Posted February 7, 201312 yr comment_149802 Although I have an annual pass, I was just having a look at the merlin theme park's prices. Is it just me or are they ridiculously overpriced excluding 2 for 1 vouchers! Also do you think parks in the UK should have longer hours and be open till midnight like Disneyland is? Thanks guys...
February 7, 201312 yr comment_149806 I'm going to put my reputation on the line and predict most people would like longer hours for less money. I have said much about the flawed pricing structure and short sighted operations of our parks, but over all on a quiet day if you take them up on their vouchers and ignore all their fastrack sellers it's not a bad value day out.
February 7, 201312 yr Author comment_149809 Yes, as much as I would like longer hours and cheaper prices- I have been on a really quiet day where I used a 2 for 1 voucher and got on everything multiple times with 0 minute queues! But my point is, people pay £43 for entry then the come on a peak day and only get on 4/5 rides which is bad value for money...
February 7, 201312 yr comment_149839 While people are stupid enough to pay the price, Merlin will keep charging...
February 7, 201312 yr Author comment_149843 Well we will just have to wait till people will come to some sense and merlin will drop their prices due to lack of demand. Like that is ever gonna happen all the same... A merlin annual pass is great value(especially on the sale) so they will keep the guests rolling in! However I think prices with 2 for 1 is very decent, £21 was a good price for entry and the park wasn't to busy that time! I think if the 2 for 1 vouchers keep getting posted in the UK, then merlin will keep getting their guests!
February 7, 201312 yr comment_149849 Looking around at other theme parks as I do, Merlin's prices are not so out of line with theme parks of their stature around Europe/USA. In terms of their ride line up Merlin would probably say that their price is fair - although this only tells half the story since what they fail to do is provide a fully rounded entertaining day out. Of course we'd all love to see cheaper prices, but I'd be much happier to see improved customer relations, aesthetic improvements, and generally attempts to make a day at a Merlin park a satisfying experience beyond the rides themselves, If this were the case, I don't think £30 is really so bad for a day's entertainment nowadays.
February 8, 201312 yr comment_149916 I don't think £30 is really so bad for a day's entertainment nowadays. This depends, if it was like going to the park during the week when you can get on most of the rides, then I would agree, but if it was like Thorpe was during the summer holidays, Fright Nights where the queues were so long you would only get 4 rides in for the whole day, then not very good value. But Merlin must benchmark themselves. Merlin own some very powerful parks/brands and this works very well for them, the only park they have which doesn't deliver or seems to go out of its way to not care about customers but only the profit line is Thorpe.
February 9, 201312 yr comment_149943 But my point is, people pay £43 for entry then the come on a peak day and only get on 4/5 rides which is bad value for money... You'd have to really not plan your day too well to only do 4/5 rides on a peak day, particularly at certain parks. Making full use of the opening times, and you won't need fastrack. Towers you're almost guaranteed to get on more than 5 rides during peak, unless they had a powercut, even on the days with 30k on park. I went on an extremely busy day at thorpe, on a 6pm ride close during schools weeks. Queued almost 2hrs for swarm, arrived at 11am, and yet still managed to do 8 rides in a day.
February 9, 201312 yr comment_149966 When I go to Thorpe or Alton I'm first at the gates and I get at least 5 rides in during the first hour, maybe 5 rides on Stealth in the first 15 minutes if I'm lucky :-)
February 13, 201312 yr Author comment_150203 Lucky, these days chessie is only open till 7pm on halloween! They are even having 'halloween' dates open till 5pm in the off peak season! I presume you got to ride samurai at chessie- before it was run poorly at thorpe! I was watching a video of samurai at night and realised how much nicer it looked with lights on the back of seats as well as underneath!
February 15, 201312 yr comment_150279 Samurai at Chessington was legendary, and because of how I remember how it was - I've never got into it at Thorpe Sadly due to that hairline crack they found on transfer grrrrr. That was a good reminder there Han, I remember the days when Chessington would close really late. That was awesome! Fingers crossed one day they'll bring them back to how it was it's been 13 years
May 26, 20169 yr comment_235467 Sorry to bump an ancient topic, I'm trying to build up data on historical ticket prices for theme parks across the UK. I've put what I've got so far in a google sheets document, so you can view the data for yourself, and more importantly if anyone can help fill in the gaps, I would be very thankful (the sheet is set to allow comments). Here is a link to the document.
May 31, 20169 yr comment_235707 My response is no, solely because UK prices are the same/cheaper then many international parks. The fact alone that we can get so many deals with parks too, I.e. online purchases, cereal tickets etc. makes them substantially cheaper then international parks. A ticket to Disney could cost twice the price of a ticket to thorpe easily, and many european parks of a similar size/quality to merlin parks can cost up to €50, with no availability of deals. It's standard internationally and its just our culture demands cheaper deals constantly.
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