Santa’s Wonderland

My husband and I were disappointed with the cheesy-​ness of the place that other reviews are stating. If the website portrayed the place as being more suitable for toddlers, it would have been helpful. We brought our 6 year old, 10 year old and 16 year old, hoping for at least some fun pictures. Needless to say, the 16 year old was bored and texting the whole time and my 10 year old felt there was nothing better to do than help our 6 year old enjoy her time there, which she did. I would have maybe brought a friend with my daughter and left the boys at home had I known it was going to be this uneventful for them. I agree with another post, the Queen Mary’s event looks much more interesting for a family event!

I read the reviews before we went to this place. I expected to see the cheesy set up and to be disappointed, but my granddaughter had a good time. She is 5 and full of energy, she loved playing around the reindeer games. Our elf could have been a little more ethusiastic, she was sweet and shy. The decorations were rather cute and this is definitely an age restiction event. If I brought by 10 year old grandson he would have been bored. When I checked in with my Groupon the women asked if I made a reservation online and I said I tryed once and didn’t bother because of the problem people were having, she appologized and was very nice and happy we were there. I do agree paying $ 12 was a bit much, adults shouldn’t have to pay. I gave this an OK rating because my granddaughter was happy, the décor was cute and we went on a weekday. My husband wasn’t able to see our granddaughter have a good time because he was in a wheelchair and couldn’t go, that was poor planning for this Christmas event, they should have thought of handicap people and had their event someplace with an elevator.

Bought a Groupon to take my son and had really high hopes for this place.
BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY!!! Do not buy it; you’ll be extremely disappointed!!!

what they really need to do is charge only for the kids and not the adults. It really doesn’t make sense for adults to play. this place is almost like a daycare with parental supervision. kids are just off playing on their own. For $ 10, it would’ve been worth it. For anything more, I can’t picture myself going back again. you know what really makes me mad? I bought tickets for this place with a groupon for $ 15 each. Groupon is usually a good deal. but on their last day of opening, they lowered their prices on the website to $ 12!!! they were so desperate to have more people come. we went on christmas eve and it was really empty.
the saving grace here was that my kid loved and adored Santa so much! haha. seeing that made it all worth it.

This place was pretty cheesy. I have a 5 year old and he seemed to have an ok time but no fun for parents and the parent has to pay to get in?! Not worth $ 25 — I bought a groupon 2 for $ 25 and wish I would have just got him a lego set instead. The elves were nice and the Santa looked good but he told my kid he would try to get him what he wants and it was kind of late notice?! Doesn’t this santa realize we wrote a letter weeks ago? Santa IS supposed to know this right? I don’t know. Just not worth the 2 hours, go to South coast plaza instead.

Absolutely a waste of your money… Completely disappointed. Save your time and money.

Do you like Swiss, Gouda, or cheddar? If so you will love this cheesy place. It’s an old musty office building converted to a «wonderland». The Christmas décor was kind of cheesy and looked like it was put together by kids. To be fair, my 11 yrs old and 7 year old had fun. And even getting a groupon discount of $ 15 per person it’s too much. If they charged $ 10 I guess that would be fair. I feel bad for people who paid $ 25. The place was also too big for them to decorate properly, it could have been smaller.

HORRIBLE
If you bought tickets on groupon… just accept it was a poor buy! I would not waste my time going!

As much as I want to rate this place higher, the disappointment that I experienced outweighs any benefit of doubt I tried really, really hard to give Santa and his helpers.
In keeping with Santa’s organizational tendencies, I’ll list.
Naughty List:
Coal #1 — misleading website. If you promise a «magical Christmas experience for the whole family,» then you’d better deliver. Especially if you’re going to charge $ 25 a pop for each person. And especially if you’re going to claim this in Orange County, where there are plenty of truly magical and family-​oriented events and festivities already available.
Coal #2 — false promises. There was no «Gingerbread House Making.» It was a gingerbread cookie decorating activity, with each kid strictly allowed only THREE candies. Three. My group was also not led to receive any Elf Makeover, we were not shown the Elf Academy (so we were very confused about why there was a room with empty boxes and wrapping paper, assuming that is even a part of the Elf Academy), and we were not led through the Mischief Maze or Light Show. We basically stumbled around in the dark.
Coal #3 — charging $ 25 per person (for anyone aged 24 months and up), but not allowing parents to participate in any of the activities. An improvement in décor would have helped ice the wound to the wallet.
Coal #4 — feeling like we walked into an office Christmas party with a low-​budgeted, party-​planning fund (oh wait, but didn’t I just pay $ 25 per person…), and with no drink to assuage the harsh lighting and cold disappointment. It would have helped if the white walls were at least covered with some colored paper, instead of just having words painted over it. C’mon now. One wall just had a Hot Wheels race track nailed onto it, which was broken, so the cars couldn’t even make it into the end hoop. And yes. I said Hot Wheels race track.
Coal #5 — making the reservation process feel like some sort of weed-​out test hailing to Kelly Clarkson’s «Stronger.» The wording on the reservation site was confusing, and on top of that, it literally took at least 10 – 15 minutes for the site to process your request — PER PERSON. To make matters worse, after I spent practically all day booking tickets for my group of ten, when I showed up at Will Call on the day of, the staff did not even check our names for the reservations!
Coal #6 — giving the impression the staff was overwhelmed… and also underwhelmed at the same time. The managing staff seemed flustered while trying to accommodate to our large group (we had a total of 20 moms and kids), and the Elf staff were a little hit and miss in terms of enthusiasm (or care, really). There was a reason why our group was so lost. Santa’s Helpers deserted us while we were, well, occupied with our desserts (during the gingerbread cookie decorating activity)! And that was only the third activity!
Nice List:
Cookie #1 — overall friendly staff. Most everyone was nice, and our Elf guide kept in-​character real well (during the times she was with us, at least).
Cookie #2 — very cool Snow Room (no pun intended)! The polar ice theme was well done, and the kids loved playing in the synthetic, fluffy snow.
Cookie #3 — super-​sweet Santa. He was jolly, merry, had a real beard, and was very patient with all the kids and moms in our group. He even offered to have me sit in his chair to hold my scared, toddler daughter, while he posed with us from behind!
Cookie #4 — «Free» picture with Santa. I now have something to submit to Ellen Degeneres’ Awkward Christmas Photo collection.
While there are actually several more coals I could hand out, I feel like I’ve already been enough of a Grinch towards what seems to be a sincere effort put forth by the planners of Santa’s Wonderland. I think this is the inaugural year of this event, so I’m hoping that if they decide to try again next year, it’ll improve. Seems that, at least for 2012, Santa’s gonna need more Christmas cheer.

If you like unenthusiastic teenagers posing as elves, a smelly warehouse, and cheap decorations, this is your place!
I hate sounding like the Grinch, but we can’t call it «Santa’s Wonderland» if Santa wasn’t there. Save your money and go to South Coast Plaza for free.

I bought two vouchers off groupon, and I wish I had thought to check Unilocal first.
I researched the companies web site and looked around online but couldnt find any actual photos of the place at the time, and I didnt see anything regarding suggested age range.
In my opinion this event would only be enjoyable for someone age 4 or younger.
It was a empty two story office building that was decorated with cheap looking or homemade decorations. The wall paintings were cool, and the idea was good, just poorly executed for every family memeber.
In our group there were only two little ones, a couple teens, parents, and girls around 12 or so, everyone except the lil ones were bored and texting or on their cells.
In addition the tourguide elf, left all of the older kids out of the expeirence, like reindeer games and santas naughty nice list.
I was extremely disappointed, and am only giving this one star because I have to, in order to leave a review.
The Elf in santas office was rude, and my daughter even said she wasnt nice.
When we asked about the naughty nice list she laughed and rolled her eyes and started talking to the small kids in our group, I again asked her about the list and she asked my daughter «do you really want to get a certificate» (which we didnt know they were giving), my daughter said yes, and she handed her a blank nice list certificate and I asked her to write my daughters name in the Name spot and she looked at my daughter and laughed and said «really» ?
When I asked for my certificate she rolled her eyes and handed me a blank certificate and said I could fill it in, I exclaimed that I wanted a naughty certificate because when I made my appointment I stated naughty list to show my daughter that sometimes people do make it on the naughty list, the elf said, we didnt print naughty certificates.
We ended up leaving after that, it was boring and not worth it, on our way out we hoped to get hot cocoa but there was no employees working in that area, so we went to see santa, and get our complimentary photo, where santa asked us WHAT we were doing there, arent we too big for this place!!!
I wish I had known that this was geared towards toddlers, and more like a girl scout fundraising event.
It was not worth the 12 $ I paid on groupon, and I would never pay 25 $ to go, which is there actual price

Bought a groupon deal, went there with two toddlers, left after 40 min inside. Just a crappy place with cheap decorations, run mostly by high school kids

I bought the Groupon for this as a fun activity for my daughters; they are 4 and 8 years old. Making the reservation online was very tricky. I even had to call the help number. When I told the customer service person I was having trouble making a reservation, he asked if it was for Santa’s Wonderland. I guess that everyone was having difficulty! After making the reservation I saw some of the reviews online. They were not good, so I didn’t have high hopes of it being the «wonderland» experience I was expecting it to be when I bought the Groupon.
When we got there we were greeted by our elf, who was very sweet and energetic. She walked us through each area and the kids loved her. The kids had a great time. They loved writing letters to Santa and going through the tree maze. Even though some of the exhibits were a little (or a lot) cheesy, the kids had fun in each one. The line to see Santa was short, but took forever! There were only two families in front of us and it took close to 20 minutes to see him. It was a really great Santa though. Real beard and everything!
The décor needed some help. It was a good effort, some rooms were really well done. I think the problem is that the space is just way too big for what they are wanting to do with it. I’m glad I bought it for a reduced price. I really think that the parents shouldn’t have to buy a ticket to get in. Only the kids were offered things like the cookies to decorate, etc., but the parents buy the same priced ticket! I don’t know if it is something I would do again.

Buying the Groupon online I thought this would be great for the niece to experience Santa. The thought was a good idea, but poorly executed. I give it 1 star for Santa being there and being able to take pictures and some of the elves that were energetic and living up to the experience. Some of the elves were just not into it and it showed.
The decorations showed a lack of effort, the guided tour was very poorly executed by my elf. Maybe some of the other elves are better but ours wasn’t following the story very well and the kids seemed uninterested in anything he said. Some of the other parents had to help guide the story for him.
I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone nor would I return.

I would have given this half a star but it is not an option. I am not as forgiving as the other reviews. This was bordering on a Halloween Horror House. The cheap paint and decorations were worse than my neighbor’s yard. My unknowing kid loved it but as a parent paying the cheaper groupon rate of $ 15, I felt swindled. The paint in the rooms were awful. This appeared to be an abandoned office space that was converted in a day by unhandy handymen to try to transform it into a wonderland but it failed miserably.

Save your money. There were no reviews when I bought my Groupon, so unfortunately I took a chance on this place. Full price is $ 25, Groupon is $ 12 weekdays or $ 15 weekends.
It’s basically an office building using the individual rooms that have been painted red and green and poorly decorated to create a so-​called «wonderland.» It is run by high-​school students.
Using their website, our family reserved an 8pm — 10pm time slot on a Friday, arrived at 7:45pm, and we were the only ones there for our «elf tour.» A few people were leaving as we came in. So the entire time we were there, elves (unprofessional high-​schoolers dressed as elves) were running around trying to clean up, vacuuming and scrubbing things around us as we toured, leaving a chemical smell in the air. It felt like most of the employees were just hanging around chatting, waiting for us to leave.
Upon arrival, the greeter/​manager person was the start to a shoddy, awkward experience.
On our tour, our elf was nice but she seemed worn out from the day and apologized for stumbling with her words after having been there all day. Apparently Santa works them too hard?
The activities:
«Gingy’s Gingerbread House Making.» Our elf had to ask the manager if we could still decorate the gingerbread cookies because they were closing everything up.
FYI: the gingerbread houses are NOT 3D gingerbread houses that you build, just flat cookies, where they limit you to 3 pieces of candy per person???
The high-​school elves (employees) were chatting about dating each other, where they were going out that night, and I heard one of them in the next room swearing (sh*t) as we decorated gingerbread cookies.
Our elf wasn’t sure if the Elf Makeover was even still open. It was. The «Elf Makeover Magic» costs extra, $ 10 for face painting, and up to $ 25 for other services including hair, nails, and costumes. We passed on that.
The «Mistletoe Market» was a room with little trinkets (finger-​puppets, holiday jewelry, etc.) that were very over-​priced, or not priced at all. The room was dark when we went to check it out (as were most of the rooms), no employees in sight, so I had to feel around the room to find the light switch myself.
There was a fake reindeer you could sit on and take a photo with, so that was funny and we enjoyed it. Writing a letter to Santa was cute, but nothing you couldn’t do at home.
When we tried to leave Santa’s Wonderland, we were locked in, so we waited for someone to let us out. They brought Santa to the front door where he scolded us for not coming to see him.
We made the most of the experience, but had I known how UNwonderlandish it really was, I never would have purchased the Groupon. There are more worthwhile holiday events in the OC to spend your time on. I don’t recommend this one.

I wish i had read these reviews prior to purchasing tickets for this event, but alas, it was too late. I had already bought the Groupon (and a whopping eight of them — for my friends and their kiddos). At least the resounding theme of the reviews was that the kids had fun.
And so I went in with pretty low expectations. It really was the worst thing that I’ve ever been to. But hey, my little one (2.5 yr. old) had a great time. The staff is helpful and nice enough. It’s the venue and décor that are really questionable. It was just depressing. Unless you bought the Groupon, don’t go. If I had paid full price ($ 50 for myself and the kid), I would have been really upset. The whole thing is unorganized and unprofessional. The lighting and other décor is super cheap-​looking. The structure itself looks like an abandoned office building.
Upon entry, we were greeted by an elf (she was really nice and great with the kids), who took us upstairs where the kids got to play in the «Reindeer Games» — which is basically having the kids run around and pretend like they’re flying, and then throwing a stuffed animal into a stack of cones, and finally filling a ziplock bag full of oatmeal and sprinkles for Reindeer food. Next, we went into the fake snow room, which my kid loved, but some of the younger kids didn’t really like the texture and so skipped that area. Next was gingerbread cookie decorating, which was probably one of the highlights. They had legit candy (at least!) and the kid loved to eat while decorating. And then it was just mass confusion. The kids were free to roam around in the different rooms (play with toys, wrap presents). Then, the kids went to Santa’s Mailroom and colored and wrote on paper what they wanted for Christmas, which was then placed in a mailbox on the way out. Next, the kids got to run around in the Christmas tree and Christmas lights area (picture opportunities). Finally, the kids took a picture with Santa Claus (who really was a nice guy, and very good with the kids). You got to take home a picture of your kid with Santa, which was nice.
What makes me sad is that it could be SO MUCH better. Considering they’re charging a premium for the tickets (and charging full-​price for kids 25 mos and older), they really should do a better job decorating and staffing the joint.
If your friends are going, and you don’t want to miss out, but don’t want to pay full price (the Groupon is sold out), I found an online discount code: ocdealmama (all lowercase), which will get you tix for $ 15 instead of $ 25. But resist. Don’t go. It’s really not worth it.

I agree with the other review. The place was really cheaply decorated. There was nothing really to do for the kids either. Our «elf» was very nice and really tried hard, but all the other ones where very young and didn’t seem to have much experience with kids. The computer to check the naughty list was broken. The printer to print a picture with Santa was broken (but my friend got one and she said the picture was terrible and dark). The maze was a joke, couple of trees lined up, with a «snow» machine that wasn’t really working. During my entire experienced I was texting my husband telling him I wanted to leave because it was so depressing. My kids actually kept on asking me to leave. I just can’t get over the fact that they are charging $ 25!

Agree with other reviews. Now I understand why there are no photos on the website. I do have to admit that while I was pretty disappointed, my 4 year old was happy. However, he just really wanted to see Santa (which we could have done at any mall for free). For the $ 25 full price ticket, I would give this place a star; for the $ 15 groupon, I will give them two. I do want to add that staff was very friendly, your kid can take home a self-​decorated gingerbread man and you get a 4x6photo with santa. If you have already purchased your groupons, toddlers and preschoolers will probably still be entertained but as parents, be prepared.

The groupon for this place sounded like a fun festive Christmas time event. So I bought the groupon and then went online to the event website to make my reservation, per their instructions. I was unable to make same day reservations online, so I tried calling the telephone number provided for the venue, which nobody answers. I decided to take a chance and just show up anyway, and figure out what to do from there because I really wanted to go before it got too crowded from all the groupons they had sold. The building is kind of hard to find, in an industrial loopy road in Irvine, where all the buildings look the same. When I got inside and asked if I needed reservations, the girl at the desk smirked and said No. hmmm, why then does the groupon as well as the event website say reservations are required? Anyways, the good thing is she took my groupon that I had printed out, even though I guess I was supposed to bring yet another ticket that would have been issued to me had I made reservations online.
An «elf» is assigned to you at the door, to give you a tour through the building. From the moment I stepped through the first doorway, my excitement level plummeted. It basically looked like a two story office building had been emptied out, and everyone brought their Christmas decorations out of their attics to decorate this place. It was a nice effort, but the space was way too big for what they had to offer. It was also pretty dark, and I had to use my flash on all my pictures, which I just took to feel like I got something out of going here. Also a side note is that this building does not have elevators, so anyone with wheelchairs/​crutches/​strollers/​etc. will definitely have a problem getting around.
I feel bad giving this place a bad review because everyone who worked there was really nice, and the «elf» tour guide helps you to take all your pictures so you can get everyone in the shot, and they had a pretty nice Santa. But overall, this place was obviously decorated by amateurs, not professionals who would be justified in charging $ 25 a person for entrance. This event reminded me of a high school fundraiser.