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Merlin Fatigue

furie

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This isn't really about the Merlin AP prices (and upsell, etc), though it does have some bearing...

Essentially, I'm suffering from Merlin fatigue. For the last maybe four or five years, my first parks of choice to visit (and other days out) have all been Merlin attractions.

The reason is very simple. Each year we invest in Merlin Annual Passes and to "get the most from them", we prioritise Merlin attractions to visit.

However, I'm getting sick and tired of them. I'm definitely getting value with the amount of visits I make, but I've had enough. I popped into Warwick Castle on the way down South on Monday and all I saw (as I do at Alton now) is "line Merlin's pockets with some more of your hard earned cash". I know they're a business and have to make money (and most of it up sell), but I've just fed up with going to places "because it's free" to find the day isn't.

It got me thinking. We wanted to do the "Merlin Tower", but it was almost a fiver each to do it (plus waiting time). Now, from the adverts, there's no sign it's an additional charge (that's a different discussion of course), but it led the way my thoughts went. That £5 each is a quarter of (or close to a quarter of) the cost of entry to Oakwood, Paultons Park or Twinlakes. It's half the cost of entry to The Milky Way.

I can't afford to go to these places because with petrol, it's too much to add the entry price on for the family. Yet we make pilgrimages to Merlin attractions maybe twice a month. We don't have bad days there (and the attractions are top quality), but I think we'd have a much better overall "attraction experience" to do one new (or at least different) park a month rather than two Merlin ones. If we ditched the annual pass and cut down, we could easily afford it.

So, we're probably looking at dropping our APs when they run out (annoyingly, they are staggered) and will replace the Merlin visits to a much broader range of places.

Anyone else suffering from this? Maybe as a PBB pass owner you find yourself at Blackpool all the time rather than LWV? Is it just Merlin fatigue though? With more and more attractions being added, it makes the value much higher, but the limitations to other attraction visitations much higher too (we all only have a finite amount of time and money).

What are your thoughts?
 
I know what you're getting at. When I forked out £100 for my AP renewal earlier this year, I want to ensure that I get value out of it. So far I've done Alton once, Chessington twice, Warwick Castle once and Thorpe about four times so I've certainly got value for money from it.

But yeah, because I have it, I use it. Thankfully I'm within good distance of London and I enjoy the attractions so I'm happy to continue renewing.

I enjoy Thorpe and Chessington, even if it still costs me about £40 to visit each park when I factor in fuel and food.

What parks do I have near me that I could happily visit multiple times a year? Paultons? Yeah, ok, it's good, but it's not aimed at me so I'm happy with two visits a year. If I want to visit a park further afield that isn't Alton Towers then I have to take fuel and entrance into account.

Ok, so I've rambled on pointlessly about the cost of things and the pass in general, but in conclusion, I'm not suffering from Merlin fatigue and I still make a effort to visit non-Merlin UK parks throughout the season.

Variety is certainly the spice of my theme park enthusiasm. If I was restricted to Merlin parks due to travel and petrol costs, then yes, I'd probably suffer fatigue.
 
Same. I still enjoy going to them but it does get boring when you've been hundreds of times.

We didn't renew our passes this year. Last summer I went to LWV and Flammy with my dad and brothers and it was a nice change as I'd only been to LWV once before and Flammy twice, and my family hadn't been to either before so it was enjoyable to get something new to do and my family seemed to like it as well.

But yeah. Im not bothered about getting another Merlin pass until there's a fair bit more to do. I may go to a couple of the parks and use vouchers as it'll work out cheaper.

All I want to do this yeah on the pass was the Dungeons for Vengeance (which I got to do for free) and Alton for Scarefest (which I've never done before and will hopefully get to do this year). :)
And the only thing Im bothered about next year is LC12 which I'll probably do when it's quiet and everyone's at school. :p
 
I know exactly what you mean. I think that the Merlin Pass is good value for money and I'm not complaining about that, but every Merlin attraction seems so similar in its layout, there's no individuality.

This weekend I went to Blackpool and popped into the Sealife centre and Tussauds as I was there anyway, and was completely bored to death of both quite quickly. This is maybe a bit harsh because I'm not their target audience, and I'm sure families spend much longer there, making more of a day of each attraction, but blimey, even my appetite for fish scanning can only go so far. I was counting off the rooms...must be Amazonia next...we must be near the end, there's the gift shop..etc., etc...

The man behind the desk at the Sealife Centre told us that Merlin were hoping to purchase the Pleasure Beach in a few years. I thought this was extremely unlikely and put it down to water cooler gossip, but...the centre were promoting the pleasure beach, even handing out official money off leaflets for PBB if you purchase a Sealife ticket. I'm not saying there's definitely anything in it, but it does make you think. Based on the above comments about Merlin tedium and loss of park/attraction individuality, I really, really, really hope this doesn't happen :(
 
This is why passholders are quite valued to Merlin, you go far more than you would do to get the value out of it, but the money you spend inside and the revolving door of non-passholder guests you take feeds the parks immensely.

They're pushing the passes big time now with regular sales and offers. It makes the company seem much more attractive for their forthcoming stock market flotation when they can say we have X number of thousand passholders as a company.

Well I'm getting quite bored of Alton, but I've only done Thorpe twice and never Chessington or Legoland since getting the pass last October, but I can certainly sympathise with how many of you feel.
 
I'm not bothering with any of the Merlin parks this year. I don't have (have never had) an annual pass, so that's not really a factor at all.

Personally, I get bored **** less doing anything over and over again, and that includes revisiting parks on a stupidly frequent basis, even though coasters are a definite hobby.

I'd consider going if some "non-coaster" friends were going. No offence, but if it's a park I've been to numerous times, I'd get more out of a visit there with a normal person than another coaster geek who's also been there way too often.

So yeah, no Merlin for me this year because none of them are doing anything to make me feel like I can be arsed to make the effort, and that's before you even factor in how much it would cost for me to do them. It obviously costs me a fair bit without the annual pass, but I'll never get an AP for the reasons I've already mentioned: I'm bored to death of the places already, and I've never even whored them.
 
Yep I am the same, have been for the past 2 years tbh (Well most of you know anyway lol)

Alton for me just does not have it anymore, I cannot justify the fuel for 1 coaster. The park is just old and what they have added is no better than what it replaced. I know Furie and I have spoken about this many times lol :) There is actually less there now than there was 15 years ago.

Thorpe I enjoy when I am there and if the park is dead, but lets face it that does not really happen much.

I like Chessington but it is not worth £30 in fuel.

Lego Land I hate the park so I do not go.

How can you enjoy the London attractions when you cannot even see the wax works as they let far too many people in.

As much as I do miss not having a pass as I do not get to see people from CF I just simply cannot afford the fuel, a day trip to Thorpe would coast £40 and it is just not worth it. If I went I would expect to ride and lets face it a meetup is about the group and not about the rides.

I might get a pass for next year though due to LC12, but as I said its fuel costs not making it worth while so unless fuel goes down plus the price of the pass it is not going to happen :(

I just get to angry that I go to small parks in Europe etc and they do a better job on everything than a huge park like Merlin do. I just do not get it.

If I get a pass I do get value for money, or do I? I feel I have to use it so end up putting in £40 of fuel go to a park then come home. If I did not have the pass I would not have spent £60 that day on fuel and food. Not sure if I have made that clear or not but basically I have spent an extra £60 just to use my pass.

Merlin have total dominance in the UK and I think they need some competition. But if people are happy with Saw and 13 why do they really need to bother?

For me I think I am just off theme parks at the moment, I know I will enjoy Italy as its new and the group etc but I am going mainly for the trip etc. Been this way for 2 seasons now :(
 
I enjoyed my first year of having a Merlin pass last year, taking in Alton three times, Legoland and Chessie twice, and Thorpe once. Trouble is, it was at the expense of visiting other parks - only LWV on a Valley Mania trip got a non merlin visit, as I spun my time off to get the best possible for money. Living in Durham, it all became more of a chore than it should have, having visited the country's worst Travelodges, and spending more time than I care to remember on the M25.

Don't get me wrong, Thorpe aside, I loved it.

Thing is though, I now have no real desire to visit a Merlin park realistically until 2013 (can't be bothered with the queueing and general teething troubles that LC12 will no doubt bring), and while Chessie is probably now my favourite park, there really is no reason to do the five hour crawl down there for it, with FL on the doorstep.

Lightwater, Flamingoland, Drayton, and LWV twice will be the limits of my efforts this year, and frankly if the only reason to go to Alton is for crabs, then a hooker is cheaper folks.
 
This year we didn't renew our APs due to Merlin fatigue! We found ourselve enjoying the trips less each time and I really haven't felt the loss of the AP. We got 2 days at Alton in Feb on our last APs and went to the horrendous Thorpe AP day, so I've still experienced those parks this year. But withg the absense of anything new that excites me I'm giving the Merlin parks a break till LC12!
 
marc said:
How can you enjoy the London attractions when you cannot even see the wax works as they let far too many people in.
Last time I went to Tussauds it was completely dead. It was really creepy and strange and makes you realise how little they actually have.
And with Tussuds now I go through it quicker and quicker each time. When I went for the first time ever we were in there for at least 3 hours. Now Im through and out in about 45 mins. :p
 
Since I live in London and go to uni in Stafford now, I still actually get a good amount of value from the pass, be it at the parks (though not Thorpe this year) or at the Midway attractions...

I got mine for £75 last year, which is brilliant value (especially with free parking still), but regardless in the economic state no everyone can afford these...


However, Merlin do need to actually think about how they treat the AP holders, as they've had so many PR disasters regarding them this year they need to actually look at themselves and do something different... It seems that whilst not all enthusiasts are disillusioned there are a fair majority that are becoming so for various reasons...

Even if you are a business, if you don't respect your most loyal customers, you will lose them...
 
They need more things in the north as well if they're to increase their profile even further. Not only do you get bored of going to the same attractions, it's quite a trek to even the nearest one when you live in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire or the north east.
 
gavin said:
I'd consider going if some "non-coaster" friends were going. No offence, but if it's a park I've been to numerous times, I'd get more out of a visit there with a normal person than another coaster geek who's also been there way too often.

Oddly, I started on the Annual Pass downward spiral due to CF. It was a great way to cheaply meet up with all the new friends I made - it made sense.

While I still enjoy meeting up with CFers at parks, I much prefer those parks to be non-Merlin and a day at Alton is much better with a different bunch, simply because there's that fresh excitement rather than jaded cynicism ;)

marc said:
If I get a pass I do get value for money, or do I? I feel I have to use it so end up putting in £40 of fuel go to a park then come home. If I did not have the pass I would not have spent £60 that day on fuel and food. Not sure if I have made that clear or not but basically I have spent an extra £60 just to use my pass.

That's exactly it Marc. I'd rather spend an extra £20 and go somewhere new, but find myself not doing it to "get value". So yeah, that's precisely it.

Nemesis Inferno said:
Since I live in London and go to uni in Stafford now, I still actually get a good amount of value from the pass, be it at the parks (though not Thorpe this year) or at the Midway attractions...

I got mine for £75 last year, which is brilliant value (especially with free parking still), but regardless in the economic state no everyone can afford these...

It's not about the value of the pass though Benin. I don't think there's any real debate over how great value it is (especially if you live around London). It's simply about how much it narrows your vision and reduces the breadth of your park visits. Again, living in London makes a big difference. Like we go to Alton Towers as "something to do on a slow Sunday", people in London can do the London Merlin attractions. However, if I did less slow Sunday Alton Trips and didn't buy an AP, I could have full weekends away at LWV/FL or Blackpool. Or even (shhhhhh) spend a weekend away doing something that didn't involve a theme park! :)

It's that tie Merlin get you with into thinking that because it's great value, you have to have one. It's like buying stuff you'll never need in sales because it's 80% off. Yeah, it's great value, but you didn't actually need to spend the money :)
 
I have never bought a Merlin Pass for this very reason. I always make sure I go to any Merlin park with an offer in hand, so I never normally pay more than £20 or so for entry, so 5 merlin attractions per year is fine for me, and it stops be getting bored of them too. Also, it encourages me to find other places to go, as I don't feel like I "have" to go to those set parks.

Sure, you might get discounted food and stuff like that too... But I just take a packed lunch or pay the extra however many % that I would have saved.
 
Martyn B said:
^ Its just a waxworks, why do you keep going?
Something to kill time in London.
The last few years most times I've done something on the pass it's because we get bored. If I'm at my dads and we're not doing much we just pop over to one of the parks for the afternoon or something.

The attractions have just become places to kill time now rather than go for days out.
 
Im actually extremely lucky! My dad works for Coca-Cola and we get around 75% off all merlin attractions, so when me and my mate went to Thorpe Park we only paid £10 each! Also Coke pay for all of my dads petrol that he uses in the UK. So a trip to any merlin attraction does not cost alot. so really all we have to pay for is food :)
 
^No offense, but, most of us probably wouldn't count going to Thorpe over and over as "lucky".
 
What is wrong with you people, theres nothing wrong with Thorpe, it might be full of chavs, but is it their fault!?
all i see is Thorp's S**t on this site and it really P*ss*s me off! :/

And i said merlin attractions? and ive only been to Thorpe once in about 3 years.....
 
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