Whilst I do agree with fastrack, I think Merlin's parks have now overstepped the mark in terms of pricing. My experience of pricing comes from an international field; Gardaland charges around 6 euro's for 4 rides, PortAventura around 20 euros for 8 rides, and 40 euros for unlimited rides. To compare; £80 (approx) at Alton Towers for unlimited rides, £10.50 for 3. It's overpriced, and is trying to simply take as much money out of your pockets as possible. And I wouldn't complain if the parks managed to re-invest it in a good way, but it just seems to disappear into shareholders pockets.
Then they don't pay the staff anything like enough (especially on the R&A side) for the responsibilities they have; I am rapidly realising how much Merlin exploit both their staff and their guests. It's all about making money, not providing a good guest experience, a good experience is needed to make the money, provide the bare minimum to maximise profits, and take it from there seems to be the attitude more often than not.
The problem remains that there is a Merlin monopoly. No little parks provide enough competition in terms of retail products or overall experience, we have a UK focus on world records, rather than building a theme park which delivers an experience. We should start a co-operative and venture into this avenue....