As an American, i’m used to theme park food not being the best, but i’m continually blown away just how bad the food is at UK theme parks. Eating there is not something I look forward to at all, which is sad when you see how parks in the U.S. over the past few years have put more emphasis on upgrading their food game. Would love to see change.
@@LancerX916 Disney food has gone down in quality especially the dessert options like the cookies...shrunk portions and increased prices, with SOME still great options like the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup at Jolly Holiday and I still like the Skewers at Bengal BBQ even though they are half the size! Universal Hollywood has mediocre food outside of the Three Broomsticks...Universal Florida has 2-3 good places to eat. The food parks would be Knotts Berry Farm, Hershey Park, Dollywood, Silver Dollar City and Knoebels...all have reasonable prices with great food options Funnily enough, Legoland in California actually has some pretty decent food...and it has been said they purposely made that Legoland have better food then the rest.
As a Brit who goes to US parks every year on both coasts I couldn't agree more. Alton Towers lost Mcdonalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut (not great but better than what they serve at Alton) after the Smiler incident and the food has been dire ever since. Alton management need to drop their corporate contract for poor quality food, watch some UA-cam videos of the US Parks and hire a creative chef. I would pay £2/3 more per burger for better quality.
Merlin's biggest problem is that it is weighed down with large historical debts. A lot of their revenue is soaked up in servicing that debt. That leaves them with less money to service, maintain and develop their attractions. The attractions go downhill, visitor numbers dwindle and...ultimately, the business can no longer be turned around without huge investment (that they can't afford) and becomes unviable.
@@NeilBenjamin1they can’t do that because Merlin doesn’t own any of the property the parks are located on. The parks were sold then leased back to Merlin on a 30 year lease, the only thing Merlin own is the infrastructure so nobody will buy just that.
Great video Shaun. Appreciate your insight into this issue. If you're willing would love more content like this examining the business side of the attractions industry.
Was at Thorpe for blue light day, it was definitely apparent that people weren’t spending money. Lots of picnics, no one bought freestyle, no queues for food and gift shops were empty. We bought fast track, and we were usually the only ones in the queue. People just don’t have the money to splash around.
Food is reasonable i thought at thorpe i also went to BLC day , KFC and BK were very busy , double whopper meal cost me £11 and a few pence which i thought was reasonable , coffee at Costa was £4.50 for a small one so i went to KFC and it’s was £2.69 , compared to towers i thought Thorpe wasn’t that bad, fast track was a waste of money imo on blue light day queues were not too long , they never sell many on those sort of days
@ but I can remember queuing for 60 minutes plus back in the day. I don’t think it’s just about being expensive though. People just have less disposable income, so people are just cutting costs. It’s not just theme parks, fast food places are seeing less spending.
@@deanos102 part of what you said highlights the food issue. Thorpe has BK and KFC which are branded food outlets not run by merlin/aaramark. They were busy because the food they sell is of a standard we are all familiar with at a price were familiar with paying. at chessington i spent £13 on chicken strips and chips and they were the standard you would get from frozen food, not even the standard of a fast food place (which would have been cheaper also). i didnt feel i got my monies worth and its the only time ive actually bought food on park all year because i felt that way last year, i wait till i leave thorpe/chessington/legoland and go to the services to get food
@@Spiritofthecimmarron Thorpe Park is the only place i will eat on a day out , We always used to eat at Alton Towers , now i have a all you can eat breakfast on the way, take in a few snacks and bottle of water which i can refill, maybe a portion of chips from Eastern Express and then get a nice meal in a pub on way home, no way am i paying for the muck they sell at Towers at those stupid high prices, £9.50 for a Rollover hot dog that my coop sells for £2.70 or £3.50 as a meal deal ! , if the quality was there i wouldn’t mind as much , i think people have clicked on as Towers food outlets didn’t seem that busy when i visited compared to previous years
@deanos102 I not close enough to go to towers every year (been twice so far over 5 years of being a passholder) but last time we went we just had some chips and then we got food at our hotel. I think Merlin really need to rethink aaramark.
You should do a video for a 5/10 year plan for the Merlin parks in the UK, what rides you would add and what general updates you would like to see. Merlin needs help!!!
The idea of Merlin wanting to overtake Disney and Universal I think speaks to a problem that SO many companies have had in the last 10 years or so that really annoys me and I desperately would like businesses in many many sectors to change their ways on. I'd really like more companies to start putting more time, money, effort and focus onto their own success instead of making their only goal crushing their competition! Far too many companies are looking outward the whole time and spending no time looking inward and acknowledging their own success. At some point about 10 years ago big business's sole focus seemed to become "growth" to such an extent that it didn't even matter if you were making a profit or were any good at what you did as long as you were "growing"
You are right Andrew... look at Royal mail for instance.. race to the bottom.. privatisation.. we must beat Amazon..Dpd.. blah blah blah. They dont seem to appreciate the long term workforce that they have/had. Most posties have worked many many years for Royal mail and do a great job.
100% agree with you. You only need to look at phantasialand and europa park to see that the quality brings people in. And happy people spend money. If you build it, they will come. But you have to build it right.
@@andrewpepper3145 Ironically Walt Disney's US theme park resorts (like Orlando Florida) have developed veru similar issues to Merlin's UK theme parks and been going slowly downhill since the turn of the 2010s as well (ie. insanely overpriced bland/bad food, cutting corners with newer rides, inconvenient clunky "fast track" apps, paying more and more for less and less, rude untrained staff/cast, overlong queues, older rides falling to bits, hotel and park infrastructure after 25-50 years really showing their age, etc).
Your consumer always notices when you hike prices and offer a worse service. It’s a classic when large companies get too big, trying to buy up everything too and eventually they can’t service the debt anymore. They’ll likely have to sell off a lot of their portfolio.
You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned about the food... I mean, as an annual pass holder, you have already paid for the ticket, so the only the way they can make any more money is if you buy from the shops... but with the extortionate prices they charge, why would you buy from then?
This is a huge point. The food is terrible and overpriced. They need to improve the quality and lower prices. They’re trying to chase revenue by lowering costs/quality and raising prices. This doesn’t work long term and people learn that product/service lacks value and find alternatives.
Compare it to Japanese parks... Well, you can't! People will go to a park to instagram food and collect popcorn buckets, big mistake not making the most of it.
I remember going to Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and Chessington in the late 90s and early 2000's when they was good value for money. Every year a new attraction, Parks were well kept, Everything was reasonably priced, Queues for rides rarely exceeded 1 hour, You could easily ride 15 - 20 rides per visit. Nowdays it's the complete opposite, nothing is looked after, rides are closed or breaking down constantly, parks are beyond overcrowded, 2-3 hour long Queues meaning 3-4 rides per visit for extremely high entry prices. I don't mind paying higher prices if the quality of the product remains the same, but if it the quality drops to beyond recognition whilst prices keep on increasing people will go elsewhere like Local Funfairs.
You obviously didn't go to many theme parks in the 90's because every time Alton Towers opened a secret weapon, the queues for that season could top 3 hours easily. Rides that are almost walk on these days were as much as 4 hours back then
@hzrd8 that would be a dream. The quality would be sky high. I have said to my wife so many times, just send some merlin staff to europa to watch how its run, and then report back. Would definitely learn something.
Went to Towers for the fist time in over a decade this year and what you said about the quality of the food was spot on. When ordering 2 burgers, I asked if I could buy just 2 burgers and was told no. You had to pay for 2 meals. Once we had our meals, we wee appalled. God awful.
Same with Thorpe Park, there was something special about being able to take a few hours out as a kid and go on the train to the farm for a break yet Merlin got rid of that almost immediately
@@solskjaer1195 Thing is with Disney is not only are they one of the biggest theme park operators in the world they are also one of the biggest media companies in the world. They have a diverse revenue stream, Merlin only have theme parks. If Merlin's theme parks start to fail... they've got nothing to fall back on like Disney do.
@@WelshGuitarDude They've always outclassed every theme park for many decades, but they've converged on problems and stagnation issues similar to Merlin parks.
@@TedShatner10 Well they just recently talked about their 10 year plan so they are not stagnating anymore. Universal is also still expanding with a potential UK park. Merlin however isn't just stagnating they are going backwards in some cases.
It is sad that this is happening,i live very close to flambards cornwall and have had many trips there with my children over the years ,great little theme park it really was. Sad for all those at merlin losing their jobs too.
Merlin aren’t doing enough to get people to come back. Overpriced, poor quality and lack of rides each day. As a family we will save our money and go to the “bigger” parks such as Disney. A massive shame as 10 years ago it was not the case.
I think you’ve missed my point here. We have stayed at Akron Towers and LEGOLAND this year and have been disappointed with both getaways. For a family of 4 we can stay for far less £ than these combined and have a better experience for the same amount of time.
The Aramark deal was a major strategic mistake. Had this deal not happened I’m not sure they’d be in the same position. I’ve stopped spending money on food in the parks since the Aramark deal. As you say that’s probably hundreds of pounds a year and I know many others are doing it.
I'm usually quite easy with food. I'm British, so I'm no stranger to a dodgy kebab at 4am, but OMG did I notice the difference in quality; MAINLY in the roller coaster restaurant itself at Towers. I couldn't believe it! They used to do amazing burgers, cocktails and sides and NONE of that on my last visit was the same, I was genuinely so sad I didn't go back during my 3 day visit 😢
Me and my family were extremely excited to go to the RollerCoaster Restaurant, it was always fully booked, but oh my gosh the food was a major let down, I don’t understand why they need to though a tablet in my face to order when it’s a restaurant, how is that a service? Very lucky my 6 year old brother enjoyed it a ton seeing it all come down because I would’ve been incredibly frustrated.
There are so many factors at play here many of which you cover here - my own insights would include: 1, The Fun Factor - visiting a theme park should be fun, at the moment the theme park industry is pushing more and more for ride passes, fast passes, ride packages, the day becomes about staring at your phone for ride times, queue times and ride availability and then getting into confrontations at customer services when expectations aren't met. Its the self checkout mentality applied to something that is supposed to be fun. This is especially true at WDW where you have to buy a ticket, buy a product that allows you to skip some lines, and buy a second set of products for the premier attractions. Its expensive, and its no fun. Who wants a theme park day to be a pain. Alton Towers has gone down the upsell route, when the lines are only as long as they are because half the rides are closed/not operating. 2, The food - I will say the ice cream/cake stand at Curse at Alton Manor includes some top draw themed food experiences. The trouble is while that stand offers high quality, inventive themed instagrammable food the rest of the park doesn't hold up. Luke warm chicken and chips is not a good purchase at the prices they charge. If the whole park matched the Alton Manor standard of theming/quality the price would be less of an issue. 3, Outsourcing MMM to me feels like a catastrophic move, not least when the theming of locations like Alton Manor and Forbidden Valley have showcased the talent they do have. Again it feels like the aim here is to cut costs and remove even more of the things that make theme parks work in the first place. All in all I find AT to be quite a sad place, the rides are broken down or closed, the standard of maintenance and love shown to the park is evident in some areas and not others and the human interactions have given way to digital products and digital management of your day. The entertainment staff are worth their weight in gold, but to the money men at AT I imagine they are just another cost that can be removed from the bottom line. In a theme park, however good the rides and attractions are its the people the cast or the team who really make it. I remember riding Big Thunder Mountain in DLP one day with an American CM on the station, he had everyone clapping in sync as the trains left the station, he had everyone whooping, hollering and laughing. It must have been my 120th ride on that coaster, but its the best one I ever had, why? Because it was a fun experience with other human beings. I am sure these are the things the industry is losing sight of and these are the things Alton Towers, Disney etc will all regret losing when people cant be bothered with their app fueled up charge parks. Splat the rat? what a nerve, sounds like some serious hubris at Merlin.
Food is dreadful. Last time I ordered food at AT, it wasn’t even edible and I asked for a refund. The guy serving said it’s fine, I agree, the food is really poor and we are always refunding customers. I mean how bad is that? Also parking charges are extortionate and the cost of buying a fast pass these days, is way too expensive to make it remotely worth the value. And the real reason for lower attendance and spend is because of the Company’s greed, people won’t pay for it today, because money is already tight for most. Stop overcharging for poor value products.
Very informative video as always, Shawn. Merlin also used to say that they would ‘catch the mouse’. Don’t think that’s going to happen! When Universal come over here, Merlin really need to up their game!
Families simply can’t afford to go to theme parks anymore, its not just the admission cost, its the travel to get there and back, food and other upcharges when there, it all adds up at a time when people are poorer than ever. Coupled with the ever-increasing costs of literally EVERYTHING involved in running a park - staff wages, gas/electric, insurance, food & drink, ride hire - and I genuinely think in 10 years time a lot of these parks will be gone.
If people want theme parks n other attractions to still be around in the future then they need to support them by spending money people need to stop using cost of living as an excuse to not support our theme parks n other attractions
@@joshuaharrison1Ridiculous comment. You're obviously comfortably off but millions of people are feeling the pressure of higher bills and costs. I know people who are on reasonable money but once all bills and shopping has come out, there's not much left - how are they supposed to just blow everything on theme parks! Don't be so stupid.
@@joshuaharrison1 As excuses go, it's a pretty damn good one though. If you can barely afford to feed your family, you shouldn't be spending money on attending theme parks.
Great Video Shawn, unbiased! Merlin have done a number of restructures over the years, I was part of one in 2004, and i’ve got friends who were part of one post covid, as a number of roles were removed. Its hard to swallow, but as someone who has gone through redundancy myself in another industry, your right in saying there are always opportunities elsewhere! If Universal happens, i think we are in for a big shift in this country!
I sincerely hope Universal kicks their butts at this point… Do you think Merlin will ever sink low enough to try to enact a ‘no bringing in outside food’ rule?
The day they introduced car park charges is probably when I started going less. Most of their car parks are gravel and grass and just a joke they charge an extra £10 for it when it’s not as if people are parking there and going somewhere else for the day. Ride availability seems to be getting worse too with some rides shut all day during off peak times which isn’t something they explain when you buy a discovery pass.
I know I'm nowhere near the theme park expert that Shawn certainly is.. but I am a business owner that does business in multiple states in the United States. When you have a place like Alton towers. That has a major expense with the upkeep of the tower ruins. And then you never have any of the rides open you never let people film on ride. No one from out of the UK is going to show up to come to your Park. The second ever Six Flags park ever was in Houston Texas it was called AstroWorld. had the number one roller coaster in the world for a while Texas cyclone. But because the rides were always down. And ticket prices went up. Food prices at The Parks went up. And people stopped going. Now there's a big field where AstroWorld used to be. Any park can close. I've watched you go to a bunch of these parks and every time you say Merlin I cringe a little bit. At least Six Flags can say they're not the worst anymore
@@decadentdevil I bet Alton Towers management would ditch the ruins and gardens in a heartbeat if they could get away with it. They are expensive to maintain and aren't really what draws visitors to the park.
Doesn't help when 2 tier kier has announced national minimum wage goes up in April. We've all just had our 4th year of being shafted by energy companies while ceos + shareholders have seen record breaking profits year in... all this has a compound effect on costs. I reckon they're also compounding debt payments and will be flogging bits off soon.
@@np1584the minimum wage has to go up because the cost of living is going up. Otherwise people would end up in a lot of financial problems. It doesn’t matter who is the Prime Minister the minimum wage would’ve had to have gone up.
Entriely self-made for Merlin. Economy is tough for everyone and it might impact the amount of customers you get. But when your business strategy is then fully based around treating the customers you do get with as much contempt as merlin have in 2024, then they deserve to be in the situation they are
Do you think theres a possability of alton towers being sold? Alot of the recent budget cuts seem to hit towers the hardest. Chessingtons had new projects revealed. Thorpe paros having amity beach refurbed and their opening hours havent been cut like towers has had. Project horizons been delayed. Merlin magic making at towers might be going. Blade might be going. ofc the potential galactica retheme being cancelled and it just seems to be ran absolutely terribly.
I haven’t been to a Merlin park since before Covid, when they introduced the “must book in advance” policy for MAP holders, it took the flexibility out of having the pass for us, no longer could we pop up on the spur of the moment after school etc. Our disposable income has drastically reduced since then so it’s a shame as we love the parks but we haven’t been to a park since, we actually looked at going during the summer and the cost was just so expensive we could have gone to Spain for the weekend for less.
Thanks for this vlog Shawn, I found it interesting because I'm not really familiar with Merlin other than they own several UK Theme Parks. The 'rat' reference made me laugh lol. The food quality cut and price rise is a major problem that shouldn't have happened! People will accept the convenience of tasty (but a bit pricey) food on-site, but won't accept poor tasting food. I know a certain pie company that decided to instead of reducing the price on their steak pie, they took out a lot of the steak!! So I no longer buy that pie and they get no sales from me. Sometimes you need to invest (no matter what) to attract customers. A race to the bottom is not the answer!
Totally agree about food. I'll happily pay higher prices for good food in theme parks (looking at you EPCOT) but I really object to forking out for bad quality food.
I cancelled our family of 5 annual passes , food is extortionate, ride closures ,queues on open rides. Yes we could take packed lunches etc but come on.
Total respect to you but I am that person that brings a snack bag and saves up the tokens from the Sun every year to get a free pass to Alton Towers and goes to enjoy the gardens lol. Everyone enjoys experiences differently. I usually pay for Scarefest but £80 for three new mazes at Alton this year was not happening - it wasn't value for money, and that's the thing - regardless of your budget, high or low, people do NOT like getting ripped off.
Because I travel a long-ish way, I was always happy to pay the high food prices and just enjoy it and the lack of hassle. But went during Octoberfest and I couldn't even finish the food as it was so disgusting
@@JK-wn3cc 100% and Brakes wholesale is down the road in Tamworth (massive industrial food factory that provides restaurants and cafes with basically everything... Like fully made cakes, unbaked foods, etc) there is no excuse for Alton's terrible terrible food.
@user-lk2qf4rt3m yep. I'd even say they don't even need to reduce their prices on any thing. Just do half-decent food and keep the rides open. That all people want. They don't want to save 5 or 10 quid on a family visit. They just want to get on rides. And if they choose to buy food there rather than taken a picnic, they don't want it to be lowest quality stuff
Legoland Windor had a very successful for this season's summer visitor wise. Many days there were 12k, compared to the previous summers 10k. They have however invested a lot into the site, with the lodges, speedway and ninjas unite which are multiple expensive projects.
Sea Life Berlin is closing because the AquaDom, its iconic million-liter aquarium, burst in December 2022, flooding the Radisson Blu hotel and nearby streets. Repair costs and logistical challenges made reopening unfeasible.
@@Kyle-Russelldisagree. The population in the uk is a lot smaller. The Bedford site will soak up nearly all the UK population. Anyone going to a theme park in that opening 2-3 year period will go to universal.
@@Samlawson-lt5nw I don't think EVERYONE will go to Universal, Bedford is a long way if you're in the north of England so those people are still going to visit Alton Towers.
The entire Merlin group is undergoing some big transformations behind the scenes. Mainly from January every park and attraction will be united in its own belonging area(basically the earnings they make in the UK will be reinvested only in the UK and what they earn in Europe will be reinvested only in the european parks etc…) The new managing director for the UK Merlin attractions will be Sabrina De Carvalho, the current divisional director of Gardaland. That’s a really good news because she’s done an amazing job at Gardaland in the past few years.
I completely agree with about add on’s, after admission fee’s, all of which are too expensive at all parks imho, cost of food, drink and merch is too costly
I hope not Legoland or Chessington, they are my favourite ones. Legoland is closest to me and I have been fortunate to get reduced price tickets from Sky to be able to go a few times in the past year otherwise I would not be able to afford it. Chessington is my overall favourite UK theme part but is hard to get to as I can't drive. It is the one I have the most special memories at and you can also pay extra to feed the giraffes which was well worth the extra money.
If the queues weren't so long and the rides didn't breakdown so often at Alton Towers, maybe people would have more time to go to the restaurants and browse the shops. Time is valuable if you want to ride everything and I'd rather eat a sandwich while waiting in a queue.
Paultons is a great example of understanding your market, developing an effective business model and catering the to ever changing needs of leisure visitors. They’re also proof that you don’t need outrageous and unrealistic company straplines to succeed (second only to the Mouse 🙄) and that if you run a well managed, balanced organisation that delivers a quality, memorable and value for money experience you’re more likely to have a viable, profitable business. Notwithstanding that they also have the capital to expand to meet the ever changing demands and needs of your guests. Merlin expanded too rapidly, was hideously managed, full of its own self importance and, (as is commonplace in big businesses) only interested in shareholder return. It cares little for its guests, staff or its own brands. There’ll be more cuts to come, especially in the UK.
@@MGW386 compared to the Merlin Parks. If I was to book in advance at Paultons Park it would cost me more than say booking in advance for Chessington. Also the Merlin parks have deals if you go with pre school children, were as Paultons park does not. So if I was to go to Legoland with my youngest niece it would cost me £29 compared to £90 for the two of us at Paultons Park.
@namugriff i agree it can be costly but when you go to paultons it actually looks like they care about the park so i dont mind it too much. But i agree there should be some advanced discount or something
Great video - I know a huge problem at the moment in all leisure buisnesses that rely on lots of staff is the recent changes to NI, and other increases that makes employing staff unaffordable - a huge problem to somewhere like AT that will have hundreds of staff onsite each day
I think they may consider implementing a ban on bringing outside food/drink in the parks and follow suit of the larger companies. Happened with the parking changes that came in a while ago
It's interesting to hear that Gardaland and Heide Park are also described as past their prime, and in recent years have bouts of crisis in the upkeep and efficiency with their rides (Merlin had their resources stretched too thin and run by deluded executives in recent decades). Paultons, Eflterling, and Europa have a thing in common in that they're run more inhouse, with more realistic goals and investing more into their property (not into their debts, shareholders, or shadow banks).
With the possibility of Universal Studios Great Britain getting improved, it makes me worried on how will Merlin Entertainment look to improve their parks. Will they change for the better or worse, we’ll just have to wait and see.
I'm not even against paying a lot for food. I've paid it for the brands at Thorpe, I've paid it at Disney parks, and I've paid it at motorway services The problem is the food is absolutely fucking gross
Very informative as usual. Completely agree regarding the food at the parks it's very expensive and as you said not the best quality. I am so sorry to all who have lost there jobs
Amazing. I feel so old now. When i was little Arrow were the coaster kings. Then along came B&M and blew my mind. Then suddenly Intamin upped their game and started producing higher, faster, twistier coasters.
Instead of investing in silly side projects and buying more historic landmarks for development they should have taken the time and effort to build on what they had originally. It pains me every time to know that even blackpool Tower is owned by merlin (I've protested this over many years at their offices and in writing). The vibe I've got in their attractions over the past year or so is 'trying too hard' .. I'd like to knock abit of scence into their bourd of directors, planning, and design team.. i really would.
Mortgage rates rising, food is 45% up alongside household bills. Holidays and extras like this just aren’t very viable for people at the moment. I think that will have a big impact over time
To be fair i'm not surprised to hear the current bord have inherited a heavy dept, but i agree they have definitely priced people out of the parks, we used to always be buying stuff at towers be hotdogs or chocolate strawberries but honestly the quality dropped to worse than microwave food and then had silly prices attached, and as far as sales are concerned- quantity wins
We bought socks from Alton towers for Christmas presents. Plus did enjoy the ROLLER COASTER RESTAURANT and realise its a concession, so were there for the 1st time for the great experience. Previous visits brought our own food.
The issue with the theme park industry as a whole is a ticket doesn’t guarantee a “good” experience…sure you may get “an” experience but not a good one…for a good one you need to book so many more things. I.E. a fast pass, a top restaurant for good food, etc. and the regular tickets are already so much money.
Hi There Sean at Theme Park Worldwide, just watched your video about Merlin's Problems its a big shame that is, worst is that allot of staff who will be redundant, its really bad, but the good thing is other parks around europe and outside will take them on, as me and my friend and a couple of others want to stay at Thorpe parks hotel next year as we have never ever stayed at one so we will have to wait and see now.
Great video Shawn, would love to see more deep dives into the industry such as this one going forwards. The way I see it (at least in the UK) is there's no chance Merlin survives if Universal turn up. AT is already at a massive disadvantage when it comes to getting there via public transport and having a massive park like a Universal park right next to what will be a huge train station going forwards (and easily accessible from London) will kill off people going to AT. I wouldn't be surprised to see TP & AT sold as assets at some point to somebody (not sure who that could be haha) and Merlin double down on Legoland parks. It's going to be an interesting next decade in the UK industry for sure.
You just don’t get excited to eat at their parks, unlike Phantasialand land for example I’d always look forward to eating lunch and I wouldn’t mind paying extra for the quality and experience
Just finished the video, and all I can say is that they are making it so, so easy for Universal to come in! They're at the bottom of their game right now, it's clear people are desperate for another theme park in the UK. It could not be a better landscape for Universal to come in
I used to work for Thorpe Park and Legoland and the only reason I enjoyed working at both were because of my colleagues. Unfortunately the management don’t care whatsoever about staff or visitors
I will say, Merlin would be great in Australia. I know they have smaller attractions here but they could absolutely dominate here with a big park in a place like Melbourne or Sydney or even the Gold Coast. A Alton Towers or Thorpe Park style park would be fantastic here, especially with the quality of attractions they have that could make a Aussie park amazing. Even if they open just a Legoland park here it would still do fantastic here.
Issue would be that licensing and insane restrictions put on any entertainment by NSW and VIC Governments who genuinely seem to hate fun and life. Any theme park in Sydney would probably need to limit it's sound to 30dB, close at 3pm and pay for 10 police and their full wages per 100 guests. This is what they legit did to the Nightlife and Festival scene and now Sydney is one of the most boring, lifeless cities on earth and Melbourne ain't far behind.
In the first few years, Universal will have an advantage as the new park. But long term, Universal will bring in more international visitors who will also visit Alton Towers/Thorpe Park while they are there. Same think happens in Orlando with Disney, Universal, Seaworld, etc boosting each other.
Thanks for update Shawn hope you and Charlotte well fingers crossed Merlin can turn things around would be huge blow if they collapsed and suffered same fate as American Adventure theme park did x
Glad you mention the external factors! Really tough time in the attraction industry as non-essentials such as days out are the first to go in a climate such as today. Aramark really damaged the place with current food being a catastrophe across the park and hotels. Will say however, Feels premature/cold to speak on redundancies & the restructuring. Anyone who knows about business knows these things go on for a while, meaning uninformed speculation can scare fans of the channel who work in Merlin parks.
It’s interesting that they have announced all the changes to Chessington their lower attended theme park. It looks like they are focusing more on the southern parks at the moment. We are the same with the food, will opt for bringing food in or going somewhere after we’ve been into the parks as get better food for less money
I live 45 miles from Bear Grylls Adventure, and I only heard of it last week, and you mentioning it is the second time I've heard of it. It felt like Alton Towers, Chessington, and Cadbury World advertising was everywhere as a kid around here (between Bham & Liverpool). I don't know if it's just because we don't watch as much live TV anymore so see different adverts maybe, but it seems mad to me that I've never seen adverts on UA-cam or at train stations, etc, to the point where I've never even heard of a Merlin attraction.
I hope Merlin gets their act together because I’m planning on going to at least two of their parks in 2026. I usually don’t pay much attention to the food since I usually eat before or after I go to a park. But since I’m an American, I’d like to see how UK theme park food differs from that in America.
Wow Shawn that's really scary I love alton and make the 4 hr each way trip twice a year at least , just getting to book for early May , but it sounds bad for merlin , I hope it turns around for them soon 🙂
Hello Shawn, thank you for sharing your thoughts, it's sad to see this decline but hopefully things will improve and they can refocus their efforts during the closed season. Kind regards Peter p.s. hopefully the redundancies will be as minimal as possible.
I recently cancelled my annual pass subscription and was surprised they don't seem to have any customer retention operations. They just said you won't be able to reactivate the subscription if you cancel (without paying the joining fee again I guess), didn't ask why I was cancelling, no offers to stay. I mean fine by me but probably not great business on their part..
Splat the Rat! Oh my god I just thought back to Hot Fuzz when they're at the village fair and you've got the guy just calling out that in the background 🤣
Hi Shawn , I can't believe that Merlin are going to Close the MMM department. As it will make commercial sense to keep that department open , and not to close it . I can't understand why they are doing it, it's really stupid, and you have also got to think about jobs here in the UK . All the Best to you and Charlotte. And love the channel. From Simon x
The ticket prices mixed with the fast track prices are what have kept me away the past 2 or 3 years. With the entrance prices there is absolutely no reasoning for the cost of fast tracks and i don't want to spend money on entrance for 1+ hour queue times. If they introduced a free virtual queue booking system for rides as opposed to extortionate fast track prices, I might be a little more inclined in actually going. even 3 years ago with BOGOF tickets a day at Alton Towers would generally come to £80-100 easily
Agreed Food at Towers is way too expensive these days, and poor considering the prices. Operations for my last visit were extremely poor too. Some things can't be helped... But that was one of the worst visit I've ever had at the park. Really hope things improve in 2025, but it could probably be even longer than that.
There's been such an emphasis, across the industry, on the premium end of the product. Except all that does is focus on a small (but wealthy) market at the cost of alienating and annoying the mass market.
I’ve only started to get into Alton Towers as of late, so I’d hate for the park to struggle. Considering how they’ve got multiple ride projects in the works, which could involve a Galactica re-theme. They’ve still got a good selection of rides, and it would be a shame if cutbacks and redundancies reduced the park to a dire state.
It is so sad to see the state of all industries at the moment not just theme parks. The pricing of the parks are good so I doubt that is an issue, however with all the talks of lack of ride availability it puts people off, I went earlier in year to ride reborn, but was going to go to scarefest with my daughter, but half term and for us nearly 4 hour drive not worth risking. I was also going to do both Legoland and Thorpe as still yet to ride Hyperia, again because of distance but when I was due to go Thorpe closed Hyperia that week for scheduled maintenance so again lost out on 2 parks because of poor ride availability. Food is expensive and wonder if they kept likes of Burger King / KFC if they would be better, even having a Greggs would be good. I will be renewing my pass for next year, mainly as need to get Hyperia done, plus will be in Manchester July so will make a detour to Towers then. Also is is just me or has the Universal UK talk gone quiet, Thanks for the news updates as always great work.
As an American, i’m used to theme park food not being the best, but i’m continually blown away just how bad the food is at UK theme parks. Eating there is not something I look forward to at all, which is sad when you see how parks in the U.S. over the past few years have put more emphasis on upgrading their food game. Would love to see change.
Depends on the theme park. The Disney and Universal parks have great food.
The stereotype of UK food continues thanks to the theme parks. For some reason the parks just contract it out and pay no mind to quality or price.
@@LancerX916 Disney food has gone down in quality especially the dessert options like the cookies...shrunk portions and increased prices, with SOME still great options like the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup at Jolly Holiday and I still like the Skewers at Bengal BBQ even though they are half the size!
Universal Hollywood has mediocre food outside of the Three Broomsticks...Universal Florida has 2-3 good places to eat.
The food parks would be Knotts Berry Farm, Hershey Park, Dollywood, Silver Dollar City and Knoebels...all have reasonable prices with great food options
Funnily enough, Legoland in California actually has some pretty decent food...and it has been said they purposely made that Legoland have better food then the rest.
As a Brit who goes to US parks every year on both coasts I couldn't agree more. Alton Towers lost Mcdonalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut (not great but better than what they serve at Alton) after the Smiler incident and the food has been dire ever since. Alton management need to drop their corporate contract for poor quality food, watch some UA-cam videos of the US Parks and hire a creative chef. I would pay £2/3 more per burger for better quality.
@@haridiam915 They need to drop the management too, it's just poorly run in general.
Merlin's biggest problem is that it is weighed down with large historical debts. A lot of their revenue is soaked up in servicing that debt. That leaves them with less money to service, maintain and develop their attractions. The attractions go downhill, visitor numbers dwindle and...ultimately, the business can no longer be turned around without huge investment (that they can't afford) and becomes unviable.
Agreed, would be better breaking all the business up and selling off. The longer they hold on the worse the parks and debt gets.
My advice: Refuse to pay for parking. They have no proper signage so can't enforce it. Scandalous
@@NeilBenjamin1they can’t do that because Merlin doesn’t own any of the property the parks are located on. The parks were sold then leased back to Merlin on a 30 year lease, the only thing Merlin own is the infrastructure so nobody will buy just that.
@@SleepExportsnot how it works 😂😂
@@Cloudyyyy88 I've never paid so...
Great video Shaun. Appreciate your insight into this issue. If you're willing would love more content like this examining the business side of the attractions industry.
Came here to say the same
Would love this too.
Thank you, I really hope things improve!
Was at Thorpe for blue light day, it was definitely apparent that people weren’t spending money. Lots of picnics, no one bought freestyle, no queues for food and gift shops were empty. We bought fast track, and we were usually the only ones in the queue. People just don’t have the money to splash around.
Food is reasonable i thought at thorpe i also went to BLC day , KFC and BK were very busy , double whopper meal cost me £11 and a few pence which i thought was reasonable , coffee at Costa was £4.50 for a small one so i went to KFC and it’s was £2.69 , compared to towers i thought Thorpe wasn’t that bad, fast track was a waste of money imo on blue light day queues were not too long , they never sell many on those sort of days
@ but I can remember queuing for 60 minutes plus back in the day. I don’t think it’s just about being expensive though. People just have less disposable income, so people are just cutting costs. It’s not just theme parks, fast food places are seeing less spending.
@@deanos102 part of what you said highlights the food issue. Thorpe has BK and KFC which are branded food outlets not run by merlin/aaramark. They were busy because the food they sell is of a standard we are all familiar with at a price were familiar with paying. at chessington i spent £13 on chicken strips and chips and they were the standard you would get from frozen food, not even the standard of a fast food place (which would have been cheaper also). i didnt feel i got my monies worth and its the only time ive actually bought food on park all year because i felt that way last year, i wait till i leave thorpe/chessington/legoland and go to the services to get food
@@Spiritofthecimmarron Thorpe Park is the only place i will eat on a day out , We always used to eat at Alton Towers , now i have a all you can eat breakfast on the way, take in a few snacks and bottle of water which i can refill, maybe a portion of chips from Eastern Express and then get a nice meal in a pub on way home, no way am i paying for the muck they sell at Towers at those stupid high prices, £9.50 for a Rollover hot dog that my coop sells for £2.70 or £3.50 as a meal deal ! , if the quality was there i wouldn’t mind as much , i think people have clicked on as Towers food outlets didn’t seem that busy when i visited compared to previous years
@deanos102 I not close enough to go to towers every year (been twice so far over 5 years of being a passholder) but last time we went we just had some chips and then we got food at our hotel. I think Merlin really need to rethink aaramark.
You should do a video for a 5/10 year plan for the Merlin parks in the UK, what rides you would add and what general updates you would like to see. Merlin needs help!!!
Thanks for your suggestion!
The idea of Merlin wanting to overtake Disney and Universal I think speaks to a problem that SO many companies have had in the last 10 years or so that really annoys me and I desperately would like businesses in many many sectors to change their ways on.
I'd really like more companies to start putting more time, money, effort and focus onto their own success instead of making their only goal crushing their competition! Far too many companies are looking outward the whole time and spending no time looking inward and acknowledging their own success.
At some point about 10 years ago big business's sole focus seemed to become "growth" to such an extent that it didn't even matter if you were making a profit or were any good at what you did as long as you were "growing"
You are right Andrew... look at Royal mail for instance.. race to the bottom.. privatisation.. we must beat Amazon..Dpd.. blah blah blah.
They dont seem to appreciate the long term workforce that they have/had. Most posties have worked many many years for Royal mail and do a great job.
100% agree with you. You only need to look at phantasialand and europa park to see that the quality brings people in. And happy people spend money. If you build it, they will come. But you have to build it right.
@@andrewpepper3145 Ironically Walt Disney's US theme park resorts (like Orlando Florida) have developed veru similar issues to Merlin's UK theme parks and been going slowly downhill since the turn of the 2010s as well (ie. insanely overpriced bland/bad food, cutting corners with newer rides, inconvenient clunky "fast track" apps, paying more and more for less and less, rude untrained staff/cast, overlong queues, older rides falling to bits, hotel and park infrastructure after 25-50 years really showing their age, etc).
Your consumer always notices when you hike prices and offer a worse service.
It’s a classic when large companies get too big, trying to buy up everything too and eventually they can’t service the debt anymore. They’ll likely have to sell off a lot of their portfolio.
You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned about the food... I mean, as an annual pass holder, you have already paid for the ticket, so the only the way they can make any more money is if you buy from the shops... but with the extortionate prices they charge, why would you buy from then?
The food is awful, I've not spent a penny inside a merlin park in years. I always take a £3.50 meal deal from the supermarket. Can't go wrong.
This is a huge point. The food is terrible and overpriced.
They need to improve the quality and lower prices.
They’re trying to chase revenue by lowering costs/quality and raising prices. This doesn’t work long term and people learn that product/service lacks value and find alternatives.
@@LordTopleyMerlin doesn't operate the food anymore but they do need to do something about it as it's awful
the only decent place is the pizza pasta its alright but nothing amazing and the rest is crap
@@dante8641 I guess it is the best place for value for money as it's unlimited
Compare it to Japanese parks... Well, you can't! People will go to a park to instagram food and collect popcorn buckets, big mistake not making the most of it.
I remember going to Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and Chessington in the late 90s and early 2000's when they was good value for money. Every year a new attraction, Parks were well kept, Everything was reasonably priced, Queues for rides rarely exceeded 1 hour, You could easily ride 15 - 20 rides per visit. Nowdays it's the complete opposite, nothing is looked after, rides are closed or breaking down constantly, parks are beyond overcrowded, 2-3 hour long Queues meaning 3-4 rides per visit for extremely high entry prices. I don't mind paying higher prices if the quality of the product remains the same, but if it the quality drops to beyond recognition whilst prices keep on increasing people will go elsewhere like Local Funfairs.
You obviously didn't go to many theme parks in the 90's because every time Alton Towers opened a secret weapon, the queues for that season could top 3 hours easily. Rides that are almost walk on these days were as much as 4 hours back then
They've spread their franchises too thin, less is more, in my opinion. To survive, they must focus on quality instead of quantity.
Exactly. Phantasialand and europa park spring to mind
@@JackThursby Isn't Europa Park owned by Mac Rides?
@ yes, the mack family own it. Also own the ip of the roller coaster restraunt, and thats done pretty well at towers
@@JackThursby If only Mack could buy Alton Towers.
@hzrd8 that would be a dream. The quality would be sky high.
I have said to my wife so many times, just send some merlin staff to europa to watch how its run, and then report back. Would definitely learn something.
Went to Towers for the fist time in over a decade this year and what you said about the quality of the food was spot on. When ordering 2 burgers, I asked if I could buy just 2 burgers and was told no. You had to pay for 2 meals. Once we had our meals, we wee appalled. God awful.
The food quality is awful and price is high. We always take our own food now!
I miss the Tussauds Group days. I felt like the magic declined after Merlin took over. Alton Towers use to feel like Disneyland honestly.
I agree.. the sparkle turned to profit hungry
Same with Thorpe Park, there was something special about being able to take a few hours out as a kid and go on the train to the farm for a break yet Merlin got rid of that almost immediately
@@ThorpeParkxxSammiiee yes! The train and farm, it made Thorpe Park unique
Splat the rat,' they said..turns out the mouse was wearing armor. Merlin’s magic fizzled faster than a discount wand!
Disney have been through worse over the last 4-5 years. They have massively struggled in a post COVID world.
@@solskjaer1195 Yeah but their parks are orders of magnitude better than Merlin ones.
@@solskjaer1195 Thing is with Disney is not only are they one of the biggest theme park operators in the world they are also one of the biggest media companies in the world. They have a diverse revenue stream, Merlin only have theme parks. If Merlin's theme parks start to fail... they've got nothing to fall back on like Disney do.
@@WelshGuitarDude They've always outclassed every theme park for many decades, but they've converged on problems and stagnation issues similar to Merlin parks.
@@TedShatner10 Well they just recently talked about their 10 year plan so they are not stagnating anymore. Universal is also still expanding with a potential UK park. Merlin however isn't just stagnating they are going backwards in some cases.
At Alton Towers in June, I laughed when I was asked for £19 for two hotdogs, until I realised the person serving was serious 😂😮
It is sad that this is happening,i live very close to flambards cornwall and have had many trips there with my children over the years ,great little theme park it really was. Sad for all those at merlin losing their jobs too.
Very sad indeed
Merlin aren’t doing enough to get people to come back. Overpriced, poor quality and lack of rides each day. As a family we will save our money and go to the “bigger” parks such as Disney. A massive shame as 10 years ago it was not the case.
yeah, because the difference in price between Alton Towers and Disney is so similar, right :)
@ I’d rather save up 3 visits for 1 good one that the family will enjoy.
@@mash21sid yeah, because the difference in price between 3 visits to Alton Towers and a holiday to Disney is so similar, right :)
I think you’ve missed my point here. We have stayed at Akron Towers and LEGOLAND this year and have been disappointed with both getaways. For a family of 4 we can stay for far less £ than these combined and have a better experience for the same amount of time.
@@mash21sid I think you didn't explain your point. Stay where? Which Disney park?
The Aramark deal was a major strategic mistake. Had this deal not happened I’m not sure they’d be in the same position. I’ve stopped spending money on food in the parks since the Aramark deal. As you say that’s probably hundreds of pounds a year and I know many others are doing it.
I'm usually quite easy with food. I'm British, so I'm no stranger to a dodgy kebab at 4am, but OMG did I notice the difference in quality; MAINLY in the roller coaster restaurant itself at Towers. I couldn't believe it! They used to do amazing burgers, cocktails and sides and NONE of that on my last visit was the same, I was genuinely so sad I didn't go back during my 3 day visit 😢
Me and my family were extremely excited to go to the RollerCoaster Restaurant, it was always fully booked, but oh my gosh the food was a major let down, I don’t understand why they need to though a tablet in my face to order when it’s a restaurant, how is that a service? Very lucky my 6 year old brother enjoyed it a ton seeing it all come down because I would’ve been incredibly frustrated.
There are so many factors at play here many of which you cover here - my own insights would include:
1, The Fun Factor - visiting a theme park should be fun, at the moment the theme park industry is pushing more and more for ride passes, fast passes, ride packages, the day becomes about staring at your phone for ride times, queue times and ride availability and then getting into confrontations at customer services when expectations aren't met. Its the self checkout mentality applied to something that is supposed to be fun. This is especially true at WDW where you have to buy a ticket, buy a product that allows you to skip some lines, and buy a second set of products for the premier attractions. Its expensive, and its no fun. Who wants a theme park day to be a pain. Alton Towers has gone down the upsell route, when the lines are only as long as they are because half the rides are closed/not operating.
2, The food - I will say the ice cream/cake stand at Curse at Alton Manor includes some top draw themed food experiences. The trouble is while that stand offers high quality, inventive themed instagrammable food the rest of the park doesn't hold up. Luke warm chicken and chips is not a good purchase at the prices they charge. If the whole park matched the Alton Manor standard of theming/quality the price would be less of an issue.
3, Outsourcing MMM to me feels like a catastrophic move, not least when the theming of locations like Alton Manor and Forbidden Valley have showcased the talent they do have. Again it feels like the aim here is to cut costs and remove even more of the things that make theme parks work in the first place.
All in all I find AT to be quite a sad place, the rides are broken down or closed, the standard of maintenance and love shown to the park is evident in some areas and not others and the human interactions have given way to digital products and digital management of your day. The entertainment staff are worth their weight in gold, but to the money men at AT I imagine they are just another cost that can be removed from the bottom line.
In a theme park, however good the rides and attractions are its the people the cast or the team who really make it. I remember riding Big Thunder Mountain in DLP one day with an American CM on the station, he had everyone clapping in sync as the trains left the station, he had everyone whooping, hollering and laughing. It must have been my 120th ride on that coaster, but its the best one I ever had, why? Because it was a fun experience with other human beings. I am sure these are the things the industry is losing sight of and these are the things Alton Towers, Disney etc will all regret losing when people cant be bothered with their app fueled up charge parks.
Splat the rat? what a nerve, sounds like some serious hubris at Merlin.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Food is dreadful. Last time I ordered food at AT, it wasn’t even edible and I asked for a refund. The guy serving said it’s fine, I agree, the food is really poor and we are always refunding customers. I mean how bad is that? Also parking charges are extortionate and the cost of buying a fast pass these days, is way too expensive to make it remotely worth the value. And the real reason for lower attendance and spend is because of the Company’s greed, people won’t pay for it today, because money is already tight for most. Stop overcharging for poor value products.
Very informative video as always, Shawn.
Merlin also used to say that they would ‘catch the mouse’. Don’t think that’s going to happen!
When Universal come over here, Merlin really need to up their game!
Families simply can’t afford to go to theme parks anymore, its not just the admission cost, its the travel to get there and back, food and other upcharges when there, it all adds up at a time when people are poorer than ever.
Coupled with the ever-increasing costs of literally EVERYTHING involved in running a park - staff wages, gas/electric, insurance, food & drink, ride hire - and I genuinely think in 10 years time a lot of these parks will be gone.
If people want theme parks n other attractions to still be around in the future then they need to support them by spending money people need to stop using cost of living as an excuse to not support our theme parks n other attractions
@@joshuaharrison1Ridiculous comment. You're obviously comfortably off but millions of people are feeling the pressure of higher bills and costs. I know people who are on reasonable money but once all bills and shopping has come out, there's not much left - how are they supposed to just blow everything on theme parks! Don't be so stupid.
staff job losses administration Create and Craft has closed down 26 Oct 2024 sad
Exactly what I was going to say.
@@joshuaharrison1 As excuses go, it's a pretty damn good one though. If you can barely afford to feed your family, you shouldn't be spending money on attending theme parks.
Love the video and love the background with all those mugs!
It's A Good Day When Theme Park Worldwide Uploads
Great Video Shawn, unbiased! Merlin have done a number of restructures over the years, I was part of one in 2004, and i’ve got friends who were part of one post covid, as a number of roles were removed. Its hard to swallow, but as someone who has gone through redundancy myself in another industry, your right in saying there are always opportunities elsewhere! If Universal happens, i think we are in for a big shift in this country!
Thank you. If Universal does happen then they’ll be some huge changes to the industry in the UK.
I sincerely hope Universal kicks their butts at this point… Do you think Merlin will ever sink low enough to try to enact a ‘no bringing in outside food’ rule?
I really hope not
The day they introduced car park charges is probably when I started going less. Most of their car parks are gravel and grass and just a joke they charge an extra £10 for it when it’s not as if people are parking there and going somewhere else for the day.
Ride availability seems to be getting worse too with some rides shut all day during off peak times which isn’t something they explain when you buy a discovery pass.
Yes, having to pay to park at Chessington and then drive round and round to find a space because they don't open the full car park is beyond the joke.
I know I'm nowhere near the theme park expert that Shawn certainly is.. but I am a business owner that does business in multiple states in the United States. When you have a place like Alton towers. That has a major expense with the upkeep of the tower ruins. And then you never have any of the rides open you never let people film on ride. No one from out of the UK is going to show up to come to your Park. The second ever Six Flags park ever was in Houston Texas it was called AstroWorld. had the number one roller coaster in the world for a while Texas cyclone. But because the rides were always down. And ticket prices went up. Food prices at The Parks went up. And people stopped going. Now there's a big field where AstroWorld used to be. Any park can close. I've watched you go to a bunch of these parks and every time you say Merlin I cringe a little bit. At least Six Flags can say they're not the worst anymore
That’s not the main reason why Astroworld closed
@@decadentdevil I bet Alton Towers management would ditch the ruins and gardens in a heartbeat if they could get away with it. They are expensive to maintain and aren't really what draws visitors to the park.
Doesn't help when 2 tier kier has announced national minimum wage goes up in April. We've all just had our 4th year of being shafted by energy companies while ceos + shareholders have seen record breaking profits year in... all this has a compound effect on costs.
I reckon they're also compounding debt payments and will be flogging bits off soon.
@@np1584the minimum wage has to go up because the cost of living is going up. Otherwise people would end up in a lot of financial problems. It doesn’t matter who is the Prime Minister the minimum wage would’ve had to have gone up.
@@np1584 if a business depends upon squeezing the income of the lowest paid members of society...it's not a sensible way to run an economy.
Entriely self-made for Merlin. Economy is tough for everyone and it might impact the amount of customers you get. But when your business strategy is then fully based around treating the customers you do get with as much contempt as merlin have in 2024, then they deserve to be in the situation they are
Do you think theres a possability of alton towers being sold? Alot of the recent budget cuts seem to hit towers the hardest. Chessingtons had new projects revealed. Thorpe paros having amity beach refurbed and their opening hours havent been cut like towers has had.
Project horizons been delayed. Merlin magic making at towers might be going. Blade might be going. ofc the potential galactica retheme being cancelled and it just seems to be ran absolutely terribly.
Likely because Universal coming to the UK is more likely to directly compete with alton towers in its easier to reach location.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens moving forwards
I haven’t been to a Merlin park since before Covid, when they introduced the “must book in advance” policy for MAP holders, it took the flexibility out of having the pass for us, no longer could we pop up on the spur of the moment after school etc.
Our disposable income has drastically reduced since then so it’s a shame as we love the parks but we haven’t been to a park since, we actually looked at going during the summer and the cost was just so expensive we could have gone to Spain for the weekend for less.
Thanks for this vlog Shawn, I found it interesting because I'm not really familiar with Merlin other than they own several UK Theme Parks. The 'rat' reference made me laugh lol. The food quality cut and price rise is a major problem that shouldn't have happened! People will accept the convenience of tasty (but a bit pricey) food on-site, but won't accept poor tasting food. I know a certain pie company that decided to instead of reducing the price on their steak pie, they took out a lot of the steak!! So I no longer buy that pie and they get no sales from me. Sometimes you need to invest (no matter what) to attract customers. A race to the bottom is not the answer!
Totally agree about food. I'll happily pay higher prices for good food in theme parks (looking at you EPCOT) but I really object to forking out for bad quality food.
I cancelled our family of 5 annual passes , food is extortionate, ride closures ,queues on open rides. Yes we could take packed lunches etc but come on.
Total respect to you but I am that person that brings a snack bag and saves up the tokens from the Sun every year to get a free pass to Alton Towers and goes to enjoy the gardens lol. Everyone enjoys experiences differently. I usually pay for Scarefest but £80 for three new mazes at Alton this year was not happening - it wasn't value for money, and that's the thing - regardless of your budget, high or low, people do NOT like getting ripped off.
Because I travel a long-ish way, I was always happy to pay the high food prices and just enjoy it and the lack of hassle. But went during Octoberfest and I couldn't even finish the food as it was so disgusting
@@JK-wn3cc 100% and Brakes wholesale is down the road in Tamworth (massive industrial food factory that provides restaurants and cafes with basically everything... Like fully made cakes, unbaked foods, etc) there is no excuse for Alton's terrible terrible food.
It’s such a shame to see what’s happening at the moment
@user-lk2qf4rt3m yep. I'd even say they don't even need to reduce their prices on any thing. Just do half-decent food and keep the rides open. That all people want. They don't want to save 5 or 10 quid on a family visit. They just want to get on rides. And if they choose to buy food there rather than taken a picnic, they don't want it to be lowest quality stuff
100% agree on the food used to love eating on site but now it's so expensive and unimaginative, we've had cheaper and higher quality food at Disney
Legoland Windor had a very successful for this season's summer visitor wise. Many days there were 12k, compared to the previous summers 10k.
They have however invested a lot into the site, with the lodges, speedway and ninjas unite which are multiple expensive projects.
That’s good to hear. I’m glad that the investments payed off!
Sea Life Berlin is closing because the AquaDom, its iconic million-liter aquarium, burst in December 2022, flooding the Radisson Blu hotel and nearby streets. Repair costs and logistical challenges made reopening unfeasible.
They’d very sad to hear
If Universal opens it will crush these parks once it opens unless it gets some serious investment and support unfortunately
Not necessarily as there were a lot of smaller parks in America, they still operate very well
Would anyone miss Alton towers these days? I love the history of the park but it is a shadow of its former self.
@@Kyle-Russell America is a big place though.
@@Kyle-Russelldisagree. The population in the uk is a lot smaller. The Bedford site will soak up nearly all the UK population.
Anyone going to a theme park in that opening 2-3 year period will go to universal.
@@Samlawson-lt5nw I don't think EVERYONE will go to Universal, Bedford is a long way if you're in the north of England so those people are still going to visit Alton Towers.
The entire Merlin group is undergoing some big transformations behind the scenes.
Mainly from January every park and attraction will be united in its own belonging area(basically the earnings they make in the UK will be reinvested only in the UK and what they earn in Europe will be reinvested only in the european parks etc…)
The new managing director for the UK Merlin attractions will be Sabrina De Carvalho, the current divisional director of Gardaland. That’s a really good news because she’s done an amazing job at Gardaland in the past few years.
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting to hear!
I completely agree with about add on’s, after admission fee’s, all of which are too expensive at all parks imho, cost of food, drink and merch is too costly
Sad to see these parks deteriorating. God help them if Universal get the go ahead for their UK park they may be in real trouble
Wish we could go back to when we could just turn up with our merlin pass and just get in the parks. The way it used to be without prebooking.
We've not prebooked towers for over 2 years other than fireworks
I think we see at least 1 of the uk parks close within the next 2 years or so.
It’ll be very sad if so
I hope not Legoland or Chessington, they are my favourite ones. Legoland is closest to me and I have been fortunate to get reduced price tickets from Sky to be able to go a few times in the past year otherwise I would not be able to afford it. Chessington is my overall favourite UK theme part but is hard to get to as I can't drive. It is the one I have the most special memories at and you can also pay extra to feed the giraffes which was well worth the extra money.
Thankyou for saying this Shawn. People have just been putting it down to individual parks poor performance without seeing the bigger picture
Thank you. It’s a difficult time for Merlin sadly!
Loved this video with all the info! Should do some more docu style videos
Thank you
If the queues weren't so long and the rides didn't breakdown so often at Alton Towers, maybe people would have more time to go to the restaurants and browse the shops. Time is valuable if you want to ride everything and I'd rather eat a sandwich while waiting in a queue.
Redundancy is hard. It happened to me. I feel sorry for all the employees who are being affected 😢
Very sad indeed
Paultons is a great example of understanding your market, developing an effective business model and catering the to ever changing needs of leisure visitors. They’re also proof that you don’t need outrageous and unrealistic company straplines to succeed (second only to the Mouse 🙄) and that if you run a well managed, balanced organisation that delivers a quality, memorable and value for money experience you’re more likely to have a viable, profitable business. Notwithstanding that they also have the capital to expand to meet the ever changing demands and needs of your guests. Merlin expanded too rapidly, was hideously managed, full of its own self importance and, (as is commonplace in big businesses) only interested in shareholder return. It cares little for its guests, staff or its own brands. There’ll be more cuts to come, especially in the UK.
Definitely. Paultons really know what they are doing!
Sadly Paultons Park is getting very pricey to enter now.
@@MGW386 compared to the Merlin Parks. If I was to book in advance at Paultons Park it would cost me more than say booking in advance for Chessington. Also the Merlin parks have deals if you go with pre school children, were as Paultons park does not. So if I was to go to Legoland with my youngest niece it would cost me £29 compared to £90 for the two of us at Paultons Park.
@namugriff i agree it can be costly but when you go to paultons it actually looks like they care about the park so i dont mind it too much. But i agree there should be some advanced discount or something
Always sad to see any industry struggle
Yeah, so sad about Flambards '(Cornwall Aero Park')😞
Very sad indeed
Alton Towers deserves some proper, new, owners with real vision. The park is in DIRE need of an overhaul and Merlin arent in the place to do it.
Great video - I know a huge problem at the moment in all leisure buisnesses that rely on lots of staff is the recent changes to NI, and other increases that makes employing staff unaffordable - a huge problem to somewhere like AT that will have hundreds of staff onsite each day
If merlin sell off their attractions i feel every park would just do better if it was smaller companies managing them
To go from talk of Towers becoming a 365 operation to only open on the weekend of the first two weeks of the season is very telling.
Very sad indeed
I think they may consider implementing a ban on bringing outside food/drink in the parks and follow suit of the larger companies. Happened with the parking changes that came in a while ago
I really hope not
It's interesting to hear that Gardaland and Heide Park are also described as past their prime, and in recent years have bouts of crisis in the upkeep and efficiency with their rides (Merlin had their resources stretched too thin and run by deluded executives in recent decades).
Paultons, Eflterling, and Europa have a thing in common in that they're run more inhouse, with more realistic goals and investing more into their property (not into their debts, shareholders, or shadow banks).
With the possibility of Universal Studios Great Britain getting improved, it makes me worried on how will Merlin Entertainment look to improve their parks. Will they change for the better or worse, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Great news update as always Shawn, I truly hope that things improve for Merlin Entertainments
I'm not even against paying a lot for food. I've paid it for the brands at Thorpe, I've paid it at Disney parks, and I've paid it at motorway services
The problem is the food is absolutely fucking gross
If there're in trouble now just wait until Universal GB (hopefully) opens circa 2030.
Feels like nick varney leaving seems to be a correlation with some of the wheels starting to come off with Merlin
Rats fleeing the sinking ship
Shawn you’re my inspiration how have you been doing this for a decade I don’t know
Very informative as usual. Completely agree regarding the food at the parks it's very expensive and as you said not the best quality. I am so sorry to all who have lost there jobs
Amazing. I feel so old now. When i was little Arrow were the coaster kings. Then along came B&M and blew my mind. Then suddenly Intamin upped their game and started producing higher, faster, twistier coasters.
They clearly just got greedy. Always the workers that suffer ❤❤
Instead of investing in silly side projects and buying more historic landmarks for development they should have taken the time and effort to build on what they had originally. It pains me every time to know that even blackpool Tower is owned by merlin (I've protested this over many years at their offices and in writing). The vibe I've got in their attractions over the past year or so is 'trying too hard' .. I'd like to knock abit of scence into their bourd of directors, planning, and design team.. i really would.
So sad to lose all that brain power and expertise. Once that’s gone it’s gone forever. Wishing a better future for all the talented staff.
Mortgage rates rising, food is 45% up alongside household bills. Holidays and extras like this just aren’t very viable for people at the moment. I think that will have a big impact over time
To be fair i'm not surprised to hear the current bord have inherited a heavy dept, but i agree they have definitely priced people out of the parks, we used to always be buying stuff at towers be hotdogs or chocolate strawberries but honestly the quality dropped to worse than microwave food and then had silly prices attached, and as far as sales are concerned- quantity wins
We bought socks from Alton towers for Christmas presents. Plus did enjoy the ROLLER COASTER RESTAURANT and realise its a concession, so were there for the 1st time for the great experience. Previous visits brought our own food.
The issue with the theme park industry as a whole is a ticket doesn’t guarantee a “good” experience…sure you may get “an” experience but not a good one…for a good one you need to book so many more things. I.E. a fast pass, a top restaurant for good food, etc. and the regular tickets are already so much money.
Hi There Sean at Theme Park Worldwide, just watched your video about Merlin's Problems its a big shame that is, worst is that allot of staff who will be redundant, its really bad, but the good thing is other parks around europe and outside will take them on, as me and my friend and a couple of others want to stay at Thorpe parks hotel next year as we have never ever stayed at one so we will have to wait and see now.
Great video Shawn, would love to see more deep dives into the industry such as this one going forwards.
The way I see it (at least in the UK) is there's no chance Merlin survives if Universal turn up. AT is already at a massive disadvantage when it comes to getting there via public transport and having a massive park like a Universal park right next to what will be a huge train station going forwards (and easily accessible from London) will kill off people going to AT.
I wouldn't be surprised to see TP & AT sold as assets at some point to somebody (not sure who that could be haha) and Merlin double down on Legoland parks. It's going to be an interesting next decade in the UK industry for sure.
Thank you. It’ll be interesting to see what happens moving forwards!
You just don’t get excited to eat at their parks, unlike Phantasialand land for example I’d always look forward to eating lunch and I wouldn’t mind paying extra for the quality and experience
Just finished the video, and all I can say is that they are making it so, so easy for Universal to come in! They're at the bottom of their game right now, it's clear people are desperate for another theme park in the UK. It could not be a better landscape for Universal to come in
It's so sad to see merlin in this position right now but I'm really hoping merlin can improve things!
I used to work for Thorpe Park and Legoland and the only reason I enjoyed working at both were because of my colleagues. Unfortunately the management don’t care whatsoever about staff or visitors
It’s such a sad situation
I will say, Merlin would be great in Australia. I know they have smaller attractions here but they could absolutely dominate here with a big park in a place like Melbourne or Sydney or even the Gold Coast. A Alton Towers or Thorpe Park style park would be fantastic here, especially with the quality of attractions they have that could make a Aussie park amazing. Even if they open just a Legoland park here it would still do fantastic here.
Issue would be that licensing and insane restrictions put on any entertainment by NSW and VIC Governments who genuinely seem to hate fun and life. Any theme park in Sydney would probably need to limit it's sound to 30dB, close at 3pm and pay for 10 police and their full wages per 100 guests. This is what they legit did to the Nightlife and Festival scene and now Sydney is one of the most boring, lifeless cities on earth and Melbourne ain't far behind.
If Universal gets approved, merlin will be no more.
They will destroy every theme park in the uk. They have let these parks run into the ground. The upkeep is horrendous in recent years!
Universal might just buy merlin, but keep the parks as they are.
In the first few years, Universal will have an advantage as the new park. But long term, Universal will bring in more international visitors who will also visit Alton Towers/Thorpe Park while they are there. Same think happens in Orlando with Disney, Universal, Seaworld, etc boosting each other.
Let’s hope that Merlin invest heavily to compete!
@ThemeParkWorldwide yeah, I don't want another astroworld scenario to occur.
Thanks for update Shawn hope you and Charlotte well fingers crossed Merlin can turn things around would be huge blow if they collapsed and suffered same fate as American Adventure theme park did x
Glad you mention the external factors! Really tough time in the attraction industry as non-essentials such as days out are the first to go in a climate such as today. Aramark really damaged the place with current food being a catastrophe across the park and hotels.
Will say however, Feels premature/cold to speak on redundancies & the restructuring. Anyone who knows about business knows these things go on for a while, meaning uninformed speculation can scare fans of the channel who work in Merlin parks.
It’s interesting that they have announced all the changes to Chessington their lower attended theme park. It looks like they are focusing more on the southern parks at the moment.
We are the same with the food, will opt for bringing food in or going somewhere after we’ve been into the parks as get better food for less money
great update shawn 😄
Its such a shame to see alton towers in the state that is, the park feels completely stagnant and stuck in a rut somewhere
I live 45 miles from Bear Grylls Adventure, and I only heard of it last week, and you mentioning it is the second time I've heard of it.
It felt like Alton Towers, Chessington, and Cadbury World advertising was everywhere as a kid around here (between Bham & Liverpool). I don't know if it's just because we don't watch as much live TV anymore so see different adverts maybe, but it seems mad to me that I've never seen adverts on UA-cam or at train stations, etc, to the point where I've never even heard of a Merlin attraction.
I hope Merlin gets their act together because I’m planning on going to at least two of their parks in 2026. I usually don’t pay much attention to the food since I usually eat before or after I go to a park. But since I’m an American, I’d like to see how UK theme park food differs from that in America.
Wow Shawn that's really scary I love alton and make the 4 hr each way trip twice a year at least , just getting to book for early May , but it sounds bad for merlin , I hope it turns around for them soon 🙂
Great video. Interesting and full of information. You know your stuff 👍
Thank you!
Hello Shawn, thank you for sharing your thoughts, it's sad to see this decline but hopefully things will improve and they can refocus their efforts during the closed season. Kind regards Peter p.s. hopefully the redundancies will be as minimal as possible.
I recently cancelled my annual pass subscription and was surprised they don't seem to have any customer retention operations. They just said you won't be able to reactivate the subscription if you cancel (without paying the joining fee again I guess), didn't ask why I was cancelling, no offers to stay. I mean fine by me but probably not great business on their part..
Splat the Rat! Oh my god I just thought back to Hot Fuzz when they're at the village fair and you've got the guy just calling out that in the background 🤣
Makes me wonder if that Colossus refurb will ever be finished now
Probably not
What that even confirmed?
Hi Shawn , I can't believe that Merlin are going to Close the MMM department. As it will make commercial sense to keep that department open , and not to close it . I can't understand why they are doing it, it's really stupid, and you have also got to think about jobs here in the UK . All the Best to you and Charlotte. And love the channel. From Simon x
It’s very sad to hear that it’s closing
A great informative video of Merlin Entertainments, who knows they may offload some UK parks. Always sad about job losses and closures.
The ticket prices mixed with the fast track prices are what have kept me away the past 2 or 3 years. With the entrance prices there is absolutely no reasoning for the cost of fast tracks and i don't want to spend money on entrance for 1+ hour queue times. If they introduced a free virtual queue booking system for rides as opposed to extortionate fast track prices, I might be a little more inclined in actually going. even 3 years ago with BOGOF tickets a day at Alton Towers would generally come to £80-100 easily
Agreed Food at Towers is way too expensive these days, and poor considering the prices. Operations for my last visit were extremely poor too. Some things can't be helped... But that was one of the worst visit I've ever had at the park. Really hope things improve in 2025, but it could probably be even longer than that.
There's been such an emphasis, across the industry, on the premium end of the product. Except all that does is focus on a small (but wealthy) market at the cost of alienating and annoying the mass market.
I’ve only started to get into Alton Towers as of late, so I’d hate for the park to struggle. Considering how they’ve got multiple ride projects in the works, which could involve a Galactica re-theme. They’ve still got a good selection of rides, and it would be a shame if cutbacks and redundancies reduced the park to a dire state.
The park already is in a dire state sadly. It used to be ran and upset so well. There used to be many many rides which are gone without replacements
It is so sad to see the state of all industries at the moment not just theme parks. The pricing of the parks are good so I doubt that is an issue, however with all the talks of lack of ride availability it puts people off, I went earlier in year to ride reborn, but was going to go to scarefest with my daughter, but half term and for us nearly 4 hour drive not worth risking. I was also going to do both Legoland and Thorpe as still yet to ride Hyperia, again because of distance but when I was due to go Thorpe closed Hyperia that week for scheduled maintenance so again lost out on 2 parks because of poor ride availability. Food is expensive and wonder if they kept likes of Burger King / KFC if they would be better, even having a Greggs would be good. I will be renewing my pass for next year, mainly as need to get Hyperia done, plus will be in Manchester July so will make a detour to Towers then. Also is is just me or has the Universal UK talk gone quiet, Thanks for the news updates as always great work.
Nice work. No punches pulled.
It certainly is in trouble Shawn!
No they are not Closing down merlin theme parks Forever.