XMAS PEEVE
SANTA’S GROTTO BOUNCY CASTLE SANTA’S ELVES Grotty Xmas ‘blunderland’ closed after complaints INFLATABLE PUB...
ANGRY parents demanded refunds after a “Winter Wonderland” turned out to be more grotty than grotto.
Dubbed by organisers as the premium Christmas event in the North, it promised a Santa with a real beard, a personalised experience for the kids, craft stalls, an ice rink and even a cinema.
But the attraction at Clandeboye Estate near Bangor, Co Down, has been forced to close after being dubbed a Winter Blunderland.
Mum-of-four Gemma Kingham, 36, from Moneyreagh, travelled with 11 family members to the venue.
The student nurse, said: “My husband Lee and I took our children Watson, 10, Matthew, eight, Reuben, seven and three-year-old Beatrice.
“We also had my sister Gillian Kelly and her husband Eric, and their children, Darcy, who is eight and their five-year-old son Oliver. And my mum and dad.
“I had booked the Bangor event in July and paid £147.50 and on Friday night all the kids were excited about meeting Santa the following day.
GRUBBY
“But the whole thing was a joke. The ice rink was the big attraction for our kids as we arrived but it was chaos with no staff on hand and what appeared to be a bleach-type substance on the synthetic tiles which made it slippy.
“The Santa experience was a total disaster and my son asked me why Santa had an elastic band on his beard.
“While he was looking at that I was astounded to see we were actually not in a cute grotto but in a grubby room with a kitchenette with rubbish and coffee cups strewn around.
“When I booked I’d been asked to fill out a form for a personal exclusive Santa experience for the kids and I had to give their names, ages, gender and what they wanted for Christmas.
“I assumed the events people were really organised but my hopes started to dip when we were queuing in the cold for half an hour because Santa was running behind time. And as we stood there shivering, we watched a series of children coming out of Kingham family were unimpressed Santa’s grotto in tears.
“One 10-year-old girl started crying when she opened her present and found it was a paper glider. The place was grubby, disorganised and chaotic and it didn’t match any of our expectations.
“But luckily our elf on the shelf left us a note this morning and explained that Santa had been a bit unwell and had to send a helper so that’s why the Santa they saw had a false beard.
“I met the event organiser Emma Mcknight and confronted her about the situation, but I felt her response
CO DOWN YESTERDAY
was totally unacceptable. The whole thing was a shambles and we want our money back.” Winter NI, a company run by Mrs Mcknight, posted a series of apologies on Facebook.
Initially they urged visitors to give them another chance but later announced the event would be closed from today, a week ahead of schedule.
And their statements about refunds has left customers with conflicting information, first saying all tickets would be refunded and later stipulating only tickets for December 18 to 23 would be considered.
Mrs Mcknight said: “Winter NI would like to apologise for the Bangor Winter Wonderland event which has fallen way short of our expectations.
“For this reason it has been decided to cancel the event from today.
“While we understand this will be greatly disappointing to many we feel we can not recover from the negative publicity and it is clear we have hosted an event which has not met the high standards we had aimed to deliver.
“All ticket holders for the period December 18 to 23 will be given a full refund which will be processed automatically over the next 28 days, but should anyone wish to get in touch sooner then please email winterwonderlandni@gmail.com including your order number.
“Once again, on behalf of all involved we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment caused.”
A Clandeboye Estate spokesman said: “We are extremely disappointed the event has not lived up to our expectations and usual high standards.
“We can only apologise on behalf of the Estate for the disappointment that families have experienced.”
The place was grubby, disorganised and chaotic. It was a shambles GEMMA KINGHAM