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Merlin Annual Pass

AT86 said:
Except for Discovery where the new and renewal price has been lowered to £69
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Discovery Pass for £69, that sounds like a bargain. Only need two theme park visits to beat the online price, or three compared to 2for1 voucher price.

Not sure if I personally would visit Merlin attractions enough to be worthwhile, but if you can mainly visit off-peak Sundays and weekdays or are in London and want to do Sea-Life, Tussauds etc a few times then this is great.

Extra £100 to get Saturdays and peak weekdays (plus parking) almost doesn't seem worth it. The gold pass also doesn't have that many exclusion dates so the further additional £70 doesn't feel worth it if you can book fireworks for £20.
 
Good Afternoon All,
I hope everyone is well,

I got a Black Friday email today from Merlin Entertainments, advertising a Black Friday sale to purchase annual passes.

Discovery Pass - Full price £89 - Sale Price - £69
Gold Pass - Full Price £219 - Sale Price £169
Platinum Pass - Full Price £299 - Sale Price £239

We have been thinking about getting a merlin pass for a while, and this has slightly pushed us into making a decision a little sooner with the obvious cost saving.

As always, I was looking for feedback / suggestions etc. on what people thought of these?

I think looking at the Discovery blackout dates, and with having so many Saturdays where we could not use the pass (We don't have kids, so school holidays not needed!) I think we would opt for the Gold Pass, but just wanted to hear people's excellent advice on this subject.

(Apologises in Advance if I have asked this in the incorrect place on here!)
 
We are looking at buying a Merlin pass (Have for sometime) Now the Blackfriday sale has been released, pushing us to order even sooner now.
Which one would you recommend as the best option to go for?
 
Charlie1910 said:
We are looking at buying a Merlin pass (Have for sometime) Now the Blackfriday sale has been released, pushing us to order even sooner now.
Which one would you recommend as the best option to go for?
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What are your plans and priorities?

As T R hints, peak time visits in Easter, Bank Hols, all of June, July and August and second half of October, park will be rammed.

Bear in mind, Discovery Pass does not include car parking charges nor access to scarefest / Halloween -- whereas all gold pass options do. So, you have to plan and do your sums on how many times you're likely to visit, when and what price is comfortable for you.

If you just want to visit Alton Towers, you can also have a cheaper Gold Pass at £119. Includes standard car parking charge in the £119 price and invite three additional members in your group for £15 each.
 
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Charlie1910 said:
We are looking at buying a Merlin pass (Have for sometime) Now the Blackfriday sale has been released, pushing us to order even sooner now.
Which one would you recommend as the best option to go for?
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Thanks for the heads up about the Black Friday sale. Thinking about asking my parents for a MAP for Christmas (probably Platinum as it has the most perks) as I've been wanting to get one for years. With all the pre-booking faff now though, is it worth it?
 
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Back to the tried-and-tested model of churning more passes out through sales. It would be interesting to know Discovery Pass take-up numbers, but I guess we will gain an insight next season if things look a little more padded out.
 
Does anyone know when the Black Friday sale ends? Can't find anything on the website. Bit cheeky of them to not publicise one.
 
Tom said:
Back to the tried-and-tested model of churning more passes out through sales. It would be interesting to know Discovery Pass take-up numbers, but I guess we will gain an insight next season if things look a little more padded out.
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I think the new headline prices were always going to attract a discount at some point. In a country obsessed with buying crap they can't afford on Black Friday, it feels like a pretty sensible move. Starting high and understanding how the new prices softened demand was a sensible move I think.

With the removal of the family option, there is still some integrity in the prices. Discovery is an absolute steal but it does have a very small audience attached to it, you would have thought.

Would be interested to hear people's current MAP status in this thread.
 
Sorry if this has been answered before, but what's the deal with exclusion dates for the gold MAP? Is it usually possible to book these dates at a discounted rate (e.g. £20 for fireworks) or is one generally expected to pay standard admission for excluded dates?
 
Rick said:
there is still some integrity in the prices. Discovery is an absolute steal but it does have a very small audience attached to it, you would have thought.
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Discovery Pass this year didn't sell out unlike MAP Gold and Platinum passes which did.

Just for reference, entry level pass for DLP is £150-ish [equivalent] for 150 days.
 
Auribus said:
Discovery Pass this year didn't sell out unlike MAP Gold and Platinum passes which did.
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Would that not be largely expected given many off peak days have as many punters as staff? Discovery passes almost certainly have the highest volume available against the least demand.
 
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