Merlin Annual Pass Reviews 

Annual passes are great to have but as we’ve fount out not if you have additional needs the booking process at locations for access pass is awful meaning we can’t visit locations for near 4/5 weeks because now you have to pre book the ride access passes and there fully booked for weeks on end makes having the benefits of a pass completely void. But when you can get the access passes pre booked it’s a wonderful experience having the passes it’s just a shame and disappointing it’s all suddenly changed restricting people with additional needs even more and limiting our experiences to a “normal” life can’t just decide let’s go to a Merlin today have to book weeks in advance

Merlin pass is great for money saving, however the parks are becoming a bit of a mess, the atmosphere has changed, they have got rid of the walkabout actors who made the unbearable wait times fun.
Prices in park have gone up and quality has gone down.
Food in most parks is of little quality and very overpriced.

Me and my friend both have Merlin gold passes, we go to a different venue every Tuesday and never get bored of what they have to offer! Out trips have payed for the pass 10 times over so far! It’s definitely worth it!

Hi Merlin,
I have had a Merlin Annual Pass for longer than I care to remember! Using it predominantly when my son was young but even though my son is now 19 and we hardly ever visit anymore, I have kept the passes on monthly payments. Last week I booked 2 friends and family tickets to visit the London Aquarium, then went to book mine and there was non available. I called Merlin as thought it was an error and was told that the allocation for pass holders was full. New paying customers had availability every 15 minutes for the whole day. I couldn't move or have a refund for the tickets I purchased for my friends. So I had to book and pay for my own individual ticket even though I have a Premium Merlin Pass.
I don't think this is a very fair system and certainly not what I signed up to years ago when you just had to turn up with your pass to enjoy the fun at any location, no pre-booking required.
I would either like a refund for the ticket I was forced to purchase or I would like to pursue the possibility of having a refund for all of my monthly payments since Merlin brought in this new policy and separate allocations, as the pass I am paying for is not what it pertains to be.
Can you please look into this and contact me to discuss and rectify.
Order Number 589670512
Yours kindly,
Robert.

Worst customer service. Rude, unprofessional and disrespectful management.wouldn’t recommend giving your money to Merlin entertainment. Save it and take it elsewhere trust me they aren’t worth the effort. Just money grabbing they don’t care about customers and basically block you everywhere if you even try to get a name or email to complain. Please just save your money and just pay for the attraction cheaper anyway

Tried to use the silver pass to get discount on hotel stay compared to booking without the pass. To book without the pass all members of the party got tickets and accommodation which was cheaper than booking with the pass as the overnight stay does not include tickets for the whole party sp would have to purchase them separately. What's the point. Membership now cancelled.

AVOID buying!!! SCAM!!
I have bought a basic Merlin pass years ago and that works fine. So I bought a silver merlin pass when my daughter goes to school and we need a day out during school holiday and weekend.
My pass was activated on Dec 2024. I then realised I can't make any booking to sealife aquarium even it should be available on Silver Pass Calender.
On their passholder prebook hub, they just black out most of the days in the coming three months. When I am writing this review in Jan 2025, I have only got 8 days in Feb and 12 days in March that I can choose from to book a visit to Chessington World of Adventure. All the weekdays are unavailable. I feel like they assume Silver holders are not free on a weekday and reserve all booking quota to a basic Merlin Pass maybe. But it is very disappointing as the pass is expensive for a family of 3 and I now have even less days to choose from to visit the theme park. Definitely not recommended. (P.s. Customer service is hard to reach and not helpful)

Having a Merlin pass has meant a lot as I would not be able to take my granddaughter out on so many trips. We both really enjoy ourselves and have so much fun and build loads of memories and more to come for the future. I would totally recommend getting one if you don’t have one already.

At the weekend I made full use of my Merlin pass for me and my 6 year old, we travelled down from Derby to stay in Thorpe (off site) we arrived at 8:30am to the park one we have never visited before due to living In the midlands and going to Alton towers on regular occasions! We got into the theme park and played on playground until the gates opened, looking in the distance at Hyperia which I would have loved to go on if I wasn’t with my son! Ted loved the day and we managed to get onto 13 rides with little queue by 1pm so decided to make the short trip over to LEGOLAND for the afternoon where we got to a show at the 4D cinema just on time, we also managed to catch the pirate show which with the special effects and humour captured the imagination of my son. We also went on a couple of rides but left around 4:30pm after a lot of steps and fun to retire to our hotel for an early night! On the Sunday we again arrived early this time to Chessington Wolrd Of Adventures, this is our favourite Merlin attraction due to having a great mix of animals and rides. We paid for early entry to go onto the mandrill, ostrich stampede, mamba strike, griffins galleon and the gruffalo ride, I would recommend this to anyone who wants to check off several rides quickly! We spent the rest of the day going around the park, caught the bird show, the sea lion show and more rides checking off 13 activities we planned out! All in all a great Merlin weekend

It's very easy to use and access over the included attraction; does pay the value invested.

Absolute waste of money! Nearly every thing is always booked, but if you turn up at any attraction and pay there and then your get in! Won’t be getting them
again I would rather pay for my days out on the day!

I love having the Merlin passes we have done so much with it and had loads of fun which I wouldn’t of been able to do

Great value for money. I didn't use my pass as much as I thought I would just because my life is so busy, but even with my infrequent visits it's still great value and saved me money on single visit tickets. Easy to use for booking, cancellations, and discounts. Only issue I would criticise is the food and drink discount doesn't apply at all vendors in the parks, which is fine, but the problem is that it's not clear which vendors accept it and which don't. If Merlin could make that a little clearer then it'd be great.

They canceled my annual card without providing a reason, even though the expiration date is March 2025.
The customer service was unhelpful, and I feel very disappointed.

We used to love our Merlin passes and after our first year renewed (meaning our passes then were set to expire Sept 2024). Half way through our pass though they’ve changed the ride access pass system so you have to book weeks or months in advanced. Here’s the problem - we have 2 disabled children, one of whom is palliative and medically fragile, I can’t just predict weeks in advanced when she would be well enough for us to go, we always used to just book our tickets either the night before or morning of going.

I understand the RAP queues were getting too long but then a) tighten up the criteria which is currently way too lax and means lots of people who don’t legitimately need one get one and b) have a system that makes queues shorter but without capping RAP guest numbers e.g like having 5 x rides cap per RAP card like they have at a couple of non Merlin other parks and that we’ve found works great.

For us, it’s not like we can even go without a RAP at all as my daughter’s wheelchair won’t fit down the standard queues. This system is clearly not working and they’re dragging their feet admitting it and changing to trial another system.

We haven’t renewed but miss when these parks were accessible to us!

Five star service very enjoyable time and worth every penny

Great deal for kids! Always something to look forward to when it’s half term or school break. I would say you’ll get your membership fee worth just by visiting 3 in a year which is a good deal. Will recommend!! 🤗

These passes are brilliant it makes a family day out a lot easier through the year and we will definitely keep up with these all the time the kids are still interested

The Merlin Pass is without a doubt the best money we have spent from our budget! We absolutely love the attractions. We home educate, so have the freedom to use the pass when attractions are quieter, plus we get discount on food and other special offers.
We are only 6 months in, but will definitely be renewing, and if we can afford it we will upgrade our package to get even better benefits.
Highly recommend, especially for home educating families :)

The pre-booking system seems to have changed again, requiring me to create another new account. Now I have to wait while my family's Merlin passes are approved to be added. Why isn't this automatic and instantaneous? I now can't immediately book my trip.

I am convinced the system is deliberately complicated, ever changing and slow to dissuade people from using their passes, or tricking them into unnecessarily paying extra.

That's before I have even got to the Ride Access pass. There are no dates available for Thorpe Park at all (I looked at every month for the next 18 month).

I am cancelling all of our Merlin Passes. It is simply not worth the pain or expense.