If you live in the UK, do you currently have a Merlin Annual Pass? Have you ever had one?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. With CoasterForce being a UK-based forum and Merlin being quite a dominant player in the UK theme park scene, many of the site's discussions centre heavily around attractions operated by Merlin Entertainments. One of Merlin's key products designed to appeal to people who visit Merlin attractions more frequently is the Merlin Annual Pass, which gains you entry to all of Merlin's UK attractions for a whole year, amongst other privileges. I'd wager that some on here visit Merlin attractions pretty often, but at the same time, some hold great disdain towards Merlin and want to give the company as little of their money as possible. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know; do you currently have a Merlin Annual Pass, and if not, have you ever had one? If you don't have one, what puts you off buying one?

Personally, I do not currently have a Merlin Annual Pass, but have had one in the past. We very often used to have them as kids, and we used to have them in alternating, non-Florida years going into my teens. The last season when I had a Merlin pass, however, was 2021. I had a Premium Merlin Annual Pass that I purchased in February or March 2020, and it got extended by a stupid number of months to something like December 2021 due to the COVID lockdowns. My parents and I really hammered the Merlin parks in 2020 and 2021; I reckon I got 10 park visits out of that pass!

However, I have not had a Merlin pass since that 2021 season. These days, I don't have a Merlin pass simply because I'm not sure I'd get value for money out of one. Living in Gloucestershire, I don't really live close enough to any of the 4 theme parks to visit them super frequently, and to get value for money out of even the cheapest tier of Merlin pass nowadays, I'd need to do at least 5 Merlin park visits per year. I'm not sure that I'd necessarily do more than 5 in a typical year these days; in a typical year, I probably do a minimum of a 2-day visit to Alton Towers and 1 or 2 days at Thorpe Park. If either park has a new notable draw, I might also do a day at Chessington or Legoland. On occasion, I might do two 2-day visits or a couple of extra day trips to Alton rather than just the one weekend, but those occasions are getting rarer. I'm probably going to be spending a 3rd day at Alton at some point in 2024, but that's only because we got given a free return visit due to visiting on 23rd March, so it's not a "paid" visit to Alton. Had we not had that free return visit, we probably wouldn't be going back to Alton this year.

When we were kids, we used to get value for money out of the Merlin passes because we used to do things like go to London and do some of the midway attractions at least once a year, as well as going to Warwick Castle, our nearest Merlin attraction at a 1.5 hour drive away, once or twice a year, alongside the annual weekend at Alton Towers. But we don't really go to the midways so much anymore; the last time I visited a Merlin midway attraction in London was no later than 2015, and I haven't been to Warwick Castle since 2017.

But I'd be keen to know; do you currently have a Merlin pass, and have you ever had one? If you don't currently have one, what puts you off buying one?

 

[Rob Coasters]

2017: got my first Merlin Annual Pass
2018: renewed it
2019: renewed it yet again
2020: renewed it yet again
2021: last year's pass extended through this year before finally ending at the very end of this year. Was not renewed as I've lost the desire to visit Towers, Legoland and Chessington
2022: Thorpe Park annual pass
2023: Thorpe Park annual pass (very reluctantly) renewed
2024: Merlin Annual Pass comes back with the opening of Nemesis, Hyperia, Minifigure Speedway & wanting a second opinion on Mandrill Mayhem.

I'll likely not renew my annual pass for 2025 as I won't have much desire to revisit Legoland or Chessington unless they add something substantial. I'm holding hope for Alton Towers 2025 being good, but if that's nothing good, I'll downgrade back to only a Thorpe pass.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I have passes, and apart from a few years I took out of visiting parks altogether, always have had them in some form or another. I haven't always had the Merlin pass, sometimes opting for a singular park pass in the earlier days. Think I've had a merlin pass in it's current form for 7 or 8 years. (Albeit with a switch from annual to monthly in that time, as well as the forced changed of tiers from the old premium pass to the new platinum pass.)

 

[Hixee]

Never have, hard to imagine I ever will. I average <1 Merlin Park visit per year, so it would be entirely pointless.

 

[Flash Shift]

Never have because I don't do many park visits in a year anyway, especially specifically Merlin ones. Plus you can often get deals or save clubcard points etc anyway for the one or two visits.

 

[emoo]

For 2024 I became a Merlin pass holder and excited for it.

+ For Hyperia & Nemesis I can enjoy the hype & nonsense of opening weekends. It doesn't matter that it makes sense to wait just a few weeks or even (week)days for the queues to become reasonable.

+ I got on Nemesis before this bleeding rattle chatter so hopefully thats a non issue for me.

+ Don't need to stress over the perfect visit for any park trying to get everything done in one shot.

+ Legoland and Chessington have new coasters for me and that virtual queue has gone.

+ The various meet ups make everything better.

+ Mine and many others general interest is on an all time high.

+ I'm not likely able to have a big trip abroad any time soon so this will distract me from that sadness hole.

+ Expecting to get my money's worth without forcing extra visits.

+ The Sparkle projects are doing great (and long overdue) work. I'm skeptical it will last so let's see everything at it's best. A partially painted Colossus will be funnier and the full repaint won't make those awful trains any better.

- Merlin parks take a few hours and many changes for me to get to by public transport.

- I got the silver pass shortly before they put the gold on sale for only £20 more. I could have had a physical Hyperia plastic card to treasure for always instead of a barcode in my wallet. That's irritating outside the parks.

- Chessingtons weekday ride closures and Alton/Thorpe common simultaneous breakdowns.

- Cost and quality of in park food even with a discount.


So many plusses but the benefits are mostly just this year so I don't expect to renew.

I've had the Merlin and Thorpe pass a handful of times many years ago. After diminishing returns as a solo visitor I was much happier going anywhere else.

I wonder what will life be like and if anything changes after we know what is it to ride Hyperia.

 

[owenstreet7]

I am currently a Thorpe Park Gold Passholder that I've got last year. I definitely shall say I've had quite a bit of use and value out of it over the time I've had it.

When the time comes to renew, I am considering going over to a Merlin Annual Pass (either equivalent or Platinum). I got the Thorpe Park Annual Pass initially to see how much use I got out of it before seeing if it's worth having a Merlin Annual Pass as I'd likely only visit Legoland once in a while and Chessington once or twice a year off peak. With Alton Towers, a Merlin Annual Pass might incite me to visit at least once a year as it is further away and with more limited connections... I am also thinking it could work well with the other attractions too.

What might put me off and make me consider just sticking with the Thorpe Park Annual Pass is the really silly things like the Chessington Off Peak closure of major rides, Legoland's no single rider policy on Pirate Falls (continuing from Covid and with no option given to share boats), Alton Towers ride line up lacking compared to Thorpe Park (no flat rides or flume style ride) and the ludicrous public transport links to Alton Towers (where's the shuttle bus?!?).

Thorpe Park is the one Merlin Theme Park that I would say is most efficient and is comparable to Germany in a lot of ways. That is big words but hear me out. The operations are reasonably smooth (despite the clear need for single rider queues on coasters and flat rides - some empty seats on rides). It keeps as many rides as possible open as possible on all operating days even off peak. It has a good connection to Staines Station with their shuttle bus (which I know is something quite unheard of in the UK and is comparable to Phantasialand or Europa Park). It is also one of the most single rider friendly parks in the UK with their single rider queues and none of their rides have a no single rider policies in their rides (Rumba Rapids have given me a boat to myself most of the time even when I was more than happy to share and didn't ask to be on my own specifically).

In addition, I do have European Theme Park trips lined up in the next few months so I don't know if I'd get time to do any other Merlin park than Thorpe Park or at a push Chessington or Legoland. Though it might give me incentive to go to Alton Towers though.

 

[JoshC.]

I've had a Tussauds/Merlin Annual Pass since about 2004.

Prior to that, I had a Thorpe Annual Pass since about 1997.

 

[emoo]

...Legoland's no single rider policy on Pirate Falls (continuing from Covid and with no option given to share boats), ...

Urh, are they still doing that? If it's a walk on queue come on. And yes please to efficient shuttle busses and single rider queues.

 

[owenstreet7]

Urh, are they still doing that? If it's a walk on queue come on. And yes please to efficient shuttle busses and single rider queues.

Yes it's still very much a thing, I had no clue about it until it was bought up in another group. a perfect solution is a single rider queue

Definitely up for more shuttle buses and single rider queues

 

[Nitefly]

I’ve tried to justify buying one of their passes for years but have never been able to do it. Generally with these things, it you feel ‘soft forced’ to use it to get value, then it simply isn’t worth it.

For me, the use case is already limited as it’s only Thorpe and Alton that have any appeal for re-visits.

Beyond that, the main offputting thing is having ‘pre-booking’ slots, which sounds absolutely vile… I’d want to pay and forget about it, visiting as I fancy. With all the things to do in life, I’m not willing to ‘plan’ and sacrifice a free weekend in advance for the sake of a Merlin park. Why burden myself with a need to plan, for the sake of saving peanuts?

I can see the value proposition changing a bit if either park was a short drive away, but otherwise those parks are a ‘once a year visit’ max.

A gold pass for Thorpe is currently £99 which is about as appealing as it’s ever been with Hyperia incoming, but it royally ***** me off with their whole ‘being a friend for less’ perk which saves you approximately half a peanut each time you use it. Plus you can’t use it on bank holiday weekends

 

[Howie]

Cor blimey, the last time I had a Merlin Pass it wasn't even a Merlin Pass, it was a Tussauds Pass, so that tells you roughly how long ago it was - 2003 to 2004 ish, I think.
I used it to visit Alton Towers lots at the time, especially when there was talk of a giant cross-valley woodie being built. I'd often skip work and head up there to see if I could get any early construction pictures.
Spoiler alert - it never happened.

Nowadays if I want to go to a Merlin park I'll either collect the tokens in The Sun for a pair of free tickets or get a BOGOF voucher off the back of a cornflakes packet.

 

[Jamesss]

Never had one until this year.

I got the pass to coerce myself into visiting parks more often as I've hardly bothered since 2020.

So far I've only used it for Madame Tussauds in London.

 

[Peet]

We got discovery passes this year since the kids are not in school yet, wife working part time, and I can book odd days off work no problem, it's easy for us to do off peak days. Legoland, Chessington and Thorpe are all within about 30 mins drive so yeah it makes sense.

Back in my teens/20s, me and 2 friends used to get the "family of 3" pass which was completely legit (I checked every time that there was no need to actually be a family ) and great value.

 

[Will]

I usually get an Alton pass, as I live less than half an hour from the place and it's nice to be able to head up when I'm at a loose end.

Obviously this year I knew I'd be at both Thorpe and Lego at least once, so I got the gold option. Will I renew it next year? No idea.

 

[toofpikk]

Never paid full price for an annual pass (as I guess the rest of the UK lol).

• 2013, I got one given to me for my birthday (believe my parents used clubcard points for it)
• 2014, I got gifted a 50% off staff code
• 2015-2019, I used my own 50% off staff voucher

Haven't had one since, always had friends who had magic passes I could use.
I've always appreciated that MAPs are pretty good value for money, but why would you pay for one when you can visit for free?

 

[witchfinder]

I got my first Merlin pass (Silver) this year because of all the new creds at Merlin parks (including Mandrill that I didn't ride last year) and since I live close to Alton I should get a few visits there during the year. I bought it during the sale in November and went for the membership option so thus far I have paid £11 a month for 5 months and been to one park

I'll be starting to get more value from it this week though with a trip to Legoland and Chessie on the same day, and I've got 2 days at Thorpe booked next month. My logic was if I manage 6 park visits in a year it will be worth it, and I should do that easily. I doubt I'll be getting one again though, this is just a one year thing since I'm not doing many foreign trips this year either.

I did have the Alton pass a couple of years running, around the time Wicker man opened, as it was only about £60. Visiting the park 6 or 7 times in one year just made me really jaded about it in the end though!

 

[Geeky Pastimes]

We head one years ago, but we went to Thorpe in 2022 and AT in 2019 and were so disappointed we haven't wanted to go back yet.

Both are about 3 hour drives for us each way, and the combination of a lack of new rides, terrible food and the general run down appearance of the parks have put us right off, would much rather pay a little more to get to Europe to go somewhere nicer.