I always pre book because I’m nervous about being turned away, but the only place that actually seems to care about checking and enforcing pre books are legoland Windsor, legoland discovery bham and sea life bham. LLW seemed to be particularly strict with it - I saw people having to step to one side at the gates to quickly book in before being allowed in. With the two midway attractions I get it due to much lower capacity and having time slots. Towers have never checked, chessington didn’t check, and neither did Thorpe. Warwick Castle gave a cursory glance at the pre book but I don’t think they properly looked as we were waved through very quickly.
Interesting that you can still get in with your pass without booking, seems like a bit of an over sight, their systems should surely be talking to each other with regards to that, you put your pass number in when you book, so it shouldn’t be that hard to link it in some way I’d have thought. But if they’re going to enforce this, I think they should make it easier to cancel, a button on the portal that does it instantly rather than having to fill a form in and waiting. Give people less of an excuse not to cancel in the first place and no shows would be less of an issue.
