Merlin Annual Pass offers and questions

I've just had an email from Merlin advertising their latest MAP offer - 15 months for the price of 12 on new purchases:

https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/...m_campaign=MAP_15for12_2018&utm_term=Announce

Seems like a good deal as it's valid from the day you buy it so the extra 3 months would allow for visits to winter attractions in the new year.

But one question - the "family" ticket pass - how do they check it's all one family - or do they? Reason I ask is that the Family pass price allows for up to 3 adults. Is there anything stopping me getting 3 of these one for me and 2 for friends?

 

Nothing stopping you adding random strangers, they don’t care as long as they get the money.

 

They don't check validity of family purchases.

 

I don't know if this is the correct thread to post, mods please feel free to move post if not

Has anyone else had the Merlin questionnaire email recently?

There were about 24 different pass options over 12 pages asking which one you would choose and at the bottom asking if you would purchase one today?

A few things caught my eye during the options.

After 2pm entry
Entry to one theme park only (sounds like a season pass but with all other attractions included but excluding all other theme parks)
There was one final question at the end, would you be interested in a weekday pass only? Which sounds great for us for a majority of the year, except for we do usually attend the fireworks and scarefest events on the weekend at the end of the season.

Price options range between £49 to around £400 for a Merlin pass. However the pricing didn't always make sense as sometimes the cheaper option was the better option.

Remember this was just a questionnaire doing some research, but it looks like there could be more complicated options of pass and exclusions in the pipeline

Here is a screenshot of one of the 12 pages of options

 

I got the Merlin questionnaire today. I filled it in. Can't say many of the options appealed to me since most of them had block out days. I did vote I would consider a super cheap weekday past but if I am going that restrictive I might as well just by a AT annual pass. They seemed to feature some Unlimited Drinks options which I don't care about nor do I really care about discounts on merch/food/drink.

From the number of options with copious block out periods I think that might be the way they are going in the future.

 

The thing is, how sure are Merlin that the full-paying customers won't only be here this year as they're worried about travelling out of the country and had holidays cancelled? If they think weekdays are usually too quiet to open when they have a load of Merlin passholders in attendance then what happens when they lose a number of passholders and the people who paid full-price this year don't come back most other years because they're in Spain instead?

Maybe the idea of the questionnaire was designed so that they could have a number of options of annual pass aimed at different needs of the customer? For example, I would have loved the midweek pass a few years ago as my days off work had been Mon/Tue for many years. However, now I get weekends off so that pass with a discount would be no good for me so I would probably have to buy what would be a more expensive option to include weekends. Maybe they're actually surprisingly trying to be be more inclusive as opposed to trying to get rid of passholders?

 

Merlin are obviously looking at providing less value for more money

I've message Merlin about not being able to make use of our pass due to the pandemic, and ask if they could suspend our pass until the pandemic is over, this is the reply that I got

Spoiler

 

You can see why they would consider breaking up the passes, they give you access to a lot of attractions which has increased as Merlin expanded.

I'd consider a Northern attractions pass, at the right price... especially if it gave me say one ticket per annum for the exclusions, or a hefty gate discount.

I could imagine the Midway attractions being moved onto the Premium pass so that has a point outside of London.

Or maybe a mix and match approach, one park £60, +£30 for a second +£20 for a third, +£30 for the Midways, +£30 parking. etc.

Doubtless that would annoy people (myself included) who max out the passes, but when you are only earning £4 or £5 for each gate entry from the heavy users, you'd have to question if the current system works for the company?

 

Thorpe Park just shared a link to a survey of non-passholders want to take part

 

The after 2pm pass came up a lot too. I really don’t think that makes sense for most of their theme parks that usually close at 5pm.
If it was London attractions only (midways and maybe Thorpe/Chessington) then after 2pm pass would make more sense.
But I don’t see many people making the drive to Alton Towers just for three hours on park.

regional grouping of attractions would definitely make more sense, I could see one pass with Warwick Castle and everything north of that (Alton Towers, Blackpool Tower etc) working very well and being able to be offered cheaper as the London attractions are busier anyway.

 

My sister used the old after 2 ticket system for years...drop the kids off early, go visit mates, then do the water rides with the kids in the afternoon with no entry queue.
Think it was a local paper offer for oldies.
Old gits find a full day a struggle sometimes too.
They need a pier to have a kip under.

 

I wasn't too over awed by any of the pass offers either. AT is too far away from anything to bother with an after 2pm pass. I've shown up at BPB after 2 a few times with my pass and been happy but that's a different beast altogether.

I would be tempted by a Northern pass but that didn't seem like an option they were considering. Shame as I think that is one pass that would be popular.

 

So Merlin Annual Pass has been removed from sale.

 

Yes they have suspended all MAP sales including renewals.
https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/compare-passes/renewal-passes

 

Not surprising really, obviously they had a massive backlash from pass holders recently after selling cheap passes over summer then pass holders struggling to actually use the passes. It was going to happen but now it will be interesting to see how long they stay off sale for.

 

You would expect they'd have these new passes virtually ready if they've pulled sales of the old ones, but there again who knows.

 

Seems a bit of an odd decision to remove passes from sale now, with just over a month of the theme park season remaining. There was a time my pass expired around this time of year, I'd have been livid if I hadn't been able to renew and found myself without access to scarefest and fireworks. Maybe they've got something lined up?