Theme parks are ruined if you don't pay for a fast pass?

And yet here you are defending Merlin. Odd that.

Do you understand what pre-tax loss of £492 million is or £3.9 billion debt means? Decreasing revenue perhaps, which they have also reported? It's easy to cut costs temporarily to give yourself a boost to EBITDA but it doesn't mean you have a stable, profitable company.

If, say, a company is paying out a huge amount of revenue in depreciation and debt payments, that doesn't actually mean they can keep going indefinitely. Fundamentally a company needs to make a profit long term, and Merlin is doing that.

I'm sure you can try to argue away a 3.8% drop in visitor numbers as a "good" thing" as well.

Seriously, don't just google stuff you clearly don't understand.

Fundamentally Merlin provide leisure services. It's easy to say "they exist to make money", but they aren't a supermarket. If they provide an increasingly poor value service, which they are, people will simply stop going. It's too easy for people to just jump on a plane - it's easier for me to get to Germany and go to places like Europa park which offer a far superior experience than it is to go to Alton towers, and universal are just around the corner - for Merlin to just assume they can provide a poor offering and people will keep attending.

I can’t stand theme parks
i don’t regard the many returning year after year as some kind of brainless robot

Yes
but you can grasp that many many WILL think it’s worth it
hence they return
or even buy an annual pass (without a fast pass)
hence why years after introducing fast passes.. they are still going strong

It’s not for me to judge someone who believes that £100+ and hours of long queues is worth it to get a few minutes of thrills - each to their own… But,
yes, I believe someone is a “thick robot” if they don’t believe it’s worth it, and yet go anyway!

You and I are going around In circles

you didn’t return. You voted with your feet

other have returned. They voted with their feet

hence these theme parks not withdrawing fast passes. It works for them as it doesn’t put off thousands upon thousand returning under their own free will

What’s your point? Of course some parents will say no

it would seem many many many say… sure we will go back

And you basically think the world has gone to shit?

Do you understand what EBITDA is?

it is up 0.7%

Meanwhile, in the real world outside of merlin's own press release which doesn't show profit and loss, they lost ~£500 million in the last full financial year and are sitting on huge amounts of debt.

Don't just google things and pretend you know stuff.

The irony of complaining about a queue when you’re part of it. It’s like complaining about the traffic when you’re part of that, too.
Do you think that you should be the only family allowed in? Or do you think that the queue is because, like you, thousands of others have done exactly what you’ve done?
Get some waterproofs and go on a drizzly day. Easy.

I hate these fast passes with a passion. I think they send such an awful message to kids that if you have money, you don’t have to follow the rules like everyone else. I feel so bad having to explain it to our kids when we see the ‘too posh to queue’ brigade just bypassing the huge queue. Sadly don’t think these passes will be going anywhere soon though - too much money in it

We had that in the early 2000s at Disneyland Paris, it was great.

paultons Park seems to be in the minority, I understand they do cap and it means Qs are reasonably timed, a day out there is much more enjoyable. The food is overpriced for sure but we go there over anywhere else.

I'm in my mid-50s so a bit older than you.

I can’t stand theme parks
but I grasp that many many many others love them
and the fast pass issue is no biggie to them because they return year after year
hence the theme parks don’t withdraw fast passes

simple really

So you think these 1000000/s of people that “endure” these people are mindless thick robots?

Indeed

and the crap ones that no one enjoys go out of business. People vote with their feet

There are so many things nowadays that have become shit

what a depressing view on the world. I am 45. I don’t think this at all. How old are you?

So glad my dd hates rides so l don't have to suffer this torture

My view was that we could afford it at the time but it’s such a waste of money, so we just stopped going.

If they are just there to print money and are not interested in providing a really fun day out then they need to get into banking or gambling instead.

I work for a trade association. Yes the member small businesses need to make money to pay their staff and keep going, that's called the bottom line. But primarily they are interested in providing a good product for their customers in the business they are in that stands the test of time and providing decent jobs. Otherwise they could get into another line of work which is not about quality products.

Not all theme parks are alike. Not all industries are alike. Not all businesses are alike. Not all brands of capitalism are alike.

No, my point is that 1000’s go to these places and “endure” them by their own free will. They willingly choose to do so and pay Merlin or whoever lots of cash for the privilege!… so why would Merlin make spend money or take less revenue to make them even more attractive places, and make the over-crowding even worse!

It seems 1000s of people are desperate to go despite all the queues, ride-closures, infuriating jingles, over-priced junk food.

The desire for a few minutes of thrill on a handful of rides seems to be so massive that many people will endure lots of shit.

Many of us on this thread are old enough to remember theme parks before the days of fast passes. But young people and children will know no different. For them, either spending hundreds on fast passes or standing in a barely moving queue is normal.

But they want, quite naturally, to visit a theme park - their peers will be going, they'll also nowadays be seeing videos on social media of people going on thrill rides and raving about how amazing they are.

There are so many things nowadays that have become shit. It's OK for a middle-aged person like me to think, well, I 'did' theme parks when I was younger, I've been to many nice restaurants before they went downhill or closed, I've had nice days shopping on high streets before they filled up with vape shops, I've been on trains in the days when there was reasonable prospect of getting a seat etc. But young people are growing up in a really crappy world and they won't know that things can be better.

Business are constantly thinking 'how can we make/save more money' - and that is reasonable as long as they don't lose sight of the customer. That's what theme park operators have done by monetising queuing, making a poor experience part of their business model. Not a 'standard' 'ordinary' 'does the job' experience, such as flying Economy rather than business class, but an experience that is unpleasant and frustrating. And anyone born in the last 20 years ago will think 'normal = unpleasant'.

And if enough people think like you (and me) then they’d change their business model… but as long as theme parks are packed out with people who don’t think like us, they won’t.

One answer from a capitalist perspective is to permit more theme parks to be built to increase the competition, causing theme parks to need to compete for customers rather than being overwhelmed by them as they currently are.

Businesses exist to make money, not provide excellent customer experience…

The only reason they aim for excellent customer experience is when it helps them make money!

If people are willing to hand over their money in their droves for the customer experience they’re being offered, then where’s the incentive to improve things. If people didn’t feel they were getting value from these places, they’d vote with their feet.

As long there remain plenty of people willing to pay £100s to endure a long journey to then spend their day in a sun-scorched, wasp-infested, concrete jungle… waiting hours in queues, all for just a few minutes of being thrown around and over-stimulated in various gaudy metal containers, then theme parks will continue as they are….