• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

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).
 
Fiona Eastwood, Merlin's CEO, has been interviewed by The Guardian.

Some takeaway points:
  • There's no longer a company appetite to push gimmicks such as VR, which distracted from the communal sense of a day out.
  • Fiona welcomes Universal's entry into the UK but, as a Board member of UKHospitality, encourages the government to ensure that the project isn't given preferential/unfair treatment with planning and infrastructure investments. She would like to see this reflected industry wide.
  • Legoland Shanghai will be the world's largest park at opening, with 75 rides, entertainment, attractions and accomodation ready for day 1. (Got to get a world's first in somewhere)
  • Eastwood has been directly responsible for the corporate restructuring, aiming to unify and simplify Merlin's operations. A drive to become one company.
  • A potential staggering and complementation of events and attractions at UK parks:
    • "For example, in the UK what you don’t want is Alton Towers doing something at the same time as Legoland Windsor."
  • Sees home entertainment and screens as their biggest market challenger.

It is an assuring article to read. It would appear as though Merlin Entertainments is finally in the hands of a sensible leader, who actually cares about the company, its offering, has experience and (added bonus) actually knows what Merlin do before hiring.

The company felt rather directionless during the O'Neil era. The Varney era was obsessed with catching the mouse and expanding at all costs. I'm hoping we now see a solidifying of position and a commitment to investing in the overall customer experience.

I don't expect changes to happen overnight. I fully expect them to be slow and drawn out. It'll be interesting to watch, especially with the other large scale theme park investment in the UK.
 
It's a fact bubblesworks is the worst example but nearly all their new dark rides rely on screens. Jumanji at Gardaland, Gangster granny is nearly all screens, alton manor to quite an extent too, Darren browns ghost train though I appreciate they have removed those now at least but it's very underwhelming without physical things. Just look at the contrast with Valhalla, not a screen in sight
 
It's a fact bubblesworks is the worst example but nearly all their new dark rides rely on screens. Jumanji at Gardaland, Gangster granny is nearly all screens, alton manor to quite an extent too, Darren browns ghost train though I appreciate they have removed those now at least but it's very underwhelming without physical things. Just look at the contrast with Valhalla, not a screen in sight
I don't mind screens as long as they are incorporated well however do prefer physical sets some Tomb Blaster still has.

Would like a heavy animtronic Dark Ride at Towers they only have 1 animtronic in the Feathers in Mutiny Bay. Towers has not had a animtronic heavy dark ride since Toyland Tours
 
Alice and Wallace and gromit are also great screen free dark rides (except very end of Wallace) in recent years Pleasure Beach has produced far superior dark rides to merlin. Valhalla is also not bit black since the referb the effects are a lot more reliable and very impressive and shows no need for screens. The logs, arrows, water vortex, ring of fire, explosions at the end.
 
There is no mention of events in the quote or article, just "things that X park is doing". I interpret that more around business functions and departments.
 
There is no mention of events in the quote or article, just "things that X park is doing". I interpret that more around business functions and departments.
Fair, I automatically assumed events. However I still think the implication is very much on parks not competing with each other for custom, rather than for the benefit of centralised functions.
 
Fair, I automatically assumed events. However I still think the implication is very much on parks not competing with each other for custom, rather than for the benefit of centralised functions.
I also assumed events, specifically relating to the quote I pulled out about X not doing something at the same time as Y. In addition to the promotion of similarly targeted attractions.

@Tom's point about shared business functions is still valid though, as it's a direction they confirmed in their Annual Reports and Accounts. I just don't quite think that's what Eastwood was alluding to in the above quote.
 
Top