Santa's Village, "Ghosts of Christmas Past" 2009

[gardener14]

I originally posted this at LC.org, but there are probably others here who would enjoy it.

My sister and I brought our young friend Amanda to Santa’s Village for their first Halloween event - titled “The Ghosts of Christmas Past.” It was also Amanda’s first visit. It was only scheduled for one day this year, as a trial, and unfortunately it was a very rainy day. Throughout the week prior to the event, the park repeatedly posted to Facebook that they would be open rain or shine, so we ventured out on that rainy day, well prepared for the weather, and hoping to make the best of it. We figured that a rainy day at Santa’s Village beats being somewhere else.

After a three hour drive through moderate rain, we hoped to see a few other people at the park. When we arrived just as the park opened at 11am, we were pleasantly surprised to see many cars in the lot…not nearly as many as on a sunny summer day, but our first comment was, “I bet the management is relieved to see this many people here.” We noticed that most of the cars were from out of state.

For this Halloween event, they encouraged children to come in costume for trick-or-treating. That was difficult with raincoats, but many children made an effort to be in costume. Upon purchasing our tickets, they gave us all Tootsie Pops, and upon handing in our tickets they gave Amanda a bag for collecting candy along with several Hershey Miniatures. Already Amanda was loving receiving candy and she exclaimed, “I like this place!”

We first headed to the Elf University to get Amanda signed up for the Elfabet game. The kind lady in the schoolhouse gave Amanda a game card with her name on it and explained to her that she was to find all the Elfs throughout the village (each one has a name beginning with a different letter of the alphabet), and collect a stamp on her card from each elf before returning to her for her prize. The hunt was on, and for the next few hours nothing seemed more important to Amanda than finding elves…not even rides…elves trumped everything.

We then visited the reindeer shoe shop for a ring made from the nail of a reindeer shoe. The gentleman there was very kind, spoke gently to Amanda, and offered us each rings. The woman in the schoolhouse and the gentleman in the reindeer shoe shop were exemplary employees and typical of what we encountered throughout the day. The staff were amazing.

Aside from searching for elves and trick-or-treating at all the shops, stands, and restaurants, we enjoyed every ride in the park. The park remained fully operational and fully staffed despite the (extremely) inclement weather and light, but not insignificant, attendance. Sweepers were even out, and later in the day the sweepers turned to pushing away puddles (a rather fruitless effort in the pouring rain, but nonetheless appreciated). At every ride, attendants greeted us, were friendly and cordial, and wiped down seats with squeegees. In some cases they swept away giant puddles from ride vehicles. I’ll mention here that gift shops offer free rain ponchos at Santa’s Village. They are glorified trash bags, but they come in a variety of colors, serve the purpose well, and are an appreciated gesture.

Riding the coaster, Amanda shouted , “it feels like thumbtacks hitting my eyeballs!” My sister asked if she was alright, and she said excitedly, “yeah, it’s awesome.” We rode the new wave swinger that just opened after a lengthy delay on Columbus Day weekend, the last weekend of the regular pack season. It’s called Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, and it’s a smaller version of a traditional wave swinger, but not a kiddie ride. It accommodates all ages with large comfortable bucket seats. It was very fun and just a bit more dizzying than the full sized version because of the smaller diameter of the ride. I got an unexpected dousing of water when the ride started to tilt and a flood of water poured off the roof onto me.

All of the rides had some sort of fall or Halloween overlay. The antique cars had cobwebs and spiders, the sleigh ride had scarecrows and Dracula faces, the train had a jack-o-lantern on the front and the driver was in similar costume, the Himalaya was filled with fog and strobe lights, the reindeer carousel had all its lights changed to orange and the reindeer wore masks, the drummer boy (tea cup style ride) had jester costumes on the drummer boys. The Humbug Adventure dark ride and the Antique Cars had actors that jumped out at us. The reindeer barn was turned into a not-too-scary haunted house perfect for introducing young people to haunts (although it was a little too unsettling for Amanda who apparently dislikes dark unfamiliar places). The park had similar decorations throughout, and the many Christmas statues had “costumes.” Even the elves for the Elfabet Game wore masks. Every employee wore a Halloween costume, and family friendly Halloween music played throughout the park (Monster Mash, The Munster’s theme, Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, etc.). Some areas had sound effects like wind, crows, and bells tolling, that were very effective, especially when nobody was around.

Throughout the park, they announced a costume parade at 2pm. Children and their families paraded through the park while a patriotic march played park wide. The park’s costumed character, Poogie the Penguin dressed as a pumpkin and led the parade. It was quite cute to see.

My only complaint of the day was that several SkeeBall machines were out of order and too many targets in the Humbug Adventure dark ride were not working.

We ate Pizza for lunch (and Santa’s Village has my favorite pizza of anywhere), and we had gingerbread cookies for desert. They were shaped like pumpkins and ghosts instead of boys and girls.

By late in the afternoon the crowd (or what there was of it) lessened considerably. It almost felt like we were the only ones there, but then we’d see another group or two. The stream that runs through the park was overflowing its banks considerably…something I hadn’t seen before. At that point we could ride anything we wanted with no one else onboard. The coaster operator gave us three trips around without stopping. As it was so quiet, some ride ops sought shelter from the rain in nearby shops, but they came out when we came near introducing themselves as the ride operator for (fill in the blank) and offered to start the ride for us. Not only was the service that day fantastic, but the enthusiasm of the staff despite the rain was contagious. It made being there in the rain an adventure, not a drudgery. I asked the carousel operator why the music was not playing. He said it was because it plays Christmas music, not Halloween music, and they wanted the Halloween music from the park to be heard instead. I told him I missed riding with the sound of carousel music, so he turned it on for us. The operator on the little circular sleigh ride asked us if we were doing alright and offered to stop the ride when the rain started coming down in droves during our ride. I can’t emphasize enough how amazing the staff was.

Amanda had collected all 26 Elphabet letters, so we returned to the schoolhouse. The woman there spoke directly and supportively to Amanda and congratulated her stating that not many people find all 26 Elves. She made Amanda feel very special. She brought out a giant tub of prizes and explained them all to Amanda….false teeth, spider rings, and a severed finger on a keychain for Halloween, and another keychain with elves that said “I found elves A to Z at Santa’s Village. She let Amanda choose, then offered her another, and another until Amanda had one of each prize. She was in heaven. The kind woman then presented Amanda with her personalized diploma signed by Santa.

The park was open until 6pm, but by 5pm we had done everything, some more than once, we had had quite enough of the rain, and few people were left in the park (though there were no signs of closing early). We visited the exit gift shop, and upon exiting there was a woman offering return tickets to all visitors. These return tickets were accompanied by a letter stating the park’s appreciation for its patrons visiting on their first Halloween event, and it was a very classy touch. The letter in part stated, “We are sooooo happy that you have visited us today. Unfortunately, this is one of our most spooky days with the winds a-blowin’ and the rain a-pourin’. This weather was totally unrequested…..We hope to make your day a lot less gloomy, however…………We appreciate your visit to our first annual “Ghosts of Christmas Past” season. We look forward to giving you a great and joyful day in the future!” We chose to visit on a rainy day, and the park delivered what they promised, so the return tickets were unnecessary, but very much appreciated. I hope their gracious offer creates much good will and brings them more success in the future.

I grew up visiting Santa’s Village and StoryLand, and through the years I have become a fan of parks in general, many much bigger and more well known, but now as an adult, I have come to appreciate Santa’s Village as one of my favorite parks of all. It is truly the people that make it special and the way the park treats its guests on every level must come from a superb attitude toward customer satisfaction from the management on down. Amanda, my sister, and I were more than impressed and pleased beyond words on a very rainy and unpark-like day.



Buying tickets and entering the park.


Welcome sign and the first elf of the Elfabet game.


Elf University


Trick-or-Treating in the park.


Finding an elf…You can just see the entrance to the igloo which is dressed as a pumpkin for Halloween.


Trick-or-treating from the gentleman who makes the rings from reindeer shoe nails. That's not a raincoat...he was dressed as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.


Jack Skellington was riding the sleigh and the reindeer dressed as pirates.


A couple wet riders on the coaster.


This is Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, the park’s new wave swinger.


The view out our window while eating lunch when the rain started coming down in buckets. One of many downpours among steady rain all day.


Finding Elf Upsy Daisy.


The train and driver decked out for Halloween.


Finding another elf while Frosty looks on dressed as a magician for the day.


The carousel reindeer wore Mardi Gras masks and beads and the lights were changed to orange for the day.


Posing as gingerbread mummies.


One of the few scary Halloween scenes in the park…Jonah the Whale eating a person and swimming in a pool of blood.


The drummer boys were dressed as jesters.


More wet riders enjoying the day.


Wet reindeer smell like wet dogs. They didn’t mind the rain at all, so why should we?


The reindeer barn became a haunted house.


Bones and hay bales adorned the bumper cars.


We had lots of fun playing SkeeBall…and it was dry!


Decorating gingerbread ghosts was fun…and it was dry too! The hot coffee with my cookie was even better.


By late in the day there weren’t too many visitors left as seen from the ferris wheel, but you can see the SS Peppermint Twist (Rockin’ Tug) operating in the distance.


Enjoying the Pixie Mix.


And one last wet ride on the new wave swinger.


More photos can be seen on the park’s Facebook page. Some of these are from the day of the event and some are from prior, when the sun was out. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=152739&id=95490940819

[mrceagle]

The swing ride looks fantastic.

I wish i could have made it but all my rides backed out do to the weather. sounds like it was a lot of fun.

[gardener14]

The swing ride was lots of fun. It's the only one I've seen that looks like a smaller, family version of a standard wave swinger...not a kiddie ride. It was standing but not operating since spring of 2008 because of design problems. The swings hit each other upon finishing a ride cycle among other issues. They worked with the designer, and it appears that they remedied this by removing the swings between the support arms. Now there are two swings on each support arm but no swings between each row (as there were in my photo from 2008. Over the past year, pads could be seen on the backs of the swings and protective sleeves on the chains. These have been abandoned.

[mrceagle]

Ya it was quite the debacle. I was keeping an eye on it had 2 trips this summer while it was still closed. Glad it is finally open. I still have a ride credit to get on this ride and Apple Crisp from the new Farm stand to try.

[tazzman]

nice trip report and photos gardener14

[This User Lacks a Desent Name]

Sounds like an awesome trip!

The only time in recent history that I've been to SV was this summer and the staff was exceptional. Very impressive. Even though I'd say StoryLand is the better park overall, SV's staff wins hands down in my opinion. (Must also keep in mind that I've been to SL many more times than SV)

The new ride looks like fun! Hope to make another trip there next summer since our last trip was so fun.

[mrceagle]

We'll have to see if that holds up over time. Story Land is in a much better location. right off Conway and it's shopping. But Santa's is looking at expanding it's season even further next year opening up funds to make even more additions. the park is refocusing the park something that story land had done much earlier. Landscaping and Themeing has been a new focus.

A big thing is Santa's Has mad many positive changes. they rescently opened the Swings. next year they are added a new ride, adding a new attraction(ride?), new Doenut shop, new snack stand in jingle bell junction, Jingle Jamboree animatronic show is returning, new first ad area, and new Guest services. Arcade will be removed. Story land has done little to nothing since being Purchased twice and at last conversation has no plans for anything new.