What is going on with Merlin?

It’s no secret that Merlin have got some financial issues after running a huge loss, seeing lower visitors than expected at their new Korea and New York Legoland parks plus visitors spending less money when visiting their parks.

In the last few days however news of further cut-backs have come for Merlin’s UK parks. In this post we’ll share the key information about these cuts.

Merlin cutting more jobs

Merlin started the process of making Merlin Magic Making staff redundant last year and it seems like the staff cuts are continuing, this time to a lot of entertainment staff with big reports of staff entertainment cuts coming from Legoland Windsor in particular.

The Pirate Show at Legoland Windsor is no more?

Following on from the rumours from staff that entertainments staff are being sadly laid off from Legoland Windsor the pirate show which takes place around the lighthouse at the park has now been removed from the website.

Whilst this doesn’t mean there will be no show in this area of the park this year the lack of mention of new shows on the ‘What’s new for 2025’ page suggests that there will be an entertainment cut at the resort rather than a replacement.

This leaves the only entertainment listed for Legoland Windsor for 2025 to be 4D movies.

Oktoberfest is no-more at Thorpe Park and Alton Towers

Continuing with entertainment cuts it looks like Oktoberfest will not be running at Alton Towers or Thorpe Park this year.

At Alton Towers it also looks like the stage has been removed from the lawns suggesting a scaled down entertainment offering this year at the park.

Thorpe Park’s Oktoberfest last year was very much a minimal effort anyway so I don’t think it’s a big deal to see this event leave the park as it was certainly the weaker event.

Has Mardi Gras also left Thorpe Park?

It also looks like Thorpe Park may have also stopped their Mardi Gras event this year with all mentions of it having gone from the entertainments page which now only lists Fright Nights.

Alton Towers cuts hours and Fireworks

In continued cutbacks at Alton Towers which has suffered the most out of all the Merlin parks in the UK over the last few years the fireworks event has been reduced to 2 days rather than 3 days and there will now be a number of weekdays in September when the park will not be open to the public.

Correction: Now the September opening hours have officially been released there’s no closed days but a number of 4pm closures.

What does this mean for UK parks?

Whilst Paulton’s Park continues to invest and Universal Studios UK looks more likely it’s a shame to see Merlin making so many cuts but with a new CEO due to be appointed in the near future I hope this is just a temporary measure before we see more investment…after all, if Universal is coming to the UK for 2030/1 then Merlin need to up their game!