February 15, 201510 yr comment_202865 However, I am not paying £5 extra to have less than half the park open. I will continue to visit when the park opens fully in march. The only reason I am considering visiting this week is because of the lack of queues, if the event was busy I doubt annual pass holders would be forking out £5 when they can experience the whole park for free weeks later.£15-£20 is pretty hefty for only 6 rides open and a show, and £5 is on the urge of being ridiculous for annual pass holders. HOWEVER, due to the good show, relaxed atmosphere and no queues it seems to shape up to be a good day out from what I've heard.
February 15, 201510 yr comment_202866 I completely realise that I have contradicted myself however I have changed my opinion of the event taking place since December. People change, opinions change; thats just the way it goes and the week is shaping up to be a lot emptier than I originally expected it to be, thus making it a much more enjoyable day out.
February 15, 201510 yr comment_202867 I'm still with my original mind set. I can't justify paying £5. Its a long way to travel for 2 rides and on top of that they want me to pay £5 for something in a few weeks time I can get free. It may be a relaxed day but I can pick almost any Sunday in march or April and get the same. It would be interesting to see how many people are there compared to how many they were expecting. I'm quite sure that they would have got more money if they had it free for all pass holders as I'm certain they would spend more in the park.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202868 There was actually more at the park to do than just the show and seven rides. They had several experiment/show stands around the park, one with the airzooka to fire off cups (I failed abysmally) and one with powered bikes near Angry Birds. There was also another stand elsewhere, but I wasn't able to find it successfully. I still think it's not bad value for a day out of shows and minimal queues on the other rides.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202872 Judging from social media and overhearing people at the park yesterday, it seems a lot of people didn't realise only a few rides would be open.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202874 To be fair, the map only shows the select rides and there are signs everywhere outside the park (including the entrance screen) that states what rides are open. We popped in for 3 hours yesterday (Brainiac was brilliant IMO). There was a nice, relaxed atmosphere and when the sun began to come out it was pleasant to walk about. The staff were also on top form (but they usually are right at the beginning).
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202879 With the braniac live show... I've never seen it before. but visiting twice this week, just trying to work out if I'd be that bored watching it the second time or is it really that good of a show!?
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202883 It baffles me that they are charging passholders... especially given that Alton Towers do not and there is a fair bit more open at Alton Towers... Weird.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202884 On Saturday there was hardly any non pass holders waiting to go in. Most of the people were pass holders so that's probably why they're charging as otherwise they wouldn't get much ticket money and getting Braniac Live in won't be cheap (not supporting the charge just giving the probable reason for it).
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202886 when you look how much thorpe park annual passes cost in comparison to alton towers annual passes you can see why... but standard merlin passholders would seem a bit of an annoying one to add the charge to.
February 16, 201510 yr Author comment_202887 Thing is they have to be consistent, they charge pass holders an event fee for fight nights / summer nights so it makes sense to charge for this too. I do think it would be good id Merlin standardised this across the parks though, either way, just to avoid any confusion.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202888 Standardised to be free I hope Marc, rather than every park charging for every single event they run...
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202889 Tickets have lowered to £12.50 online, thorpe ovbiously are trying to get more heads through the door as queues aren't reaching over 5-10mins even on one train operation!
February 16, 201510 yr Author comment_202890 Standardised to be free I hope Marc, rather than every park charging for every single event they run... Why? Why should someone who choses to pay less for a standard pass get the benefit of what someone who pays extra to get a premium pass?
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202891 (not supporting the charge just giving the probable reason for it). If you entered the park as a guest then you supported it.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202894 Why? Why should someone who choses to pay less for a standard pass get the benefit of what someone who pays extra to get a premium pass? Why should an 'annual' pass of any level not work the year round?
February 16, 201510 yr Author comment_202895 Why should an 'annual' pass of any level not work the year round? Because id assume market research concluded that some people are happy to pay less upfront for a pass which is subject to restrictions - its not like Merlin are the only ones, disney do something similar (https://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/) Six flags have a pass which don't include parking and Cedar Fair offer a Platinum pass which offers benefits over the standard one.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202896 It is poor that they only have a few rides open, however it does say this on their website, but at the same time I do think that there should be more open. I had a relatively good day today with lots of re-rides on Stealth (14 goes) and Swarm (7 goes), but after being at a certain park yesterday and the day before which had every ride open I did have to giggle a bit! Braniac Live was very good and entertaining though.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202902 I like having the park near enough dead. Got on stealth over 40 times and swarm over 20.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202903 It baffles me that they are charging passholders... especially given that Alton Towers do not and there is a fair bit more open at Alton Towers... Weird. Well maybe its because Alton Towers don't have a specific show there and the charge maybe for the shows they are pushing the show more than the rides think how much the show would cost to run I think that is why there is a fee which in honesty I would pay if I did not have a premium pass.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202904 Because id assume market research concluded that some people are happy to pay less upfront for a pass which is subject to restrictions - its not like Merlin are the only ones, disney do something similar (https:/disney.go.com/passes/) Six flags have a pass which don't include parking and Cedar Fair offer a Platinum pass which offers benefits over the standard one. I actually agree with you. I guess my problem is with the way it has been developed, rather than the premium holders being given anything meaningful it is simply what was standard previously but has been taken away. The premium is standard, the standard is sub standard. Can't deny they are decent value though, but somehow whichever option you go for you feel a bit cheated. No matter what anyone says, the parking charges are unjustifiable and simply shouldn't be there anyway.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202907 Legoland actually do that where now the only people to get parking for free is VIP. Which I think should be done.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202909 Regarding the event fee vs Alton Towers being free; I am not sure that the Brainiac show thing stacks up... Alton Towers have shows by both Mr. Bloom and Mr. Tumble of CBeebies this half term (which they don't have ordinarily). This is a huge draw for the kids and they aren't charging AP holders extra... If Thorpe Park can't get guests in for it then the event simply shouldn't run - it doesn't take a business analyst to work that one out. Alton Towers had over 5,000 guests in the park on Saturday. Obviously it would be great if they did what BPB did and opened every ride, but then BPB are only opening weekends... and Alton Towers I know don't open a number of attractions at this time of year because the weather can be too cold for them to run properly. I presume it is similar with Thorpe Park. Rides in both parks are technically far more advanced than most rides in Blackpool.
February 16, 201510 yr comment_202911 Regarding the event fee vs Alton Towers being free; I am not sure that the Brainiac show thing stacks up... Alton Towers have shows by both Mr. Bloom and Mr. Tumble of CBeebies this half term (which they don't have ordinarily). This is a huge draw for the kids and they aren't charging AP holders extra... If Thorpe Park can't get guests in for it then the event simply shouldn't run - it doesn't take a business analyst to work that one out. Alton Towers had over 5,000 guests in the park on Saturday. Obviously it would be great if they did what BPB did and opened every ride, but then BPB are only opening weekends... and Alton Towers I know don't open a number of attractions at this time of year because the weather can be too cold for them to run properly. I presume it is similar with Thorpe Park. Rides in both parks are technically far more advanced than most rides in Blackpool. More advanced technologically maybe, but not in the case of maintenance. BPB have to replace lots of wood every year, as well as coping with rust on the metal coasters (due to the sea) and re-welding sections of PMBO track that gets blasted by the salt in the sea air, not to mention the huge amount of maintenance that Valhalla requires, so to get all the rides open in BPB is very impressive, and if they can then why can't the other parks? I'd much rather Thorpe and Towers opened on a full lineup every weekend rather than one week in half term with only a few rides open.
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