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The Merlin VIP Annual Pass

Steve74 said:
I can honestly say that in all the years Fastrack has been available I have never ever bought one. I've been on quiet weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays, school holidays, traveller day at Scarefest and I have never felt the need to buy one. Not that I could justify spending that amount of money just to shave a few minutes off a queue time.

I've always said that as long as the queue is reasonable (by that I'd say up to an hour) then the queuing often adds to the whole ride experience. It's in the queue that you can get to speak to people about Towers etc, and sometimes they're newbies to the park and/or ride so you can have some really good conversations with them.

Sometimes when I have had priority passes after a ride has stopped, by just nipping onto Nemesis via the exit or even going on Wicker Man via it's short Fastrack queue I sometimes feel a little cheated and it almost feels like I've just gone on it to tick a box: "yep, that's done, now on to the next one to tick off". Bit difficult to get across in words but I hope some of you understand what I mean!
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I couldn't justify £100 a day but £625 for a season is easy to justify.

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I think everyone spends more on something that means to them then others would dream of spending on it. Doesn’t mean they are wrong for spending it. Some people smoke more than a VIP pass in a month. I have a pair of B&O earphones which are £270 which some people think I am crazy to get but I am a part time sound engineer so appreciate good quality sound and am I. Insomniac with tinnitus so use them to keep me calm at night.


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Stuie said:
£625 is a cheap holiday, a festival ticket plus spending money, a European city break etc etc etc

I wouldn't spend that money just to queue less time to ride coasters that I've ridden before.

Each to their own though, but I wouldn't say it's easy to justify!
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Absolutely, each to their own and I don't judge anyone who does spend that sort of money on things I wouldn't. I guess being a single dad with a house, mortgage and car I sadly have other priorities!
 
pj said:
I think everyone spends more on something that means to them then others would dream of spending on it. Doesn’t mean they are wrong for spending it. Some people smoke more than a VIP pass in a month. I have a pair of B&O earphones which are £270 which some people think I am crazy to get but I am a part time sound engineer so appreciate good quality sound and am I. Insomniac with tinnitus so use them to keep me calm at night.
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Fair point, well made. If you've earned it, spend it how you like.
I've just spent £400 on skydiving so I cant really criticise anyone's frivolous spending! ;)
 
I've only ever purchased Fastrack once and that was for just The Smiler in its opening month. The queue was going out the entrance and back up the hill towards the towers - I regret nothing.

It's one of those things that people will always buy no matter what the cost is, which is why it will never go away.

Tbh Fastrack is the main reason I no longer visit Merlin parks, its so frustrating waiting in slow moving queues for low capacity rides whilst watching those who can afford an extra £50 waltz straight on. Id happily pay a higher entrance fee to visit a park where every guest is equal.
 
RicketyCricket said:
Tbh Fastrack is the main reason I no longer visit Merlin parks, its so frustrating waiting in slow moving queues for low capacity rides whilst watching those who can afford an extra £50 waltz straight on. Id happily pay a higher entrance fee to visit a park where every guest is equal.
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But when you compare the entrance fees of those few parks that don't have a fast pass system to the likes of Merlin parks (gate price anyway) you actually pay a significant amount less for the most part!
 
The VIP pass being discontinued is the funniest thing that has ever happened. The funniest however, is yet to come. Next season when they're loudly saying "WHEN I WAS A VIP..." every 30 seconds, fighting back tears while they're stuck in a 2 hour queue for Rita.

Ohhhhh it's going to be glorious. They're going to overcompensate on the pop badges to the point they're so heavy they gradually flatten themselves under their own weight, becoming part of the floor. Alton Towers plaza bricks are going to be nothing compared to the ultimate piece of memorabilia - the floor of former VIP pass holders.
 
Log Flume's Dennis said:
The VIP pass being discontinued is the funniest thing that has ever happened. The funniest however, is yet to come. Next season when they're loudly saying "WHEN I WAS A VIP..." every 30 seconds, fighting back tears while they're stuck in a 2 hour queue for Rita.

Ohhhhh it's going to be glorious. They're going to overcompensate on the pop badges to the point they're so heavy they gradually flatten themselves under their own weight, becoming part of the floor. Alton Towers plaza bricks are going to be nothing compared to the ultimate piece of memorabilia - the floor of former VIP pass holders.
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Nah, VIPs tend to go for pins.
Source: I'm wearing 4 lanyards and 3 are full of pins.

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Stuie said:
Is there a reason why? Just wondering!
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2 VIP and 1 wickerman photo box lanyards to contain my pin collection then my Work lanyard.
(A fellow VIP kindly gave me a lift from towers to work-EMA)

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ringo said:
Surely you don’t wear a work lanyard when visiting a theme park?
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No, but he offered to give me a lift to towers and drop me off at work so I had to have it with me.
Normally it's just the 2 VIP and wickerman lanyards.

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It always amazes me how many people I see wearing their work ID outside of work. When I started my first proper job, it was drilled in to us to never wear it outside for security reasons. Not just incase someone snatched it, but also because it wasn't unknown for staff to be attacked just because of the company they worked for.
I can't find it right now, but a while back "Diamond Geezer" made a very good blog post detailing all the personal information he'd managed to gather about strangers on the tube who hadn't removed their work ID and lanyards.

I blame the way ID culture has invaded our schools. I'd never so much as seen a lanyard before I was 19. These days kids are fingerprinted, photographed and tagged like wildlife from the moment they enter school. It's all part of the grand plan to normalise ID, of course. But that's a rant for another topic...

Lanyards are a pain in the arse. I take mine off when I'm at my station working, (as well as my watch) as having a flappy dangly thing round my neck really gets in the way. I also remove it the moment I step out of the building. The idea of choosing to wear one on my day off is completely alien to me. Especially if it marked me out as part of a self-declared "elite" group that I knew was resented by the majority of people around me.
 
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