Adventure to Santa

This place is a joke!!! I would recommend to everyone thinking about coming here on the «adventure» to Santa… To save yourself a trip and money and take your own Christmas pictures and make your own Christmas cards at home!!! We had no idea what we were doing, my kids and I were confused most of the time… For… What playing a 1 min video game and taking pictures with a Santa clause who barely talked to my kids… The girls in there basically wanted to rush you out… I would not do that ever again!

Lol no one knows what they’re doing and for a 35 $ reservation I expected more then a 1 min video game and visiting Santa for less then 2mins. They squished like 5 families inside a tiny room, most computers weren’t even working and the «sleigh ride» is like the roller coasters inside chuck e cheese. Thankfully my kid loved the little sleigh ride but for the price it wasn’t worth it. :(so bummed because I had extremely high hopes for it since you have to make a reservation.

The characters involved in the virtual ride were all from Shrek and my son was talking about Shrek following the event, so after that day, we naturally watched Shrek The Halls short film on loop practically! haha. The final photo does not have any Shrek, it’s a realistic looking Santa with rich surroundings. If you want a really nice quality keepsake photo as I did, then go in to that Dreamworks Adventure to Santa early and with a plan to purchase! It’s one of the best and you don’t need to go anywhere else.
They do offer a way to get the photos online after the adventure/​visit and later than Christmas even! But one of the reasons to do it early before Christmas, is for the package that is photo cards to send out to family and friends. I am not a impulse buyer and I like to shop around; which I guess rings true with Santa pictures too. And as a parent around the holidays it was a big enough task to get there in the first place. Basically I like options in this day and age of technology. For example, Knotts Berry Farm takes pictures when you arrive and the ticket they give you gets you access to the pictures long after your visit to the park. I like that convenience
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I’m new to all this with son being only 3 years old. There are many places to get pictures done and so I thought I’d check em all out and go with the best deal. One other that I preferred to do was at Bass Pro; they give you a free picture (of course it gets you inside thier store where they hope you will purchase) or if you donate a gift they give you a photo package. Really that’s the best thing – everyone wins! Especially since they also have a craft for the kids. (Unfortunately we didn’t make it to Bass.)
My friend had an appointment for her kids to do this Adventure to Santa thru Dreamworks and asked if we wanted to join. I had no idea what it was about or even that you had to make an appointment. So before i had a chance to take my son to any of the other Santa’s in the area we had experienced the best one! My young son truly enjoyed the experience that Dreamworks put together, it was so fun and magical – a virtual sleigh ride to the North Pole THEN the Santa was interactive, asked what the kids wanted. The lighting in the private room was spectacular (from a photographic perspective). Unfortunately I didn’t have any money to buy the cheapest package ($ 30) but would have been so great to send out as a Christmas Card from the family. I went there open minded just hoping they had a small picture as a keepsake (for those who are financially challenged)! Really if I had the awareness in advance I probably would have spent $ 30 on the package that gets 20 Christmas greeting cards — it serves 2 purposes!
What I ended up doing was the free Santa at Knotts Berry Farm (they allow you to take pics with your own camera as well as provide some to purchase). We were taking advantage of the military appreciation during the winter when the park honors service people with free entry. The Santa pic lacked the enthusiasm that my son had with the Adventure to Santa and the entire experience – also the Santa at Knotts looked miserable in comparison. But worse is that the lighting was awful – even in the pic that they offered for purchase! The big room had lighting from the ceiling that was harsh and created deep shadows on our faces. Our cell phone (Android Galaxy) took not so sharp pics. My hubby might not have used the flash, I’m not sure. But the girl working their camera had no qualms using our cell to snap a couple of the entire family. Blah. It was a very nice scene, I’ll give them that, and free. But the free experience didn’t capture my childs electric happiness and full toothed smile; he gave an awkward smirk rather.
The moral of my story is, «YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!»