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Merlin Entertainments: General Discussion

Danny said:
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I've been in two minds about cancelling my pass over the past month, having only used it twice thus far this year, reminded of the far better quality on other continents, and seeing the offering be diminished further. Not that this email, thanking me for my loyalty, does anything to swing that decision.
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So we have two memberships and an annual pass, I had the same email as you twice for the memberships - which I read as “we’ve jettisoned several attractions this year but next year we’ll charge you the same and you’ll be thankful for it”

Worse was the annual pass email:

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To clarify, they’ve “dropped the price” of our Gold renewal to £179……which is exactly what we paid last year. So all in all a completely pointless exercise.
 
Not acknowledging us Platty Map holders is the true crime here.

That survey about Merlin offers they sent was intolerable too.
 
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tech said:
To clarify, keeping the price the same is not a ‘price drop’
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If the price went up and then back down again it is a price drop. Doesn't matter if its the same price you paid last year, if they were charging a different price and have dropped it back to what you paid last year it is still a drop.
 
jon81uk said:
If the price went up and then back down again it is a price drop. Doesn't matter if its the same price you paid last year, if they were charging a different price and have dropped it back to what you paid last year it is still a drop.
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I'm not going to go around in circles on this. Last year I paid £179, so to email me with news of a 'price drop' on my renewal this year, when the renewal price is the same as last year, is disingenuous at best. They may have artifically inflated it in the meantime like the DFS sale, but it's still marketing nonsense and it doesn't end up 'saving' me anything.
 
tech said:
I'm not going to go around in circles on this. Last year I paid £179, so to email me with news of a 'price drop' on my renewal this year, when the renewal price is the same as last year, is disingenuous at best. They may have artifically inflated it in the meantime like the DFS sale, but it's still marketing nonsense and it doesn't end up 'saving' me anything.
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It will still save you money upon this year inflation goes up year and year not to mention UK has the highest energy costs of all that impact businesses
 
tech said:
I'm not going to go around in circles on this. Last year I paid £179, so to email me with news of a 'price drop' on my renewal this year, when the renewal price is the same as last year, is disingenuous at best. They may have artifically inflated it in the meantime like the DFS sale, but it's still marketing nonsense and it doesn't end up 'saving' me anything.
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But it wasn't "artificially inflated", if the price drop had not gone ahead then the higher price for renewal would have been charged.
Renewal in 2024 was £179, increased to £189 in 2025 and people will have paid £189 so it is not artificially inflated.
It just looks odd to you as the rate has stayed the same, but the renewal price has dropped compared to the first half of 2025..
 
Merlin’s 2024 accounts have been published.

Link

Headlines:

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A good chunk of that loss is because they are still having to make impairment charges which come straight off the bottom line, presumably based on decisions made in the Varney era.

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In terms of Resort Theme parks, they have moved Warwick Castle out of RTP and into Gateway attractions for 2024 making a comparison to 2023 difficult (because they haven’t restated the 2023 numbers) but the accompanying commentary suggests the UK parks had a good year, with Thorpe specifically being called out.

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AT86 said:
Merlin’s 2024 accounts have been published.

Link

Headlines:

IMG_9676.jpeg

A good chunk of that loss is because they are still having to make impairment charges which come straight off the bottom line, presumably based on decisions made in the Varney era.

IMG_9677.jpeg

In terms of Resort Theme parks, they have moved Warwick Castle out of RTP and into Gateway attractions for 2024 making a comparison to 2023 difficult (because they haven’t restated the 2023 numbers) but the accompanying commentary suggests the UK parks had a good year, with Thorpe specifically being called out.

IMG_9678.jpeg
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If they had a good year then why are they making many changes behind the scenes, something doesn't add up.

Seems many off the issues made in the past by Merlin have come back to haunt them.
 
AT86 said:
In terms of Resort Theme parks, they have moved Warwick Castle out of RTP and into Gateway attractions for 2024 m
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I wonder why they have done this? Warwick Castle has Aramark-catered food and overall is closer to the theme parks in terms of it being an almost whole day visit, with special events, shows and similar. Whereas I don't think any of the midway attractions really have cafes even now and don't really have shows (expect Dungeons of course where the whole thing is a show!).

Not a huge surprise that the value of some assets were over-estimated like New York Legoland.
 
jon81uk said:
I wonder why they have done this? Warwick Castle has Aramark-catered food and overall is closer to the theme parks in terms of it being an almost whole day visit, with special events, shows and similar. Whereas I don't think any of the midway attractions really have cafes even now and don't really have shows (expect Dungeons of course where the whole thing is a show!).

Not a huge surprise that the value of some assets were over-estimated like New York Legoland.
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Presumably because it’s not a resort theme park, so just helps to tidy the books by moving it.
 
havaska said:
Presumably because it’s not a resort theme park, so just helps to tidy the books by moving it.
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Its closer to a theme park than most of the other attractions in the midway group (full day attraction, multiple aramark catering operations etc), thats why I think there might be more to this? Although Warwick Castle has scaled back its catering and similar quite a lot anyway.
 
havaska said:
Presumably because it’s not a resort theme park, so just helps to tidy the books by moving it.
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I don't have any inside information so my speculation isn't worth any more than anyone else's. But I suspect it's related to them taking over the running of Cadbury's World and wanting to pair the two attractions up, so some managers oversee the same functions at both attractions.
 
Funcone said:
I don't have any inside information so my speculation isn't worth any more than anyone else's. But I suspect it's related to them taking over the running of Cadbury's World and wanting to pair the two attractions up, so some managers oversee the same functions at both attractions.
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Yes the fact they now offer four attractions on one ticket is likely the reason for the change.
 
Anyone know what the turnaround time is for getting a membership pack and annual pass in the post. I renewed my gold pass just before going to America l and Canada for just over a weeks so its been about a weeks since I renewed. I've got the digital pass in my Google wallet so that's not an issue at least.
 
In terms of the email been sent about price freezes for silver and gold pass holders, what about us pass holders who have renewed not long ago. This latest email provides no benefit to us unless the price freeze is still active at the time I need to renew.
 
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