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2023 Seasonal Event: Christmas Wonderland

Charliie said:
I’ve spotted a few treats not visible to a nine thoosie.
Park was fairly quiet today which I expected due to most people travelling to see family. The longest queue for the day unsurprisingly was submarine splash which seemed to be at capacity all day but to me it seemed to be on half the submarine boats. Everything else was literally walk on including accelerator which staff were keeping guests in the platform for re rides without the need for queuing again.

We had a good day overall and I can’t thank the staff enough. We started our day off with breakfast with sir toPham hat and dusty which is always amazing . The shows to me work better when theirs only one show of each in the day and we had some special time with the characters in the park.

Our day took a turn for the worst when 1) we ended up in the first aid hut after my son somehow really banged his mouth on a bar in the accelerator queue station. The blood didn’t seem to stop. Then a little while later my son went missing and all the staff at park searched for him. Even dusty on his break helped search for him. It was a scary situation but it was amazing to see the policies in place and in action.

On arrival to park , guests were being offered the chance to go into the grotto straight away because it was so dead. I’ve noticed improvements in the queue for the wishmas express. They’ve blocked off 2 out of the three entrances and now you only enter from the main entrance. It worked very well and our train was delayed by 10 minutes but that was because the ride before us broke down for a few moments.

We also noticed that the Rory show was a different experience with some of the set being replaced by different elements all together. After the Rory show on exit all
The children were being given the Santa lolly pops.

We also noticed rusty and dusty doing multiple entertainment gigs including being elves. When my child spotted this , they told him they was being under cover due to wanting to meet the reindeers which was brilliant.

The bellow photos are taken during the Christmas wonderland event in public areas. It may have helped the wind had blown the tar pooling up but we spotted a familiar friend.
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Just realized the terence carts are being stored in the dodgems ahoy
 
My highs and lows for this years event.

Highs

After the 1st weekend of the Santa experience they made it the best ever experience and for £7 each so £35 for the 5 of us to experience the elf story time, Elf reindeer food making/dance along then met the big man himself who was so good with the kids and didn’t feel rushed. I like you got a photo included in the price now and a gift and a free return visit with a hot chocolate for the adult which we enjoyed drinking with our gingerbread man we made in the Mrs Claus kitchen.
Thomas land entertainment this has really improved for the Christmas event with a lot more shows and good to see it in the dark and the snow storm is the best ever.
Putting Rory inside the theatre was a great idea as more people could watch it. I may go this week to see what different there is to the show.
The Wishmas express was the best part of the event and was worth the extra charge.

Lows

The ride line up is the worst ever and not having none of the Vikings rides open really made the non Thomas land ride line up the worst ever. Like still don’t understand why they open the Bounty which is 1.2m restriction and not the Flying Dutchman which the whole family can enjoy.
The decorations where they had brought some new lights and decorations they still using the stuff the Bryan’s brought 15 years ago and a lot of it don’t work. The big miss this year is the tree in central plaza which did a light show to the music just looked awful having a rope light wrapped around the tree.
Entertainment outside of Thomas land I felt they really cut down the offerings and they missed a trick not having the reindeer and the bear out.
Yet again no fireworks to end the night yeah they had Mrs Claus singing but that never had many people watching it even when they added 2 more shows earlier on.
The queues for Santa and the train wasn’t planned very well and hopefully they will have just 1 entrance for the train next year.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
My highs and lows for this years event.

Highs

After the 1st weekend of the Santa experience they made it the best ever experience and for £7 each so £35 for the 5 of us to experience the elf story time, Elf reindeer food making/dance along then met the big man himself who was so good with the kids and didn’t feel rushed. I like you got a photo included in the price now and a gift and a free return visit with a hot chocolate for the adult which we enjoyed drinking with our gingerbread man we made in the Mrs Claus kitchen.
Thomas land entertainment this has really improved for the Christmas event with a lot more shows and good to see it in the dark and the snow storm is the best ever.
Putting Rory inside the theatre was a great idea as more people could watch it. I may go this week to see what different there is to the show.
The Wishmas express was the best part of the event and was worth the extra charge.

Lows

The ride line up is the worst ever and not having none of the Vikings rides open really made the non Thomas land ride line up the worst ever. Like still don’t understand why they open the Bounty which is 1.2m restriction and not the Flying Dutchman which the whole family can enjoy.
The decorations where they had brought some new lights and decorations they still using the stuff the Bryan’s brought 15 years ago and a lot of it don’t work. The big miss this year is the tree in central plaza which did a light show to the music just looked awful having a rope light wrapped around the tree.
Entertainment outside of Thomas land I felt they really cut down the offerings and they missed a trick not having the reindeer and the bear out.
Yet again no fireworks to end the night yeah they had Mrs Claus singing but that never had many people watching it even when they added 2 more shows earlier on.
The queues for Santa and the train wasn’t planned very well and hopefully they will have just 1 entrance for the train next year.
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They had changed the train entrance , we attended Christmas Eve and it was back to the usual one entrance with new fencing installed so it’s good to see they are actively making improvements. We also had meet and greets with baby reindeers which was lovely but this was something that had happened on chance.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
My highs and lows for this years event.

Highs

After the 1st weekend of the Santa experience they made it the best ever experience and for £7 each so £35 for the 5 of us to experience the elf story time, Elf reindeer food making/dance along then met the big man himself who was so good with the kids and didn’t feel rushed. I like you got a photo included in the price now and a gift and a free return visit with a hot chocolate for the adult which we enjoyed drinking with our gingerbread man we made in the Mrs Claus kitchen.
Thomas land entertainment this has really improved for the Christmas event with a lot more shows and good to see it in the dark and the snow storm is the best ever.
Putting Rory inside the theatre was a great idea as more people could watch it. I may go this week to see what different there is to the show.
The Wishmas express was the best part of the event and was worth the extra charge.

Lows

The ride line up is the worst ever and not having none of the Vikings rides open really made the non Thomas land ride line up the worst ever. Like still don’t understand why they open the Bounty which is 1.2m restriction and not the Flying Dutchman which the whole family can enjoy.
The decorations where they had brought some new lights and decorations they still using the stuff the Bryan’s brought 15 years ago and a lot of it don’t work. The big miss this year is the tree in central plaza which did a light show to the music just looked awful having a rope light wrapped around the tree.
Entertainment outside of Thomas land I felt they really cut down the offerings and they missed a trick not having the reindeer and the bear out.
Yet again no fireworks to end the night yeah they had Mrs Claus singing but that never had many people watching it even when they added 2 more shows earlier on.
The queues for Santa and the train wasn’t planned very well and hopefully they will have just 1 entrance for the train next year.
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We have the free return golden tickets too, Im wondering if you (or anyone reading this) can tell me if the golden tickets can be used to attend the dino breakout in February half term? Also, the golden tickets state they can only be used by children under 11, but when we went they gave one to my 13 year old daughter, would they honour it?
 
deathvalleydemon said:
We have the free return golden tickets too, Im wondering if you (or anyone reading this) can tell me if the golden tickets can be used to attend the dino breakout in February half term? Also, the golden tickets state they can only be used by children under 11, but when we went they gave one to my 13 year old daughter, would they honour it?
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Isn’t it listed to run to 28th March so u can use it any dates the park open to then. As they not announced any events for 2024 yet I would just wait but the main theme park season could start on the 23rd March as the kids finish for Easter on the 22nd March.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Isn’t it listed to run to 28th March so u can use it any dates the park open to then. As they not announced any events for 2024 yet I would just wait but the main theme park season could start on the 23rd March as the kids finish for Easter on the 22nd March.
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this is what the ticket states, seems to confirm the dino breakout will return for 2024...
 

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We had an enjoyable time at the Christmas event yesterday. We were surprised to see both Bounty and Accelerator open as we had assumed it would just be Thomas Land. Mrs Claus was amazing, being really friendly to everyone as she was walking around the park. We saw her last performance on the stage and she was ahead of us as we headed to the Bounty, and she walked towards the Customer Service building, waving and saying hello to all the guests along the way. We had to shelter from the rain under the Lakeside Tea Rooms canopy for a while and Rory and his friend came over to chat with us. Great fun! The only disappointment was that we had tickets for Wishmas Express but when we arrived for our slot they told us it had been cancelled because of Storm Gerrit that hit the day before. We could see the light trail over the lake as we exited the park at the Vikings entrance and it looked like it would have been a good ride. They said we'll get an email about the cancelled tickets. The balcony show was good fun as always, I noticed the original Rusty has returned - it was a different lady during the summer.
 
DrukenBarrel said:
We had an enjoyable time at the Christmas event yesterday. We were surprised to see both Bounty and Accelerator open as we had assumed it would just be Thomas Land. Mrs Claus was amazing, being really friendly to everyone as she was walking around the park. We saw her last performance on the stage and she was ahead of us as we headed to the Bounty, and she walked towards the Customer Service building, waving and saying hello to all the guests along the way. We had to shelter from the rain under the Lakeside Tea Rooms canopy for a while and Rory and his friend came over to chat with us. Great fun! The only disappointment was that we had tickets for Wishmas Express but when we arrived for our slot they told us it had been cancelled because of Storm Gerrit that hit the day before. We could see the light trail over the lake as we exited the park at the Vikings entrance and it looked like it would have been a good ride. They said we'll get an email about the cancelled tickets. The balcony show was good fun as always, I noticed the original Rusty has returned - it was a different lady during the summer.
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Hey! Can you tell me what the show lineup was for Thomas Land!
 
DrukenBarrel said:
We had an enjoyable time at the Christmas event yesterday. We were surprised to see both Bounty and Accelerator open as we had assumed it would just be Thomas Land. Mrs Claus was amazing, being really friendly to everyone as she was walking around the park. We saw her last performance on the stage and she was ahead of us as we headed to the Bounty, and she walked towards the Customer Service building, waving and saying hello to all the guests along the way. We had to shelter from the rain under the Lakeside Tea Rooms canopy for a while and Rory and his friend came over to chat with us. Great fun! The only disappointment was that we had tickets for Wishmas Express but when we arrived for our slot they told us it had been cancelled because of Storm Gerrit that hit the day before. We could see the light trail over the lake as we exited the park at the Vikings entrance and it looked like it would have been a good ride. They said we'll get an email about the cancelled tickets. The balcony show was good fun as always, I noticed the original Rusty has returned - it was a different lady during the summer.
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I’m confused about this , we’ve had the same rusty every visit for the last year and a half. I do know that they used to have set staff on different days but as far as I’m aware the only major staff change has been 1) a different sir topemhat and 2) Rory’s friend as he had moved to the grotto.
 
There are two people who play Rusty at least :) we saw a different performer on a visit too.


I believe most performers have someone as a backup performer in case of sickness / time off.

(But that's not on topic to Christmas so this is where I'll leave it)
 
Ollie said:
Hey! Can you tell me what the show lineup was for Thomas Land!
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Rusty and Dusty came out singing, then introduced STH. They sang a song about musical instruments, Rusty had an electric guitar, Dusty had a tiny saxophone, and STH was on air-drums. Then there was a sketch about baking a cake, following a recipe read out by DJ Trains from an old-fashioned radio set on the wall. They got to the bit about baking it in the oven for 30 minutes but STH was impatient so they sang a special song and hey presto the cake was ready! Then there was a song that involved clapping hands, stomping feet, a nd turning around. Much audience participation, then snow.
 
DrukenBarrel said:
Mrs Claus was amazing, being really friendly to everyone as she was walking around the park. We saw her last performance on the stage and she was ahead of us as we headed to the Bounty, and she walked towards the Customer Service building, waving and saying hello to all the guests along the way.
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Yep, we visited today and she was one of the main attractions. She was really engaging on her walks round the park did a great show.
 
DrukenBarrel said:
Rusty and Dusty came out singing, then introduced STH. They sang a song about musical instruments, Rusty had an electric guitar, Dusty had a tiny saxophone, and STH was on air-drums. Then there was a sketch about baking a cake, following a recipe read out by DJ Trains from an old-fashioned radio set on the wall. They got to the bit about baking it in the oven for 30 minutes but STH was impatient so they sang a special song and hey presto the cake was ready! Then there was a song that involved clapping hands, stomping feet, a nd turning around. Much audience participation, then snow.
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Just one show?
 
Does the park always run the Christmas event after the main day? It just seems a bit odd to me to have an event still running themed to it even after it’s all happened.
 
AlfieJW said:
Does the park always run the Christmas event after the main day? It just seems a bit odd to me to have an event still running themed to it even after it’s all happened.
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Others can answer historically but generally they will look to open alongside school holidays with events to match.
 
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