Merlin Entertainments: General Discussion

[owenstreet7]

For all we know there might be a few who only know Merlin from The Sword In The Stone, and think it must be Disney.

I'm surprised someone hasn't turned up to Disneyland with their Merlin Pass and tried to get in

Merlin and Disney being the same company would be crazy Even if they're experienced at running Legolands which is effectively a cheap Disneyland in a way

 

[John_P]

Merlin will clearly concentrate their investments on large population areas.

Minecraft at Chessie and Legoland could work.

Alton has gone from the crown jewel to prince harry

There's certainly an argument now with Nick Varney gone from the top of Merlin any sort of special treatment Towers may have been afforded is now gone and any sort of future investments will be done based on looking at the visitor numbers, guest satisfaction etc.

 

[jon81uk]

The general public (non-enthusiasts) will unlikely know that the same operator owns Thorpe Park and Chessington.

I think a lot of people do know, just from the Kellogg’s offers and similar where you can use the same code across multiple parks.
Also the annual pass has linked the Tussauds/Merlin parks for at least the last 23 years and has been pushed quite a bit since Merlin took over Tussauds 15+ years ago.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Think we can all assume then that most people are idiots then?

 

[flyingguitar]

Or people who go to Disney World and think it's Merlin.

To be fair there will probably be no difference between the two in a few years the way Disney are going

 

[Ash]

Merlin will clearly concentrate their investments on large population areas.

Minecraft at Chessie and Legoland could work.

Alton has gone from the crown jewel to prince harry

I am amazed at the change in investment at Thorpe and Chessington.

The rumour has always been despite Legolands slightly higher attendance Alton is still the theme park cash cow. And I’d argue still considered “the” theme park in the UK in the eyes on the public.

But for what it’s worth there’s around 20m people in a 90km circle around London. And 18m around Alton.

But i suppose despite its unique location, a big part of Alton’s problem is access. But on the other hand it has the space to have lots of options, id argue they have utterly failed with for 20 years.

 

[Matt.GC]

Alton has gone from the crown jewel to prince harry

Or prince Andrew?

 

[Benzin]

Think we can all assume then that most people are idiots then?

Recent politics dictates that this is less an assumption but hard truth.

 

[Call_um]

Interesting article - Merlin are making the theming production team redundant and will be outsourcing instead

Crack team designing Alton Towers rides face axe and being jobless by Christmas

Merlin Entertainments is consulting with affected staff

www.stokesentinel.co.uk

EDIT: Just seen this is being discussed in a different topic but unsure how to delete this post

 

[Excalibur]

So, hear me out… but are Merlin actually struggling?

From the amount of cost cutting this season, probably more so than we’ve ever seen before to stuff being scaled back, opening hours for rides/areas being cut, events being cut and even midway attractions being closed? And now with MMM up for the chop, What is actually going on?

And then to hear the cuts are going to go into next year and potentially more events being cut is so disheartening. Surely guest feedback from the parks and attractions would pick up that the GP are seeing this also in lack of quality and not just enthusiasts?

 

[PhalanaxOperativeA1127]

I've given up my merlin pass for next year. I'm sure there'll be many others.

 

[AT86]

So, hear me out… but are Merlin actually struggling?

From the amount of cost cutting this season, probably more so than we’ve ever seen before to stuff being scaled back, opening hours for rides/areas being cut, events being cut and even midway attractions being closed? And now with MMM up for the chop, What is actually going on?

And then to hear the cuts are going to go into next year and potentially more events being cut is so disheartening. Surely guest feedback from the parks and attractions would pick up that the GP are seeing this also in lack of quality and not just enthusiasts?

Leisure has had a tough time across the board this year in the UK, it’s not Merlin specific.

Cost of living and a bad start to the season weather wise have been the main drivers.

 

[owenstreet7]

Leisure has had a tough time across the board this year in the UK, it’s not Merlin specific.

Cost of living and a bad start to the season weather wise have been the main drivers.

More likely to impact Thorpe Park and Merlin as a whole than Towers individually but Hyperia's downtime for different reasons where it didn't operate would've had an impact on Merlin.

Especially during the opening period where a lot of people would've booked on that first week to ride the new tallest and fastest rollercoaster in the country.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

So, hear me out… but are Merlin actually struggling?

From the amount of cost cutting this season, probably more so than we’ve ever seen before to stuff being scaled back, opening hours for rides/areas being cut, events being cut and even midway attractions being closed? And now with MMM up for the chop, What is actually going on?

And then to hear the cuts are going to go into next year and potentially more events being cut is so disheartening. Surely guest feedback from the parks and attractions would pick up that the GP are seeing this also in lack of quality and not just enthusiasts?

Merlin Entertainments is not struggling. Merlin's UK RTP operations are having a less than ideal year, and are likely to not meet their projected forecasts. I think, but can't confirm definitively, that Warwick Castle has had a very successful year (on par with, if not exceeding expectations).

On TST, we tend to conflate the attendance of Merlin's UK theme park operations with the fortunes of the company as a whole. That's understandable , they're our primary interest and focus. Merlin's international operations, however, are are more pertinent to how they're doing as a whole.

 

[Ash]

Question is, are they not making as much money, or are they not making any profit overall?…they are very different things.

Again out of curiosity, do EP, Efteling or Phantasialand have their own in house prop/theming depts?

 

[Dave]

Question is, are they not making as much money, or are they not making any profit overall?…they are very different things.

Again out of curiosity, do EP, Efteling or Phantasialand have their own in house prop/theming depts?

I think they all design in house but any big theming work is constructed third party.

 

[Funcone]

Merlin’s a big company with a lot of attractions in a lot of different markets. I think you could write a book looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (a SWOT analysis).

Merlin’s problems definitely go further than Merlin’s UK theme parks though. In recent years they’ve closed Madame Tussauds Washington DC, The San Francisco Dungeons and Madame Tussauds San Francisco. They’re about to close the Bear Grylls Adventure and they’ve put some Australian Adventure parks up for sale and are about to close down Merlin Studios North. They also opened Madame Tussauds Dubai on an ‘island’ which was meant to form a mini cluster with the world’s largest observation wheel, although due to technical issues the wheel’s never opened, and partly because of that Madame Tussauds Dubai has been very empty. Multiple Legolands in China have had significant delays, at least partly because of Covid and other Legolands have been cancelled, including Legoland Belgium. Legoland New York and Legoland South Korea have reportedly failed to achieve their projected visitor numbers. Aside from Alton Towers, none of Merlin’s resort theme parks currently have any major construction projects.

I’m not saying it’s all doom and gloom. They’re still one of the world’s largest attraction operators, with some great brands, and some successful business models. For midway attractions, they’ve cornered a lot of markets, and they’ve done well out of accommodation. But their problems clearly go far beyond Hyperia.

 

[Matt N]

Aside from Alton Towers, none of Merlin’s resort theme parks currently have any major construction projects.

Chessington has the rumoured Minecraft land in planning, doesn’t it? I’d argue that’s quite a major project that’s probably going to start construction quite soon.

 

[Matt.GC]

It's to protect the core brand, Lego. The midways and RTP's are tolerated whilst they're profitable, but RTP's are certainly not the core of this business.

 

[AT86]

Merlin’s problems definitely go further than Merlin’s UK theme parks though. In recent years they’ve closed Madame Tussauds Washington DC, The San Francisco Dungeons and Madame Tussauds San Francisco. They’re about to close the Bear Grylls Adventure and they’ve put some Australian Adventure parks up for sale and are about to close down Merlin Studios North. They also opened Madame Tussauds Dubai on an ‘island’ which was meant to form a mini cluster with the world’s largest observation wheel, although due to technical issues the wheel’s never opened, and partly because of that Madame Tussauds Dubai has been very empty.

When you are a business running over 140 attractions (with the vast majority of them being midways) closing a few here and there and trying new locations that perhaps don’t always work is entirely expected.

I don’t think a few closures represent any fundamental issue within the company. There are a number of factors that could influence closing a small number of midways, many of them more linked to local environmental factors than anything majorly ‘wrong’ within the company.