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i have been anticiapting doing this for years thinking 'when ds is 4 he will be around the right age...' well, here we are!

i have read the horror stories and dh is dead set against it. however, i thought that ds and i could go on an early date for just over £100 and dh could disppear off to Tunbridge Wells for the day to visit his friend and return to pick us up five hours later (good damage limitation?)

surely £100 is not bad for an experience which should compare to jetting off to another country for the day - even that would cost more??

You should go. You might enjoy it and think it was good value for money. And if not then we can all point and laugh (and we'll enjoy that, and it'll be free and hence automatically good value for money). So either way someone will be happy.

Um. That's probably not the sort of encouragement you wanted...

Really, though, if you're after a magical Christmas experience I'd go to Kew Gardens, which is fab at Christmas and/or to see The Snowman in Central London.

I think Lapland UK "compares to" jetting off to another country for the day in the sense that you can say "My word, Lapland UK isn't a fraction as good as jetting off to another country for the day", i.e. in much the same way that I compare to, say, Megan Fox.

for a fraction of that cost, I'm sure you could just go ice skating at dusk somewhere...really! 100 is an AWFUL lot of money to spend on a dubious day out with a 4-yr-old, IMO.

We went the first year and paid in the region of £180 for four of us. I still think it was worth that even with the dissapointments. The father christmas was magical as was the decorating snowmen and the toy factory. I think they have kept all of these things and ditched some of the let downs.
For £100 , if you can afford it, i would go tbh.
I thought it was a lot more expensive than that this year!!

Don't bother

do

this instead

thanks - we have done the ice rink already but kew gardens is a possibility i will look into now.

If it is the one in the paper it is £87 each and Justine is quoted as saying MNters think it is a bit steep.

We did it first year and it was OK. Kind of funny for the grown ups (as in "that elf couldn't be more jobsworth if he tried" way) but the kids liked it. Sort of. Would never do it again. It is nothing like the magical experience you imagine but more akin to a legoland kind of thing of thing - great in theory but not when you factor in queues and lack of loos and expensive drinks etc etc, it loses its' appeal somewhat

booked it on ds' insistence, still feeling - will report back

That's not the magnificent con with the shitting elves, rabid reindeer and a 'nativity' which was a kind of crayoned-in picture on a billboard above a sea of mud, is it?

did it yesterday, have posted my thought here:
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/865588-Lapland-UK-2009-my-experience