Stay 1 Night, Get a Year of UK Theme Parks Free (Explained)

Is the Merlin short break deal actually worth it for families? I’ve spent a few hours trying to work it out. Spoiler: yes.

Right now you can book a short break at a selected Merlin resort and get a FREE Merlin Essential Annual Pass included. Now, these passes are already a pretty good deal – I’ve had my eye on them before.

But, THIS is the time to buy.

I’ve paid £299 for a night at Splash Landings Hotel with free adventure golf, breakfast, entertainment and parking – and got three Merlin passes for the year to keep us busy.

Juggling a real-life budget but still wanting big days out is tough – those entrance fees add up. This could be the answer.

What Is the Merlin Annual Pass Short Break Offer?

When you book a stay at selected Merlin resort hotels (look for the ‘Merlin Pass Included’ tag), you receive a Merlin Annual Pass per guest.

Those passes normally cost £139 each, giving you access to up to 20 UK attractions including:

Alton Towers
LEGOLAND Windsor Resort
Chessington World of Adventures
Thorpe Park
SEA LIFE London Aquarium
The London Eye

…and loads more across the UK.

The key details:

You must book by 1st March.
Stay between March and June.
Only hotels with the ‘Merlin Pass Included’ label qualify.

The cost breakdown for a family of three

We are definitely heading to Alton Towers in April. Normally, I’d use the toddler offer to get cheaper tickets — but Easter pricing meant that wasn’t available so we were stuck with Alton Towers standard day tickets.

Standard Day Tickets:

3 people (above 90cm) = £102

Splash Landings Hotel:

A one-night stay at Splash Landings Hotel was showing at £319.

BUT…
Sign up to the Alton Towers newsletter and you get £20 off.

So we paid:
£299

That’s £197 more than just buying day tickets.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

What we got for £299

For £299, we get:

✔ One night at Splash Landings
✔ Free breakfast
✔ Free parking
✔ Access to mini golf
✔ Resort entertainment
✔ AND a Merlin Annual Pass each

Those passes give us access to Merlin attractions from mid-April this year until April next year.

That includes:

Summer holidays
October half term
Christmas break
Easter 2027 (which is early next year)

Is the Merlin short break actually good value?

If the passes are £139 each, for three of us that’s:

£139 x 3 = £417 value

We paid £299 total.

Even if you remove the £102 we were already going to spend on day tickets, that means:

We’re effectively paying £197 extra for:

A themed hotel stay
Breakfast
Parking
Entertainment
AND year-round theme park access

Realistically, we only need to visit two more times to make this completely worth it.

But technically?

We could visit up to 339 days.

(Do I plan to? Absolutely not. But I love the option.)

Who this Merlin deal is best for

This deal makes sense if:

You were already planning a Merlin theme park visit.
You live within reasonable driving distance of multiple Merlin attractions (we live about an hour from the Surrey ones, and then my parents are an hour from the Midlands ones).
You’d realistically visit at least three times in a year.
You travel during school holidays (when ticket prices are highest).

If you were only ever going once, it’s not worth it. But anymore than that, and it really could be. I feel like this is the perfect year for us to do this as Reggie starts school in September so we have a whole spring and summer of fun ahead, and then we can go in school holidays to.

Final verdict: we booked it

For us, it worked.

We were already spending £100+ on tickets.
We turned it into:

A proper short break
A hotel experience Reggie will love
And a year of UK attractions locked in

For £299 total.

In my opinion?
It’s one of the strongest UK family days out deals I’ve seen this year — if you were planning to go anyway.

Thinking of booking?

Before you do:

Check the hotel has the “Merlin Pass Included” label
Compare against standard day ticket pricing
Make sure you’ll realistically use the passes

Because the best deal isn’t the cheapest one – it’s the one you’ll actually use.

And yes… I will absolutely be riding The London Eye every time I’m in London now. The train from Portsmouth practically drops me right there.