Lapland uk rant

[Laplandhelluk]

I’m so utterly disappointed with how they have dealt with the lockdown bookings.
Superstars (disabled children) have been let down. Their slogan of every child matters is complete rubbish. Most children with additional needs do not live long lives and they may never have the chance to have children of their own to carry on any traditions or experiences, they literally have a few years and this year lapland uk has taken this from them by making sure they don’t matter, all because they wanted to keep as much revenue as possible. All of this is made worse by reading that alot of people who booked superstar tickets don’t even have a child or adult with any additional needs. The whole thing just leaves a very bad taste and i know there’s a pandemic but i can’t help but be upset for my child

Are children with disabilities not allowed to go on other days? Or is it that there are no free places for carers on other days?

This year they haven’t allowed carers with all bookings anyway and actually as a single parent booking you can not obtain a free carer ticket on any booking on any year, so the free carer ticket has nothing to do with how they are selecting.
They are only allowing the 30th december, they have publicly announced this and responded to emails stating this. They have also frozen the website and are selecting who to allow to ammend the bookings.
I will of course be opting for a refund but i just find it utterly disappointing for my child.

I think if you booked during a pandemic you must have known there was a high chance of plans changing and should have prepared yourself for it. Disappointing I know but that's been the case for everyone this year, one way or another.

It looks as though they are fully booked for December. They have added extra 8am and 8.30am slots, and the post Christmas slots, for anyone who has to move their booking. They've said they will be contacting everyone this week.

Have you tried getting in touch through their socials? They seem pretty active.

It sounds very disappointing for you and your family.

This is what they've said about superstar days

We are heartbroken we cannot stage our Superstar Days as planned this year. Logistically our Superstar Days require a full day to organise, we hope to see you on December 30th however you have the option of a full refund or transfer of tickets to 2021.

@HunterHearstHelmsley

This is what they've said about superstar days

We are heartbroken we cannot stage our Superstar Days as planned this year. Logistically our Superstar Days require a full day to organise, we hope to see you on December 30th however you have the option of a full refund or transfer of tickets to 2021.

That seems fair to me, they are doing their best in very trying times.

Yes i knew there was a risk with the pandemic but when i booked the uk was back to some kind of normality and boris was saying christmas would be ok. I knew this may not be possible so i always thought i would transfer or refund. I didn’t ecpect them to do what they have done.

I have been in touch with them. Suoerstars are blocked from booking these new times. They can only book the 30th.

Yes that statement would be believable if they had allocated a second superstar day but they haven’t so if it such a logistical nightnare and needs 2 days in a usual year and they currently have 2 days of bookongs then how can they now logistically put those 2 days into one? Also why are the disabled only allowed to book the 30th when they can usually book any date?
All the had to do was keep it inclusive and allow the superstars the same hope and chance as the abled or people who had booked on a non superstar day.

@HunterHearstHelmsley

This is what they've said about superstar days

We are heartbroken we cannot stage our Superstar Days as planned this year. Logistically our Superstar Days require a full day to organise, we hope to see you on December 30th however you have the option of a full refund or transfer of tickets to 2021.

I understand from their perspective to do so might mean cancelling a full day of visits for other customers which wouldn’t be acceptable to those customers either.

Despite the veneer of fluffy Christmas magic purveyors they’re just a business at the end of the day in a really difficult situation

Sorry for your frustration and disappointment I’d try to adjust thinking and enjoy the new date even if slightly unconventional

No one wants any of customers cancelled and lapland uk wouldn’t have been put in that position by anyone.
How is it acceptable to not allow a disabled person a chance to see father christmas before christmas?
Yes they have reminded us all in this situation that they are a business. We pay a high premium to visit their business.
I don’t need to adjust my thinking to accept their discriminatory offer, i will simply refund and never return to their business but i do now regret spending the thousands i have over the last few years at their business.

Lots of kids arent going to be able to do their traditional Christmas activities this year and see Santa some for the first time and some for the last time if you’ve been already why so desperate to go again it is a shit load of money?

Are the superstar days discounted? I know we paid around £600 for a family of four close to Christmas a couple of years ago. I can understand them not selling the premium days at a discount and unfortunately for everyone, the lockdown has removed the possibility of offering this in November.

Absolutely understand your frustration OP- I guess the issue though is that you bought a day in November (which presumably isn’t their absolute peak time). They now can’t offer day in November because of lockdown. They probably can’t afford to have a day of reduced capacity in December (as the superstar days have 30% less guests than ‘standard’ days). I guess the other issue here might be that other families have booked in December for a ‘standard’ day, and it wouldn’t be fair to have their days cancelled to make way for superstar tickets.

Lapland UK have offered another off peak alternative (January), swapping to 2021, or having a full refund. I think they’ve done all they can under really awful circumstances tbh.

FWIW, we’ve had 2 Christmas days out cancelled in November- and I can’t transfer one of them to December as it’s fully booked. I am disappointed but it’s the nature of this awful pandemic I’m afraid 🤷🏻‍♀️

Is it that disabled people are not allowed to book on other days, or that they are only allowing like-for-like ticket exchanges, I.e the 'superstar' tickets are cheaper or different in some other way, and therefore you aren't allowed to exchange that for a ticket on a non-superstar day when it would be full price?

If they are banning disabled people from buying non-superstar tickets then that is unreasonable. If they are saying that people who have superstar tickets (and they are cheaper or different somehow) are only allowed to rebook for superstar days then that is reasonable in the current situation I think.

Yep just checked and the tickets are subsidised on the superstar days. Sorry OP, but I think it is perfectly reasonable of them to say that these tickets cannot be used as a general admission ticket on any day you choose. As far as I can see they aren't then stopping you from buying full price tickets on one of the non-superstar days if there is availability.

@UsernameN0Tavailable

Yep just checked and the tickets are subsidised on the superstar days. Sorry OP, but I think it is perfectly reasonable of them to say that these tickets cannot be used as a general admission ticket on any day you choose. As far as I can see they aren't then stopping you from buying full price tickets on one of the non-superstar days if there is availability.

That makes perfect sense.

The superstar days are £14 cheaper than the next cheapest november date.

As i have said already in this thread, lapland uk have frozen the superstar bookings so you can not change to a different date regardless of price. This is stopping the superstar disabled bookings from buying full price tickets on other days.

Their online information is old and doesn’t relate to what they are currently doing.

Unless I’ve misunderstood, couldn’t you get a refund on your superstars booking and rebook for another day

I can understand they can’t have many subsidised days when there are so few days available

Ok- so what’s happening to ‘standard’ November bookings?

I am not sure they are being unfair. If you book superstar tickets as opposed to general admission then presumably that's because your child needs the extra provision on these days e.g. less people, more accessible spaces etc etc. Offering the chance to go on a general admittance day wouldn't be much use. Rearranging the date sounds much more sensible. It's a shame it's after Xmas but I am sure that it would still be enjoyable.

Just looked- seems that December is full, so they’re offering everyone a refund, transfer to 2021 OR the the option you have. Additional option for ‘standard’ tickets is to go early in the morning- presumably they’re changing their opening times to accommodate this. So basically the best case scenario for a ‘standard’ ticket before Christmas is to turn up early and tag on to an existing day.

They’ve already said that the superstar bookings need to all happen on the same day, so I guess that’s why the early tickets aren’t being offered to you... but the other options seem the same for everyone?

So, aside from the cost difference would your disabled child be able to attend on a different day?

At no point have they actually banned disabled people on all other days, it’s just that they have some additional facilities available on the superstar days. If your disabled child can attend on another day then can’t you just pay the price difference?

There is no way that the disabled are “not allowed” to book on other days, it’s just that the additional facilities and the subsidy aren’t available on those days.

IMO the annoyance is over how this seems to be being cancelled and then not and then cancelled again with uncertainty over what is happening. But truth is that there will always be parents with disabled children who won’t be able to get a superstar ticket because it will be fully booked. Some of those will opt to go on other days with the extra cost, others will just have to bear the disappointment.

The only difference here is that there are less superstar tickets available due to logistics. They will have had to cancel all their November bookings due to lockdown, and TBH December will still be uncertain until we definitely come out of lockdown on the 2nd.

I think you’re getting a bit of a rough time here OP.

They are a business and they’re going to struggle to survive this winter along with the rest of the industry and working in travel I do appreciate their plight. However for a family of 4 on the cheapest day it is £260 minus booking fees, postage and insurance. We paid significantly more for our family, just over £400. That’s for a 3-4 hours experience. For that kind of money I’m a bit shocked they don’t have any way of speaking to anyone by phone. You are left with Facebook messenger and email, even then you may not get a reply or if you do it’s a cut and paste response. I’m sure under normal circumstances this is fine but they have been caught out this year and it’s got a lot of people angry judging by the Facebook posts. We asked for a refund after being placed in tier 3 as we were told we wouldn’t be allowed entry. We decided at that point rather than rebooking we’d just get our money back and try again when things are less chaotic. I got my refund but I had to fight for it.
The problem with the superstar days is that they apparently give superstars longer at each station so it would have been impossible to fit in on the days before Christmas I think the mistake they have made is not allowing superstars being able to transfer to the normal days if they felt they could cope. I can’t work out their reasoning for this.
Similarly they have made a mistake not opening up the new time slots to all of November cancellations at once. By emailing people one at a time it has given some people unintended priority access to the best dates and times and now some people are logging on to find only dates after Christmas are left. I get why they would be annoyed.
One thing worth mentioning is they do have 6:30pm and 7:00pm times hidden at the moment. They were spotted yesterday when they accidentally put the booking system live. So depending on the age of your LO you could cancel and get your refund and then try to book one of these when they go live? They were cheaper like the superstar days because of how late they will run.
Good luck whatever you decided, I understand your disappointment. My kids didn’t know but it was a little bit of Christmas magic for the end of the year. It was really tough cancelling that.

Just to reassure you re seeing Santa after Christmas - I’ve done this a couple of times with my DC and can honestly say there was no difference at all in the magic. They didn’t once question why we were there and just accepted it for the wonderful experience it was .

Your disappointment is understandable. It's a horrible situation across the board. I'll be getting a refund. Have you thought about alternatives to lapland? With the best will in the world, the numbers of cancellations and the physical capacity for extra tours don't match, so many will remain disappointed. If I were you, I'd request a refund and look elsewhere (Christmas lights at Kew any good?)