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).

💯✅

I’d say there are some rich stakeholders laughing all the way to the bank just now.

At the risk of sounding arsey, if that were the case, then these things would be springing up everywhere. Near every major city, instead of the endless Taylor Wimpey housing estates. Theme parks are not known for being wonderful business investments; they require vast capital and huge running costs (they are very highly staffed). Hence many don’t open in the winter as it just isn’t worth it; they don’t cover those costs. So, yes, you could limit the numbers of people entering the parks….but then the ticket prices would rise accordingly. And people would complain that £400/500 was too expensive and they were elitist etc. I think you just have to pay your money and take your choice, all those queues put me right off, so I’d go and do something else.

@ToBeOrNotToB

I just wanted to say that this is far from a “pointless thread”

I had no idea that it was this bad and will definitely be giving it miss to take my grandchildren.

My tone was no harsher than anyone else, don’t post in AIBU if you don’t want people to answer and just want people to side with you.

Parents of grown up kids got an extra hour lie in.

No I don’t, I have animals and things to do! You are silly.

Theme parks are basically a scam. They should have to mention the average queue times for rides before you book tickets.

Well, it is life thanks to people continuing to accept poor customer service and such poor value for money.

I was talking about if you pay slightly more you get priority, like fast pass, first class etc It’s not poor service if someone pays more to get a different service to you.

Again, if you don’t like the queue, don’t go. They’ll either change if they can, or close. Nobody needs to go.

People sitting in first class or the best theatre seats aren’t affecting those with less money in the same way though. Queuing times are atrocious as it is, but to have to queue even longer due to the better off queue jumpers is fucking disgusting treatment imo, and I make a point of avoiding places that fast track for this reason.

I make a point of avoiding places that fast track for this reason.

This attitude I can support. You don’t like it so you don’t go. If lots of people do the same, they’ll change 🤷🏽‍♀️

@WalkingInTheAir13 Thank you. I am not a novice theme park person as some have suggested. I just feel 2 hours is unreasonable. If you have under school age children, I would go on a Sunday or pay for a hotel experience but these are hugely expensive also but you get value the hour before they let everyone else in. Also check out Paultons Park or Drayton Manor. Lovely.

@WalkingInTheAir13 sorry, I meant to say, if you have school age children.

@WahineToa I am very silly. It’s why I like Theme Parks.

If you are near enough to the main parks it’s worth looking at the individual parks annual passes .. Thorpe Park was £99 each when I got ours .. so 3 visits and it’s paid for itself . We go almost weekly with our young teens during the holidays and just stay for a few hours getting there before opening and doing 2/3 of the big rides in the first hour

Another issue and I expect flaming for this is the no queuing for disabilities.

I think the biggest theme parks have always been this bad during peak time for the big rides. It is really annoying though to spend all the time and money and only make it on 3 rides, but I do remember this happening at alton towers quite often about 20 years ago so is nothing new! Disney used to have the free pass to come back to the ride later which helped but that has recently gone in favour of a paid model which is really annoying as it's all expensive enough in the first place

Our school has a random Thursday off on October every year to set up for opening evening. We went to Thorpe Park (just before the fright nights started so it shut at 5pm) and queued on average for 5-15 minutes for every ride. Longest about 30 minutes. We always buy fast passes (fortunate to be able to afford it although I do still cringe at the prices and try not to think about it!!) but we didn’t have to that day. We did get one individual fast pass each for a ride that was an hour.

Having been to Disney in Florida and California I think a lot of it is the way the parks are set up that causes the problems. In Disney you used to get some free fast passes each although now they charge for them (it’s about £20 per person per day which isn’t that bad in comparison to here or places like Universal in the US!). There is something about the way the parks are run though that makes them so much more efficient and enjoyable. I’m not sure what it is, but I think it may be the way the rides are designed to fit more people on and more regularly and even some of the queues are more interesting so that they feel part of the experience as well and you’re not just bored out of your brains! They are super organised there and I think our parks could learn a lot from them to make the experience enjoyable even if you don’t fork out for extortionate fast passes.

@Fluffluff So why post that and not explain your reason? I wholeheartedly do not support that as an ‘issue’. Let’s stay a bit on topic. 2 hour+ queues for most rides. Is that ok?

I think the issue is fast passes ... if only people with disabilities could jump the queue, the rest of the paying public wouldn't have to wast as long.

I think also they have to do maintenance in winter like caravan parks do.

Last time I went to Legoland was like this, and that was on an inset day as well, but seemed to be every kids inset day on planet Earth.
Awful queue times, rides breaking down.
Actually got free tickets for Legoland a while back but just the thought of doing all that again was awful so we didn’t go. There is a theme park more local to me that is much, much better and not Merlin owned so will be only going there from now on.

Reasonable adjustment means places making sure they are accessible. For some
people their disabilities mean they can’t queue therefore a system whereby the queue can be missed (most places now so a virtual queue so it just means your not physically standing there) is reasonable adjustment.

in recent years Merlin have very much tightened up their rules on who can have the ride access passes to try to ensure they only go to those who really do need it. It has caused a lot of anger to some but I think the rules as they are now are pretty reasonable.

that said you could have all the queue passes in the world and DS still wouldn’t be able to tolerate going anywhere near somewhere like that!

I don’t think 2 hours plus is a reasonable expectation and makes for a crappy day out. Chessington often has really long queues on the little rides as well which means you can’t balance it out. We did one of the February half term events when there were only 10 or so little rides open and the zoo. The queues were hideous especially bearing in mind most guests were under 8.

When we went to Disney during half term and rides were full to capacity, there was still some flex so things were not all 2 hours. There were a lot of 45-60 minute waits and really only Crush and princess pavilion were 2 hours plus. We used individual fast passes for for the former and we didn’t do the latter.

it is pure greed by the parks through- when things are mega busy, the toilet queues get long, food queues the same so everything becomes a massive slog.

Unfortunately these places will only get the message if we all tell them and ultimately not go until they improve. Too many of us (not criticising the OP) just shrug and accept this crap.

We have annual passes so we don’t care how many rides we get on as we go several times a month for £50 for 3 of us but there’s no way I d pay to visit in the school holidays, the merlin parks are well known for being mega busy and having huge queues. We did seven days in a row across Alton towers, Thorpe, Chessington and legoland the week before last as we have two weeks half term and they were dead except for the weekends.

We did Alton towers this week and it was crazy busy, full capacity, we didn’t go til 1pm but still managed 6 of the big rides between 1 and 9. We went with low expectations and it was free, as we have had our annual pass fee 20 times over this season! No way would i have paid the entrance fee!

if people go at super busy times you need to get there early, 9am so you can be at your first ride for 10 and use the app to monitor the queue times. It’s been like this for years and people still go in their millions every year so no way will Merlin reduce numbers!

@Coasterfan It’s not practical for many families to go in term time to make use of passes like this as distances travelled and weekend sports or club commitments.

@WatchoRulo What you said! ✅