The Merlin Annual Pass

General theme park and attraction industry chat, along with the world of theme park gaming.
Post Reply
User avatar
Aidan Lowe
Member
Member
Posts: 1778
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:08 am

There has been numerous people suggesting to Merlin to include a golden ticket experience as an all day unlimited fast track, as for the friends tickets they will remain standard.
Formerly known under username Andy Mc
User avatar
chrish
New Member
New Member
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2014 6:25 pm

thedman31 wrote:Hello All!

Thank goodness for chrish: when I decided just to check out what he had been told at Alton with the VIP line the response I received was : "yep, that's correct. It's the last day today. Come 5 O'Clock it's over". My wife and I just looked at each other and thought "okay we need to do this!". My wallet is still silently weeping at the cost, but hopefully it will be worth it.

Firstly it took absolutely AGES to get through, around 20 - 25 minutes (I checked on my iPhone). I too received some useful info from the Merlin rep:

1. At the time of my call there were no passes left at Alton. There were only a couple left at Madame Tussaud's which we grabbed.
2. The pass WILL apply to scare attractions, we specifically asked this. They put us on hold to check then confirmed it, so brilliant as that was really important to our decision to go ahead (we love the mazes!).
3. Again, as of 5 today there will be no more VIP passes offered, that's it. So to anyone who got theirs today (including me) I think we can all breathe a sigh of collective relief.
4. Fast track applies to all uk attractions but you do get free admission to any international park.

I am a little taken aback by the mention of these selling on ebay for £350. I have a couple of reactions to that:

1. Why would anyone sell something worth £500 for £150 less (unless of course it is simply an unwanted gift?) The laws of commerce would suggest that if something is in limited demand the price should go up, not down (e.g. tickets for a London show I wanted to see that sold for £45 are now going for £580!). Unless its just one person wanting to get rid, it seems a pretty crazy business plan : )

2. It was highlighted a couple of times on the call that all VIP passes are non-transferable. Its therefore not possible to sell them to anyone: it would be a breach of contract to do so, and, if someone was to change the photo etc. possibly fraudulent. Again, I don't really get why someone would attempt this: at law you can't transfer rights to someone that you don't have yourself.

But anyway: WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!! We are really happy to be joining the ranks of others on here, and may see you about.

Thanks for all the guidance on here.

Cheers
Well done on getting the passes. I ordered another one yesterday while at AT. It did take quiet a while to get through. I am just surprised they did not publish it anywhere it was the last day.

Had a really good day yesterday. The park in the morning was a little busy, but in the afternoon the queues dispersed nicely across the park with a lot of the rides being walk on, so no need to bother with the FT queue. In the morning I walked past the line for Rita and the FT door was closed, so went to the exit and was advised to use the FT queue. I explained it was closed and was told it has just opened, so go and use it. Anyway the queue was very long, so used the single queue as there was no queue in that. I also after 6 years managed to board Oblivion. It is not that bad and had been added to my list. :)

Just noticed the Join the Waiting list button has appeared.

http://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/vip.aspx
User avatar
Lee
Member
Member
Posts: 1382
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2013 11:51 am

I've confirmed with the VIP Annual Pass team that the passes are no longer on sale. Now that they've stopped selling them, they'll begin to reveal the additional VIP Experiences and events. Exciting times ahead :)
User avatar
Paul_richard
Member
Member
Posts: 100
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2014 9:25 am

I wonder if they have actually sold all 1000 though, I expect they didn't sell as fast as they liked and maybe by making them now unavailable they can drum up interest for next year?
User avatar
stageshoot
Member
Member
Posts: 66
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:24 pm
Location: Derbyshire
Contact:

Just a heads up that there was a change to the priority parking for VIP pass holders at Alton Towers today.

They now have proper printed VIP parking tickets to hand out rather than giving an express parking disabled £0 printout to put on the dashboard

Also they advised rather than using the Priority parking car park they now parked us up in the bays right at the front of the coach parking area. They said they had been instructed to use those spaces for VIP pass holders. No extra distance to walk to the park than the normal Priority car park. But no grass area around it to sit and gave your lunch if you do that (like we do).
User avatar
Hazard
Member
Member
Posts: 63
Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2014 10:30 am

Out of interest how many tickets can you get for friends and family for the 50% off ticket prices?

And does a merlin pass holder have to be there when collected? As I know a few people looking to go over the summer holidays and if a few can't get the two for ones then would be nice to look after them using the merlin perk.
User avatar
thedman31
New Member
New Member
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:15 pm

I think that irrespective if how many passes sold even of only 750 sold that's still a good solid business that will make a couple of six figure sums each year so will probably be perceived as a success.

Merlin have a dedicated customer base passionate about their product who have willingly spent a lot of money. Now it's time for them to deliver which I am sure they will do : )

Another thing which is probably relevant is that quite a few studies have shown that it costs many times more to win new customers than retain current ones so Merlin will be keen to get the VIP pass right I think : )
User avatar
Aidan Lowe
Member
Member
Posts: 1778
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:08 am

Hazard wrote:Out of interest how many tickets can you get for friends and family for the 50% off ticket prices?

And does a merlin pass holder have to be there when collected? As I know a few people looking to go over the summer holidays and if a few can't get the two for ones then would be nice to look after them using the merlin perk.
I asked this when booking Blackpool for my family they said if the pass holder isn't present then one of the people visiting must bring the annual pass card along with the booking information. I'm sure it will be the same for their other attractions.
Formerly known under username Andy Mc
User avatar
thedman31
New Member
New Member
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:15 pm

Do we get a 50% discount on all tickets?

How does it work?
User avatar
Capt.Barnacles
Member
Member
Posts: 616
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:19 pm
Location: Stoke-on-Trent

I'm sure this has been mentioned before but if you buy a Family Premium pass with three adults, do you each get an actual pass or do you get one between you? I'm thinking of getting one for me/Tom/another person, if anyone's interested (if you do get invididual passes) PM me.
User avatar
Ladyofthelake
Member
Member
Posts: 2661
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 12:20 pm
Location: Warwickshire

Each person gets their own individual pass so you can use them independently of each other :)
User avatar
Zach
Member
Member
Posts: 804
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2012 11:53 am

Is anyone still wanting a VIP pass ? As I'm looking for 2 people to join me on a family pass discount to reduce the price £400pp
Image
User avatar
Momoffour
New Member
New Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 12:25 am
Location: North Wales

TheSmilerMan wrote:Is anyone still wanting a VIP pass ? As I'm looking for 2 people to join me on a family pass discount to reduce the price £400pp

Think they closed the doors on this VIP pass now. Until peoples passes start expiring from next June and you can either get their number if they don't renew ??
User avatar
Aidan Lowe
Member
Member
Posts: 1778
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:08 am

Yea they have either sold all passes or just closed the door for anyone wanting to purchase one now. This is where the interesting parts come in regarding golden ticket experiences.

My pass expires 28th June 2015, I'm presuming others expire the same day?
Formerly known under username Andy Mc
User avatar
Momoffour
New Member
New Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 12:25 am
Location: North Wales

Mabalzich wrote:Yea they have either sold all passes or just closed the door for anyone wanting to purchase one now. This is where the interesting parts come in regarding golden ticket experiences.

My pass expires 28th June 2015, I'm presuming others expire the same day?

Nope. Mine is 11th July
User avatar
stageshoot
Member
Member
Posts: 66
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:24 pm
Location: Derbyshire
Contact:

Mabalzich wrote:
My pass expires 28th June 2015, I'm presuming others expire the same day?
Like other annual passes they expire 372 days after you collect them (1 year and 7 days)

I think merlin wanted to keep all the renewals as close together as possible but there are going to be some stragglers (One person has already posted they are not collecting theirs till late Sept, so that will be an early Oct 15 renewal)
User avatar
Aidan Lowe
Member
Member
Posts: 1778
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:08 am

stageshoot wrote:Like other annual passes they expire 372 days after you collect them (1 year and 7 days)
Meh it was kind of a stupid question to ask really on my part, of course they won't all be the same expiry date haha.

As for our personal expiration dates will Merlin put these on sale again roughly the same time next year in a batch or do you think there will only be 1000 and naturally we get first refusal to renew?!

And finally got in touch with Merlin and got my lanyard lol.

Image
Formerly known under username Andy Mc
User avatar
Fiyero
Member
Member
Posts: 74
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:14 pm
Location: Hampshire

Mabalzich wrote:
stageshoot wrote:Like other annual passes they expire 372 days after you collect them (1 year and 7 days)
Meh it was kind of a stupid question to ask really on my part, of course they won't all be the same expiry date haha.

As for our personal expiration dates will Merlin put these on sale again roughly the same time next year in a batch or do you think there will only be 1000 and naturally we get first refusal to renew?!

And finally got in touch with Merlin and got my lanyard lol.

Image
My passes have always been a year?!?
User avatar
stageshoot
Member
Member
Posts: 66
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:24 pm
Location: Derbyshire
Contact:

Passes are always 1 year + 7 days as stated by Merlin themselves, they always add an extra 7 days to the year when they issue them.
User avatar
thedman31
New Member
New Member
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:15 pm

We were told on the phone by Merlin that we would have the right of first refusal to
purchase / renew our numbered passes. It's basically like a timeshare.

Incidentally we still haven't received our boxes in the post. How long does it usually take? Maybe we have to pick up the pass at our home attraction first?
Post Reply