Santa land - Earls Court London in December

mummysaver

Thanks for all the posts, was considering taking my four to see the ultimate Christmas experience, though I did wonder how they'd fit it plus all the people into Earls Court, will definitely do something else now with the money - probably the local steam train with mince pies and mulled wine plus a visit from Santa (it's cheaper and the mulled wine should numb the pain!)

whereishergar

Does anyone know if these organisers are the same jokers that ran the "Santas Kingdom" a few years ago at the Birmingham NEC, which was about the same price, and a real disappointment. You were made to feel like sheep being quickly pushed through to the end area which was supposed to be real snow for snowball fights - when in fact all you got was one small tray with a small piece of snow and you had to lean over a barrier and throw it quickly so the next person could have a turn .... It even made it on Watchdog and got loads of bad press etc, also they had been in trouble for staging the same thing in Ireland previously! Just wondered if there was any possible connection ??????

davsato_2

i took my family to santa-land yesterday, "the ultimate christmas experience" it was a total rip-off.
from the "free" rides that the kids can only have six goes on, to paying £10 for four soft drinks.

all the staff seemed to be part-time students who managed three words of english, two of which were "_______ pounds please". in an emergency there would be chaos because we were packed in like sardines.

my advice is save a packet, ditch this rubbish and take your kids elsewhere, vote with your feet.
or your wallet, that seems to be all these people are interested in.

kiwichick

There was an interesting article in yesterdays mirror p33 entitled

"SANTA GETS THE SACK....FOR BEING TOO NICE TO KIDS"

I'll give you all 1 guess where heworked...................yep sodding Santaland. This poor bloke was given the boot after only an hour for wanting to spend more than the alloted 30 seconds with each child.

Be nice to see what the response, if any, from the organisers is.

Has anyone heard back from a complaint yet??? I'm still waiting on a reply.

Allison.

shykins

more i read the more disappointed i am .. i have already booked and paid for this as a treat for little un next week

i wonder if ican get my money back and not go as it seems a farce and i would really hate to disappoint him

narry

For all the people who haven't complained yet ... It's worth doing

I sent the comments I wrote previously to this email address :

santaland@trendandculture.com

and received a reply from Bryan Leaker with a form attached which offered a full refund and a revisit as a VIP guest choosing the dates from Monday 12th to Thursday 15th and Monday 19th to Thursday 22nd

The letter contained an apology and said they had teething problems which have now been resolved

I have sent the form back today so will let you know when I have been refunded, Unfortunately the dates they have given for the re-visit is not ideal for me so I won't be able to tell you if it's any better

Hope this helps some people to get your hard earned money back

Merry xmas

tpapworth

I took my two boys to Santaland on Dec 10th. Whilst the queueing problems seem to have been sorted out - we didn't have a long wait for any of the rides or to see Santa I thought it was a complete waste of money.
Apparently they've now increased the numbers of Santas to 12 and so some children get herded into a grotto before being able to 'explore' the rest of Santaland. This then spoils the storyline about collecting ribbons as you go round.
The rides are small and boring - just 5 or 6 basic roundabouts , the snow 'mountain' can only be described as a small hillock which you slide down on inner tubes, and the forest train ride travels through a few small plastic pine trees before the naughty gnome Norman appears to say sorry for taking the ribbons and promises he'll give them all back.
The theatre is a short cartoon and whilst the staff were in general pleasant and jolly our visit in no way justifies the ticket price.
It could have been done so much better - in fact the average shopping centre's grotto knocks spots off it.
If anyone hasn't yet booked and is thinking of going , don't bother!!!

Alyn_2

Thanks Narry. I've tried the same action. It's a bit of a p:mad:ss take to offer you tickets to go back again, I certainly would not go back in that place if they paid me.

I'm sure even if we the place to ourselves there would still be a queue.

moneysavingnorman

"and the forest train ride travels through a few small plastic pine trees before...."

Sorry to disappoint but the (quite a lot) trees are real.... not fake
Just thought i'd mention it.

Small piece of advice for all, later on at night is quieter! (3 p.m onwards) week days are quieter. weekend....not so quiet.

tpapworth

''the (quite a lot) trees are real.... not fake
Just thought i'd mention it.''

Were they really? In that case I withdraw my previous remark.
Nevertheless perhaps if the ride had been a bit longer and more interesting I would have appreciated the authenticity of the flora.