Merlin pass for family of 4 advice please

13Kent

We are considering purchasing Merlin Annual passes, we are a family of 2 adults and 2 children under 8. We have saved enough Tesco vouchers to get 3 passes, and have some Nectar points that we could use towards purchasing the 4th pass.

On their website they show two different passes, a standard pass and a premium pass. what we were wondering was could we buy 3 standard passes and one premium one? Presumably if one person had the premium pass then the parking would be free? That seems to be the main difference between the standard and premium passes, except for some attractions being restricted at certain times. Which wouldn't really bother us.

There also seems to be an unlimited drinks offer but I can't work out if that is additional or if that is part of the premium pass. The free drinks only seem to be fizzy drinks, and as it is only my husband who drinks them so it wouldn't be worth it for the rest of us.

Does the Alton Towers free entry include the waterpark? Are the discounts for the hotels and B&B's worth having?

As our children are young, the attractions with big rides and dungeons etc won't appeal to them, we would probably use Legoland and the sea life centres mostly. With that in mind would we be better getting a Legoland Annual pass instead?

Any advice from families who have bought passes would be gratefully received as it's a lot of money to spend, and we don't want to waste it. Thank you!

megela

Hiya,

We were told that to get the reduced 'family' pass rate we all had to have the same type of pass. To be honest parking only applies at the big theme parks, the dearest is Warwick Castle at £6, I think Chessington & Legoland were £2/£3 each, haven't been to Alton Towers or Thorpe Park yet. We didn't think it worth the extra for Premium, prefer to pay parking as we go.

The unlimited drinks offer is a large bottle for £16 which is refillable with fizzy drnks only at Warwick Castle, Legoland, Chessington, Thorpe Park & Legoland. Well worth it when you consider that a single drink is £3/4 each. Our 2 girls have one each, we sneak a sip of theirs.

Alton Towers does not include the waterpark, you get reduced price entry.

Haven't tried their hotels as we tend to stay in a Travelodge. Don't forget also 20% off in restaurants, and free hot drink after 3pm in certain cafes in the parks.

We're off to stay overnight in London soon and do the Eye, Sealife Centre & Madame Tussauds as we're also not keen on big rides either.

Also we bought ours with a hefty discount in January - £280 for the four of us.

Hope that helps.

*manda*

Yes if you are buying individual passes rather than a family one, it makes sense to only get one platinum for free parking, bear in mind their restrictions as well as you can't go to certain places at certain times on standard passes.

We have been using them for years through tesco points etc and we find them good value, younger kids will particularly enjoy legoland and chessington.

13Kent

Thank you very much for your replies, you've been really helpful.