Merlin Entertainments General Discussion

[Rob L]

On the subject of the Merlin food outlet brands, I personally see them as a good thing. In terms of the food, on the whole it is of a good quality and much better than most theme park food out there. I can actually go to Towers and look forward to my lunch as opposed to many other places. Ok it would be nice to have more individual names with some of the outlets, but then again, Towers' Pizza Pasta is called Explorers, and Woodcutters/Courtyard Tavern as in essence Merlin brands that have individual names. And the theming inside the outlets is very good and far from generic.

[thefatone]

Least they have decent names really. And even if they're generic names, their signage fits into the local area (like Refresh is Ripsaw themed to an extent.. and chessingtons is... well, the same as tussauds days because they spend nothing).

Prefer this to the tussauds brands of old, hot fresh donuts, Waffles & Ices, Hotdogs.. wow.

[CoasterCrazyChris]

Oh yeah - the quality and choice of food on offer at Alton Towers has improved ten fold in the last five or so years. And on the whole it tends to be pretty reasonably priced.

When you think about what is on offer now you can get just about anything - burgers, chicken, fish & chips, hot dogs, pasties, pies, BBQ, chargrill, ribs, noodles, mexican, eastern, pizza, pasta, salad, jackets, sandwiches, paninis, waffles, pancakes, donuts, cake....

However, I feel that both Chessington and Thorpe Park have a way to go yet before they can match Alton's offerings.

Thorpe Park in particular has a real lack of food outlets particularly around Lost City and SAW.

[Chris W]

Like I've said before, Alton Towers food choice is probably better than the vast majority of parks in the whole world. I think its only the Disney Parks which beat it.

Compare it with every other park in the UK and the distance in quality and variety is huge!

[Rob L]

Like I've said before, Alton Towers food choice is probably better than the vast majority of parks in the whole world. I think its only the Disney Parks which beat it.

Compare it with every other park in the UK and the distance in quality and variety is huge!

Busch Gardens Williamsburg also just about beat Towers for me, some of the food they do is amazing! Towers is certainly up there though with quality and quantity!

[Bunbury]

Alton's food is better than it could be, but it's a bit disparate. Disney, Universal, Portaventura, Europa Park (the usuals...) all far outclass it. But it's not bad considering you might only be in there for 6 hours anyway.

[RyanY]

What sort of queue times for the big 5 roller coasters at Thorpe park would be expected in the easter holidays on a Sunday or Monday?

[SpinballEdders]

What sort of queue times for the big 5 roller coasters at Thorpe park would be expected in the easter holidays on a Sunday or Monday?

it should be something like this:

Nemesis Inferno - 60 Mins
Colossus - 90 Mins
Stealth - 120 Mins
Saw - 90 Mins

Not sure about the Swarm but I'd expect that to have a large queue because it's new

[RyanY]

That long, really? In Easter.

[SpinballEdders]

Yeah I went to the park in Easter 2010 and it was quite busy. yours could be different though

[RyanY]

I hope so, I wouldn't mind waiting an hour per ride and two for the swarm.

[scubahood]

Has anybody heard any news on how much the Merlin drinks capsule is going to be this year?

[Islander]

Don't think it's been announced yet, though I'd guess it would increase on last year (£12-15, can't remember exactly how much).

Full info on the capsules has been released, though, including a picture of what we can expect:



...so basically more like the quenchers Legoland's been using for years :P. Looks great, though - should be a massive improvement on the tatt from the last two years.

[scubahood]

I never thought i'd find myself saying a cup looks good lol. When you put the old price I must admit I did think bloody hell that is a bit steep but then though I usually buy one bottle of drink a visit which was 3 quid last season I think. I'm gonna be going a lot more than five times so I think i've sold it to myself

[AstroDan]

I am still not convinced they are worth the leaks, mess and general pallava...

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[scubahood]

I am still not convinced they are worth the leaks, mess and general pallava...

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Been thinking this since my last post also my Thorpe Annual pass doesn't run out for another week so was going to cash in my Merlin voucher on a later visit then there's the issue of storing it during rides

[CoasterCrazyChris]

I am still not convinced they are worth the leaks, mess and general pallava...

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Besides, you'd have diabetes before you could guzzle your way through enough fizzy drink to make buying those Quenchers worthwhile. :P

[scubahood]

I'm quite struggling to believe this but Merlin have posted this on their facebook page after I asked them about the capsule:

"Hi there Worldwide, Nick,

We have changed our capsule design for this year and the version we will be using takes slightly longer to produce however we will be sending an update email to confirm availability to all Passholders by the end of this week.
If you would like to discuss this further with a member of our team you can email us at merlin.annualpass@merlinentertainments.biz"

How they can have a roller coaster ready in time but can't organize to have a few thousand plastic cups ready is beyond me. On the plus side my teeth are over the moon that they won't be taking a battering tomorrow 

[djtruefitt]

I belive that they were selling these at Thorpe yesterday, as I did see a couple of people walking around with them. Not sure how much they cost however.

[jmgpannal]

They were £15 at Thorpe but apparently should be £16. Someone programmed the tills incorrectly!!