Merlin Annual Pass Reviews

Not worth it. Not many attractions on offer and there’s fine prints. Otway zip line does not give you free pass with the Platinum Merlin, only 30% discount which for a family of 4, you still have to pay $270 even with the pass. Only the treewalk is free

Tried signing up for some Merlin passes with the current promotion at the weekend however it would not go through. Couldn’t contact customer services as they are closed over the weekend and are now not interested!

There are too many hidden exclusions with these. The idea is that you want freedom, to wake up and go somewhere. I purchased four gold Merlin Passes. We wanted to book legoland for mother days (a day that is not excluded with the gold pass) but we were unable to. It would only allow us to book the following day (if Pre booking on the day). However, it would allow you to purchase tickets on the day. So you don’t have the same freedom with the merlin pass as you do purchasing tickets. Not worth the money in my opinion!

We recently purchased the ‘Platinum Annual Pass’ for 2 Adults & 2 Children..

Wow!! We’ve made our money back on bookings in the first day!!

We was very sceptical after reading reviews on here but finally bit the bullet & purchased them whilst the No Joining Fee offer was live. So worth it!!

My personal opinion is the majority of reviews for this are negative due to COVID regulations. Now post COVID every single day is available to book.

Also we have a 2 year old & when booking your attractions you can add Under 3s & carers for Free on the same booking!!

In summary don’t allow the reviews on here from during COVID put you off purchasing an Annual Pass!!

So buzzing we bought one & we have pre booked 10+ Attractions already each including ‘Scarefest’ & ‘Fireworks’ @ Alton Towers.

*PLATINUM PASS HOLDERS*

*Please Note* We have the Most premium pass available to purchase!! Discovery,Silver & Gold passes all have restrictions we don’t have but I’m sure they’re still worth the money if you look at the restriction dates etc.

A total con - the Merlin pass is simply designed to take money from your pocket and put it in theirs! I have just paid £299 in joining fees, days later joining fees removed. Decline to refund. Total con!

Five annual passes were gifted to our family from someone who can ill afford them so it was a major gift and we planned to squeeze the passes for every experience possible. We managed to attend two places before covid and lockdown restrictions. Merlin refused to refund (even partial) and eventually, after much hate toward their treatment of customers, they extended the use of the annual passes, however, this meant that the passes expired during what was still wide covid cases so we couldn't go anywhere. On top of that, most attractions are duplicates in differing areas of the UK making them meaningless. To top it all, our family member just got a tip-off that other's passes had annually auto-renewed and so their payments were outgoing long after the passes 'expired' - and Merlin did not pass this information on to customers. My family member checked their account and found that, yes, she has now paid 18 payments instead of the agreed-upon 12, even though the passes have been sitting gathering dust for almost two years and we all thought them to be expired. Merlin, you suck. You have stolen money from vulnerable people and leeched their accounts behind their backs. Auto-renew payments should ALWAYS be opt in, NEVER opt out.

The Blackpool Tower Dungeon

They are only allowing 4 MAP in at a time.

I have brought passes for myself and 3 members of my family, coming in at approx £650!
I have made a couple of bookings yet have been stopped from making anymore, this seems ridiculous as thats the whole point of the passes 'unlimited' appeal! The passes seem a waste of money from the last time I purchased and would advise anyone to not bother! I have called a member of staff to resolve/assist with the matter, I had no resolution!

When You buy the Passes please check with attractions if its easy to get access there or not. Specially London attractions you wouldn't be able to go straight way you have to pre book with your pass but in reality your favourite dates are not available. Even you have annual pass you can't go unless places are available on the attractions. Conclusion Merlin Passes was great Value for money before Covid 19 but now waste of money

I can even choose even one day for entire year it is fake , how is it possile ? Even one day in entire year , you can’t book .I am trying to cancel my order that i bought yesterday, hope they will cancel it , i will write the result here.

Just bought a pass and went to book Alton Towers and there is no availability to book one date in the entire year. I cannot believe that a main attraction provider can get away with conning their customers.

CANCEL YOUR PASS IF YOU CAN-WASTE OF MONEY

Bought the pass because of our 2 years old daughter. IF YOU ALREADY BOUGHT IT AS AN ANNUAL PASS CANCEL IT WITHIN 14 DAYS.
Legoland, Chessington nothing available till our pass expire. A few Sea Life available here and there but don't think about London. By the time you read it its likely to be gone.

The only reason of us bought the pass is for Legoland, Chessington, and Sea Life. Now almost all of them not able to use.

Even though we had no intention of going to Alton Tower and Thrope Park, I just checked whether the situations is the same or not. Guess what nothing available either till our pass expire which is in Oct 2022.

Merlin might say that they did not guarantee for availability all year round and when they read my review they might even respond as there are availability just like I mentioned earlier Sea Life, Warwick Castle here and there to defend themselves as they are not misleading their customer and potential customer.

But as a consumer/customer we all know how business twist and turn to keep them straight on paper.

We bought the ZSL membership in Aug and not a single disappointment like Merlin.

If you really want then think again a again and again of buying the individual attraction pass. BUT NOT THE MERLIN PASS EVEN IF MERLIN SAYS THAT WILL PAY YOU TO GET A PASS. PLEASE PLEASE AVOID AT ALL COST.

Peppa Pig World pass might seems decent. We've been there but due to covid they put on hold for pass. Not like Merlin even if their attractions are on fire they still might say its operational and keep on selling their unusable pass.

By the way our pass is a Gold Pass. BUT PLEASE DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE WE MADE AND PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM MERLIN PASS.

Here is why you must not book a Merlin Annual Pass.

In Summary, all the prices have been hiked from the previous versions of the passes (even though they appear to show a Black Friday discount) and you don't know if you will be able to get in on the day you want as they are restricting pass numbers each day but do not tell you what the limits actually are.

They are an absolute con. They happily take the money from pass holders, and a lot of money at that and then slowly add in all the restrictions and additional charges. During Covid pass holders could not gain entry to any attractions and they favoured the day paying customers, over the loyal one who already had passes. Now it's coming up to Christmas you can book to go to any of the attractions during November or December unless you pay additional money for entry - ON TOP OF THE PASS PRICE. I should add you are getting nothing more for this money, maybe a few Christmas trees and fairy lights, but that's it.

Don't even bother trying to contact Merlin Customer Service, they are rude, and give you a robotic reply. I have been informed that the individual attractions set the prices and restrictions and not Merlin, so it's out of their control. NONSENSE.

Merlin discovery pass is completely unuseable - even though regular tickets are available for the dates I'm trying to use it for. DO NOT BUY - you won't be able to actually use it in practice, so it's a total rip-off as a result