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[2023 Event] Christmas Wonderland

It was busy every time we had a go on it, although I didn't even notice it the first year, so maybe it wasn't advertised enough whilst in the park being hidden behind Jolly Buccaneer
 
I am so excited for this event! Especially the fact it's open late. I love being at the park when it's dark and all the Christmas lights are on. I don't care what happens, I WILL be attending Christmas Wonderland this year.
 
The event looks good but a little light on rides. I guess access to the top end of the park will be difficult with coaster construction but it would have been nice to have seen Wave Swinger open as well.

My only real gripe is the uncharge for the train ride. £5 extra on top of your season pass for less than a 10 minute trip seems rather expensive, as well as paying another £7 to visit Santa (I do understand that extra charge, although as a season pass holder, you used to get 1 visit to Santa included a few years ago). Think they should have included the train as part of the Santa experience ticket or just free to all visiting. I expect it to not be particularly popular.

8pm show time sounds good, especially in the holidays & Saturdays, not sure it will be so good on a Sunday night though! I assume the rides will be open until this sort of time too
 
last year Thomas land closed at 6 on a Saturday and half 5 on a Sunday and mid week been 5 with the rest of the family rides open to 7.
If u look at the ride line up Terence’s driving school is listed to be open.
Think having just the Carousel, the Bounty, Jolly Buccaneer and Accelerator open outside of Thomas land won’t get many families with kids taller than 1.1m going to the park with Vikings removed from the line up. I very much doubt many will be still in the park at 8pm to see the end show.
I may go with my daughter 1 evening and get into the park for 6.
 
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Themeparksandy1981 said:
last year Thomas land closed at 6 on a Saturday and half 5 on a Sunday and mid week been 5 with the rest of the family rides open to 7.
If u look at the ride line up Terence’s driving school is listed to be open.
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Yes, I noticed that too! I just wonder of this is an error on their part as they may have just copied & pasted the Thomas Land rides. If you look carefully on the list of closed rides, it also states that Jolly Buccaneer & Bounty are closed but also feature on the open rides!
 
James no5 said:
Maybe have an ice rink at the old area if terences driving school
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Doubt that would happen for this year.

They may still use that side of the park where the tearooms is for some of the event like they have in previous years (I think?)

RustyShackleford said:
Walk around like it's Christmas...
Stomp your feet like it's Christmas...
Turn around like it's Christmas...
Snoooooo-ow
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I am 99% expecting this to happen now. Love that...

The lineup of rides may be incomplete to be confirmed closer to the time. I would like to see some rides for the older / taller kids open as that would appeal to the widest audience (big kids like seeing Santa & christmas too!)
 
Elise said:
The lineup of rides may be incomplete to be confirmed closer to the time. I would like to see some rides for the older / taller kids open as that would appeal to the widest audience (big kids like seeing Santa & christmas too!)
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Could it be that they are only committing to listing rides that they know they will be able to staff, if more staff agree to work then more rides will be added?
 
I'm pretty sure they would have Vikings open if they wanted to regardless. Let's not forget that a lot of work will be being done at the top end of the park, and also around Shockwave, so it's more likely that those areas will be closed until next year.

I know Vikings if off to the left but the new coaster does go behind here and may be used for access etc.
 
I’m not actually too sure why there doing another 9PM closing tbh , for what I know most of the staff were really starting to get sick of working 12 hours . This being only a few days under the Bryan’s was fine . But the staff are loosing the moral to work under these conditions.
 
Alex-_szoboszlai said:
I’m not actually too sure why there doing another 9PM closing tbh , for what I know most of the staff were really starting to get sick of working 12 hours . This being only a few days under the Bryan’s was fine . But the staff are loosing the moral to work under these conditions.
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It states at the bottom of the FAQ list for this event that the park opens at 12PM rather than the normal 10:30. I think this backs up your point about staff being sick of working 12 hours as it is now only 9 which is what a Summer's day usually would be.
 
RustyShackleford said:
Whilst I see the appeal of late night riding at what age are kids up till 9? A lot of the targetted audience are going to be wanting to be at home.
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I do think they not planned this out right. Like the Halloween event is aimed for the 10+ which runs from 5pm to 8pm with a friendly Halloween event from 10.30am to 5pm.
Can’t see how the park will be busy after 5pm in December after the temperatures drop to single figures with a chance of real snow.
 
RustyShackleford said:
Whilst I see the appeal of late night riding at what age are kids up till 9? A lot of the targetted audience are going to be wanting to be at home.
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Absolutely agree. It's nice to have the option for us to stay later but to have to wait until 8pm for the show seems rather late.

Our personal plan will be to arrive at around 3-4 & bring a flask of soup & hot chocolate to keep us warm.
 
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