Drayton Manor at Christmas- Lovely or overpriced shite?

[2anddone]

Hi am looking to take dc (3 and 6) to Thomasland before Christmas to see father christmas and go on rides etc. Thought about doing this as the lovely one near me works out at £50 for about 45 min walk through grotto and gift and to stay at Drayton Manor hotel and get entrance to park is £100 but you get the whole day iyswim. Just wondering is it going to be mayhem and is the gift you get (plus the father christmas) nice. Does 'he' look believable have a very clued up ds! Would i be wasting my money. Advice please TIA (also posted on days out topic)

[ThatsNotMyBabyBelly]

You can get cheap tickets online, which saved me quite a bit last year. We took dd, and went with friends, and had a fab time.

Some tips though

• go straight to Father Christmas, you can get photo and present without queueing
  
• we then went to the zoo
  
• there is only 1 indoor place to eat, so we got lunch about 12 on way back from zoo and just beat the rush
  
• we then had a relaxed stroll around the rides. The carousel was open as well as Thomas land, and also the dinosaur park.
  

Wrap up warm, as it is quite exposed if cold. Depending on your schedule, we waited until we had weather reports before booking.

Present for 2year old dd was a teddy with a star that you could name online. Can't remember what the older kids got. Father Christmas was lovely, although did have a Walsall accent.

Hope that helps

[tiredmelly]

We went last christmas and it was lovely. Presents weren't that good (was at the end of the day we collected them) but the santa was very believable.

I used tesco vouchers to buy tickets and booked travelodge in the sale. We also went to cadbury world the day before which seemed to make it more christmassy as we had a walk round bournville village too and bought our choc for xmas.

We enjoyed it that much that I booked again for this year but not sure if we are going due to lack of money

[Tolalola]

Sounds quite appealing for ds who'll be nearly 4. Anyone know any good deals on tickets?

[ThatsNotMyBabyBelly]

3 year olds are £3.50 if you book online. You do get good online discounts anyway, but keep your eyes open for an 2 for 1 vouchers on the website.

[Tolalola]

Oh thanks, that's not as much as I feared!