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The Sinking Ship: (Un)Love Letters to Merlin

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Legoland has had continual investment, because it is an international attraction.
Most of the Merlin attractions have settled with being regional attractions.
 
Legoland Windsor is also a newer park than Chessington, Thorpe etc. They don't currently have any rides as old as Dragon Falls, Loggers Leap etc. Plus Legoland make smaller capital investments. The Smiler and Derren Brown's Ghost Train were reportedly about £20 million, whereas Atlantis Submarine Voyage was less than half of that. If Alton or Thorpe had Legoland's level of capital investment, I suspect a lot of people wouldn't be happy.
 
Legoland is arguably being run to a slightly higher standard compared to the other UK Merlin parks.

There seems to be more efforts in crowd control, better spreading of attractions and more entertainment (2 live harbour shows, puppet shows, 4D films and meet and greets).

That said, the characteristics of the Merlin machine are still pretty evident. These consist of:
  • Removal/rebranding of park eateries for Merlin cookie cutout chains such as Burger Kitchen and Chicken Company. Evidently inferior to their predecessors.
  • Vast expansion on accommodation (even if it's at the cost of other attractions)
  • Typical Merlin commercialism, HB leisure, pass/ticket upgrade posters etc.
  • Removal of ageing brick built signs/structures for mass produced generic signs
  • Park cohesion has been lessened in parts I.E areas of Heartlake City and Adventure Land
  • General park state (though betterkept than Thorpe & Chessington) is still poorly kept in places (and has been for years). I.E Castle Land, broken animatronics and elements of Viking River Splash
  • Consistency of non Halloween/firework events is still evidentiary. Given May the Fourth Star Wars is the only other major event. Previously After dark in March and Amazing Machines in August.
Legoland arguably is still one of my favourite parks (even for nostalgia) but even that isn't immune to the corporate drying and stretching of the Merlin machine.
 
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Towerslover said:
When will Merlin sell any of the parks? Hopefully soon :(
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Be careful what you wish for. Also, for the record, I don't think they will. The grass is always greener...

Feels like a lifetime ago, but when the group was sold to Dubai Capital, at the time people thought there was going to be a new prosperous era to sheik things up a bit after a disappointing couple of years. In fact, it led to two years without a single new ride - just a crazy golf, the Haunted Hollow and a playground themed around excrement.
 
Rick said:
Be careful what you wish for. Also, for the record, I don't think they will. The grass is always greener...

Feels like a lifetime ago, but when the group was sold to Dubai Capital, at the time people thought there was going to be a new prosperous era to sheik things up a bit after a disappointing couple of years. In fact, it led to two years without a single new ride - just a crazy golf, the Haunted Hollow and a playground themed around excrement.
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Off the back of 3 new rollercoasters in 4 years though!
 
WillPS said:
Off the back of 3 new rollercoasters in 4 years though!
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That's true, but you must recall how much those rides were hated at the time by the enthusiast community.

The park as whole was pretty dire during those years. Cost cutting was pretty prevalent then too.
 
Ah the days of 1 man op Sea Dragons and Griffins Galleon...

There's no chance of Merlin selling up, and as the other topic discussed recently, the likelihood of a half decent company taking charge is very low...
 
Quote from the Merlin website to be considered when contemplating Alton Towers.

Product Excellence
Our number one priority is to provide memorable experiences for every guest, from booking to departure, and all delivered within a clean and safe environment.

Product Excellence is our unique function that monitors, measures and analyses the experience of all our guests with the purpose of delivering improvement and creating competitive advantage.

We continually measure our performance via the use of on-site, real-time electronic survey kiosks and we also operate an extensive externally operated Mystery Visit programme.

We are highly competitive across our attractions which, combined with the regular use of league tables, delivers continual improvement. As a result of this focus (and a robust cultural commitment to excellence), we will continue to strive to deliver year on year improvements in customer satisfaction. In terms of monitoring feedback we continue to take complaints very seriously – with our aim being to turn every disappointed guest into a Merlin Attractions' ambassador.

Our company culture – The Merlin Way

Team Merlin lives and breathes The Merlin Way: This is our culture and it pulls together our vision and values. It is at the heart of what we do. It captures what a Merlin person is about and helps shape how we will continue to achieve business growth and our objectives for the future. The Merlin Way represents our company’s DNA.

  • We love what we do (oh yeah?)
  • We care (about what exactly? Squeezing every ounce of life out of what was the UKs greatest attraction?)
  • We are innovative and fast moving (no, you really aren't. You are regressive.)
  • We do what we say (no you don't! You LIE! And there is proof.)
  • We make every £, $, € ... count (indeed. This one should be your #1 and in bold)
  • We take ownership (of what? Mediocrity?)
  • …and we do it all FOR THE LOVE OF FUN! (yeah, yeah...)
Every single day we embody The Merlin Way and this helps us to achieve our company mission: Delivering memorable experiences for our guests around the globe.

What a load of rubbish.
 
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with our aim being to turn every disappointed guest into a Merlin Attractions' ambassador.
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By handing out fastrack vouchers, as that makes everything better


Our company culture – The Merlin Way
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And our way is the only way! don't like it then duck off, we are all omnipotent and will do as we please to make lots and lots more money at any expense

o_O
 
Well they certainly deliver on giving guests memorable experiences.

Long queues, breakdowns, face slapping upselling, closed rides and limited entertainment are difficult to forget!
 
Surprised none of you have heard of The Merlin Way before. Its the standard they expect all their employees to work to. Anyone that's even been for an interview at one of Merlins attractions has probably heard it multiple times.
 
Tim said:
Surprised none of you have heard of The Merlin Way before. Its the standard they expect all their employees to work to. Anyone that's even been for an interview at one of Merlins attractions has probably heard it multiple times.
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I have heard of the Merlin Way.

But the only thing I associate about Merlin here in their UK resort theme parks is cuts.
 
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