Take a look at the Career Advice page on John's website. www.john-wardley.demon.co.uk

As the owner of a merlin pass, I get 20% off shopping at most major merlin theme parks (thorpe, CWOA etc). But last visit to chessington I tried to buy a refillable drink bottle (regular price £6) and showed my merlin pass, but the guy wouldn't accept it and said you can't use it on the refillable cups.

Not that this is outrageous or anything. I was just wondering what else had the same discount refusal.

Any ideas?

When I used to work for merlin there always used to be certain restrictions on the merlin pass discount - refillable drinks was one of them.
If I remember right there used to be a lower discount on certain branded products such as Cadburys too - even staff weren't allowed discount on the Cadburys chocolate!

Yeah well, it makes sense to have exclusions, nothing is exclusion-free

Yep, there are exclusions, mainly things that are being sold as an offer in the first place such as the 4 photos for £20 and refillable cups (where you save on buying bottles of pop during the day)

Natuarally the photo deal and cup deal are exclusions. Anything else?

It'll depend on the deals they have with particular suppliers. As I mentioned before discount never used to be allowed on Cadburys, however it has been 4/5 years since I worked for Merlin so suppliers and rules may have changed.
I'd advise either looking at the Ts&Cs of your pass, or asking a member of staff in the shops when you're there.

Hope that helps.

Well this is a mystery.

Ilovecoasters wrote:

As the owner of a merlin pass, I get 20% off shopping at most major merlin theme parks (thorpe, CWOA etc). But last visit to chessington I tried to buy a refillable drink bottle (regular price £6) and showed my merlin pass, but the guy wouldn't accept it and said you can't use it on the refillable cups.

Not that this is outrageous or anything. I was just wondering what else had the same discount refusal.

Any ideas?

I used to work @ chessy and am 100% sure that a MAP entitles 20% off on the refillable cups. It took the price down to£4.80. Unless this now isn't the case

Well the bottom 'perk' on THIS page (from the new Merlin Membership wesbite) is about the Merlin Drinks Capsule, but they haven't clarified what you are entitled to, as the supposed 'following changes' aren't there yet...

Ilovecoasters wrote:

Natuarally the photo deal and cup deal are exclusions. Anything else?

Last year the photo deal gave 5 pics and you got MAP discount....

CoasterChick wrote:

Well this is a mystery.

Ilovecoasters wrote:

As the owner of a merlin pass, I get 20% off shopping at most major merlin theme parks (thorpe, CWOA etc). But last visit to chessington I tried to buy a refillable drink bottle (regular price £6) and showed my merlin pass, but the guy wouldn't accept it and said you can't use it on the refillable cups.

Not that this is outrageous or anything. I was just wondering what else had the same discount refusal.

Any ideas?

I used to work @ chessy and am 100% sure that a MAP entitles 20% off on the refillable cups. It took the price down to£4.80. Unless this now isn't the case

They charged me the full £6…

bensaund wrote:

Ilovecoasters wrote:

Natuarally the photo deal and cup deal are exclusions. Anything else?

Last year the photo deal gave 5 pics and you got MAP discount....

Really? I went earlier this month and I'm pretty sure that I couldn't even get a MAP even for a single photo! Unfortunately, I don't have evidence for this as they were then going to ask for £10 for a pic of me on bubbleworks! Forget that!
There doesn't appear to be any specific rules. It almost seems like I depends on the member of staff at the till…

Regarding the photos I believe it changed this season. My friend got a photo pass at Thorpe and we both got them at AT and though I think thorpes costing was different, the multibuy offers didn't include Merlin discount as they are already discounted products.

I got MAP discount on our single Smiler photo, but they seem to change their minds on the offers all the time.

Another thing to remember is if the place you are buying from has a till, you can get MAP discount, but if there is no till (Ice cream van for example) then no discount.

I'm probably putting 2+2=5 but I remember seeing a thread on a Merlin Acquisition fund, could this be a realistic purchase for them? Would give them a good foothold in Orlando

From Orlando United

Behind the Thrills just posted this on twitter: Unfortunately this falls in line with rumors that we've heard about swp&e selling off the Busch Gardens chain.

Given that BGW is having MAJOR budget problems right now,(So much they had to cut an attraction) I am honestly not surprised. Thoughts?

See more here http://www.orlandounited.com/forums/showthread.php?8263-Busch-Parks-to-be-sold

What do you all think about this?

Keep your grubby hands off Busch, Merlin. They're doing just fine without you.

Danny wrote:

Keep your grubby hands off Busch, Merlin. They're doing just fine without you.

The talk on there is maybe Universal buying them, which would certainly be a lot better for the park

Interesting, I do think that Merlin will be stepping into something they can't handle if they buy these parks. Their track record of maintaining their attractions is not great. Look at Chessington, they will let things rot before they fix anything. I have never been to a Busch park but have always looked at them as one of the market leaders.

I'm in two minds as to wether this would be a good thing or not?!

It would be a disaster, Merlin would never be able to keep Busch Garden's Tampa looking as beautiful as it does. The only realistic option is if Universal make a swoop for the Busch parks.

How busy do you expect Thorpe Park will be on Sunday 14th July?

I'm not convinced that it would be a total disaster, purely because the competition over there would lead to them having to keep the park maintained or lose out to the likes of Disney and Universal, whereas over here (I can only speak for UK Merlin Parks) there's no other real competition so they can afford to be more lax with maintenance.