24 Nov 2014

Parents lead backlash against ‘rip off’ winter theme park

A Christmas theme park designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, and sold out every weekend until Christmas, temporarily closes following dozens of complaints from parents.

The theme park called “The Magical Journey” in Sutton Coldfield is billed as “Your Ultimate Christmas Experience” in promotional literature but on social media parents branded it a “rip off” that was “woefully unprepared”.

Following the complaints, the company behind the park said: “We have taken our customer feedback seriously and this, combined with the recent weather conditions has resulted in us taking the difficult decision to temporarily close.”

Images taken by visitors to the park on its opening days show a pile of rubbish under a tarpaulin, and others spoke on Facebook of smoking workmen still building parts of the site.

The website for the park shows that it has already sold out 16 days of its run until Christmas Eve, including every weekend. A family of four visting at peak times will pay £75 to visit the park.

“The most amazing Christmas experience that Planet Earth has ever seen” – Laurence Llewelyn Bowen

The organiser Paul Dolan told ITV News: “We were hammered with four weeks of horrendous rain which really affected the site and slowed us down. We were very far behind but I didn’t want to disappoint children.”

‘A complete joke’

Melanie Cooke Brzonkalik wrote on the Facebook page of the park: “It was a complete joke from beginning to end. Half finished, not magical in any way, workmen everywhere, tacky, unfinished sets, no snow – just bags of it stacked up at the entrance!”

Amanda Taylor said on Facebook: “Stop the Elves going around the back of the tents for a cigarette, they can be seen from the road”. The park responded to the comment simply with: “Got it.”

Many parents on Facebook said that the park should be given the benefit of the doubt and that its customer service representative had done a good job of offering automatic refunds.

Nisbah Hussain wrote about the experience on her blog and said “the Santa we saw was too skinny, with a beard that was not the best and the outfit was a little drab”.

But she also said: “We arrived back home and saw my nieces and our adventurers were soo excited to tell them all about their adventures.”

Come on a magical journey through enchanted woodland and blizzards to help reunite #FatherChristmas with lost baby #reindeer #rudi

A photo posted by The Magical Journey (@themagicaljourney) on Sep 9, 2014 at 12:08pm PDT