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Merlin Annual Pass

Rob

Rob

TS Team
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Steel Vengeance
I can't seem to find a topic on the MAP, so thought I'd start one. I'm just going their new survey, here are a few things they seem to be considering:

- A parking pass (priced at either the Premium upgrade price of £40 or below)
- A European pass providing entry to all Merlin attractions in Europe
- A Worldwide pass for entry to all Merlin attractions in the world
- An 'Ultimate' Pass (Valid for 12 months, included unlimited fastrack at all attractions, a Merlin Annual Pass drinks capsule, free preferred parking and more)
- The chance to renew for two years rather than one, which would include associated savings
- A complete new pass system:
Selective Pass - where the price would be dependent on the attractions you chose to include
Off Peak Pass - where the price would be dependent on the busiest periods being excluded
Regional Pass - where either only the attractions included in the north or south of the UK would be included

Obviously these are only considerations and may not happen. But I thought it was worth bringing them up.

:)
 
Some good ideas being thrown around here what caught my eye was the Ultimate Pass im guessing its going to be in the region of £300 if it ever does get released but the benefits are amazing by the sounds of it!
 
The Ultimate MAP would be ridiculous - unlimited fastrack?! It costs over £80 just for one unlimited fastrack on one day at AT, imagine how much it'd cost for that all year? :eek:
 
Oh god. Someone is paper pushing at Merlin hq again!

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It'd depend upon what your guest gets who doesn't have the pass. Will they be entitled to unlimited fast track, too?
 
The last time a "platinum" pass did the rounds in the survey, it sounded very similar, with the difference being a limited number of Fastrack tickets on each visit. Presumably, they didn't get such a favourable reaction last time and are going all-out to get enough of a positive survey response to convince a manager to let them do this.

I can't see how an all-you-can-eat Fastrack package could be viable at all in practice, unless it was either priced so high that only a few people would buy it, or there was a further push across Merlin parks to increase usage of Fastrack across the board, at the expense of operations and guest experience.
 
An Ultimate MAP is just plain daft, you may get unlimited fastrack but whoever youre visiting the parks with would either need one themselves, or have to fork out for the fastrack packages on each visit for you to fully utilise it. That is unless you'd be willing to ditch your friends/family and ride alone all day, which for most people I highly doubt would be the case :)
 
jmc said:
An Ultimate MAP is just plain daft, you may get unlimited fastrack but whoever youre visiting the parks with would either need one themselves, or have to fork out for the fastrack packages on each visit for you to fully utilise it. That is unless you'd be willing to ditch your friends/family and ride alone all day, which for most people I highly doubt would be the case :)
Click to expand...

Could work in your favour if you go with people who don't like the big rides actually. Two sides to that coin, still think it is a ridiculously elitist approach though, and very uncalled for.

However, the selective pass, if reasonable, now that I like!! You can keep the Tower, London attractions, Sea life centres et al - just give me the darn parks already!!!

However if it just an excuse to price everything else higher, and give crap value to lesser passes then screw you Merlin.

Would they care for me to fax that opinion to them?
 
Wouldn't mind entry to international places (Even if it's just once a year like they used to have for a few foreign parks)...

That ultimate ones sounds way too ridiculous... I'm out...
 
The ultimate pass does just sound pointless. You have to think that it would be priced very highly, and I doubt it would be that popular. If you go to the parks enough to warrant and ultimate pass, you are not going to need unlimited fastracks really as you'll already be going on lots of rides.

I do get the impression that they may be looking into scrapping the premium pass in favour of a parking pass. Personally I hope that this doesn't happen. I'd rather just have one single pass rather than having two. Also it could mean that all passholders face date restrictions, apart from those who pay over the top for an ultimate pass.

As I see it, the current system works well and there isn't really any need to change it. But you do get the impression that someone at Merlin is desperate for a big change in how the passes work.

:)
 
The ultimate pass is a stupid idea. Sorry but no! Stop trying to promote fastrack Merlin!!!

I like the current system, it works well - especially with the premium pass giving free parking and no restrictions. Not keen on the parking pass idea either - why make two passes when atm you have one?!

I am interested by the international passes :)
 
I think someone suggested regional passes the other day (one for attractions in the North and one for the South). Sounded like an okay idea.
 
I would personally be interested in choosing which parks to add to a pass, mainly because I have don't visit the sealife centres or the dungeons, so a parks only pass would make sense.
 
I find it extremely likely that a park only pass would cost the same as a MAP does now and adding midways would only raise it.


-Sent from a mobile phone-
 
What about a pass that lets you visit 1 of every attraction in the group?
Example:
1 x Alton Towers Resort
1 x THORPE PARK
1 x LEGO LAND
1 x Chessington
1 x any SEA LIFE
1 x any Dungeon
1 x any Maddam Tussauds
1 x Blackpool Tower
1 x London Eye

You get the jist. Something along those lines but obviously having the official Merlin Place in place still. It could be considered a taster to guests that are thinking of purchasing a pass?
 
Just seen an advert offering 25% off MAP at visit England :)
 
Who on earth would need or want a worldwide pass?! It's not like Merlin's portfolio of attractions outside Europe is in any way compelling...

Sounds like passes, similar to the 'VAT (You pay...)' con, are going to become so complicated you'll need a spreadsheet to work it out.
 
I think Merlin see they need to tread more carefully when it comes to annual pass holders.

Remember, strong sales of the annual pass are playing a core part of their upcoming IPO, so I don't think it makes sense for any radical changes, which could alienate anyone looking to renew, to be on the horizon.
 
Running an idea around in my head that may not work in reality but I'll write it up anyway and see what anyone else thinks.


Could both Merlin Passes not be replaced for one simple pass? The pass would be priced between the Standard and Premium (but with the cost leaning towards the Premium). People get more for their money with the pass but Merlin make back what they loose by people no longer spending less on the standard.

I just think it's daft that they don't want a simple system. Sure, it doesn't require a degree to work out what you want right now, but surely keeping it as simple as possible would encourage more people to look into them?

People should just have the option of buying a pass, not get bombarded with a Standard Pass, Premium Pass, Ultimate Pass, Car Park Pass, Regional Pass, Food Pass, individual passes for attractions and a Custom Pass where you decide what you want, etc... Just keep it simple by having the individual attraction passes and a one Merlin Annual Pass.

Or is that all just for an ideal world? :p



Another point about the passes, couldn't something be done about the multiple prices too? Instead of having one price for an individual and then a price for a family 3 or 4 or 5, just have one price. What if you're a single parent looking after one child, or a family that consists of more than 5 members?

Sometimes they renew our passes at a family price when my family is now classed as 4 adults at the attractions, yet they don't bother asking for my entire family to be there, they just click and renew them. Sometimes they quote one price online, another over the phone and another when we're at the attraction. Then we get the offers on top of all that, and multiple figures stating how much they were, are now, how much they're increasing next year, how much it costs to buy one rather than renewing, etc, etc... Right now there are 32 different prices on the pages to buy a new pass or renew your old one. That's 30 too many, imo. :p

Even if non of that would work, surely that could be cleaned up a little so there are fewer prices for people to consider.



Now onto the car park pass. Why? I hate the current system enough as it is without them removing perks from the premium to make way for the Ultimate Pass and a pass just for parking. If they could just included parking in one pass instead of having ∞ passes... that would be great! :p

And then we have the faff created by people without a pass. Removing the token system and adding a small amount to the ticket price would not only give people the impression that the parking is free but it would also mean that there's less faffing and no queues at the exits of attractions upon closing time. Why do they need to pay for machines, tokens, barriers and employ people to stand there collecting them? Just put it on the ticket and get the staff that would be collecting tokens and lifting the barriers in the park doing something more productive.




I don't think I've missed anything. Anyway, don't hate me for suggesting any of that! :p
 
Removing the pass levels would not be popular, primarily because it would increase the lowest cost of the pass. Also, people basically buy the Premium pass on the basis of how much they park at attractions - if they don't then they don't want to be paying for it.

Personally I think they should get rid of the individual park passes - the cost of a MAP standard is such that an individual park pass just doesn't feel worth it.
 
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