No, I'm sorry but this is wrong. They are called ANNUAL passes for a reason, this is yet another way to take just that bit more money from people!

I don't care that it's only a pound, I paid the best part of £200 for my premium pass under the terms and conditions that Fright Nights are a FREE event. To charge this (and let me guess... booking is compulsary?) is an absolute disgrace and yet another example of Merlin showing no care towards loyal customers.

Think I'll be making a decision not to renew my pass, fed up of Merlin constantly upping charges that were not part of the T&C's and when their parks are run as badly as they have been this year, I don't see why I should bother.

 

The issue comes when people (some openly on these forums) state they are booking multiple free tickets they have no intention of using, whats going to fix this? A tiny charge.

 

Not sure how compulsary booking will be, if you turn up early I'm sure you will have no issue gettung in not being prebooked- if you turn up late on a peak day I can see you having issues getting in without pre booking. 

I don't like this idea. I always brought a premium pass with the term that fright nights are free. I was told it was included in price and spend **** loads of money on it for this reason.

Also. If merlin do put this charge in place under the conditions of the premium annual pass they will be breaking the law under the trades description act.

I know its a pound but as premium passes are so much more I think its going to discourage people from purchasing pmap in future.

Section 11.5 allows them to charge for fright nights for all types of passes. Along side this there is also section 11.1 which allows to charge a booking fee for anything they want.

Saying that what they are doing is wrong. Yes it is only a pound but the point still stands.

But that's the thing to give an edge on a Standard and Premium Pass is one shouldn't pay nd one should pay. Standard is the most basic form of pass so should be paying and Premium and Vip shouldn't pay. If they were worried about people booking multiple times and not turning up they would of did it for summer nights.

So, I don't have a link to this post. But if you go on the thorpe twitter page and look at the tweets and replies. Somebody has noticed a Breakout - 2016 new sign and commented it to Thorpe asking if it's a typo. They said 'you'll just have to wait and see, won't you' or something like that. It's not a direct confirmation, but its a hint at least...

I can see why they've done it, it's nothing more than a deterrent to stop certain individuals from simply booking, and so taking up and wasting a place for, a number of dates which they won't attend, just like others had said. It could be a bit of shock to a system if you bought a premium pass on the premise that Fright Nights would be free of charge etc. etc. etc. but I honestly think that £1 is nothing in comparison to what you likely spend on the day there. It's not outrageous and unjustifiable, possibly just a slight inconvenience for some.

I can see why they've done it, it's nothing more than a deterrent to stop certain individuals from simply booking, and so taking up and wasting a place for, a number of dates which they won't attend, just like others had said. It could be a bit of shock to a system if you bought a premium pass on the premise that Fright Nights would be free of charge etc. etc. etc. but I honestly think that £1 is nothing in comparison to what you likely spend on the day there. It's not outrageous and unjustifiable, possibly just a slight inconvenience for some.

What relevance is that?  I spend money on the day there to buy things, whereas I shouldn't have to spend money to enter an event which I have been told was included in the pass.

 

I agree that they should have a system to stop people wasting places, but there are other ways of doing it - a refundable deposit for example.  That being said, with an annual pass you shouldn't have to book anyway IMO, you should be able to use your pass as you can in any other park.

 

It's not as much the £1 that's angered me, it's the principle behind it.  You'd think that £200+ was enough, obviously not.  

 

 

They should just charge £10 or something then refund it on entry. Surely that would fix all of the problems?

Now that's a better idea, trouble is they wouldn't get any more money that way.

As long as you can arrive at 9.00am to make sure you can get in without paying the ridiculous £1 fee I'm fine with it However if you have to pay the £1 fee to access the event Then technically the terms of the annual pass (premium) Have been breached IMO London Dungeon And Shrek guarantee entry for a £1 Is fine But this is just ridiculous!

I agree that they should have a system to stop people wasting places, but there are other ways of doing it - a refundable deposit for example.  That being said, with an annual pass you shouldn't have to book anyway IMO, you should be able to use your pass as you can in any other park.

 

It's not as much the £1 that's angered me, it's the principle behind it.  You'd think that £200+ was enough, obviously not. 

 

The entire point of booking is to help control numbers though, is it not? Considering all that I saw and heard regarding the numbers at Fright Nights last year, I think that having to book in advance isn't an entirely stupid idea. I agree that having a deposit of sorts would be a good idea, but some people could just see £10 and get annoyed, rather than be under the mindset of 'oh, it's only a pound'

 

I don't understand why you'd gladly part with '£200+' plus if you have so many issues with the service you are provided, I wouldn't want to spend £20 on something that made me as unhappy as Thorpe seems to make you at times, let alone £200. Then again this is something that's always brought up so I don't think it's really worth going there!

 

(my post wasn't directly aimed at you, by the way)

I agree that they should have a system to stop people wasting places, but there are other ways of doing it - a refundable deposit for example. That being said, with an annual pass you shouldn't have to book anyway IMO, you should be able to use your pass as you can in any other park.

Are you suggesting the park should limit its capacity just incase annual pass holders turn up? As nice as that would be it's not very realistic during a time the park often hits capacity.

Consult all of section 11 which states that they can charge for this with no breach. Whilst normally these situations are too vague and they would never hold up in court fright nights is given as a specific example and so they are completely covered.

£1, oh god what a rip off....

People are putting words in Thorpe's mouth here - it is NOT a £1 charge to enter the event, it's a £1 booking fee. It's not uncommon of we're honest in many places (many travel companies charge booking fees on their cheap fares for example). Pretty sure that in the past they have had booking fees for online transactions, so it's not a new thing either.

It's inconvenient, but this is a case of the minority ruining things for the majority.

 

The entire point of booking is to help control numbers though, is it not? Considering all that I saw and heard regarding the numbers at Fright Nights last year, I think that having to book in advance isn't an entirely stupid idea. I agree that having a deposit of sorts would be a good idea, but some people could just see £10 and get annoyed, rather than be under the mindset of 'oh, it's only a pound'

Actually, booking is a good idea, although I don't think it should be compulsory for annual passholders (which they usually say it is).

A deposit would be much better and it wouldn't have to be £10 - they could make it a £1/£2 deposit and it would still have the same effect of preventing people from booking for the sake of it.

 

I don't understand why you'd gladly part with '£200+' plus if you have so many issues with the service you are provided, I wouldn't want to spend £20 on something that made me as unhappy as Thorpe seems to make you at times, let alone £200. Then again this is something that's always brought up so I don't think it's really worth going there!

The thing is, I didn't know that this year was going to be so bad at the Merlin parks.  There have been so many little hidden charges popping up this year (such as the CWOA car park and this), as well as possibly the worst operations in recent years and closures - but I didn't know this was going to happen when I bought the pass.

 

Are you suggesting the park should limit its capacity just incase annual pass holders turn up? As nice as that would be it's not very realistic during a time the park often hits capacity.

No, but they don't hit capacity outside of school holidays (or do they?)  In which case, there's no need to make people pre-book outside of the very busiest times.

It just makes me think that merlin are trying to rake in some extra cash due to them losing £47million at Alton towers

just wondering, what maze is that "bound and gagged" video based around?? weird stuff..

just wondering, what maze is that "bound and gagged" video based around?? weird stuff..

The Big Top!

Legoland have decided to do the same with their fireworks event... But charging annual pass holders £5 for guaranteed entry!?

And the same with Thorpe, if there's the option to queue up and get in without paying before it reaches capacity then fair enough I guess. But a £1 charge full stop is not on. Yes I'll just pay it, but that's not the point, they're abusing passholders once again..

Random thought and genuine question - are there any companies which allow you to make a refundable deposit online using a bank card?

 

I've of course heard of deposits in person where you hand over a set amount of cash, or give you card details, and they're then returned to you in person.  But wouldn't it be more awkward (and require more details) to ask guests to pay a deposit online, only to give it back to them once they've visited?  If so, that would surely explain why they can't take a deposit

Giving it back to them would require merlin to store bank details. Something no company really wants to be doing. The logistics behind returning the money would be stupid and not worth the time. 

The Big Top!

 

ye I thought so because it had the big top logo at the end of the video, but I really don't see the relevance of it in a "carnival themed" maze haha, looked way more like something out of saw to me...

ye I thought so because it had the big top logo at the end of the video, but I really don't see the relevance of it in a "carnival themed" maze haha, looked way more like something out of saw to me...

 

Possible spoilers...

 

From what I can gather, it's part of a dungeon scene within The Big Top. The teaser videos would suggest that it's used to trap people to join the Figaro Brothers' circus against their free will (since there's a video with the description 'Not everyone wants to run away with the circus'). I could be wildly wrong though!

^ that's what I was thinking, but the whole scenery didn't seem too circusy so I can see where confusion kicks in. Will be interesting to see if they seperate and split people off to match that theme...

ah yeah I do remember seeing that part in the description, I just didn't really connect the two. like you guys said, the scenery really didn't seem very circusy or "carnival" themed at all, so yeah...

 

who knows what section of the maze it is really, I guess we'll have to wait and see. all I can say it from what I can see it's definitely thorpes darkest maze yet (marketing-wise at least haha, some of it's real weird).

I hope they make it funny though, because the best thing about a clown maze is humor..

Thats why COS was so good.