Adventures with my Merlin Premium Annual Pass Review
Adventures with my Merlin Premium Annual Pass
Reviewed by Dot White
My eldest daughter, whose family already has Merlin Annual Passes, alerted me when she saw the Merlin Annual Pass sale. She encouraged me to buy annual passes for myself my daughter and two granddaughters, I chose the Premium passes as we live near London (we paid £129.99 per person during the sale, the Premium Pass now costs from £169pp). My granddaughters are 13 and 11, so the older child was classed as an adult. The passes give us access to all of Merlin’s 32 attractions throughout the UK (you can see a full list of the attractions here, includes attractions such as Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures, LEGOLAND, The Blackpool Tower and lots more).
Our first venture using these passes was to Madame Tussauds in London at the end of July. My eldest daughter came with us because she would not have been able to visit these London attractions in August as her pass is a Standard one, which has some restrictions during August (unlike the Premium).
Myself, daughters and granddaughters loved our visit. The girls had their photographs taken with many celebrities, even my eldest daughter had her photograph taken with one of her idols from the past.
My 13 year old granddaughter ‘loves’ Tom Daley’, whilst the youngest one preferred the Star Wars exhibition having her photograph taken with each character in turn.
We visited the Sherlock Holmes exhibition which was great, we jumped when the police officer appeared out of the mist. The waxworks are so realistic! The superheroes film was fantastic, I admit to cringing when I was about to be stepped on by a huge boot. It was excellent!! We loved the ride in the Spirit of London Taxi Ride at the end.
The photographs were reasonably priced too, we bought several. They even took my granddaughters back for another Sherlock Holmes Exhibition photograph as they had mislaid their ticket. The staff were so very helpful.
We then travelled by underground to Westminster where we walked across the bridge to the London Eye. Having Premium Merlin Passes meant we could join the fast queue (you get 3x £5 FastTrack vouchers with the Premium Pass) and were on the London Eye within a very short time. We all loved the London Eye and the views (it takes around 30 minutes to do a full 360° rotation). I never tire of the view of Westminster Bridge with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in the background and all the Red London buses going across it. I don’t like having to get on and off the London Eye while it is moving, I am a senior citizen but have never been offered help to get either on or off, just hurried along! Of course we bought the Souvenir Book of Photos at £20, much more expensive than Madame Tussauds.
We decided to visit Shrek’s Adventure, but had not realised that although we had Merlin Premium Annual Passes we had to book a timeslot. We arranged to do this in one hour’s time, we had time to relax and have a drink.
We loved the introduction to Shrek and the person who talked to us before being allowed through for the bus. He was fantastic, such a performer! The bus journey was great and so realistic with the 3D glasses.
The various people we met on our search for Shrek were very entertaining with audience participation, sometimes adults, sometimes children, and of course our girls shrieked when the ‘rats or mice’ ran around. We negotiated the mirror maze very easily on this visit.
We arrived at our destination and the girls had their photographs taken with Shrek. They loved their visit, and of course I bought a Souvenirs Book of Photos!!
We visited three attractions in one day and eventually made our weary way back across the Thames to catch the train home.
I had time to kill in London while my eldest granddaughter was taking part in a theatre course. I took my Merlin Annual Pass with me and had a solo trip on The London Eye and visited SEA LIFE. It wasn’t the same on my own.
My eldest granddaughter asked if she could take a school friend to Chessington World of Adventures so using the £10 for a friend offer, which we had received with our annual passes (you get 3 with a Premium Pass) we visited one sunny day in August. We were held up in traffic on the M25 and arrived just after 10am and had to park in the Leopard field which we did not like. Both girls loved the rides, especially Rameses Revenge and they carefully chose their seats in the centre of the back row so they could get wet.
They managed to go on all the big rides; Dragon’s Fury, Kobra, Vampire, Rattlesnake, Scorpion Express, Dragon Falls, Monkey Swinger etc. (you can find a full list of Chessington attraction here) and wanted to buy the photographs, so when I saw the advert for the Digipass I decided that was a good idea for £40 and put it in granddaughter’s name and had all our separate photos transferred to that. Fabulous idea!! I don’t know why the London attractions can’t be included in this pass!! We even bought two of their best liked photos as a souvenir for £5 each with the Digipass.
We bought the Annual Pass refillable drink containers for £1.99 and had them refilled for 75p a time. We also bought a bag of 10 donuts to share, delicious!
A great day was had by all, although my daughter and I spent most of our time holding bags, I almost went on the Vampire ride, almost…………
London Eye, Shrek’s Adventure and SEA LIFE were our next venture with yet another friend who has only been to London twice when much younger. It was fantastic to see her excitement even though it meant we used three more of our precious £10 entry vouchers.
First call was the London Eye, the friend loved it although granddaughter was not as excited as she had been on her previous visit, she was able to point out the landmarks for her friend. She is getting very good at knowing where St Paul’s is, The Shard etc. The friend took so many photographs both with her camera and mobile phone, lots of selfies with landmarks in the background. The friend didn’t seem as keen on the view of Westminster Bridge with all the red London buses as I was. I bought yet another souvenir book with photos so the friend could have one to take home!! Why couldn’t they be included on the Digipass?
The London Eye 4D Cinema Experience is a free attraction (with Merlin passes or when purchasing a ticket for the London Eye) and was fantastic. So Realistic, the seagulls kept swooping at us, the girls shrieked, the weather changed, the fireworks, it was excellent, we loved it!! I bought yet another souvenir book of photos!!
This time we had booked a timeslot for Shrek’s Adventure which was my granddaughter’s friend’s request before going on the London Eye. My granddaughter’s friend loved it, we in fact enjoyed it even more than our first visit a few weeks before. This time we struggled to get out of the mirror maze which caused granddaughter’s friend to panic slightly. Yet more shrieks when the mice/rats invaded. Once more they queued for a photograph with Shrek who stood still for all the photographs, until granddaughter and friend approached then he lunged towards them!! More shrieks!!! My daughter reckons it was because the girls had been shrieking throughout the attraction!! Guess what, I bought another souvenir book of photos!!
We just had time to visit SEA LIFE before heading home. The girls loved it especially the shark tank and even looked for the letters to complete the quiz. Of course we had more shrieks as the sharks swam towards them. The girls set off up the steps to the Thames walk while we went to the toilet. We asked them to wait for us at the top of the stairs. We came out of the toilet and as the lift was there we used it. When we left the lift at the top there was no sign of the girls. We thought it strange they had gone on ahead without us. When they were not at the penguins I decided to retrace my steps back down the stairs to the toilets, but no sign of them. We made our way to the gift shop, still no girls, so we approached a member of staff. We were getting really worried by this point. Security were alerted, they asked for the girls’ names and we quickly had the response that the girls were with them. Relief! They had waited at the top of the stairs for us as we had asked them to, but there is a wall between where the lift comes out and the stairs, we had walked straight out of the lift past not seen them the other side of the wall, they must have been so engrossed in their conversation they had not heard us!! They later told us they had waited for a long time, then decided to check the toilets, but when they couldn’t find us they had sensibly gone to a staff member. Once reunited we were asked if we would like to go back to the point where we had lost them!! We were then taken back by security so we would not miss anything. Fantastic. The staff were so very helpful, we completed our visit! After this we thought we had better head for home and return my granddaughter’s friend to her parents!! I did not buy any photographs on this occasion!!!
My granddaughter asked if we could take yet another friend to Thorpe Park. We were on the M25 on our way there when the friend announced they would not do the 10 loop rollercoaster! Hasty discussions followed as they quickly watched YouTube videos on my mobile, the decision was made to go to Chessington instead. We reset the satnav and headed to Chessington once again. This time we arrived very early and were able to park in the car park for Annual Pass Holders. They both had a great day with lots more photographs added to the Digipass. My granddaughter wanted to go on Rameses Revenge of course, but the friend declined. My granddaughter decided to go on alone and took up her preferred position centre back and came off absolutely drenched!!! Luckily she had a change of clothes in her backpack. She waited until just before we were leaving to go on again, but could only get a seat to the left of centre and was disappointed not to get wet. I think the favourite ride that day for the pair of them was Dragon Falls. We had of course taken our drinks containers so only had to pay 75p a refill this time.
The friend reckoned it would be very easy to throw two balls into a bucket to win a donut… needless to say we came home without one. We went in the amusement arcade but granddaughter lost all the money I had given her … a whole £2!!
Saturday we finally managed to get to Thorpe Park with yet another friend and her mother. It was very easy to find following the signs from the M25 rather than the satnav. Parking was easy. We queued up to buy the tickets for our friends and still had to wait for 9.30am for the park to open. Great excitement, what should they go on first??? The first ride they came to near the entrance looked horrific, The Swarm, they loved it! Next came Colossus quickly followed by, Nemesis Inferno, Saw – The Ride, X, Detonator: Bombs Away, Vortex – I could have missed some, but you can see a full list of rides here. We crisscrossed the park so many times between rides, us grown-ups treating ourselves to a bag of donuts on the way. I think the only rides they didn’t want to go on were Stealth due to its reputation for breaking down and Derren Brown’s Ghost Train, a unanimous decision. Samurai left granddaughter’s friend feeling off colour but it didn’t stop her heading back to Colossus for yet another go.
They even found time to win a donut between them at their first attempt, unfortunately several attempts afterwards failed to win a second one, even with the friend’s mother having a sneaky go while the girls were on Tidal Wave. They had saved this ride until last as they knew they would get very wet! They couldn’t have been more right as they came off dripping and ran around for another go as there was only a five minute wait. By this time, it was raining hard so it was time to change into dry clothes and head for some food. We then left to buy prints for the special annual Digipass price of £5, great value!! We stopped at the amusement arcade where the friend won a cuddly toy to make up for the missing donut. We had spent so much money between us trying to win that second donut!!
Both girls loved Thorpe Park and would love to go back, I think this will be the park of choice from now on, unless we can get up to Alton Towers. We live near London so the attractions we chose are close by, but there are lots of others we could have chosen. Blackpool Tower for instance, LEGOLAND or Warwick Castle.
Today they are back in school so our Merlin Annual Passes will have a rest for a while, but we have had a fantastic summer using them. I can thoroughly recommend buying a Merlin Annual Passes.
Rating: 5/5 
A Merlin Annual Pass costs from £129 to £209 per person depending whether individual pass or family pass and whether you want a Standard or Premium pass. These give you access to all of Merlin’s 32 UK attractions for 12 months (some restrictions may apply depending on the type of pass that you buy). For more information, visit www.merlinannualpass.co.uk.
