Bedgebury is holding a Christmas 'Lapland UK' Experience

[TheDuchessOfNorksBride]

... covering a part of the forest with fake snow, Christmas village, Raymond Briggs 'The Snowman' ride, Father Christmas visit, mulled wine to fortify parents, reindeer, husky dogs, trumpeters and all sorts. I'm soooo excited. Er, for my children, obviously...

It's quite expensive though (I just paid £167 for a family of 5). Here is the link. And here is the itinery.

And it's selling out quite quickly.

I feel so bad as I must be disappointing so many people with my bad review. I would be very interested to hear others opinions after their visit. I think our expectations were too high (thanks to LaplandUK overinflated claims on their website).

We should have realised when the invitation arrived. Don't you think it could have been a bit more authentic for little more cost e.g. real stamps not printed on? My 4 year old really believed he was going to be "helping" father christmas and wanted to take wrapping paper with us! I feel so let down .

I think playing it down is the key. We paid £115 for a family of 5 and was probably worth the money (just) so our expectations in hindsight were far too high.

Oh please don't feel bad Muzzy! You've really done us a great service. I'd hate to big it all up and have them disappointed. I agree about the invite - I was expecting a plush gold envelope (don't ask me why!) and was a bit at it.

To be honest, I was questioning whether or not it would be all it was cracked up to be on the website. So you've not done anything except saved us from a big disappointment - for which I am very grateful!

Oh no I am bit disapoiinted as well - I thought the simulator was going to be like an aeroplant type thing with it actually moving..

oh well hopefully the dds will like it!

oh dear muzzy i had seen that the journey into lapland was a dome with a projection on it rather than a simualtor which i first thought too.
What a shame about the snow and the toy factory as my ds does really believe he is going to help too!

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

Suppose there always going to be a few problems to iron out on the first day so can only see what everyone else thinks.
Not really a rip off if you compare prices to Lapland which for most of us are a dream!

Oh piss off cod. You waste money on crappy stuff too sometimes.. but people tend not to point it out to you. I will next time.

Message withdrawn

Some feedback from me as well, we also went yesterday...

Negatives:

• long queue to get in
• people checking you in were wearing stupid outfits, still don't know what they were. Looked a bit like sky divers suits. Not a good look on the larger men anyway!
• in long queue you stood on dirty matting with undressed xmas trees either side. I would have expected the 'magic' to start then - twinkly lights, carol singers, mulled wine...nothing. It was a long cold boring wait
• the flight simulator was awful. an inflatable tent with a few inflatable chairs to sit on (not nearly enough to go around). It showed a short clip of the Snowman plus a sant voice over at te beginning and end, that was it!!
• there were bad delays for everything - you have three time slots to do certain things, and by the time we got to the last one (seeing father christmas) we were told there was going to be a 1 hr delay. It was freezing, there was no where warm to wait during any of these delays. Unacceptable with very small children - we had a 10 mo and 18 mo in our party
• the toy factory part was crap
• free mulled wine was the size of a thimble - if you wanted anther it cost £2.50 each! rip off
• overall it just lacked 'soul' - no buzz, no music, no atmosphere in the main square

Positives:

• the hot chocolate with cream & marshmallows!
• seeing father christmas, that really was worth the long day (we arrived at 1pm and did not see him until gone 5pm)
• the gingerbread factory was fun
• the husky dogs are gorgeous
• the loos are the poshest I have seen at an event like this
• looked better the darker it got

We went yesterday and we were all a bit disappointed and it is very poor value.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone though so here are a few tips to get the most out of the day...

Smuggle in some food, £3 for a jam sandwich!

Make sure they shut door properly on awful transporter 'tent', my boy spotted the trees outside weren't moving and it spoilt it for him. It is VERY loud in the tent so watch the tiny ones.

Get to each time slot 5 minutes early to get a good seat and ensure your children get attended to, as some elves are brighter than others.

The post office sells you a snowman postcard, then charges you to send it, then it goes nowhere! Make your own mind up on best way to deal with this.

The children get to decorate a gingerbread man with sweeties and probably eat it, so schedule food around it.

Don't expect too much from the toy factory, it's just a puzzle to do, but the prezzie at the end is a similar puzzle so it kind of ties in.

Try not to let the little ones see the balding man reaching out the roof of the toy factory to turn on the snow machine (foamy soap suds) as it again spoils the illusion. The fake tree snow looks great but encourage them not to touch it as it's just tissuey stuff and is a let down close up.

The toy factory (do a puzzle), gingerbread house (stick sweets on a gingerbread man) and visit Santa (nice but thin chap from Yorkshire in a very dark room with incessant flash photos being taken) are all time allocated so don't miss them.

Dont hold out on spending much time with The story teller, the elves are just nice girls (some very tall!), the huskies will take up 30 seconds of the day and there are 2 sad looking reindeer about ten feet away and thats about it really.

Above all, the more you ignore the details and enter into the Spirit of the day, the more your little ones (and you) will enjoy it. You wont get £55 of merchandise per child, you wont think you've left the UK and you wont recommend it to a friend, but hey you can't get a refund so just enjoy what you can, smile and make it special for the sake of all of us that still believe in Father Christmas!

Bummer.

Oh I'm really disappointed by the reviews so far. I knew the earlier dates would not be as good as the ones closest to Xmas as obviously they would need to get some practice in. We've booked to go this Fri, my mum paid for herself and DCs. We thought it would be something magical for the older DCs to remember. Last year we just took DCs to a Shopping centre, where they had a "flight" complete with a screen to watch, movement and animatronic reindeer at the front pretending to fly us, it was great for a couple of quid each and the DCs got a present. I had high expectations really for the money, at least I have time to bring these down.

Oh, great. I can do decent hot chocolate and marshmallows at home for a couple of quid! Am no longer looking forward to this, and not sure it sounds as if it's worth ds missing a day of school for.

It seems I was not alone with my bitter disappointment. I think the reviews from JolieGirl and coolnel accurately reflect our own experience. If you have not already told your little ones about the trip and you have a long journey to Kent I would try and get a refund and do something else instead . I have even gone as far to email Kent Trading Standards specifically about their description of the "flight" which was so not ! If you still intend to go at least you have the advantage of what to expect so can prepare better than us and with your lower expectations you will have an okay day. My main worry is that if your child believes in Father Christmas and you sell this to him/her as going to Lapland and he susses it out for what it is, then no more believing in Father Christmas and loss of the magic which would be a crying shame. Which is the opposite intention of the experience! I think we only just got away with it...

I've just had a review from friends who went yesterday and they were more positive.

They were given a card with the times on that their group should do each activity - there were 30 in their group and they all fitted into various log cabins at the same time. She also said it was not crowded. They only had to wait for Father Christmas - but the children were doing drawings in a tent during the wait whilst the Elves chatted to them so the time passed quite quickly. The £10 photograph of FC at least had both her children in one photo, and not separate ones. She said the children had a fantastic day but adults were disappointed it didn't measure up to their 'fantasy German market expectations'.

She did agree that the food was expensive but had expected it to be (think Legoland etc) - £2.90 for a jam sandwich is just mean - and suggested we eat a good breakfast, smuggle in mid-morning biscuits and eat lunch in the car afterwards (we're there from 10 - 2).

They were on a 9.30am 'flight' so perhaps it's better if you go early? They also knew what the 'flight' would be in advance so were more prepared.

that the reviews are not very good let's hope as more people go they improve maybe we should email this to the man himself so he has the opportunity to make some changes ?

DeLighted to hear this is going ahead because I heard that local council jobsworths were blithering about planning permission and closing them down. There is then some sanity ( and santa-nity ) about...

whats with all the new posters? 2 of the bad reviewers have never posted anything else on mn ever before?

Can't speak for the others but I have certainly posted on mumsnet many times before!! What purpose would there be for anyone to come on here solely to post a bad reviewof something? I tried to give a balanced perspective with both pros and cons, but they were only my opinions. With everything in life, you go and make your own mind up once you have experienced it first hand...

To be fair we did ask people to come back and report to us just a shame it isn't as positive as we had hoped!

I'm going on the 19th of December. Should I cancel? I don't want ot 'ruin' the Father Xmas thing for my little ones - Help!

I admit I got caught up in the 'magic' of it all when I booked, but started having doubts. I'm going to call them tomorrow and find out if its just teething problems.

There was no reason why it could not be as good as they made out...

From the sounds of it it needs:

a simulator that moves rather than a tent

a toy making activity in the factory bit - there are loads of things they could do...

music in the square

maybe it will get better - I am not going to the 17th...

good idea foxy might do that myself. Like Cazzy says they don't seem to be things they can't remedy might be worth us all mailing them with some of the concerns raised ?