Merlin Entertainments General Discussion

General theme park and attraction industry chat, along with the world of theme park gaming.
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Bert
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Please no more budget cuts...
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ROYJESS
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What else it there left to cut?  :lol
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lewis97
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It's today been revealed that ValueAct Capital, a so-called "activist investor", has purchased a 5.4% stake in Merlin, making it the third largest shareholder. Although the company does have a reputation for pushing changes to management and strategy, sources have stated that it is supportive of Merlin's current strategy, and has instead purchased shares "because of the view that the broader investment community was being too downbeat on the company".
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Bert
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Whilst it is nothing new, The post is posted at a bizarre time to say the least! 

Surely it's gonna be a massive task to overthrow Disney, You can't do that with Legoland's and 5 European theme parks! 

If they want to overthrow Disney it's gonna take a lot of Legolands!
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Nickolai
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They will never catch up with Disney. Disney care about their guests. Disney give enough money to their parks so they can operate them with no closures. Guests don't feel like a number on a spreadsheet. If Merlin cared more about their guests, made sure that all their rides were open and provided a fantastic and complete day out, they could gain better guest satisfaction. This could lead to an overtake however I highly doubt it.
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Robert.W
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I don't think it's out of Merlin's reach to catch Disney. I don't know... maybe I'm being pessimistic..

I'm sure they could do it by simply expanding their midway attractions to as many locations as possible. More Legoland, more SeaLife, more Madame Tussaud's, more Dungeons, etc. In this equation, I'm not sure exactly where the RTPs lie – possible that should Merlin be successful with their world domination quest, that they might show a bit more care to the theme parks?? Or will they just lose even more interest in them..?
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Swarm Chris

Using this topic for a general post / comment / rant about the Merlin resorts and their car parks.

Went to two parks today, Chessington and Thorpe Park, I left both at reasonably off-peak times and in both cases I had issues being able to leave the park because the gates were jammed with cars having issues getting out of the car park.

In Chessington's case, it took nearly 20 minutes to get off-site at 2pm because the back gates were not manned. Guests managed to get to them and not have either a token, credit card or annual pass to use and then got stuck and blocked in by the cars behind. When staff did eventually arrive, there was a bit of an argument, essentially revolving around the car stuck had cash, but of course there was no facility to pay cash. There were only about 10 cars there at the time.

At Thorpe there were also delays and people stuck. In one case I saw a car just sat there with windows up at the barrier, I'm not quite sure what was going on there.

Something seems to have changed since last year. Having the machines accept credit card is a pain because it's extremely slow. Whilst removing the staff from the gate who could do last minute cash purchases, or manually open the barriers if they were struggling to read annual passes isn't helping either.

Saw a pretty bad video from last week at Thorpe Park, with just people getting angry in the car park and constant horns going on. With the parks going to a great deal of effort to ensure guests have a good day, but then end it with chaos at the car park barriers, just seems crazy.
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Chris
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The whole pay on exit set up is a nightmare, and always has been.

At Disney and Universal, you pay on entry via cash or card, and receive a friendly welcome.

At Merlin parks, you enjoy your day, probably forget that you have to buy a car park token, and / or just get generally pissed off at having to pay another charge after what has been an expensive day out anyway. Byeeeee!

Chessington's grass car park is an absolute state, and Thorpe's is not much better. How they can charge for cars to park in these is ridiculous.

I had to give my car a full wash after parking in the CWoA grass car park a few weeks ago - wonder if they will reimburse me for that?

Another example of Merlin not investing in prioritising the guest experience.
Swarm Chris

This exact feeling of annoyance happened to me when I first went back to a Merlin attraction after they took over. Day at Warwick castle that had had crazy unnecessary queues the entire day, then of course now the queue to buy a token and queue to get out. Undid what good parts of the day there were and I didn't return to a Merlin attraction for over a year. Simply because of that experience.

At Chessington in only light rain and I could feel my car was starting to get stuck in the car park. I typically avoid going if there's been rain in the week before now. For me it's the inside the car that's a state, mud and grass everywhere.

If they feel they have to have a car park charge, rather than just increasing ticket prices, then a pay on entry would be so much better. As you say, a smile and a welcome to start the day, rather than a kick in the teeth on the way out.
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The Nemesis Fox
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I believe, well I sincerely hope, that this year is good for Merlin.

Last year across the board in the UK there was only the update of DBGT, 2 CBeebies additions and a retheme & carousel at Chessington. Hopefully as this year there are mazes open at different points throughout the year; X retheme at Thorpe; Year of TWD; Summer lates & Wicker Man; both revenue and guest numbers should increase. With this Merlin should realise that by spending money, money can be made & not that we can get away with what we want.

Alton is in desperate need of its closed rides reopening, new flats, a new water ride and family coaster. Thorpe need to replace their ageing flats and continue with refurbishment and Project 2020 to bring it back to its glory days again.

Coming back off tangent, Thorpe need to replace flats such as Slammer, Samarui & Vortex with modern flats such as Starshapes & Gyro-Swings. It would be great to see Merlin parks have good budgets and run well again, one can only hope.

Rant Over.
Swarm Chris

Merlin have been successful in obtaining a High Court injunction that bans three named individuals and their currently unnamed associates, from accessing Merlin properties internationally. Issued on 30th May, this order comes after several trespasses onto Merlin property by the same group of individuals this year.

Merlin have also been successful, for the time being, in obtaining a banning order on any person from trespassing on Merlin property in England and Wales.

The injunction states that any person who breaks the injunction, or helps another person to break it, may be held in contempt of court and imprisoned or fined, or have their assets seized.

https://www.merlinentertainments.biz/trespass-injunction
Swarm Chris

Blooloop have an interview with Nick Varney where they at length discuss a wide range of topics from the entertainments sector. I've pulled a couple of interesting aspects out of it that may be relevant to the UK parks.

VR
Nick Varney appears to have a more muted interest in VR, making the point that whilst they had been able to use it to breathe new life into Air, they are very mindful that "VR can be an isolating experience" and that "technology needs to be embraced but we must never forget that people come to us for shared, immersive experiences".

He also makes a point about some new technologies not being quite ready for the attractions industry, possibly alluding to issues with VR at both Alton and Thorpe: "A lot of suppliers out there are not delivering on their promises. You create demand, customers queue up, rides break down, and equipment doesn’t work: you end up disappointing a lot of people."

Trackless Dark Rides for Legoland Parks
He was impressed with both the new Pirates of Carribean ride at Shanghai Disneyland and Ratatouille at Disneyland Paris. Of the two he says about Ratatouille: "It’s another good example of a blend of classic 3D theming with modern amazing hi-definition projection equipment and a new trackless system. We’re going to be introducing a similar system into the star attractions at our LEGOLAND parks going forward."
Last edited by Swarm Chris on Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Robert.W
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Ahhh, I read that last night. Very interesting article! Some of Varney's comments did actually make me laugh though...

And interesting to hear his opinion on the Disney trackless dark rides. How he was in complete awe at what Disney had created – that, Mr Varney, is the level that Merlin should be creating rides at. That's how you should want your guests to feel whilst experiencing your attractions. In order to catch the Mouse, you have to be better than the Mouse, and at the moment, Merlin are terribly far behind.

A trackless dark ride would work really well in Duel's place...
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AltonOperator
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Robert.W wrote:And interesting to hear his opinion on the Disney trackless dark rides. How he was in complete awe at what Disney had created – that, Mr Varney, is the level that Merlin should be creating rides at. That's how you should want your guests to feel whilst experiencing your attractions. In order to catch the Mouse, you have to be better than the Mouse, and at the moment, Merlin are terribly far behind.
We know from successes like Wicker Man that they would have no problem creating masterpieces like Disney do its just that they need to give the parks something to work with! Just chill out with the SeaLifes and Legolands for just a bit and pump some money into the parks. Firstly, with some serious clean up, getting everything up to scratch and then building some incredible attractions like we know they are capable of!
Hopefully Varney will be compelled to do something after he's said all these things!
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Swarm Chris

Robert.W wrote:In order to catch the Mouse, you have to be better than the Mouse, and at the moment, Merlin are terribly far behind.
Sadly though, this is practically impossible at least in terms of the resort parks, despite the marketing speak they use to say how they're the second largest operator behind only Disney. The income Disney is playing with is far beyond anything Merlin could ever hope for. Sadly improving Alton to beat Disneyland Paris attraction-wise, would give pitiful return on investment. Let's not forget that DLP until recently had all the same issues of poor investment and terrible upkeep that we see at Alton, and is only improving after Disney came in and bought it out fully.
AltonOperator wrote: We know from successes like Wickerman that they would have no problem creating masterpieces like Disney do its just that they need to give the parks something to work with! just chill out with the SeaLifes and Legolands for just a bit and pump some money into the parks. Firstly with some serious clean up, getting everything up to scratch and then building some incredible attractions like we know they are capable of!
Hopefully Varney will be compelled to do something after he's said all these things
Their current strategy is very risk averse and is a long term plan. Build in as many regions as possible, with varying types of attraction, so that they're covered regardless of any regional or local issue, such as weather and economic issues. Having read the formation of the company and how they seemingly got a little too close to it all failing very early on with director assets at risk, I have more respect for the way the company overall operates with attempting to get long term stability. The issue we see is that the UK and the European operation as a whole, aren't the focus at the moment and so get thrown a few scraps in comparison. Interestingly, if they think the pound is going to remain devalued and lead to people coming here for cheaper holidays, then we may see more investment. There is also the benefit that by having more income being generated abroad, they will also do well on the exchange rate converting back into pounds, making investing in the UK cheaper.
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lewis97
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After having somewhat recovered from the previous record low in January this year, Merlin's share price has now reached a new all time low following the response to last week's trading update.

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What could this mean for the future of Merlin? If anything at all..
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Bert
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Can anyone explain why this happened I watched the whole Interim Update video, the only bad thing was that Legoland growth decreased by 0.3% because they decided to take a year with no major CAPEX and no Lego movie whilst the rest of the chain continues to grow and 9% growth in the RTP chain because strong performance from Wicker Man and Peppa Pig Lands (No mention of Thorpe or Chessy though).

Also Nick Varney spoke about bringing cost cutting to a halt in the chain as well as 372 new rooms next year.

I really don’t understand why the share price plummeted.
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Merlin should have had very strong results for their theme park with the hot weather but they didn't. Merlin isn't providing the growth shareholders want 
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streetmagix
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My educated guess is that shareholders have lost (or are losing trust) in Merlin Management. On paper they seem to be doing pretty well but, really, they aren't. Visits to all the theme parks (apart from Legoland I understand) are down when they should have recovered. Midways aren't doing that well either. Merlin should be a lot bigger business than they are.
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