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Merlin - destined for mediocrity?

Alsty

Alsty

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The state of the Merlin parks and hotels has been in a state of managed decline for years. Each time I've visited the state of operations has been worse than the previous season, more and more things have been obviously broken or deteriorated, presentations and general standards are poor, we have staff that don't seem to know or care what they're doing, hotels that don't offer anything close to a premium product, food that is overpriced and barely edible... I could go on.

Last year we got new senior management across the parks and hotels. This year we were promised the best season ever and there was a new found sense of optimism that maybe we'd start to see a corner being turned.

As we now get to the back end of the season, I ask the question... is Merlin actually rotten to the core? Can it actually be saved? The park, hotel, standards, food and operations are worse than ever and the new management team seem incapable of steering the ship away from the impending iceberg.
 
Unsurprisingly, I think it's probably a symptom of the further problems in society and business. If they spent enough money training people properly and putting them on contracts that made it worth their while to really get stuck in and interested in their role, they'd get a better outcome. Unfortunately, the business needs to pay the big boss millions a year in salary and bonus, and to justify that, they need to try to increase profit as much as possible even (or actually) at the detriment of their staff who do the actual work on the shop floor. They could make things better for punters if they wanted to, but it's not in the interest of the few people at the top in the short term.
 
The problem is that Merlin is a monopoly in the UK and their competition for the theme parks is Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Paultons Park, Flamingo Land and Drayton Manor.

Three of which is family owned and one is owned by the Looping Group.

I can't see much change from Merlin until Universal comes along or when Drayton Manor and Paultons Park are further along with their regeneration plans.

It might be a different matter if let's say other park operators such as Parque Reuindos, Compagnie des Alpes, SeaWorld, Herschend and Six Flags/Cedar Point got involved with UK parks more.

I don't see that happening with let's say Six Flags unless they take the Merlin parks off Merlin however it might work well if let's say one of those companies took on a UK park i.e. Blackpool.

I think it is also more difficult nowadays for a family owned park to keep up with Merlin or to enter the market than before so that might be part of the issue.

Personally, Merlin needs competition and from a park where it can offer premium experiences.

The only park other than Universal that can do that is likely Paultons Park for the foreseeable as they are doing very well.
 
Does anyone on here feel positive about Merlin? I ask because it seems to be widely accepted on here that Merlin are a poor operator, but does anyone feel differently?
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Does anyone on here feel positive about Merlin? I ask because it seems to be widely accepted on here that Merlin are a poor operator, but does anyone feel differently?
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I'd imagine the majority of people do outside of fan specific forums and vlogs.

Most people either don't visit parks outside of the UK or it's a once in a lifetime trip so they don't have the comparison point.

Most people don't visit multiple times a year.

Most people probably don't even know who Merlin are or that they own multiple theme parks.

Now admittedly i suspect all of these are changing due to increased awareness on social media but in general, a visit to a theme park is something people do perhaps once or twice a year and they likely don't spend much time thinking about them outside of that, whereas we are a collection of people discussing them often on a daily basis, scrutinising every detail.

I'd be interested to know if there are equivalent forums say in Germany discussing Europa or the Netherlands discussing Efteling as we'd at least have more of a like for like comparison on the views of enthusiasts who visit their regional parks. Perhaps even the Walabi as they seem the closest to Merlin.
 
It's too far gone now. The money needed to bring them up to an acceptable standard isn't there, and if it was, I don't see the business case for spending it. And it's money that's needed, no amount of "new management" will change anything substantial, as much as many like to cling on to the (frankly puzzling) hope that it will.

I would say we're in a new norm, but there's nothing new about it. The managed decline has been happening for 2 decades now in terms of Chessington and Towers. It's likely partially intentional as well. Merlin are in the day out subscription business, not the theme park business. There is a difference. Having theme parks almost feels like something they begrudgingly accept they have to have to sell passes, although with the work and investment involved, they wish they didn't.

We may still get the odd decent shiny new thing here and there, but if there is a future for the UK theme park industry standing out on the world stage, it won't be Alton Towers, Chessington, or Thorpe Park that'll be part of that. It definitely won't be under Merlin ownership either. The only way I can see the parks thriving is them being split up and sold to other operators. But that won't happen, they're simply MAP sale anchors. Midway's but with roller coasters. Roller coasters that some times even open for the day of you're lucky.
 
Bowser said:
I'd imagine the majority of people do outside of fan specific forums and vlogs.

Most people either don't visit parks outside of the UK or it's a once in a lifetime trip so they don't have the comparison point.

Most people don't visit multiple times a year.

Most people probably don't even know who Merlin are or that they own multiple theme parks.

Now admittedly i suspect all of these are changing due to increased awareness on social media but in general, a visit to a theme park is something people do perhaps once or twice a year and they likely don't spend much time thinking about them outside of that, whereas we are a collection of people discussing them often on a daily basis, scrutinising every detail.

I'd be interested to know if there are equivalent forums say in Germany discussing Europa or the Netherlands discussing Efteling as we'd at least have more of a like for like comparison on the views of enthusiasts who visit their regional parks. Perhaps even the Walabi as they seem the closest to Merlin.
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I believe that with the Merlin Annual Pass, it has become so much easier for people to visit multiple times a year and also to become an enthusiast.

With the theme park vloggers becoming more mainstream and most visiting parks outside of the UK and the Merlin chain (I've only seen one or two only stick with Merlin) - more people are becoming aware of parks outside of the UK and are visiting. On my more recent visits to Thorpe Park, I've seen multiple people wearing Voltron T-Shirts (some of whom appear to be English).

I would say yes, I think normally so however the view on parks that do really well would be more positive i.e. Europa, Efteling etc. I believe some mention Phantasialand in a similar light.

In the US, I understand Six Flags is run very similarly to Merlin.

Matt.GC said:
It's too far gone now. The money needed to bring them up to an acceptable standard isn't there, and if it was, I don't see the business case for spending it. And it's money that's needed, no amount of "new management" will change anything substantial, as much as many like to cling on to the (frankly puzzling) hope that it will.

I would say we're in a new norm, but there's nothing new about it. The managed decline has been happening for 2 decades now in terms of Chessington and Towers. It's likely partially intentional as well. Merlin are in the day out subscription business, not the theme park business. There is a difference. Having theme parks almost feels like something they begrudgingly accept they have to have to sell passes, although with the work and investment involved, they wish they didn't.

We may still get the odd decent shiny new thing here and there, but if there is a future for the UK theme park industry standing out on the world stage, it won't be Alton Towers, Chessington, or Thorpe Park that'll be part of that. It definitely won't be under Merlin ownership either. The only way I can see the parks thriving is them being split up and sold to other operators. But that won't happen, they're simply MAP sale anchors. Midway's but with roller coasters. Roller coasters that some times even open for the day of you're lucky.
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Honestly, with the consultations of Chessington coming up - I think Merlin might be doing investment cycles again with parks getting something big every 3 years or so.

I personally think they are more likely to take on additional parks than sell them off. I'm thinking that PortAventura is a potential possibility and there's UK parks that they may consider as well.

I've also seen that Compagnie des Alpes (owners of Walibi) seems to own multiple parks and Musée Grévin wax museum - this looks like a company who Merlin may look to bring into their portfolio at some point.

I'd also be interested to see if Merlin will go into the US market at some point. I'd love to see some of their rollercoaster brands go into America and see how they stand out - I think a larger Nemesis branded coaster (Nemesis Vengeance) could be a hit.
 
owenstreet7 said:
I believe that with the Merlin Annual Pass, it has become so much easier for people to visit multiple times a year and also to become an enthusiast
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I was making this point to a friend recently.

In around 2000 when I bought my Tussauds Annual Pass, it wasn't really something they marketed. It was like an inside secret. People in enthusiast communities like this bought them, but they weren't really purchased by the masses.

Then along came Merlin and that strategy changed. They now actively marketed it, put up posters, asked every time you bought something if you had one, and created the lanyard brigade to show it off to everyone. Suddenly it became the norm.

I'm not sure if the decline is linked or not, but now everybody paid upfront and in some cases made significant numbers of visits but without the secondary spend. The value of visiting was diminished. The gate revenue was diminished.

I also think people with passes will be more inclined to notice the flaws than people who only visit once per year, so the strategy has more than one negative outcome for the parks.
 
@Alsty i think you are correct. The biggest missed with the majority of the money coming up front is that hq will decide where it is spent and how much.

When the parks don’t perform - the budgets are cut to ensure no overspend. We’ve seen it time and time again.

I bet the £’s per visitor has significantly dropped.
 
Are the Merlin run parks outside the UK much better?

To me, it all comes down to competition. I think everything will change if (when) Universal opens.
 
Gardaland seems to be the the exception to the rest of the Merlin parks i've been to and appears to be better maintained than most. Not been to a Legoland park for nearly 20 years so can't speak for what they're like these days.

The issue with Merlin is that there is no real need to be innovative or strive for better. Especially here in the UK when the sheep keep buying passes, stay in the hotels and gobble up the Aramark slop regardless of how bad things get in terms of quality.
 
havaska said:
Are the Merlin run parks outside the UK much better?

To me, it all comes down to competition. I think everything will change if (when) Universal opens.
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Heide Park is an interesting one. On forums in Germany, people are very critical of Merlin and how they run Heide. They have closed multiple rides over the years at Heide and many of them have been replaced with nothing. The opening hours are also quite short.

However… and this is a big however… I personally believe that Heide Park is only poor, when compared with other similar sized theme parks in Germany, such as Phantasialand and Tripsdrill. It isn’t run as well as those parks, but Heide is a beautiful park with some gorgeous landscaping, really nice theming and is generally a really nice place to be. If it was in the UK, it would be our best theme park, but because Germany’s theme parks are generally to a higher standard, this forces Merlin to do better at Heide. Whilst investment has been slow, general upkeep and operations at the park are mostly of a much higher standard than at the UK Merlin parks.

Gardaland is alright, but being the largest park in Italy does result in some of the same complacency that we see with Merlin at Alton Towers.
 
Over the years, Merlin have papered over the considerable cracks with the occasional large capex project at all of their parks. This looks set to continue however given the way they have neglected the operational side of things the overall experience has deteriorated over time, to the point that actually getting in any rides at Towers has become something of a lottery on all but the quietest of days.

Visitor numbers have declined but queue times have not which leaves the parks in a real predicament
 
I didn't really expect much to change this year. With catering and restaurants being managed by Aramark, who normally provide food to prisoners and school children, I don't see why it would have!
 
It’s actually really sad when you think back to 2007-08 and the high levels of optimism that people treated Merlin with when they first took over the Tussauds parks. Rather like what happened with Drayton Manor when that got bought out. Very strong start, lots of glitz and glamour, but not enough done to address the core problems with the parks so they ended up getting worse.
 
Merlin still have it in them to make the likes of AT, Chessington and Thorpe really good theme parks. However, they’ll never be a Disney/Universal.

They need to up their investments, but in reality the biggest issue is the day to day stuff. Staffing levels, technical expertise, maintenance, upkeep and presentation.
 
Jb85 said:
I’m not fussed on major capex investments. Every 2-3 years is fine.

What I do expect though are shows, good food options, well staff rides, maintained rides and good reliability.

Unfortunately in an accountants world these things cost more than the odd capex investment.
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What do you mean by well staff rides? Do you mean the number of staff on each ride should be sufficient? This is something I’ve always found Merlin to be quite good at, especially on the coasters.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
What do you mean by well staff rides? Do you mean the number of staff on each ride should be sufficient? This is something I’ve always found Merlin to be quite good at, especially on the coasters.
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I beg to differ. Taking away entrance hosts, and clearly not having enough staff to open all rides on time is an issue. Imagine if there were the rumoured 3 flats opening, and Horizon?
 
To me it feels the issues are around opex and management structure.

It's great to see investment in new projects but it often feels like there's no budget or consideration to maintaining the rides. You end up with things in poor shape both in terms of reliability but also presentation.

In terms of management structure it feels like nobody holds anybody else accountable. You can go to the food outlets, cafés or bars and find dirty tables and staff who don't know what they're doing. If the management structure worked then their supervisors should be checking these things and hold them to account. If they don't then their managers should notice and do likewise. That doesn't seem to happen.
 
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