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Merlin Annual Pass

I guess I would interpret it as they don't have to do what you say there, i.e. when there are too many opportunities to make money.

I would say they are trying to encourage people to simply book another time when they see one day unavailable.

Is a massive PR risk though, as we saw with the Watchdog thing during peak COVID.

I suspect actually they would still manually allocate a slot, let you pre-book, if you went to the trouble of speaking to an agent. Wil be interesting to see if anything in reality does change, and people are outright refused pre-books when general tickets are still on sale.
 
The mail doesn't lay every change/tweak out, just links to the operating calendar for the parks and points out the below rules for prebooking:

Rules for pre-booking in 2024

The Platinum Pass will not guarantee immediate entry to any Attraction or any event at any time. At Attractions or events which allocate individual time slots for entry or where pre-booking is required, Merlin Passholders are required to book an available time slot or pre-book their entry in advance in order to access the Attraction or an event, otherwise they will not be permitted entry. Please note that all time slots are subject to availability, and that there may be different allocations of time slots for different categories of customer (eg based on ticket or pass type), so early booking is recommended. Passholders are able to book an available time slot online by registering an account at https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/prebook-portal/. When any Passholder has booked a timeslot (irrespective of Pass type), the Attraction may ask such Passholder to leave the Attraction at the end of their allocated timeslot.

Platinum Passholders are entitled to up to six active pre-books, per attraction, at any one time.

Please also note that other tweaks have been made to our existing T&Cs to ensure that they are up to date, clear and relevant for all Passholders in 2024.
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I really imagine this is more aimed at midways than the parks, Cadburys World for example has been difficult to get prebooks for since it was added to the pass so I assume they have already been doing this and are only now just realising they should add it in writing.

Not to say the parks wont use it sometimes but I would guess rarely.
 
We went to Legoland yesterday. I went to retrieve my pre book confirmation as he was scanning our passes and was told they didnt need to see both. He just said they only need to scan either the pass or the pre book, whether this is a sign of the systems changing over I am not sure.

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deathproof69 said:
how do I book discounted tickets, think I get five?
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All your perks and discounts can be found on the MAP website, heres the page for Friends&Family tickets: https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/passholder-hub/perks/friends-family-discount/

swalesuk01 said:
We went to Legoland yesterday. I went to retrieve my pre book confirmation as he was scanning our passes and was told they didnt need to see both. He just said they only need to scan either the pass or the pre book, whether this is a sign of the systems changing over I am not sure.
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The barcode on the new pre-book confirmation emails is just your pass number so they're scanning the same thing eitherway.

I'd assume the new pre-book system is probably designed to help them integrate things a bit better, the old pre-book system just had you booking a free ticket with the pre-requisite of requiring a valid pass number before it would let you book.
There was no indication on the pre-book confirmation of which pass the pre-book was tied to and as far as I saw, it seemed that staff checking the old pre-books only did so by visually checking the date on the confirmation even though the booking could've been moved or cancelled after the email was sent.
 
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Craig said:
The mail doesn't lay every change/tweak out, just links to the operating calendar for the parks and points out the below rules for prebooking:
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From the MAP Facebook group, the exclusion dates for the Silver pass have been confirmed;

Screenshot_20240213-201347-630.png
 
As of right now I (silver pass) can't book for Alton towers for Wednesday or Friday so limits may be more binding than they have been in the past
 
That Guy said:
As of right now I (silver pass) can't book for Alton towers for Wednesday or Friday so limits may be more binding than they have been in the past
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Neither can i and i'm Platinum.

Madame Tussauds is booked up for the next 2 weeks too bar 1 day.
 
Rob said:
the pre-books are not linked directly to your pass at the turnstiles
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Are you sure? When I pre-book and I get the email confirming, there is a barcode within the main body of the email to scan at the turnstiles, and this barcode is always the pass number, even at Alton Towers.
 
STEJENT said:
Are you sure? When I pre-book and I get the email confirming, there is a barcode within the main body of the email to scan at the turnstiles, and this barcode is always the pass number, even at Alton Towers.
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Yeah all the pre book has is your pass number/barcode. So scanning that or your pass works the same.

I know currently the systems definitely still let you in if you haven’t pre booked as I’ve done this before.

But it would of course depend on staff. Eg if you just turned up at Sealife when it’s fully booked and you didn’t pre book they could just turn you away if they wanted.
 
My MAP came with some vouchers which allow you to "Share the fun" by bringing a couple of people for £19. We are visiting Legoland this week so attempted to use them but all the dates were blocked out till March.

Is this because there is a cap on voucher admissions or because they aren't valid during half term?
 
Bowser said:
My MAP came with some vouchers which allow you to "Share the fun" by bringing a couple of people for £19. We are visiting Legoland this week so attempted to use them but all the dates were blocked out till March.

Is this because there is a cap on voucher admissions or because they aren't valid during half term?
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I don’t believe they’re valid during special events, and Brick Days would count as a special event
 
I am sure there used to be a MAP discount for visiting the European parks, has this been removed or am I imagining it as I can't find mention anywhere?
 
evilcod said:
I am sure there used to be a MAP discount for visiting the European parks, has this been removed or am I imagining it as I can't find mention anywhere?
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It appeared in the list of perks in February, but has disappeared since then. The page it linked to was https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/passholder-hub/perks/up-to-50-off-international-entry/ and that seems to have been removed to - so seems it's no longer a perk.

The only international offer seems to be 10% off at Gardaland hotel now.
 
For any passholders who use the Friends and Family ‘discount’, be warned this now has the potential to not be a discount at all. I imagine this is as a result of the dynamic pricing.

For example, F&F Ticket for 9th May is £34 but when booking directly on Towers website it is £30, therefore paying more as a passholder.

A further erosion of the perks in my opinion, and leaves a slightly bad taste in my mouth.

It is probably now worth double checking the general tickets before using this or any other type of discounted entry (employee perks/students etc). All seems a very Merlin implementation!


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