WTF Merlin?

[JoshC.]

On the topic of Tomb Blaster: I believe the vents end up being opened during hot weather due to a lack of any interior cooling, so is necessary to stop it being stupid hot? Equally though, the ride has been crumbling and rubbish for years, despite the "refurbs".

Good old Merlin Money Making! Sorry 'Magic' if you could call it that

Not that it's an excuse, but I don't think MMM have been involved with any of the Tomb Blaster work in recent years; all been done by the park's in house creatives.

Have their been any positives from the Merlin acquisition of UK theme parks?

Obviously we've had a handful of decent new rides in the near 20 years of ownership but does seem like it has been an overwhelmingly negative trajectory whilst their UK and European counterparts have shown more improvements in the same period.

Aside from Paultons, have the UK parks really shown more improvements compared to the Merlin ones? Drayton has just coasted on by and only really in the last couple of years started to go back upwards. Blackpool is Blackpool. Flamingo Land is a dump. Lightwater Valley has transitioned into an even smaller scale, family park. Etc.

Ultimately, the Merlin parks have suffered somewhat due to a lack of competition. But look at what they took over and what they've done.
Thorpe Park which had seen years of high-level investment which wasn't sustainable. They turned it into a more sustainable model, which then suffered due to a risk that didn't pay off (DBGT) and something out of their control (Smiler crash)
Chessington was in a limbo of direction, whether to focus more on being a theme park or a zoo. Again, they had a rocky few years, but they've diversified both the zoo and theme park, created a sustainable resort and actually managed to introduce a new roller coaster.
Alton Towers was coasting prior to the Merlin acquisition. Shoehorned-in investments since Air. They brought back the park which would innovate and actually introduce good rides.

Easy to stick rose-tinted glasses on, and sure there's been a lot of changes and issues, but to say it's been an overwhelmingly negative trajectory feels a bit over the top.

 

[Geeky Pastimes]

I don't think it matters that Tussauds were running the parks into the ground too (oh god all those vending machines) but Merlin hasn't been any better imo.

It's the lack of competition, I still think the vast majority of the public don't know how good and how close parks like Phantasialand, Efteling, Europa Park and Liseberg are. They just know Disneyland Paris is ridiculously expensive, the Florida parks even moreso, and 'maybe' they know about PortAventura.

To all those people, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers are pretty much the peak for a UK day out, so why would Merlin need to spend any more money when that's the perception? I never really see them going after international visitors (could be wrong on that, but I don't see adverts in the airports etc).

Hopefully the Universal Studios UK thing will shake it up.

 

[MackMan]

For me I think it’s not as simple as good or bad. Merlin have given brilliant periods to their parks and completely dire ones. Alton Towers had some brilliant additions like Smiler, Wicker-Man, or Thirteen. But all had their problems, and sometimes like this season, the park is ran awfully. The supporting ride crisis just has got worse..

Not bad though, The Smiler is a very unique brilliant use of a small space in my opinion. The theme is also creative.

Thorpe on the other hand, had a brilliant 2002-2012 period. Coasters and flat rides left and right. The park was spoiled with great new stuff. When this rush ended, the park had 12 years of bad additions until this year. Chessington has been on a similar cycle, though the park is tired, Merlin certainly have revamped some things and some good has came (Jumanji).

Gardaland feels a similar way..

 

[Coasterfreck]

Although this is more of an WTF Aramark post, I think this should really be shared for awareness just incase anyone experiences this issues with allergies.

 

[Matt N]

I don’t know if I’m interpreting this incorrectly, but to me, that sounds like an unnecessarily asinine policy. If the food is made to order (it normally is in fast food chains like McDonalds and such), surely it’s not that difficult to just not put a slice of cheese in it if requested, for example?

 

[Coasterfreck]

I don’t know if I’m interpreting this incorrectly, but to me, that sounds like an unnecessarily asinine policy. If the food is made to order (it normally is in fast food chains like McDonalds and such), surely it’s not that difficult to just not put a slice of cheese in it if requested, for example?

Yep this was exactly the case, of the experience from today. It took over an hour to deal with Guest Services and then other food management to finally get the food ordered for the allergy member of the party, and that was only because those two other members of food management came over to help us order it and oversee it being done.

 

[Graeme]

Have their been any positives from the Merlin acquisition of UK theme parks?

Obviously we've had a handful of decent new rides in the near 20 years of ownership but does seem like it has been an overwhelmingly negative trajectory whilst their UK and European counterparts have shown more improvements in the same period.

I think they were an improvement on that weird time when Tussauds was acquired by Dubai International Capital. Something felt really off during the Spinball Whizzer/Rita times. Other than that, Merlin has felt distinctly more "rip-off" than the glory days of Tussauds. There have been too many instances when it seemed like Merlin has pushed individual parks into making questionable decisions or cutting a ride short. Can't imagine them ever making a "Vampire" or "Bubbleworks". It's a massive shame they didn't build that GCI woodie at Thorpe instead of Saw, because I think it would have brought much more balance to the park.

 

[MackMan]

Although this is more of an WTF Aramark post, I think this should really be shared for awareness just incase anyone experiences this issues with allergies.
View attachment 33141

Honestly I find this silly. My partner does this a lot with burgers. He’s a coeliac so he just asks for no bun. He’s totally fine with traces of gluten, so for a food place to refuse to serve him anything without modification is crazy. What he is meant to eat at these fast food places? Chips are the only option and some chips aren’t even gluten free..

Aramark need to review some of their policies. Having allergies to milk and Gluten are honestly pains in theme parks never mind Aramark refusing to omit a slice of cheese in a burger. I think Merlin need to cut ties with them anyway, the food in the parks has got worse over the last decade. And now the prices are stupid.

My partner ordered a gluten free pizza once at Chessington, and in his words he described it as “inedible”. He ordered one at Europa Park back in April and said it was one of the best he has tried. Why can’t we have better food?

 

[catsounds]

I don’t know if I’m interpreting this incorrectly, but to me, that sounds like an unnecessarily asinine policy. If the food is made to order (it normally is in fast food chains like McDonalds and such), surely it’s not that difficult to just not put a slice of cheese in it if requested, for example?

Yep this was exactly the case, of the experience from today. It took over an hour to deal with Guest Services and then other food management to finally get the food ordered for the allergy member of the party, and that was only because those two other members of food management came over to help us order it and oversee it being done.

Do we know if Aramark run the restaurants in the way mcdonalds do now? (aka made to order)

I could imagine that happening if management in the kitchen have told staff not to accept custom orders in order to move off the shelf food they've already pre prepared? (thats what used to happen working at mcds all the time before they changed to made to order)

id hope that's not the case, also hope they did something to make up for the time they wasted from your day!?

 

[Coasterfreck]

Do we know if Aramark run the restaurants in the way mcdonalds do now? (aka made to order)

I could imagine that happening if management in the kitchen have told staff not to accept custom orders in order to move off the shelf food they've already pre prepared? (thats what used to happen working at mcds all the time before they changed to made to order)

It was hard to tell with Burger Kitchen, it seemed to be how it always was.

id hope that's not the case, also hope they did something to make up for the time they wasted from your day!?

Sadly no, they didn’t do anything to makeup for the time wasted.

 

[Coasterfreck]

News has broken out of a stabbing at Chessington World Of Adventures today. I’m putting this in the WTF Merlin topic, more because over the past season I’ve seen both Alton Towers and Chessington been less thorough in their bag searches, unlike Thorpe. I know Thorpe did have a stabbing in 2020, which probably pushed them to be more stricter with it.

Granted this did happen in the carpark, but point still stands on the security front.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyndxjvd3lo.amp

 

[MackMan]

Honestly I think I am more disappointed in the people who think stabbing people is okay. Merlin having to conduct the security searches like they do really depresses me as it shows the kind of people who walk alongside us here. A lot of parks in Europe do not have checks as people know better.

I personally do not put much blame on Merlin here. I guess this is not an airport and they cannot full body scan every guest. I think this incident is just depressing and shows the kind of people who might stand next to you at these parks.. Sad.

 

[Tonkso]

Knife Crime is filthy, pure and simple, people who decide to take a knife and use it for anything but its intended purpose are disgusting individuals. You often hear 'protection' being used as the justification for carrying a knife, protection from whom? Stop carrying knives.

However, whilst Violent Crime has increased dramatically over the last 10 years (it started increasing in 2014), it's still far lower than it was back in the 70s and 80s. The UK is still a far safer country overall than it was back in the so called 'good old days'.

 

[Bowser]

Knife Crime is filthy, pure and simple, people who decide to take a knife and use it for anything but its intended purpose are disgusting individuals. You often hear 'protection' being used as the justification for carrying a knife, protection from whom? Stop carrying knives.

However, whilst Violent Crime has increased dramatically over the last 10 years (it started increasing in 2014), it's still far lower than it was back in the 70s and 80s. The UK is still a far safer country overall than it was back in the so called 'good old days'.

I'm not sure that's true.

All the data i can see shows it is at the highest since records began. This only goes up to 2017 but we know it's even higher in the years after this.

 

[spicy]

Yeah I think this is more of a case showing what a sad state the country is in and way tougher sentencing needed on knife crime rather than anything to do with Merlin.

Stabbings are now unfortunately a daily occurence happening everywhere up and down the country, was only a matter of time before it happened in/around a theme park.

 

[Tonkso]

Your chart specifies homicide with knife, not overall knife crime (I actually specified violent crime overall, not just where a knife was used). Not all knife crime results in death. It's unsurprising that the death rate increased given the prevalence of Zombie knives and such.

It does not change the fact that violent crime overall is still far less than it once was.

 

[Bowser]

Your chart specifies homicide with knife, not overall knife crime (I actually specified violent crime overall, not just where a knife was used). Not all knife crime results in death. It's unsurprising that the death rate increased given the prevalence of Zombie knives and such.

It does not change the fact that violent crime overall is still far less than it once was.

Generalising violent crime isn't particularly constructive in this context when people are discussing a concern of public knife attacks versus say domestic incidents. ONS data for all knife crime only goes back to 2010 but it has increased every year bar one so it's not unreasonable for people to be worried, especially when there have been some very notable public incidents in the last month alone.

Concert events have increased their security so in a way it's surprising that theme parks which often welcome tens of thousands of visitors a day haven't done the same.

 

[Will]

I don't like Merlin.

Merlin are bad.

 

[James F]

When did Thorpe Park stop doing 2 day tickets? I'm sure they used to. Not really a big gripe, but it would of saved me a bit of money as I am staying in a local hotel and I want to make the most of my time.

I think I might just folk out for the silver season pass, which to be fair is cheaper than buying two weekend days. I'm guessing that's part of their sales strategy.

 

[VonRolland]

Been told some very concerning things regarding staffing levels going forth at ATR, all 'service positions' are being axed bar 'essential' ones this mainly effects bay loaders, merge hosts and potentially baggage hosts additionally if they are rota'ing in 'essential' staff they aren't in for the whole shift.
Apparently income isn't matching how much they pay on staffing so are axing it via this, not renewing perm contracts/hiring anymore perm staff & essentially forcing 4 day or less weeks and running on absolute bar minimum. Sure it'll end up biting them eventually