Merlin Annual Pass – is it worth it?

For years, we were considering purchasing a Merlin Annual Pass, but we never thought it would be worth the money. Mostly because we weren’t that keen on theme parks and the other attractions that are included in a Merlin Annual Pass.

Last year, we decided to put aside our reservations and decided to get the Gold Annual Pass where you pay £15.99 per month, per person. This pass gets your over 340 days attraction entry, free parking, 20% discount on retail, food, and beverages and 20% discount on booking hotel stays on site at the Merlin theme parks.

One year since purchasing our annual passes, we couldn’t be happier with our decision!

I honestly think these passes are one of our best purchases we have ever made. Within a couple of months, we had visited a handful of attractions and given the fully priced tickets range from around £25-£50 per person, we found the monthly payments to be saving us a lot of money!

Previously we had visited a number of these attractions and wanted to revisit them more regularly. With the price of tickets for each visit to the bigger attractions, i.e. theme parks, it made a lot more sense for us to get the passes.

The list of attractions available with a Merlin Pass are as follows:

• Alton Towers Resort
• Chessington World of Adventures Resort
• Legoland Windsor Resort
• Thorpe Park Resort
• The London Eye
• Sea Life (London, Manchester, Birmingham, Blackpool, Brighton, Weymouth, Great Yarmouth, Hunstanton, Scarborough, Loch Lomond, and Bray)
• Warwick Castle
• The Blackpool Tower
• Madame Tussauds (London and Blackpool)
• Shrek’s Adventure! London
• Legoland Discovery Centre (Birmingham and Manchester)
• The Dungeons (London, Blackpool Tower, York, and Edinburgh)
• The Bear Grylls Adventure

For your information, you must prebook tickets for entry to any of these attractions, which is very easy on the websites for each attraction.

We had visited the Sea Life Great Yarmouth a few years ago, when staying at a local Haven (we didn’t have the Merlin passes and paid full price for the visit), with the annual pass, it would a great option if you are in the area and looking for something extra to do.

We also have visited the Legoland Discovery Centre and Sea Life in Birmingham (which are next door to each other) and are worth seeing together on a day out.

Sealife and Lego Discovery Centre, Birmingham

We wanted to be able to see each attraction over different seasons / events and revisit some of our favourite theme parks. An example of this was, for the first 3 months of getting the Merlin pass, we visited Legoland Windsor 4 times, this was because our daughter and my husband loved the new Mythica area, and we loved the atmosphere around the park.

We have had amazing experiences at a lot of the Merlin attractions that are available, especially Alton Towers, Chessington, Legoland, Shrek’s Adventure! and Madame Tussauds London.

Shreks Adventure, London

Madame Tussaud’s, London

Legoland – Post Covid

CBeebies Land and Hotel

Also with a Gold Membership, you can purchase 5 friends and family tickets per visit, at a discounted rate which is always handy and a benefit we have used on several different occasions (NB its best to book these extra tickets way in advance, as each park only release a certain number of extra tickets per day).

With the vast number of attractions that are available to visit, we haven’t been able to visit all of them yet, but we are looking forward to heading to Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle, The London Eye and Sea Life London as a priority, you will never be bored with the options available to you. This is especially true during the school holidays and over the weekends.

Would we recommend the Merlin Annual Pass? The answer is 100% YES.