If I had to sum up Merlin's problem in one sentence, it would be their steadfast refusal to listen to anything enthusiasts have to say. Instead, they pander to what they
perceive to be the needs of the general public - 'the great unwashed', as it were.
What they fail to realise, time and time again, is that 'enthusiasts' - ie; us lot - are
part of the general public and we want the same things out of a visit to a theme park as a casual visitor does. Namely, an enjoyable, stress free day out, with quality attractions that justify the entrance fee, and to not feel like we're being squeezed for every penny. We get enough of that in our day to day lives, theme parks are supposed to take us away from all that, at least for a few hours.
It's like we're a different breed or sumat, some kind of obsessive, compulsive freaks who spend our entire lives bombing round the globe looking for woodies to ride with our arms in the air, chanting 'Wood is good, wood is good', when in fact most of us are fairly normal people with families, jobs, various other interests besides coasters, friends who aren't goons etc etc...
The only difference is that an 'enthusiast' will probably be a bit more well travelled (theme park wise) and just might have a better idea of what works well and what doesn't than your average member of the Staines Massiv' who doesn't know anything beyond Thorpe and Chessie.
Sure, Merlin do their market research via questionnaires and social media and stuff - no doubt at some point in the last 12 months a questionnaire appeared on the windscreen of every vehicle in Thorpe's car park with a question along the lines of: 'Would you like to see a world-first-I'm-a-Celebrity-jungle-maze at Thorpe Park in the future'? To which, of course, 90% of the Staines Massiv' who visited that day ticked the 'Ooh yes please' box.
So when an enthusiast writes in crying out for a new wooden coaster, as every UK goon has been doing for over a decade, they say; 'Thank you for your suggestion, small insignificant enthusiast person, but I have a degree in marketing and business management therefore I know best. We've done our market research and the public don't want a wooden rollercoaster, they want a world-first-I'm-a-Celebrity-jungle-maze'.
People are saying that the prospect of a new Paramount Park will shake things up a bit, but I just don't see it. If anything, I fear the Paramount Park (if it happens) will follow the same patterns. 'Ooh look how easily the British public can be fobbed off with cheap tat. We could probably skimp a bit here. They're used to it. Look at the Merlin parks'.
I realise I paint a pretty bleak picture here, but unless one of the other, non-Merlin parks can pull something extra special out of the bag, I can't see things improving any time soon.
