A mum who took her son to Lapland UK for a day trip has shared her “honest review” of the festive attraction, pinpointing one element that “spoiled” what was otherwise a “beautiful” event.
Lapland UK has sites in both Manchester and Ascot, Berkshire, and it was the latter that Charlotte Briscoe decided to visit. “There is so much to do, the place was absolutely beautiful and when you first arrive you collect your passport for when you go through all the different activities throughout the day,” she began in a TikTok video.
Charlotte praised the entire set up, staging and costumes worn by staff as “beautiful”. She further explained: “It’s a theatrical event so there is lots of this going on and I really enjoyed it – the lights and just the beautiful fantasy they set was so gorgeous.”
And according to the mum, the “magical” storyline of Lapland UK resulted in “all the children’s eyes lighting up” at the finer details. She highlighted the first activity – toy making with the elves – something she described as “adorable” and a “sweet experience” watching toys head off to Santa.
“From here we went on to cookie making, which was my son’s favourite bit,” Charlotte continued. “Again it was a beautiful story with wonderful actors and there was so much fun and excitement.”
Charlotte also highlighted Lapland UK’s skating rink, confectionery shop, present store and café within the elves’ village. “After that we went and wrote a letter to Father Christmas,” she said.
“The leave all the pens and pencils out so children can write to Santa and then there’s a beautiful postbox outside that all the children take their turn in putting their letters into. As you can see, it was such a magical experience.”
Nevertheless, she concluded with one issue that cast a shadow over the occasion. “I will say though that the only thing that let it down for me unfortunately was the actual Father Christmas experience,” she concluded.
Charlotte elaborated: “The queues were very long – we were told to come back even though we were there for our timeslot. They were calling children that didn’t exist, we were sitting in crowded rooms – I just thought the Father Christmas part of the day was genuinely quite disappointing – the queues were far too long, but they knew how many people were coming.”
Meanwhile, she also summarised the day in a caption alongside her clip: “It was a beautiful event with so much detail but sadly the queues spoilt it for us, we know it was a sold out event and we knew it was going to be busy. But considering the price of the tickets we just felt that being herded around and made to wait for long periods of time in cramped rooms and long lines was very unfair but we had a wonderful time nonetheless.”
Writing in response, one TikTok user said she had no issues with the same experience, however. “We were there yesterday and had a 16:00 – 16:30 Santa slot,” she penned. “It was the best part of the experience for us. The kids loved seeing the elves call through the other kids and then all the anticipation. We had the best Santa imaginable, he was so good with the kids.”
Elsewhere another visitor had a minor complaint, explaining: “I went for the first time on Thursday, our time was at 11:30. Quite enjoyed it, didn’t have to wait too long for Father Christmas it was quite an enjoyable experience although he did say my daughters name wrong – even though they ask how you pronounce it before you arrive.”
A third person added: “That’s such a shame. We’ve been a few times to the one at Ascot and never had a problem with waiting to see Santa, it’s only been us. But for how much we paid I wouldn’t be happy if we had to queue.”
Whilst a fourth TikTok user informed Charlotte: “Usually, queues only build up for Father Christmas when attendees do not stick to their designated time to leave the village. Sorry this happened. What a disappointing end to an otherwise incredible looking day.”
Lapland UK describes itself as a “fully immersive theatrical experience for the whole family,” which runs for up to four and a half hours. “After receiving invitations from Father Christmas, children can hardly contain their excitement as they count down ‘sleeps’ until the day finally arrives when they realise every child’s dream of making a magical journey to snowy Lapland to meet Father Christmas and the Elven world,” its states online.
Upon arrival, guests are invited to assist the elves in Father Christmas’ Toy Factory and decorate biscuits with Mother Christmas, before partaking in activities such as ice-skating, writing letters and meeting the reindeer and Father Christmas in his snowy log cabin.
Lapland UK has been invited to respond.
