Merlin passes - worth it?

[KenAdams]

We're East Midlands based and don't live in a city with any Merlin attractions but can travel at weekends.

Is the Merlin pass worth it and if so would you recommend the normal or Premium? Is there an ideal time of year to buy one?

It’s worth if if you think you will visit attractions more than 5-6 times a year (depending on various entry prices, bogof offers etc.) we have the premium passes as the standard passes has restrictions on some attractions at certain times of the year (all the details are on the website) We also get discounts on food/drinks and in the shops and free parking with the passes

I think a day trip to London then another one to Blackpool will mean that we can do at least 6 attractions on both of those trips then Legoland Discovery in Birmingham isn't too far from us.

Hi,

I ummed and ahhed for a couple years despite Dh constantly going on about getting one. Finally we did this year and I think it's fab. We live in the same region as you and we can easily pop over to Alton towers for a few hours at the weekend with Ds (hes 6) without the pressure of staying all days. We make weekends of it like currently we are down south about to visit Chessington for the 3rd time this year. We did Thorpe Park yesterday and lego land with the fireworks the day before. We've not even started on the sea life centres / discovery centres /London / Blackpool attractions and we got ours in April. The premium one is deffo the better one to go for and it's the best deal in April. You have to bear in mind though that Nov- Apr all the main theme parks are closed to get all those in first and then focus on the other bits in winter. We are seriously considering renewing ours we've enjoyed it that much

We have a caravan and and hadMerlin passes for about 4 years running when the boys were younger. We live in the north west so we got full value out of them because we would go to Blackpool for the weekend and do all the attractions there, we can use the LEGOLAND and sealife at the Trafford Centre. We spent a lot of time at Alton Towers as there's a campsite right next door and in the summer would do a trip down South and we would go to Chessington, Thorpe Park and LEGOLAND Windsor and often a day trip into London as well.

I'm on a fb merlin group (not a pass holder but we used to have legoland annual passes and the tips are useful) and the general consensus is, worth it but most people spend out on travel lodges and food which bumps up the price.

We live near Paultons Park and a zoo so we have membership for those now instead. The merlin parks do get quite a bit of flack for constantly shutting down rides, letting too many people in etc which we've never found at Paultons. It's obviously not local to you though. If you're on fb I recommend joining the merlin annual pass holders group and just watching the posts for a bit.

Dd has them but she lives near London and I live near Alton Towers so they are used a lot down there and when she visits.

Seem to remember they come a lot cheaper in a Boxing Day sale.

They used to offer good Black Friday deals for the cost of the passes

@KenAdams you're not too far from Alton Towers either, and I think it covers the Sea Life Centre too, if you're going to the LegoLand discovery centre anyway.

Mostly you can get 2for1 entry anyway so work out if you can get maximum worth, unless you go to the more expensive ones you simply won't.

The sale they do at Christmas time is the best deal. It starts either Boxing Day or New Year’s Day. Will not get a better price.

I think you can also buy them online and collect within 6 months so as to maximise the best price starting from when you want.
We have premium passes and live close to Legoland/Thorpe Park/Chessington so we potter in and out with free parking too. There are also fewer restrictions on the premium pass compared to standard.
Would the monthly one suit you better?

Premium is better as I believe the standard pass excludes both Scarefest and the Fireworks at Alton Towers.

If you buy online in the New Year sale, you have 6 months to pick up. Leave it as late as you can to buy - I think we managed to push it to almost Feb. This means you can pick up late July. You then get the end of one Summer season and the beginning of the next Summer so it feels like you get 2 years for the price of 1.
If you're going to be going to the Theme Parks more than 5 times, I would consider investing in at least 1 Premium Pass upgrade as car parking is so expensive, especially at Alton Towers.

I'm going to go against the grain but we bought them for a year and didn't renew them. I thought we had would have loads of free days out but it never quite worked like that for us.

As a family of 5 we spent circa £600 in the January sale. The problem is they let too many people in and in the school holidays the queues are just ridiculous. 1.5 hours for dragons fury 1.5 hours for the vampire ride etc.
We live in the south so had a few to choose from but the queues were as bad everywhere. So we ended up buying fast track passes as other wise the day would be wasted . I know we could go back but it really isn't worth it to go and get on 2 rides a time.

Also as someone else said to go to Alton Towers would involve overnight stays for us which ends up £££.

My children got very bored of the sealife centres.

In summary i now refuse to go to a Merlin attraction unless it's an inset day you can usually get a 2 for 1 deal.

Thanks all - I'll check out the Facebook groups. I also didn't know you could delay pass collection so I'll definitely look into that as well!