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New Merlin Annual Pass for 2012

As if anyone would actually fork out all that money on a single Pass...

...Although certain families seemed more than happy to flash their cash and buy £50 Ultimate Fasttracks for each person in a family of 12...

Yeah. Not a good idea Merlin. Just keep it to Standard and Premium, okay? (I still miss the days when it was just one Annual Pass, no different 'special' versions of it...).
 
I've had a thought. Since Merlin sell joint attraction tickets to include entry to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, maybe this new super duper pass could allow free entry to BPP, with a percentage of purchase profits being given to BPP's owners. I'm not saying this would instantly make the pass worth 300 quid, but it'd be a start. Thoughts?
 
I'm fairly sure they'd advertise that first and foremost.

And I'm fairly sure they wouldn't start bringing outside brands into theirs.

And I'm fairly sure Amanda Thompson would sooner receive cunnilingus from a rabid dog than agree to that.
 
Spoke to my parents about this idea and it looks like we'll all be getting one if they go ahead with it! YAY :D
I think its an AMAZING idea. Merlin needed something like this. A little steep, but it has great privileges. I welcome this!
 
^See, I can't believe you'd be that... daft. :p
 
I don't mind... I'm a lazy enthusiast. If it means I can cut lines and so on, I'm game. Plus 2 free tickets I could make a couple quid on as well. Sorted!
 
^But it's £309! I mean, surely you've been to the parks enough not to be too bothered about the fastrack?
 
I would be interested, but not for 300 quid...

Would make trips to Thorpe more bearable I can tell you, although no doubt the 'selected rides' would be ones like Samurai, rather than the coasters...

If it was £300, I would want free entry to the international attractions for that... Which I want anyway, but that would certainly get a few people buying it and perhaps help people who go over to Florida go "Hang on, I can go out to Legoland for FREE!" and potentially go...


On the other side though, it would certainly cause EVEN MORE hassle on Fast-track queues... And considering how bad they got when they said APs could use the ones at Chessie in the last hour... There could be serious back-fires on them... Plus the whole bad views of them already are only going to get worse, though personally I don't mind the car park charging, some people need to get abroad already and realise that the UK was unique in not charging, but that's another topic...


As for outside brands, why would parks like Blackpool or Drayton want to lose money to get more Merlin people through the door? Absolutely no business sense does it make...


So yeah, too expensive, too elitist... They need to organise getting people happy again rather than creating a tier system that everyone hates because of constantly changing perks...
 
£300.. Is ...just.... so much money.

I don't understand WHO would think that was reasonable.

Just.

What?

So, here's the thing I don't personally get about the whole season pass thing...

Theoretically, annual pass holders will pay pretty much anything (within reason) for a pass. It makes sense that they are on the expensive side, compare that to the MESS Six Flags have made with their like $60 pass. Makes no sense. Great for us, but my god idiots... Annual pass holders don't REALLY do much for your income, after all. They come back, again and again, and spend as little as possible. They are clued up.

So, I can understand and I'm all for the pass being £100, or even £150. Anymore than that and it does not cover the numer of times I go a year. Even now, It's pushing it. I get it out of convenience. If there is no deal on next year and I don't have enough Tesco vouchers, I won't be getting a pass. Well. I say that...but... Swarm.

See, that's the thing. Swarm. If there ever was a time to bump the cost and add features like queue jumping, it's now. I see what you did thar.

I'm almost FOR this pass, just to see how many **** morons get it. But the damage it will do to the rest of us if it takes off, with people fast tracking, is ...too hard to think about.

Personally, and I know it seems dumb, but I think this annual pass isn't aimed at people who've had an annual pass before. It's aimed at those who don't understand why it's a waste of money.
 
This is going to cost them virtually nothing to implement, and if only 1,000 take to it, that's still a good dollop of money they've made for next to nothing.
 
Ben said:
I'm fairly sure they'd advertise that first and foremost.

And I'm fairly sure they wouldn't start bringing outside brands into theirs.

And I'm fairly sure Amanda Thompson would sooner receive cunnilingus from a rabid dog than agree to that.
Click to expand...

Well the Thompsons obviously agreed to this £140 'BIG Blackpool Ticket' that people are far less likely to buy, so I'm not so sure about that.
 
^Yes, but they will see a decent chunk of cash for each one of those sold, probably on a par to what they'd get if those people bought an online ticket. The Pleasure Beach is an integral part of that ticket, not just a quick add-on.

The money they'd get as being an "extra" on a Merlin Pass would be ridiculously low per pass sold.

Not happening.
 
Yeah. For it to make buisness sense to Blackpool they'd have to get somewhere close to what they charge for their own, which is £100 (that's nearly halved hasn't it... good job Amanda, realised THAT was ridiculous).

Just because there's a ticket that tacks on the Tower with BPB doesn't mean they annual pass is about to add BPB.

It wouldn't even make sense for Merlin. They don't want to be sending people off to spend money at BPB as a perk of their annual pass... That defeats the IDEA of an annual pass.
 
It was an idea... I never said it was actually going to happen. But I'm still trying to relate this to the 'BIG Blackpool Ticket' with my trusty desktop calculator.
 
Joey said:
Personally, and I know it seems dumb, but I think this annual pass isn't aimed at people who've had an annual pass before. It's aimed at those who don't understand why it's a waste of money.
Click to expand...

This would definitely make sense. Most people don't know about theme parks as much as we do, I know a lot of my friends who still thought it was £20 on the gate price for Thorpe! And when people ask me about my MAP, and I tell them how much it is, their first reaction is usually 'woah! That's SO expensive!' but then I explain everything I get included in that price and you see them realising that, actually, it's NOT that bad of a deal.

So if for £309 you can get everything already listed PLUS all the benefits of a normal annual pass, people are going to lap it up.
 
^ A few will, including a few from this forum. Enough people to make it worthwhile. Remember that once this comes it can never really be retired, so it's something to consider what else will be offered in another five years time?
 
^ Not easily. Imagine the Premium pass being removed next year and everyone being forced to pay for parking and having the exclusions.

But on the other hand they have ridden as bad/worse storms with changes - but I still can't see it going if it's brought in.
 
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