• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Merlin Annual Pass

JAperson said:
Why is Chessington not included?
Click to expand...
Chessington don’t have freestyle, they have their own cups (red ones) that you get refilled at a food or drink outlet for about 85p a time, or there are blue passholder ones which can be used across all parks, again 85p a refill from a food or drink outlet, rather than the £8 for unlimited refills that you pay on freestyle cups. They cost about £2-3 to buy.

They sometimes have the blue passholder cups at Warwick Castle too, but they didn’t have any on our last visit so we got one from chessington a couple of weeks ago. Wouldn’t be surprised if they were phased out at some point though.
 
BigShadowtinytree said:
Chessington don’t have freestyle, they have their own cups (red ones) that you get refilled at a food or drink outlet for about 85p a time, or there are blue passholder ones which can be used across all parks, again 85p a refill from a food or drink outlet, rather than the £8 for unlimited refills that you pay on freestyle cups. They cost about £2-3 to buy.

They sometimes have the blue passholder cups at Warwick Castle too, but they didn’t have any on our last visit so we got one from chessington a couple of weeks ago. Wouldn’t be surprised if they were phased out at some point though.
Click to expand...

Although the self-service nature of freestyle is great, the other pricing is way better. 85p a refill is a good price and you only need a couple a day.
 
jon81uk said:
Although the self-service nature of freestyle is great, the other pricing is way better. 85p a refill is a good price and you only need a couple a day.
Click to expand...
I agree. The initial cost of a freestyle cup is quite frankly eye watering and £8 to reactivate is a bit steep, you can’t even get pass discount on reactivation.
 
BigShadowtinytree said:
I agree. The initial cost of a freestyle cup is quite frankly eye watering and £8 to reactivate is a bit steep, you can’t even get pass discount on reactivation.
Click to expand...
You can get pass discount at Thorpe to reactivate but not at towers, which is a bit backwards. I did tweet them once and both merlin pass and towers gave some random answer that didn’t really answer my question.

The new free cup is great and it’s good to get two free refills. Just a shame it’s not unlimited or more than just two.

Also it’s a real shame the cups can’t be used at other merlin parks, you would think it would be possible, as the cups are all made by the same company and I imagine all the systems to reactivate them are the same.
 
djtruefitt said:
Also it’s a real shame the cups can’t be used at other merlin parks, you would think it would be possible, as the cups are all made by the same company and I imagine all the systems to reactivate them are the same.
Click to expand...
It's definitely the same system across all sites - the parks each have a 'site code', so just as you could limit a refill cup to be refilled at just one or multiple machines (which they don't), you can also limit the cups to be refilled at just one or a number of sites (which they do). Validfill is a very flexible system, with the ability to set up huge numbers of validity options.
 
Islander said:
It's definitely the same system across all sites - the parks each have a 'site code', so just as you could limit a refill cup to be refilled at just one or multiple machines (which they don't), you can also limit the cups to be refilled at just one or a number of sites (which they do). Validfill is a very flexible system, with the ability to set up huge numbers of validity options.
Click to expand...
I just find it odd that if you took a towers cup to Thorpe or Lego they wouldn’t let you reactive it there, even though you would be paying for it anyway.
 
I’m sure it’s possible if they wanted they could get coke to make it work, so a cup activated at one park could be re activated at another. They all have the same machines and all have the same cups (in terms of the company who makes them). It’s probably an extra cost for them to get coke to do it, which is why they don’t.
 
djtruefitt said:
I’m sure it’s possible if they wanted they could get coke to make it work, so a cup activated at one park could be re activated at another. They all have the same machines and all have the same cups (in terms of the company who makes them). It’s probably an extra cost for them to get coke to do it, which is why they don’t.
Click to expand...

It’s already been posted on here that it’s just a few digits different in the ID number in the cup chip. There would likely be very little additional cost for Validfill to set them up as a one-Merlin code. If the Merlin resort theme parks wanted a cross-group product they could have done it. Instead it makes them look greedy by wanted the extra £5 from each guest.
 
djtruefitt said:
I’m sure it’s possible if they wanted they could get coke to make it work, so a cup activated at one park could be re activated at another. They all have the same machines and all have the same cups (in terms of the company who makes them). It’s probably an extra cost for them to get coke to do it, which is why they don’t.
Click to expand...
Nothing to do with extra cost or anything, the cups already are fully compatible with all other Merlin Freestyle machines. It's simply just not something Merlin have implemented yet.
 
So a couple of days ago I received an email from Alton Towers inviting me to upgrade my day ticket from a recent visit to an annual pass. Great- I've been thinking about getting one for a while! After a bit of research, I come to the conclusion that the silver Merlin pass would be the most suitable for me and my family. I click the link to buy, and guess what, the silver pass is the only one not available to buy. A website glitch maybe? After using the live chat features on both the MAP and AT websites, it seems it's not. Anyone have any ideas why they don't want me to buy the silver pass? Is it being discontinued or something?
 
Zipperdipper said:
So a couple of days ago I received an email from Alton Towers inviting me to upgrade my day ticket from a recent visit to an annual pass. Great- I've been thinking about getting one for a while! After a bit of research, I come to the conclusion that the silver Merlin pass would be the most suitable for me and my family. I click the link to buy, and guess what, the silver pass is the only one not available to buy. A website glitch maybe? After using the live chat features on both the MAP and AT websites, it seems it's not. Anyone have any ideas why they don't want me to buy the silver pass? Is it being discontinued or something?
Click to expand...

Appears to work for me https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/buy-passes/#passes
 
Zipperdipper said:
Right, but the email offered me an upgrade, eg. a discounted price. The gold pass for example was available for £179 via the link they sent me. But no silver pass for some reason.
Click to expand...

Ah sorry missed that detail. Maybe they are only allowing upgrade from a day ticket to gold and above. Is there any terms and conditions on the email?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top