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).

The only way they could limit numbers would be to make all tickets pre-booked only. There would be chaos if they turned people away at the gates - imagine "We've driven four hours to get here! I want a refund for my petrol! My kids need the toilet!" etc.

But why would they do that when people keep on coming and keep on queuing, and the £££ piles up for them?

@AnApparitionQuipped You make a good point. I wonder if we could find out what their daily limits on numbers are? Or if they have them at all? That would be interesting to know.

We used to have Merlin passes (via Tesco Clubcard discount) when the kids were younger as it's very local. My rule of thumb was only go in the holidays on a day it's forecast to rain all day (wet gear, obviously). If it's a good day and heavily rains at 2pm, it's worth popping over about 4pm if the weather has cleared up.

Love this!

Agreed, annual pass holders here and the queues have gotten rediculous. Even with virtual queuing (ride access pass) it’s impossible to manage spending so much time in other bits around the park.

Until enough of the public complain nothing will change, they’re trying to make up for lost earnings.

I only go to theme parks on inset days when the rest of the country is in school so the queues are a lot less.

It is why we stopped renewing our passes. Two of ours had access passes but even with those the queues were still unmanageable.

You must really like queuing if you pay 50 quid to do it several times a month!!! 😂

Sounds like they are still trying to make up for covid. We used to do Scarefest and Fright Night as we had merlin passes and took friends too. The queue times were not that bad, only for Smiler in the dark. But we've let the passes lapse now because they've hiked the prices, we had to pre-book when we wanted to go as pass holder entry was limited (the whole point of the pass was we could go whenever) and the queues were horrendously managed. So no more for us.

Why do you need telling? You're going to an special event, at one of the busiest times of the year, surely you know you'll be queuing for ages, it's always the same with theme parks,

@ToBeOrNotToB it was only last week as we are lucky with our extra half term week, we normally suck it up and do the weekends and holidays and it’s always rammed it just eases the blow as we don’t pay! I think we have to go 4 times the whole year to get value for money. Sorry you had a crap day though, Chessington is the worst for ride operations and queues, we usually avoid it at all costs as the queues just aren’t worth it as the rides aren’t as good as Towers and Thorpe.

We don’t love that far from Chessington and have had Merlin passes in the past but last time we went the queues were horrific. They had oversold fast passes so the fast pass people were queuing for over 30 minutes too and slowing down the main queue. Some of our sixth formers work there and they were saying that they have massively upped the number of fast passes allowed and they are now just about making as much money as possible. We used to go a couple of times a year, but we no longer bother.

For those interested, you can read some good articles about theme parks around the world and who makes the most revenue ( Disney obviously ) and why. Also who actually own them is interesting. They make obscene amounts of money, but Disney had to spend obscene amounts to get there. It was years ago and it’s unlikely something like Merlin could get their hands on those kinds of investments now, post 2007 I guess, to make the experience more like Disney with regards to queuing etc None of them make their money on tickets really, it’s merchandise. All the crap you buy inside.

*live not love

@PinkSyCo i don’t really mind I just read a book and the teens go on their phones, or we just chat or play games. Obviously we love a quiet day but if it’s busy we just get on with it. We are used to it 😀

Yanbu op, It's too expensive for what it's worth. The ride is like what 90 secs long and to do that 2/3 times for a total of 200+ secs worth of adrenaline rush to wait around all day in queues isn't worth a couple of £ and my time. I mean I love theme parks and big rides but the queuing puts me off.

My children want to go to legoland, it was require 2 overnight stays for us because of the distance. We haven’t gone this year because the fear of a full day queueing, managing a couple of rides and 3 disappointed children.

What do you play? Do you bring table and chairs so you can play Monopoly? And a pack of cards for a game of patience perhaps? 😆

If you would pay more money to queue less then you just buy a fast pass surely. I took dd and her friend to AT in summer holidays. We were there when the park opened. Straight onto smiler, Rita, 13 with no wait then no wait longer than 20 mins with the fast pass for any other ride. I used the BOGOF cereal vouchers then factored fast pass into the cost, I don't think I'd bother going without one.

But there must be a limit to the number of fast passes in operation - if it reached a point where more people had them than not, it would defeat the object.

Business in wants to make money shock.

Top tip for Alton Towers (I used to sell breaks there), get there early and head straight to the furthest ride and work your way back to the front of the (flippin massive) park.
Oh and never go on the Easter Bank Holiday weekend (especially the Monday).

If you get the (free) app in advance you can check queue times in advance and get an idea of waiting times.

It’s not a no queueing it’s a virtual queue and sometimes even works out longer than the main queue once you factor in the virtual.

I second what @waterlego said about Europa Park in Germany. It’s fantastic - we went this year in August and I couldn’t fault it. We didn’t queue for more than 45 minutes and they have some really big rides, including the 4th biggest coaster in Europe. It’s just so well-run, as well as being beautifully themed and with food that’s actually nice. We went to Disney Paris this summer as well and Europa Park totally blew it out of the water.

I don’t think there’s any UK theme park that comes remotely close. I love theme parks but haven’t been to a UK one this year. If you have kids 12 years or younger I think Paultons is best because you don’t have to queue that long for rides (apart from in the Peppa Pig bit, perhaps). They have added some new, bigger rides in recent years.

DD is tall and into big rides so I think she’d really like Thorpe Park, which is less than an hour from us. But I think we would just spend half the time in queues and compared to a faultless experience at Europa Park I fear we would come home disappointed!

I went to their Halloween event early 2000s and we went on maybe one ride. It was so frustrating and a waste of money.