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Merlin International Midways: General Discussion

Jordan

Jordan

TS Contributor
I looked around and couldn't find a similar thread, so I'm creating one to collate any bits and pieces around Merlin's international midway attractions.

"Midways" is the term given to most of the shorter Merlin attractions, including Madame Tussauds, The Dungeons, Sea Life, Legoland Discovery Centres and the Eye attractions. They're probably the most lucrative part of the Merlin group, and many are often clustered together into the same place or close by.

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I thought I'd share some updates from the Merlin midways in Sydney. At Darling Harbour there's a Sea Life, a Wild Life small zoo, and a Madame Tussauds in the same building.

Some work was recently done to combine together the ticket sales and entrance for all the attractions. After a few weeks of the new changes, it turns out that there's nowhere near enough space for the queue, so the wharf is now graced with a rather grotty-looking marquee!

1iy71vZ.jpg
 
Funcone said:
-40 new midways between 2016-2020
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This is potentially worrying if they open too many of the same thing. At the moment it feels unique to visit Madame Tussauds when you are in a big city. But if there are too many cities with one then it is no longer special.
Although some of the new attractions will be new concepts like Shrek I guess.
 
At least Madame Tussauds are more different from city to city as they try to put an emphasis on well-known figures from that locality. Some of the other brands are even more similar. Sea Life Centres in particular feel like cookie cutter attractions. Presumably if this Shrek attraction’s done well we’ll see a few more of those.

Midway’s, accommodation and Legoland’s seem to be where Merlin’s putting the most emphasis. In some ways I think accommodation’s where they need to be the most careful. The market’s getting very saturated.
 
They're gonna start putting hotels next to anything at this rate.

Put a statue of Shrek up - BUILD A HOTEL!!!!

Meanwhile, they close rides at Towers...
 
Funcone said:
At least Madame Tussauds are more different from city to city as they try to put an emphasis on well-known figures from that locality. Some of the other brands are even more similar. Sea Life Centres in particular feel like cookie cutter attractions. Presumably if this Shrek attraction’s done well we’ll see a few more of those.

Midway’s, accommodation and Legoland’s seem to be where Merlin’s putting the most emphasis. In some ways I think accommodation’s where they need to be the most careful. The market’s getting very saturated.
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They mentioned during the meeting yesterday that there will soon be a 7th midway attraction announced. Also that there will be a Kung-Fu Panda equivalent of Shrek's Adventure for Asia.
 
Funcone said:
The have also released an investment strategy through to 2020:
-2000 more hotel rooms
-4 new Legolands (three of these have already been announced)
-40 new midways between 2016-2020
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I heard about this a little while ago and one bit really stands out, 4 Legoland's in 4 years. That's a Legoland a year! To put it into context Windsor took 3 years to build and presumably many more years to plan. I don't see how any company could pull something like this off without drastically dropping standards.
 
Unless they've been planning new Legoland parks for the past few years and decided to announce it now?

Or they've created a Legoland park that can be replicated on various sites, so there can be 4 carbon copies of a park.
 
Or they’re planning not to build it from scratch and turn an existing park into a Legoland (like they did with Cyprus Gardens). Or a combination of these. If they build it in America the chances of them buying an existing park are higher. If they build it in China I wonder whether the planning process is quicker and construction might also be quicker if there are fewer safety laws and labour's cheaper. For 2020 I reckon they've got time.
 
The presentation stated that the time taken to build Legoland parks is very short (can't remember exactly how long but roughly 12 months) and there are three different ownership/operation models. They certainly have a very aggressive Legoland and Midway expansion strategy.

:)
 
There's definitely room for more Legoland parks no question.

But are they just going to be more, Legobland, as I suspect.
 
I think with all the Legoland Discovery Centres out there Merlin are now getting more confident that they can parachute stuff in and make a success of it. It's not too big a stretch to scale the idea up and build an entire park with very little creative input. The next two Leogland parks are already on RCDB, and both feature a clone of Germany/Malasia's version of the Dragon Coaster for example. I suspect both parks will have very little that's actually unique, certainly in terms of rides. Food outlets, shops, theatres etc can all be copied over too, to varying degrees.

Minilands are likely to be unique, and signage etc will have to be localised, but now they have a large number of parks it's much easier and cheaper to roll out another one using existing plans as a starting point. From now on, I'm expecting new Legolands to be more similar to each other.
 
I've never been to an LDC, but I get the appeal of them and why Merlin want to open so many up, as Lego is popular across the world ans has been 50+ years. Sea Life are just aquariums, which appeal to everyone. Dungeons on the other hand, only work in certain places, and Dreamworks attractions may become dated very soon.
 
The Dreamworks attractions could be more blank space to retheme as and when popularity changes/Rights expire
 
John said:
I think with all the Legoland Discovery Centres out there Merlin are now getting more confident that they can parachute stuff in and make a success of it. It's not too big a stretch to scale the idea up and build an entire park with very little creative input.
Click to expand...

This is a really interesting point. Merlin's overall strategy looks like they're trying to commoditise attraction building. Their immediate focus is to continue building their capability to roll-out new attractions at pace, and we're seeing them reach the point where they can comfortably start applying their midway strategy to larger attractions.

The lynchpin to this operation is Lego, a very easy IP to work with. It's completely focussed on a loose concept (ie. blocks), so people care a lot less about a ride narrative, which in turn means that it's easier to clone attractions because nobody cares that this thing has been done before. Compare this to the Resort Theme Parks, where there's a much higher bar for uniqueness of new attractions (hence "world's first").

I suppose the question is: what's Merlin's next Lego? There will be a point somewhere in the future where most markets start to reach saturation for Lego attractions, and in order to continue moving at pace a new IP with similar characteristics will need to be found. (It shouldn't be too hard for Merlin to sign a deal, given their track record on delivery.)

As an aside, I don't think Dreamworks is that next IP, but there's clearly a good reason for their long-term strategy as to why they're choosing to develop it right now.
 
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*revives thread*

Sad news from Sydney as Merlin have closed down the aquarium in Manly.

Sydney Morning Herald said:
After 55 years and hundreds of thousands of visitors, the Manly Sea Life Sanctuary officially closed for the final time on Sunday.

Hundreds of people visited for the final time, farewelling the 2000 animals before they are relocated in the coming days and weeks.

The aquarium first opened its doors in 1963 - then only the seventh of its kind in the world.

It was then named Marineland, and it boasted a 55ft circular tank holding four million litres of water surrounded by newly air-conditioned viewing galleries.

In the late 80s, $12 million was injected into the aquarium, refurbishing the interior and revealing the longest underwater tunnel in the world at the time.

Over the years, it has been known as Marineland, Oceanworld, Underwater World or Manly Oceanarium, before its current name was adopted in mid-2012 under the new owners Merlin Entertainments Group.

Then, in March 2017, the company announced that the building was no longer feasible to maintain as an aquarium due to the projected maintenance required to keep the site up and running.
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The Manly Sea Life Sanctuary, whilst nowhere near as large as the main Sydney Aquarium, was really quite quaint and delightful.

I think it's quite sad that Merlin can buy one of the world's oldest aquariums and then just shut it down when it decides it isn't making enough money.
 
Now let's hope they don't do the same with any other attractions! *cough* Alton Towers *cough*. Hopefully a developer will come along and reopen this place!
 
I only saw it prior to the Merlin ownership, but it was fine... the Darling Harbour attractions are only a short ferry ride away, perhaps was always going to happen, really.
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5476449/He-fell-face-Harrowing-account-Sky-Walk-death.html

Man jumps from top of Merlin’s Sydney Tower.
A middle-aged man was taking part in the 268-metre-high Skywalk around a platform outside the tower when he became agitated and removed his harness which attached him to the building, witnesses say.

He then allegedly jumped off the edge in front of a young girl and an elderly couple who were left 'frozen' in shock.

Police were called to a 'self-harm' incident at 2.40pm and began to retrieve the man's body from beneath the tower.

One witness named Chris, who was inside the fourth-floor observation deck at the time, described the chaos that ensued.

He said: 'I was inside when I heard a worker start running and yelling back at his co-workers to "call downstairs".
 
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