To think 2 hours queuing times is wrong at Merlin?

[ToBeOrNotToB]

We went to Chessington Howl’oween. The queues for most of the big ticket rides were 2 hours long all day. Some were 90mins. We went on 3 big rides in total. Shouldn’t theme parks limit number of visitors to guarantee better value for money? (It costs over £100 for a family of four to visit).

My son went as part of a school trip so during term time and still they only managed to get on 3 rides!

Similar with Alton towers

Ha, my experience is with school trips you spend the whole time taking everyone to the loo or to wash hands or whatever! Then it’s packed lunch time…

That's why I don't go at peak times. I went to Thorpe Park recently, one of the first fright nights and bought fast passes, no way was I queuing all day!

I honestly didn’t expect it to be so busy they were split into groups of 8 so not the whole class going around together. Then they stayed until closing. I personally couldn’t be bothered to queue for a ride for 2 hours 🤦🏻

They won't limit numbers because that's how they make their money. They'll also claim there's plenty more to do even if your favourite rides have massive queues.

There's the expensive option of buying fast track tickets too ,which actually don't make much of a difference when the queue is 2 hours anyways.

The trick is to get there as early as possible, run to the desired rides and get a go or two before it gets to busy. Keep an eye on the app/rides around lunch as the crowds disperse a bit. If a popular ride was shut and then it's suddenly open, odds are the queues for the other rides will get smaller.

I learnt the hard way to never go to theme parks in Haloween. A few years ago we spent a fortune at Alton Towers, there for 10 hours, managed 3 rides. Queuing in the cold for hours on end is not a fun day out and I agree theme parks need to limit numbers.

Absolutely right there, I won’t be going back at Halloween. We’ve done theme parks loads but I’ve never seen so many 2 hour queue times before.

You paid to spend a day queuing up. When will people realise? Saw a thread elsewhere today about Euro Disney, after paying god knows how much to get in, some people are paying £140 per person, per day for 'fast passes' WTF?

In what other realm would people pay hundreds of pounds to be ignored and crammed into a line/ treated like utter plebs.

Buy a book for under a tenner, pack a picnic and head out for a walk in the countryside, stop and take turns to read.

If you want to replicate the theme park experience, face a tree, stand in line and don't move come rain or shine for two hours. For the full experience, climb tree to highish branch and jump down - enjoy the rush but take care.

So you spent 6 hours of your time and all that money and over a hundred quid for approximately 5 minutes of fun?!! You must be bloody mad.

My daughter went on a school trip to Thorpe park and no exaggeration they went on 1 ride!!! It’s utterly ridiculous!

Went to Alton Towers on Friday. Queues averaged 80 minutes, my boys have adhd and anxiety so they went on nothing except the paid for virtual reality games. Total waste of a day and about £300 with dinner.

We went this week too OP - there from 9am (stayed in the hotel so early access) til gone 7pm and I think my kids did 6 rides in that time. And that was with a fast pass, sometimes the fast pass queue was 45 minutes long. It's a very expensive day out for that much queuing.

Oh no, we're going to Thorpe Park Halloween Fright Night tomorrow 😰

I think it's disgusting to expect a family to pay hundreds for a day out only to spent hours waiting to use what you've paid for. Most merlin attractions are like this, as are places such as Disney etc. this is why I'd not bother paying such a huge expense for very little gain.

Hmm sounds like Merlin are making up money for lost sales. I hope more people reply to this thread so maybe we can shine a light on how parents are being ripped off (again).

The queues are part of the business model. They’re holding mechanisms that prevent the park being overrun generally with people.

if they limit entires so there are no queues, the tickets will cost thousands each.

We’re not saying no queues. I go expecting to queue. But not 2 hours. 60/75mins is most I’ve seen in the past.

Went to thorpe park on a fright night last year, complete waste of money as they massively over sold the tickets. Managed 3 rides and we were there from opening to closing. To top it all off it then took nearly 2 hours to get out of the car park. Never again!

If you want all the queues under an hour… you’ll at least double the price. And probably more because the popular rides will still be disproportionately popular. So people will go on them twice instead.

I really laughed at this 🤣

Yes it’s ridiculous but people are still going and paying money so there’s little motivation to stop or limit tickets

Also to add when I went the rides kept breaking down constantly so everyone was getting 'fast track' tickets for free so even when we used that ticket for the saw ride, the queue was still nearly 2 hours to get on. There was a lot of pissed off people who actually paid for fast track that day unsurprisingly

The problem is, if you want half the queues, the tickets will have to double in price.

Theme parks are bloody expensive places to run.

We went to legoland in august just awful. Never again!! We did Tomas land last year on a slightly damp day in September it was fantastic we did every ride longest queue was 20 min.