• 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

b2311e said:
Last year, they went on sale on the 6th Feb I believe. The latest email they sent was on Sunday and it still says coming soon.

I don't know what the hold up is, but they do usually give plenty of notice, I'd be surprised if they're just put on sale without warning. That said, the Thorpe ones are usually much easier to get than Towers anyway
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, that's good to know Thorpe are normally easier to get than Alton Towers. I'll tell him to keep an eye on his emails as I would imagine they will send one in advance to say when they drop.

pluk said:
To my memory it is pretty random. I assume its when they get confirmation from the park of what dates will be made available to them, and as the whole organisation seems to not know what it is doing tomorrow, let alone next month, I imagine that is yet to be confirmed.

They're nothing like as good as they used to be anyway, sadly, as they oversell them.
Click to expand...

Yes it is weird however on the blue light day website it already says what days the blue light members only ones are. Sat 7th November & Sun 8th November 2026 and it displays what the ticket price will be. Seems confusing that every other place is already "live" and not Thorpe Park.
 
djransome said:
Thanks for this, that's good to know Thorpe are normally easier to get than Alton Towers. I'll tell him to keep an eye on his emails as I would imagine they will send one in advance to say when they drop.



Yes it is weird however on the blue light day website it already says what days the blue light members only ones are. Sat 7th November & Sun 8th November 2026 and it displays what the ticket price will be. Seems confusing that every other place is already "live" and not Thorpe Park.
Click to expand...
Would that be right that Thorpe's blue light weekend would be the same weekend as Towers' fireworks? Does seem a little unfair if that is the case, especially for card holders who what to visit both parks for both events. Has that coincided before? Not being a Blue Light card holder I don't know.
 
The Thorpe Fright night blue light days are typically the weekend after the park closes for the season and more often than not is the same weekend as Towers fireworks.

I don’t imagine the amount of blue light card holders that would want to attend both events is very significant in number.
 
Last edited:
Hi all,
Apologies if this the wrong thread for this question but.
I've just booked a short break at Thorpe and they are doing a deal where you get a Essential Merlin Pass for everyone staying.
I've got an email with them on to redeem.
Do they just last the year? Is there any benefit in waiting to redeem it, will it last March to March or is it just the year 2026. Thanks
 
Call_um said:
Annual report for 2025 is out - https://www.merlinentertainments.biz/media/8353/motion-jvco-annual-report-and-accounts-2025.pdf
Click to expand...
So a brief summary of the report so far:
  • Eroding profit margin due to inflationary pressures, hence the restructure to try and introduce lower operating costs.
  • Company finances are rated as a ‘going concern’, which means the company can continue as is for another year but remains under review.
  • Climate Change is an increasing risk to the business.
  • Engagement in staff survey is down from last year, which may indicate less enthusiasm from staff overall (haven’t seen any specific metrics beyond engagement levels in report so far).
  • Significant capital investment is recognised as crucial for the company to grow, but subject to inflationary pressures, with hopes of interest rates coming down (probably not the case now).
  • Company overall believes it can continue trading after consolidation of costs and lack of economic turbulence.
 
They chose to opt for aggressive and rapid global expansion at a very difficult time for consumers, what with the cost of living crisis, a global pandemic and even conflicts between nations which are making energy prices simply unaffordable for many people including their own locations. The cost to run some of their parks must have sky rocketed.

You could say they've been slightly unlucky really and things out of their control haven't been kind to them. However I wasn't confident enough in their core parks and locations before they went on this global takeover plan. I think they've badly underestimated several regions of the world that they quite clearly don't know enough about.

Full expect to see them selling off properties over the coming years.
 
Inorganic large scale acquisition/growth is often a hallmark of a company trying to secrete more fundamental issues with its core business.

When you look at the RTPs that used to represent a large part of that core business, and the state they’ve gotten into, there are certainly some alignments with that theory.
 
Merlin's business model is somewhat odd, and I agree that some of the issues they face are not their issue. Some of their expansion choices were sensible although they perhaps went too quick, and focused way to much on just the Legoland brand, seeming to want to open one absolutely everywhere. I think it's quite clear that their current business model cannot go on forever as is, although they are not in immediate danger.
Their biggest challenge is the huge pile of debt the company has been saddled with by its venture capitalist owners. Its limiting their necessary expansion in other areas and investment that would help support the business to grow in my opinion. They also have a big trouble in that their business model fundamentally relies on group annual passes, which means anything they sell off is a hit to that business. There is nothing I can think of that makes logical sense to sell left in their UK portfolio at least. I don't envy Merlin's top team at the moment, as they really don't have lots of good options open to them, I suppose decisions like Minecraft at Chessington could bring in huge money, and perhaps they will expand Minecraft worlds to either Heide or Gaurdaland (both due for major investments), which again could bring in big money. The trouble with that is I am sure they will be paying huge royalties and percentages of merch sales to Mojang/Microsoft.
 
flights ua GIF
 
The main difference between Platinum and Gold annual passes was the ability to book Towers fireworks, and this fast track perk as far as I can remember. So it’s not like they’re removing a little side bit, they’re watering down one of the main reasons people will have bought the platinum pass. Really poor, especially as the only real data they have so far has been two busy weekends at Towers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top