How to cut the cost of theme parks!
Enjoying a rollercoaster or three is getting ever more expensive, but following these tips will help you avoid spending a fortune.
With the continued rise in living costs, it is no surprise that the cost of entertainment has risen too, with theme parks and attractions leading the way in the most expensive stakes.
However, there are still ways to make a day out with the kids a little less costly.
The Merlin Pass
If you are a dedicated theme park enthusiast and plan to go four times or more over the course of the year, then it’s worth looking at a Merlin Pass. The Merlin Pass grants you 12 months entry to the UK’s top attractions, such as Thorpe Park, Madame Tussauds, the London Eye, the Alton Towers Resort Theme Park, Chessington World of Adventure and Legoland, among others. The Pass also entitles you to various other perks.
But it doesn’t come cheap. Individual Standard Passes cost £140.40 each. If you are buying more than two passes you can buy a family group pass for three, four or five people for £96.12 per person.
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The Merlin website claims that an annual ticket will pay for itself in just three visits. So if you are a family of 3, you would pay £288.36 for an annual Merlin Annual Family Group Standard Pass purchased online. If you visited Chessington three times, paying £78 each time, you would pay £234 in total, so you would actually have to visit a theme park ‘three –and-a-bit times’ to break even!
Use Merlin’s Savings Calculator to decide whether it is worthwhile for you.
Extra costs
As well as expensive food and £1.50 surcharges on cash machines in the venue, there is now a parking charge to contend with. Standard Pass holders used to get free parking, but this perk has been withdrawn this year. Parking costs range from around £2 to £6, depending on the attraction. It is a drop in the ocean when you have already spent a fortune but you may still feel very bitter as they squeeze those last couple of pounds out of you on the way out!
The Premium Annual Merlin Pass costs £27 more than the Standard Pass but has no restrictions at all, and offers free parking at all venues.
Restrictions
Although the tagline for the Annual Pass is ‘Enjoy 12 months fun and freedom’, don’t expect complete freedom to come as standard!
There is an ever increasing list of exclusions with the Standard Pass, including no entry during the month of August at the London Eye, Sea Life London Aquarium, the London Dungeon and Madame Tussauds and no entry to Legoland Windsor before 2pm during August.
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Cut the cost of going out
Letting your hair down doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg.
See the guideTesco Clubcard and Nectar offers
Tesco Clubcard used to have fantastic deals on Merlin Passes, but these have depleted over the years.
Instead of the usual Clubcard deal where each voucher is worth three times its value, you simply pay £50 in Clubcard vouchers per Pass. You cannot buy a group or family pass through Clubcard, only individual tickets. This is a big increase in the £37.50 per pass that was required a couple of years ago, but could still be a good way to use your vouchers up.
You can use Nectar points to purchase a Standard Individual Merlin Annual Pass. 500 points gives you £5 off a £145 Pass (even though the full price on the Merlin Website is actually £140.40.)
Other money-off deals
The only way of getting any further money off a Merlin Pass at the moment is to buy it online via the Merlin Pass website. Here you can get a 10% discount, which you won’t get if buying at the venue.
If you are only planning one or two trips and a Pass isn’t worth it for you, then look out for Free Entry vouchers. These are regularly given away by Tesco and Sainsbury's and other companies frequently run promotions: Kelloggs and Fanta are currently offering the chance to win a Pass and giving away two for one entry tickets on promotional packs.
Also, remember to check your cashback website. There are not currently any deals around on Merlin Passes, but Quidco offers deals for individual attractions, such as 6% cashback when you book a stay at an Alton Towers themed hotel and up to 15% cashback at Sealife.
You can also book tickets on a site like Lastminute.com at a reduced price, such as £9 off an adult ticket to Chessington, and £6.60 off a child ticket. If you access the Lastminute.com website through Quidco you can also get 4% cashback on deals!
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Comments
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Of course the cheapest way is to stay at home. If you've got a mortgage, then you're paying a lot each day, every day for your house, so stay at home and enjoy the thing you're paying so much for. If you want to entertain the kids, for a few quid you can build an adventure playground in your garden. 60' of rope and you can build an "Indiana Jones" style rope bridge. A couple of fencing stakes and you've got a balance beam. Another 60' of rope and you can make a scramble net... then they will generate the rest of the adventure from the stimulation of their imaginations.
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I agree with your findings, the methods you have outlined are ways to cut down the costs, I would definitely say the most popular is the BOGOF offers that usually circulate and as you said are readily available on some products or money-saving websites. I used to have a Tussauds Pass and renewed it for several years however when the group was taken over by Merlin the renewal price increased by a huge amount (inappropriate to any increase in benefits), additionally I had a really bad experience of the Merlin Customer Service department, previously the Tussauds group CS dept had been excellent but after the change I noticed a dramatic change in their responses, in one email I actually received a message from the Merlin Head Office saying that I had lied about a response and that they would not deal with me further - Certainly not the way to build good customer service!! I used to recommend the pass to all my friends, family and colleagues, I have written several reviews of the parks and benefits of the Annual Pass, but I have revised my advice and do not recommend it now. When you figure in BOGOF or other offers into the equation of 'Is the pass worth the initial outlay?' then unless you intend to make 5 visits over the year or can make use of some of the other paltry discounts, then my advice is the Annual Pass is not worth the money.
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What about all the buy one get one free vouchers you can pick up. Tesco's were doing one in may as were burger king. It gives you buy one get one free for Legoland, Chessingon, Thorpe park, Alton towers, London dungeons, London eye and others.
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21 June 2011