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Merlin Entertainments: General Discussion

I don't mind paying a premium price for a high quality product. When we get to that point fair enough but until then try and keep the customers in the parks spending money.

Arramark also supply food to prisons, I'm sure customers are after something better than sub standard food at inflated prices
I will defend that not all Aramark food is bad there are examples of legit good food. Like Generator Chicken, Coachhouse Confectionery. And their new stuff looks good like the loaded fried.

It's the older outlets which are the main problem would love to see a new eatery in the Burger Kitchen near the Dungeons.

The Price is my main complaint for the portion size.

Best Valued food in the UK Park is at Fantasy Island where they are reasonably priced with great quantity and quality
 
Going back to the previous discussion, and having had one for 2 years now, I think it's fair to say that the Platinum pass is an absolutely disgraceful ripoff. Absolutely nothing about it makes it feel worth it, barring 3 days of Fireworks entry at Towers. Little things like not letting you use the Galactica Gate, a complete lack of perks after the first year, 0 communications barring upsell emails. It has to be one of, if not the worst supposed "top tier" annual passes at any resort or park/chain in the world.
 
Going back to the previous discussion, and having had one for 2 years now, I think it's fair to say that the Platinum pass is an absolutely disgraceful ripoff. Absolutely nothing about it makes it feel worth it, barring 3 days of Fireworks entry at Towers. Little things like not letting you use the Galactica Gate, a complete lack of perks after the first year, 0 communications barring upsell emails. It has to be one of, if not the worst "too tier" annual pass at any resort or park/chain in the world.

We've also had a Platinum pass for the last two years and personally i'm satisfied with it. For us the only reason to have it is the complete flexibility of being able to attend on any day we like, as the majority of our trips are spontaneous. I don't use any of the other "benefits" like Fast Track discounts or Refills etc so they're not incentives to me either way, though free parking is good so can't see myself going below Gold anytime soon.

I can't consider it a ripoff as the cost of our visits otherwise would greatly exceed that without it. One single visit on a otherwise blocked out date makes sense compared to Gold economically.

We're based in the south so have the advantage of a lot more attractions available to us. If you're predominantly visiting AT i can see why it wouldn't feel like good value.

Never had an annual pass for elsewhere so don't have a comparison point in that regard. Communications from Merlin in general seem poor though, we've been registered RAP for 4 years now and have only received 1 email of the plethora that have otherwise been shared on here in that period.
 
Going back to the previous discussion, and having had one for 2 years now, I think it's fair to say that the Platinum pass is an absolutely disgraceful ripoff. Absolutely nothing about it makes it feel worth it, barring 3 days of Fireworks entry at Towers. Little things like not letting you use the Galactica Gate, a complete lack of perks after the first year, 0 communications barring upsell emails. It has to be one of, if not the worst "too tier" annual pass at any resort or park/chain in the world.
Although isn't that known at the time of buying the pass that the only major difference is you get an extra 24 days you can visit, including things like fireworks, bank holidays, halloween and some half term weekends. If you don't need validity on those days, get the lower tier pass.

Disney is very similar with only major differences between pass tiers being blockout dates, their top-tier pass which gives around an extra two weeks without blockouts (mainly Christmas) is an extra $500 compared to the next tier down!
 
The annual pass of £79pp seems crazy, especially if you live in the SE (TP, Chessy, Legoland, London Eye, Sea Life, Tussauds, Shrek, etc all close to each other).
 
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