I've put a couple of photo's on my profile - they're not terribly good photo's as all the best ones have my DCs & DH in them and I want to keep them private.
But this is what we thought (and the friends we went with)...
Very long walk from walled car park to entrance - we managed OK but toddlers & elderly would take at least 30 minutes. Later visitors got to park in the car park by visitor centre so much easier for them.
We missed our 10.00am flight because the 10.30 people were all queueing ahead of us and they don't call out 'flight times'. We just went with the 10.30 and were given their timetable. It was busier than usual because some of last Sundays' cancellations had been given tickets for yesterday (but we only noticed in the toy factory & gingerbread house).
The Snowman ride wasn't very good but the DCs had a lot of fun. We didn't get snow blown over us but we did all get chairs.
When we walked out into the Lapland square the snow was falling quite heavily and it looked fabulous. The elves were very helpful!
We immediately went into toy factory and made puzzles. Boring for adults but the children enjoyed it. We then had 15mins before gingerbread, which is long enough for a drink and a visit to husky dogs.
Gingerbread house was great. The gingerbread men they decorate are about 10" high and they can eat them straightaway or elves give you a bag. Mrs Christmas then tells them the Gingerbread Man story (without using a book). She is very good btw.
As we left the gingerbread house we were called for our FC appointment. We were 1 of 6 families, all given a number, then we proceeded to large tent with coffee machine, 6 large tables with colouring and several elves for entertainment. After 10 minutes we were called to see FC, who scores 11 out of 10. Absolutely perfect. Log cabin ditto.
We then went back to village which by this time was quite empty. No queue for lunch - we had 3 x hot dogs, 1 egg & bacon roll and 1 bacon roll which cost £16 - which is roughly what we pay in McDonalds so that was fine. We ate at a table in another large tent. Then we visited the reindeer who are gorgeous.
The post office was nice - only 2 other families there. We wrote a couple of postcards, DD1 stamped them and we posted them in wooden postbox in forest. (I paid less than £2 for 4 postcards, 2 of which we posted). Then we went for a story. Storyteller was in Lap dress, she did read from a large book but to be fair, the stories are quite long and unfamiliar. She read Nonny The Reindeer & then How The Bear Lost It's Tail. We were the only family in the tent.
We then had our hot drinks. The mulled wine & hot fruit punch are in half-size cups (not thimbles) and in fact the wine was so strong that DH had to drink it.
The dressed-up Rudolf is fun and plays with the DC, begs for their lunch etc. They loved him. We then left via the shop, the FC photo's are lovely (I keep having to look at them).
We heard one family moaning about there not being umbrellas or waterproofs for sale and several people wore very impractical clothing. It is in a forest, it has been raining for weeks and the paths are getting muddy. I think some people would be happier at the Earls Court thing. This is an outdoor event and you need to be prepared! I took extra socks for all the DCs, as wellies are never that warm. Despite the rain, we had a good day.
[and this is undoubtedly my longest ever post]!