Tesco Merlin Passes going up

mbailey

Receiced ours today as well. Posted them Monday morning.

Roger_Rampant

cazza1968 wrote: »

The merlin pass gives 20% discount in the shops and certain food outlets. ie their own..hotdogs, donuts etc. not burger king or kfc etc. It def does not allow you to q jump. You have to pay sep for fast passes.

Actually when it is not too busy they will usually let you go through the fast section for the rides if you just say you have passes, and won't even ask to see them (bear in mind that we are a respectable-looking family). The only time we ever had a problem was when we tried doing that when it was really, really busy. Even then we still got on the ride, because I said I wanted to talk to the manager, and they let us go on just to shut me up. They had a big problem with lag on River Rapids, there was a great big queue of rings waiting to come up the conveyor, impatient customers queueing waiting for the rings to arrive, and the last thing they wanted was a bolshy customer to deal with as well. :rotfl:

Debt_Free_Dreamer

Mine arrived too. I am sooo excited for the parks to open.

Thanks OP for the heads up, I never considered spending them on Merlin passes.

jellyhead

At alton towers you are allowed in to the park half an hour earlier than everyone else if you have an annual pass, and you don't have to pay for car parking which has gone up to a fiver now!

for whoever asked about 4 year olds, they have to pay at alton towers. If they are UNDER 4 (and I was told to bring his passort because he looks older than he is!)you can get the child put onto the photo with the parent, and then they can go in for as long as the pass lasts even if they turn 4 during that time.

Other theme parks will have different age/height rules, which will be on their websites.

mbailey

From Merlin Annual Pass web site:

Visitors under 1 meter in height may enter Chessington World of Adventures & Zoo and THORPE PARK free of charge. Visitors under 3 years of age may enter LEGOLAND Windsor and SEA LIFE Centres free of charge. Visitors under 4 years of age may enter Alton Towers Resort, Warwick Castle free of charge. Visitors under 5 years of age may enter Madame Tussauds (London) and London Eye free of charge.

I wish they had a consistent policy across all sites!

sprogs

Ours have still not arrived, but I did try to 'use' one of the vouchers online today as a test and it said it had already been used so I am guessing it has been processed so hopefully we should receive them next week :j

jellyhead

with having different height rules across different sites I wonder what happens if you have your 3 year old in your photo - you wouldn't expect to have to pay to enter thorpe park, for example.

We're going to thorpe in 3 weeks and my 3 year old is taller than a metre (I remember paying for him to enter lightwater valley when he was only 2!), so I suppose they'll want me to pay for him even though he's on my card?

mbailey

jellyhead wrote: »

with having different height rules across different sites I wonder what happens if you have your 3 year old in your photo - you wouldn't expect to have to pay to enter thorpe park, for example.

We're going to thorpe in 3 weeks and my 3 year old is taller than a metre (I remember paying for him to enter lightwater valley when he was only 2!), so I suppose they'll want me to pay for him even though he's on my card?

The annual passes are individual, so I don't see any reason why having your son the same photo as you will make a difference? (ok, just reread this thread and saw the comment regarding doing this at Alton towers.)

My experience is that Chessington and Thorpe park don't care about the age, it is purely the height. Once they are a certain height they can go on alot more rides, so I guess that is why they do it via height and not age.

Legoland is annoying as it is age, we have to pay for my daughter who is 3, but she is still too small for most of the rides.

jellyhead

If my 3 year old is in my photo it means we don't have to buy him a pass for alton towers until my pass runs out

will thorpe park check his height? we take his pram to theme parks, to help with carting the picnics, coats etc. around (and alton towers is a big place, so his legs get tired on the hills) and nobody ever asked him to get out of the buggy to check his height.

Do you think thorpe will? I'd best look for a cheap ticket for him just in case. I would expect to pay for him at legoland, but from what I remember thorpe isn't much good for him? It didn't cross my mind until I read this thread - we haven't been anywhere except alton and warwick with the passes since he turned 1 metre tall.

Shame you have to pay for your little girl if she doesn't get much out of it my 3 year old is tall and is an adrenaline junkie, desperate to try every ride he sees so he's always got a lot out of theme parks.


If anyone is in the alton towers area by the way you can buy waterpark passes, but not with tesco vouchers. You get 25% off with a merlin pass, and toddlers don't need a pass until they turn 5. Family of 3 just means a family too, they don't exclude 12 year olds from being part of a family like the others do. I paid £72 for 3 of us, little one free.

cookie66

i phone their helpline yesterday and if you use the old he order form in the old booklet you still have untill the 1st of march to get them at the old price. if anyone does still have a copy of the old order form can you please put it on a link so we can all benefit from getting this deal at the cheaper price thanx