Santas Magic Kingdom - anyone been?

[leese]

Just wandering if anyone has been and what their experience was. i was very tempted to take dd, but at £17.50 per ticket for an eighteen month old thought it a bit of a rip off (basically I'm too tight!). Anyhow, told my sister about it, and she got tickets for herself, husband and ds in Birmingham. she went on Friday and was really disappointed.
I think the literature had led her (and lots of others there) to believe that there would be a sleigh ride of sorts at the start, but there wasn't - you just walked into a hall, wearing your colour coded band, which told you when you had to move on into the next area. she thought there would be lots of snow and ice (tickets specified wrapping up warmly) - there was lots of polystyrene effect. There was a big snow slide, but rides were obviously limited.
There were live reindeer, but nothing you could get very close to. Food could only be purchased inside (very expensive). Think the final straw came when they went into the final hall to see Santa, to be met with a 2.5 hr wait! They just made their way, with many others, thru the emergency exits........
Having previously heard only glowing reports about this 'experience' I was really surprised to hear this. My sister said she was listening to a radio talk show the other day too, in which lots of callers were ringing to complain about their time there - they felt rushed, it was too busy etc.
So, anyone been and had a better experience? How does the experience in Glasgow (?) and Dublin(?) compare......

Wow! Thank goodness for Mumsnet, I was really tempted to buy tickets for Wembley when I first saw the adverts! If it really did cost ?£2m to set up (even between all 4 venues!) I wonder why the organisers couldn't have got it right?

Crunchie, how would I get to Colchester Zoo from Central London without a car? Is it far from Colchester station, is there a bus etc? I assume the most direct route would be from Liverpool Street but maybe there's a country station that's really near?

I used to work for one of the venues in question although I left way before Santas Kingdom I have encountered similar problems before.

If you want to complain then ring the box office and ask who the promoters are. They won't give you the address but at least with a company name you can find out for yourself.

SueW - booking fees, the promoter of the event would have hired the halls and set the ticket price. They would have then asked the box office or other agents to sell tickets. They keep the ticket price and the box office keeps the booking fee otherwise the box office staff would be working for nothing. Usually personal callers who pay cash cheque or switch don't have to pay the booking fee. I used to wish the promoters would just pay the box office a fee for selling tickets as it saves all that hassle.

Regarding availability, again it happens all the time. Either they hold back tickets so that less popular days sell more evenly or they decide at the last minute that they arn't going to use up all of their comp allocation. Again it is probably better to book direct via the box office although this time of year it can be hard getting through. Sometimes, not always though they would sell you tickets for the day you wanted rather than turn the sale away.

Please forgive me for being anonymous, although I no longer work there I have many friends who still do.

MandyD, I am not sure getting to the zoo from the station, they have a website www.colchester-zoo.co.uk which might help.

It is great, and the you get to see a baby elephant too!

You may not get real/fake snow, but I think it's good value for money as I have posted on another thread too!

I've just checked it says 10 mins by Taxi, as the buses run from teh bus station, not the train station and they are not next to each other!

Sorry it is much easier by car I wouldn't necessarily come out from London by train, unless you've got friends this way. London Zoo is great too, but I don't know about Father Christmas, perhaps they have one??

It was on watchdog last night with everyone complaining saying it was a real rip off.

That you were only allowed 1 minute in each section before being hurried along by an elf, and when you got to the end there was loads of little rooms each with a Father Christmas in for the children to see, the problem was the way it was set up they could see ALL the Father Christmas' in one go.

People where saying that the'd spent £100 for a family and it was cr@p.

Agree with everything that has been said. A great disappointment, too busy, too rushed....but my 3 yr old loved it.

...and he loved his present from Santa....a toy gun!! He has been hankering after one for so long he was delighted, his dad and I were much less delighted!

Eve, IKWYM about guns: my ds looks at me witheringly and says "but it's a TOY mummy. Look, doesn't kill anyone, see?"

try this review from the telegraph (entitled Santa's grotty little show)

I agree with every word. We've just had DD's birthday party (fantastic entertainer, BTW, who is listed on the Equity site) and one of the mums said they'd been last night. Kids liked it but adults were bitterly disappointed. I know it's about the children but it's also dsiappointing to see how it could have been better for your child