays. Can't see us going back tbh.
 
Went for the first time on Thursday. Wow that place is dire. There were literally no food outlets open. Was impressed with the new madhouse ride though, thought that was a very nice all round experience.
 
Just a little update to the continuing car crash that is Legoland Windsor. Nearly 3 months into the season trip advisor reviews are still over 50% terrible or very poor so far this year. On bank holiday/half term weekend here is a snap shot of ride availability.

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Gate price remains at £60 for adults and children during school holidays.
 
90% guest satisfaction? o_O looking forward to seeing that trip advisor score plunging further. Fingures crossed lego gets frustrated enough with their brand being tarnished by merlin that they take action soon.

Edit. Just checked trip advisor, supprise surprise every review for the bank holiday weekend is either 1 or 2 star
 
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It has operated sporadically, we managed to ride on the TST south trip, but it broke down at the end of our ride due to one set of restraints not opening and holding a family of 4 hostage.
 
What I don't understand is, it's clearly a very busy park I'd say 95% of the time. So why are half of the food outlets ALWAYS closed? I've been many times where all the queues are 60 mins+ and still half of the stuff is shut?

I can understand it at Towers where it's hardly ever busy and there isn't any need for all of them. But for Legoland it just doesn't make sense.
 
There are two issues regarding closed outlets etc. One is that budgets to operate the park are not high enough to fully staff the park even on busy days. Outlets have been closed for years and complaints from guests on this issue aren’t new.

On top of this there appears to be a new issue this year making things even worse, they can’t actually recruit staff in the first place, this is impacting all areas of the park not just F&B. They appear to have increased pay rates to £9per hour versus the usual min wage that Merlin pay (currently £8.21 per hour), but the high employment rates and cost of living in the local area seems to mean that people are simply choosing to work elsewhere for better pay and/or conditions.
 
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There are two issues regarding closed outlets etc. One is that budgets to operate the park are not high enough to fully staff the park even on busy days. Outlets have been closed for years and complaints from guests on this issue aren’t new.

On top of this there appears to be a new issue this year making things even worse, they can’t actually recruit staff in the first place, this is impacting all areas of the park not just F&B. They appear to have increased pay rates to £9per hour versus the usual min wage that Merlin pay (currently £8.21 per hour), but the high employment rates and cost of living in the local area seems to mean that people are simply choosing to work elsewhere for better pay and/or conditions.

Simple solution, pay a higher more realistic rate.

When I left school in the late 80's, my first job was on the carts, I got £9.60 an hour. Back then the market controlled itself wage wise. Minimum wage is one of the worst things to be introduced, my neighbours girl gets less today than I did back then per hour and she is a full qualified hairdresser.
 
Minimum wage is one of the worst things to be introduced
You can guarantee if it wasnt enforced they would pay lower than minimum. Big franchise business models rely on attracting workers with slick advertising while paying very low wages, and if you don't like it then there's a revolving door of others to replace you.

Literally the only people this works for is students doing casual summer/ weekend work, which might work in Starbucks but Id argue is one reason Merlin operations are so poor. It seems that Legoland had cut it so fine they couldnt even get away with it anymore.
 
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