The Holy Land Experience

I’m curious what will happen now that BOTH of the Crouches are gone. Let the Family Feud begin!

My mother in law came in from Indiana to go to holy land, when she found out they had no wheel chairs she was crushed thinking she would not get to go, they directed me to a place for me to get a rental (40mins away) when we arrived to get our two day pass they gave us the second day free of charge! Needless to say my mother in law was in awe of gods gift! She cried we laughed we were in awe of the beauty of the artifacts, shows and people! Thank you HolyLand

This was an amazing experience for me due to my religious beliefs. In the group next to us was an atheist who was very loud and obnoxious, but by the end of the experience he converted to Christianity. It was a little over the top but you were moved nonetheless!

When I first came here they were still under construction so they didn’t really have a lot of stuff there but going there 3÷22÷16 I can say I really enjoyed everything. I was kind of shocked it was $ 50, which I think is a lot but the experience was worth it. I loved the Forgiven Play and Passion of the Christ. Awesome awesome!

The reviews we read on our way here were quite harsh and we almost passed but since we planned to spend the day here we came on in taking into account people have a variety of perspectives.
While we do agree the décor it a little gaudy (sorry don’t have a better word for it) we did feel the message is still there. There were several cut outs but there was also a lot of sculptures. And a lot of nice exhibits and antiques.
I think maybe the reviews stem from our society has become so spoiled with places like Disney which certainly do an over the top outstanding job at every thing they touch and we all have become accustomed to experiencing nothing less without disappoint.
They keep the landscape well maintained and overall everything is clean.
I think our main complaint is there was a female staff person that would benefit from Disney employee training. Clearly she did not like her job or is not people friendly. She first took our tickets at the entrance and seems to have difficulty with me handing her one at a time my ticket then my 18 year old special needs son and my 88 year old father and 85 year old mother which have some difficulty walking. She INSISTED that every person hold their ticket out to her while she used her gun to scan. Ok so we did that after she repeated it even thought no other clients were there that we were holding up and it was clear we hand a ticket for all of us etc…
Then we saw her at the scripture exhibit. There she repeated at least 4 times in a row to us that this was a 55 minute exhibit and once we got in there was no turning back no matter what and then handed us a 8×20 laminated paper saying the same thing and again asked us if we could abide by that and would agree to it and if we tried to open any of the doors during this walking tour into the next room before the narrator finished talking all kinds of alarms would go off and security would come.
Okay! While I totally understand rules and an considered by all that know me to be a avid rule follower and I do understand that business have to put guidelines in place it seemed like to all of us and the other 4 – 6 people with us that we were not stupid and did understand English.
Well our next encounter with customer service is we were departing and they had 1 cashier at the exit gift shop. He was attempting to help a customer pick our essential oils and after waiting a couple minutes my husband said excuse me can I pay for this, he said no he could not accept cash for an hour. My husband asked if he could leave $ 7 for this $ 6 item and he could keep the change. He said no he would have to go back in the park to another gift shop and pay there or he could take a credit card. Well first of all from a customer service aspect excusing himself from the first client since he was alone and it was clear they would be tied up another 10 – 15 min and possibly calling for help with them or for us is a thought.
At our business our customer service staff reads the book «raving fans» and I would definitely recommend that the staff either reads it hear or that the owners of this place at least secret shops their employees if they want their reviews to improve on the customer service side. I do understand this was 2 employees but it was our only encounters with staff other the the person at the ticket window which was fine.
So my suggestion is to go. Just have your expectations in place. It was nice to have a little Christianity implemented into our vacation and that was what we were going for. Yes the quality was not Disney but I’m glad that there are people are out here in our country at least trying to add something positive to people’s lives.

Bizarre! I went here with my family years ago. Now keep in mind that we are Christians and we’re hoping for a nice experience. The people were more than a little strange and fanatical. I also found the exhibits to be, shall we say, anti-​Catholic.

I am a Christian minister and since I have never visited the real holy land I went to see what it might be like. I was very confused. I went through the wax museum and saw the scene of baby Jesus with the bluest of eyes, pale skin and blondish hair. As I proceeded on there were other wax figures with pale skin and blondish hair. I started to laugh because it was so unauthentic I looked around to see if it was some kind of joke. Sadly it was not as I proceeded to other displays and the plays. It saddens me that so many people learning for the first time will be misguided. Most people in the real holy land area are dark haired, with beautiful olive skin and brown eyes. I don’t have to go there to know that much.
There was lots and lots of bling and I understand their aspiring to beauty and greatness for God. But it is arrogance and ungodly pride to think that beauty only comes in blue eyes, pale skin and blond hair. Luke 2:7 makes it clear that Jesus came to earth wrapped in old clothes not bling. Jesus cared so much for the poor that in Matthew 25 he sent those who did not care for the suffering to the same place as murders and rapists. Yes he is God and there is awe, beauty and riches untold to live with him one day. But on earth he lived in humbleness.
The plays were great ignoring the bling factor. The Holy Spirit session was awesome. Despite the issues there were some very sincere and devoted ministers that seek to serve Him. To help others.
The Holy Land Experience is an experience it is NOT authentic. And maybe that was not intended. It is an expression by a group of blue eyed, blond pale people who love a God of prosperity. While they may not be perfect neither are any of us and they are entitled to their opinion. They have many good things that they have done such as the message in the plays, having a little more … diversity in the staff. And just trying. I know there are many haters of Christianity and what it represents. I apologize to any one who is offended Jew, African American, Asian, etc.
I am NOT stating this to join the haters group. I encourage you to go and look beyond the shortcomings to experience God in your own soul for yourself. If there is something or someone there that can help you draw closer to him then it is worth it all. We must forgive and ignore this … stuff and seek to experience the authentic real and marvelous God.

Not worth the $ 50 entrance fee. Extremely small and cramped. Fake glitz and glitter, I have seen better «Holy Land» costumes and props at Sunday School plays. Cardboard cutouts, plastic and fake all around. Are they trying to compete with Disney and Universal?
If this were the Indiana Jones movie they would have you choose the golden chalice with encrusted jewels — you would have chosen poorly.

This review is only for their Christmas lights and NOT the actual holy land experience.
Our family is pretty obsessed with Christmas lights and they have amazing, FREE lights. We were driving past this area after dinner during the holiday season and saw the Christmas lights from the road. We wanted to get a closer look, and drove in right through the gate.
Turns out «The Holy Land Experience» was free to enter. The lights were gorgeous! There was beautiful paintings and sculptures as well. We were one of two cars in the entire area, and kept wondering why no one else was around. And we kept trying to figure out what exactly this place was. We concluded that it had to be a huge church.
I guess we were wrong. I read the reviews after I got back to the hotel, and it turns out this is a Christian-​themed amusement park. As I read the reviews, suddenly the fact that this place was so deserted made sense.
I can’t comment on the park, since we didn’t do the actual «experience.» But if you want to just see the lights, it is definitely worth it!

Boring, I am very religious and all but this by far really does not show anything that is really religious is the performance and it is very childish and the staff here is very rude, I would not recommend competing here and very unprofessional, and they have fictional story’s and making money off religion.

on our recent visit, we didn’t have enough time to tour the exhibits, so we only toured the outside displays which were great.
we visited the garden of eden, Bethlehem, Jesus’ walk on the water, the wise men and all the animals among other things.
the last time i visited Orlando, we ran out of time for a visit here too, so this was actually my 2^nd attempt at seeing their exhibits. perhaps next time on my 3^rd try?

I cannot recommend it at all. Once inside you will feel attacked on all sides by people trying to bring you to their religion…
It’s a nightmare.
You’re paying for this place with your tax dollars even before you step in the door, whether you visit or not, thanks to a sweetheart deal by the Florida Legislature in 2006.
The entire thing is a religious recruitment with proselytizing throughout. Oh yeah. They state that openly. Under this law they are not even an amusement park, and belong in a «CHURCH» category here and on other sites. Legally!
The promotion of one religion here paid for by all of our tax dollars includes heavy recruitment of children, and subsidization of school groups. Once there, there are activities for children which ALL have a religious message.
Don’t bring children here if you are secular or not fundamentalist protestant. Catholics and Jews and Muslims will be offended, as will be the irreligious and non-​religious.
The message is that of the Biblical «Jesus» and there are reminders that if you don’t love this person, you will burn for eternity in a horrible place. You won’t find that inspires much love. It’s a frightening message, and an evil one to push at your children in an «amusement» park.
Recently, this place has defaced public, government property with religious graffiti, and not very attractive graffiti at that. They painted poorly-​drawn angels and unintentionally wavy rainbows on a public wall behind their parking lot in violation of the law — it’s both criminal (graffiti) and a civil violation of law, and it’s headed for the courts now.
How can you enjoy a place when you know they deface public property and scoff at the law? Disney does not do this. Universal does not do this. Nor do either of them try to convert you and tell fear-​mongering apocalyptic («end times») stories to your children.
This place is not pluralistic. It accommodates only one small part of one religion. It’s not an amusement park. It is a church. This is legal fact by Florida statute passed just to give them an exemption.
The park is required to have minimum one free day a year to keep getting this tax-​free ride from Floridians but HLE refuses to say in advance which day it is. Seriously. Then word leaks out over a religious fundamentalist radio station owned by the same parent company, and BLAMMO, the interstate backs up from Conroy exit both directions for miles.
Because of this confusion, it has caused massive problems for tourists who had planned a visit, giving the Orlando tourist a bad experience, and clogging I-​4 for everybody.
The Orlando Sentinel has reported that LGBT patrons were actually TURNED AWAY at the gates by this organization. This is in total violation of U.S. Civil Rights public accommodation statutes.
I cannot recommend it at all. Amusement parks need to be accepting of EVERYBODY regardless of their religion (or lack thereof), and tolerant of all guests. This place is not that way at all.
What could be something interesting is turned into a church mission outreach to unsuspecting guests who likely don’t want their own children frightened.
This place does indeed frighten me. I cannot recommend.

I guess it’s cool, I just wasn’t feeling the pageantry of it all. If u love live plays this is the place for u. U do feel like your actually in the Bible at points.

Piss poor on every level!
I’ll admit up front — I came here as a snarky atheist, for laffs. A friend paid the $ 50 admission for me, so I wasn’t out any money — but it STILL wasn’t worth it! Actually, if you’re just coming for laffs, I guess it might be worth $ 50…but if you’re a true Christian, save your money because there is nothing here for you.
Everything about this place is cheap and tacky… but not even in a FUN cheap and tacky way. It’s just sad. Instead of costumed actors walking around playing Jebus and whatnot, there’s only cheesy cardboard cut-​outs all over the place — super lame!
There are no rides, just really hokey diorama after really hokey diorama full of supremely creepy mannequins. Everything is coated in gold glitter and fake diamonds, like Jan Crouch got methed up, cleaned out Michaels, then went on a 72-​hour BeDazzler binge.
As expected, the place is crassly commercial — cafes all over (serving Chick-​Fil-​A — not kidding) and gift shops around every corner. Bu the gift shops don’t even sell any cool stuff… just cheap made-​in-​China crap that isn’t even funny enough to be worth buying.
I can’t believe people are actually defending this place — it’s absolutely ridiculous, on every level.
The only saving grace was the live baptism, which was fun to watch. Everyone who volunteers to be baptized gets a free gift — eternal salvation! Jebus dunks you in a fountain, in a bathrobe, then you have to straggle out all wet and soggy in front of everyone, with your asscrack clearly visible thru the wet robe. Unfortunately, Jebus’s own robe is made of a thicker, more opaque material… so I did not get a glimpse of His asscrack when He got out :(
The other saving grace, and this might actually even be worth the $ 50 price of admission, is the 4:00 Passion Play… which is a 75minute orgy of blood and sequins that feels like the bastard child of Bob Mackie, Bob Fosse and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. IT WAS AMAZING!
Unless you are religious and/​or seriously deluded, my advice is to hit the park around 1pm. That gives you PLENTY of time to see everything and still get a good seat at the Passion Play. There is no need to spend more time than this — seriously, I got there at 10:30am and ended up leaving after a few hours, then coming back in time for the Passion Play. There’s not enough to do here to justify spending a full day.
Now, you ask… don’t I feel bad having contributed $ 50 to the crooked coffers of the TBN empire? To that I say: Absolutely not! I am MORE than willing to add $ 50 to Jan Crouch’s hairspray fund — that woman has an AMAZING look, and it ain’t cheap to maintain! In all seriousness, she is one of my style icons, so I don’t feel bad at all about helping her out. I saw her lurking in the wings during the 4:00 Passion Play, but alas I had to leave for the airport before she came out… so I never did get a photo with her :-(

I don’t usually review things, but after seeing all the 1-​star negative reviews lately, I feel compelled to say something.
First off, this isn’t Disney World and doesn’t have hundreds of millions of dollars for a budget. That said, there are some amazing and inspiring experiences at the Holy Land Experience.
My 10-​year old son and I spent the afternoon there. We did the Scriptorium tour, which was a good history of how we got the bible.
We watched the Passion of the Christ live drama in the big auditorium/​church. It was excellent! Very well done and inspiring!
The Jerusalem model is very cool and gives you a scale of reference when thinking about the temple and Jerusalem.
Again, it doesn’t have the budget of a Broadway play or a Disney attraction — but if your expectations aren’t THAT high, you will enjoy your time.
My son says «it’s not as bad as it sounds. I give it an 8 or 9 (out of 10)!»
Life is what you make of it. Allow God to speak to you when you’re there, instead of having a narrow mind.

The reason I give one star is because I have to, but this place is an atrocity. I’m usually funny when I do these Unilocal but there was nothing funny about anything when it comes to mocking God.
Before I even got into the building I had a bad feeling and felt some conviction. I told my wife but I still went ahead especially having the kids with us. What I found was almost everything that is wrong with this world. First of all it is obvious that this place’s real intention is to make money. The money being made is being made by pimping out the Almighty I Am. I believe the cost to get in is $ 50.00 Save your money and give it to a family in need not one who has gotten and still continues to get rich off of selling God’s likeness. My family and I went fortunately on that one time a year that they offer free admission in order for them to get some tax breaks financially. I did a little homework on the place and what I found out is this place has come under a lot of scrutiny. Look it up, it’s out there. Basically they claim to be somewhat of a church so they get tax breaks because of this but the truth is this is more of an amusement park. Key word Amuse because that’s what they’re trying to do but for me it was very unamusing and after maybe 30 mins or less we were walking out. Now this place came highly recommended but maybe I’m missing something but cardboard cutouts of Jesus and his disciples with people taking pics next to them isn’t appealing to me. I also couldn’t help but notice that night although they opened up for the evening with no charge the full benefits of the place were not attainable as they had many areas closed because they were only for paying customers. Kind of hard to get closer to God when you get a roadblock put in front of you unless you put something in financially. I’m not rich but I’m also not cheap but this place to me was extremely tasteless and more like a money cow for the owners of this place.
I also found it extremely surprising that there were no pastors, etc there to give the word or someone to help pray for someone who may have just come off the streets and needed someone to intercede for them. Honestly, go to church and if church isn’t really your thing just open up the bible. Any of that is going to get you closer to God better than paying to get into a place to see some guy dressed up like Jesus throwing up the deuces. *disclaimer: that is not me in the picture with homeboy Jesus*

Highest Recommendation. Fantastic displays. World Class Acting and Theatre. During Christmas, WOW is an understatement. When you are inside, there is so much to do, so much to learn and appreciate. Dr. Bill Jones is an amazing Educator and is a plethora of knowledge. No matter the question I ask him, he’s never stumped. Folks, this place is a must visit when in Orlando.
Also, they have Bible Study Thursday Nights: 7:30pm and Sunday Church at 10:30am.
The Church is Acts Fellowship Church, Pastored by Dr. Bill Jones!
Get your Church on folks and visit this endearing attraction!

Wow! What a HUGE waste of money!
There was nothing of value… It was cheap and cheesy. Who knew there was so much gold spray paint, sequins and rhinestones in Jerusalem?!
The «artifacts» where laughable. Yes… I can see it is a brass bowl… But to pass it off as an artifact simply because you labeled it as such is insulting.
While we’re on the subject of laughable… What’s with all the life sized cutouts?!
I’ve also never been anywhere that had so many signs indicating you were under surveillance. I’m not doing anything wrong so I have no worries… But it was just creepy! Every building, every room, each display!
There just simply wasn’t «content»… Not was it fun. it felt like a mish mash of Christian based dioramas. Ugh.

I am embarrassed to even write this review as it proves that I actually paid $ 50 for a total joke also known as the Holy Land Experience. Members of my family heard good things about this place from their friends and thus we all went along, somewhat unknowingly, to one of the most insane places I have ever been.
The plethora of fake animals out front and spray painted gold on practically everything should have been a enough for us all to pause, get back in our vehicles, then drive to the NASA museum. That did not happen.
My senses were again assaulted with spray painted gold and more plastic statues than a Greek or Italian front lawn. Speaking of lawns, all of the «grass» in the place was like the plastic grass that your grandma thought would look real on her back porch.
There are no rides in this place and little of value. The only thing that was mildly interesting was a large model of the city of Jerusalem. To cut our losses, we enjoyed the farce that this place was by taking goofy photos and mocking how terrible everything was.
One thing is for certain, this was a memorable place but not for good reasons. Save your money and take a vacation to the real Israel if you want a holy land experience that’s not an embarrassment to Christianity.

No stars.
I give this place none.
(But in order for the review to post, I had to choose a star)
My husband was convicted upon walking through the entrance. I was near speechless… in that it was THAT bad. I apologized to my family for bringing them and quietly asked God’s forgiveness. Mockery is the word for this place. My spirit is grieved.
Please PLEASE save your money, spend it elsewhere.