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Merlin Annual Pass

Seems Merlin have decided to try and buy-off anyone with a YouTube channel or blog to be a Merlin Pass Collaborator.

Currently seems a bit pointless, given they're all saying the exact same thing about how exciting a weekday pass is. But concerning for the future, with even more channels and outlets for review essentially having a muzzled opinion and just being essentially Merlin spokespeople.
 
Agree 100% anyone who receives anything for free will never give a true honest genuine review as they will be afraid of upsetting said company.

Another way of looking at is, this move shows that Merlin are worried about the next year if they are having get support.
 
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Thing is Merlin have done good social media campaigns in the past e.g.
Alton Towers and Aroma Prime challenged Shaun Sanbrooke to guess the smells, this is a win for all parties as it's advertising for Merlin/Aroma Prime and content for Theme Park Worldwide that viewers would actually be interested in and not feel like they were being sold to. When a Youtuber sells out yes they get content but that content will cause a drop in popularity as the audience feel they are being sold to.
 
I imagine the budget is low for marketing now, especially for annual passes, so it costs next to nothing to get some theme park fans to do some vlogs and videos. Probably just give them a free annual pass.

However if someone gets something free or as a paid promotion it’s hard to know what they really think, as they’ll always be promoting it, as they have to.
 
What is funny is that one of the families doing the promotion HAVE KIDS. So this pass is useless for them.

The other doing promotion CLEARLY visits at weekends, holiday periods and during events.

So they are bending the truth quite remarkably about how "amazing" it is - when it actually wouldn't suit their needs at all.
 
Well. social media is where it's at these days. You only need to look at political campaigns and their use of much shared misinformation and bots. It's like free advertising.
 
With those prices and looking like they don’t include family discount I can’t see this working in the long term for merlin.
 
The tweet seems to have been deleted, but the info is up on the pass website.

A few points in terms of changes.

- Parking is included in both levels of pass
- Gold pass holders get 3 £5 Fastrack vouchers but no share the fun. Platinum get 6 £5 Fastrack vouchers and 3 share the fun.
- The family price option has gone. It is now a flat fee for passes. £199pp for Gold and £239pp for Platinum in the Sale before they go up.
- The level of pass also dictates how many prebook slots you can have at any one time. 3 per attraction for Gold, and 6 for Platinum.
- Gold passes have blockout days on bank holiday weekends and Halloween weekend.
 
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Pre-book info for new annual passes

So “discovery & gold” AP can pre book 3 visits per attraction at a time and platinum can prebook 6 visits per attraction

Also,
Our new pre-book system will allow Passholders to change the date of their booking or suspend the booking until they are ready to choose another date. Once bookings have been changed or suspended the ticket allocation will automatically reset, becoming available for other Passholders.
Click to expand...

https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/compare-passes/new-passes
 
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The Facebook comments are delightful reading. But about as expected when they've hiked the price up, even more so for those who bought on the family rates. I now know why they've been buying "influencers" to try and add their own positive narrative to things.

Pricing wise, it's probably where I'd expect to see the passes for a premium theme park experience. However, unless there's a radical change in 2021, I'm not convinced they have that product yet. But I also don't think they would ever get there with the previous pricing. So very much for me a chicken and egg problem.

Seems like a better pre-booking strategy. Can't fault that.

I'm not convinced there's as much difference between the passes to warrant the price difference. The blocked out dates are likely some of the busiest, and worst days to visit, so not sure those few additional dates as the only significant difference is worth it.
 
I can’t tell much difference in the new passes but obviously in my opinion taking away the family rates it’s like committing business suicide. Only time will tell I guess but the big backlash it seems so far is very understandable.
 
Worth noting that for anyone with a current pass the renewal rates you get with the new ones are £159 for Gold level or £229 for Platinum.
 
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