‘Teething problems’ take the sparkle off Christmas treat
IT was billed as “the most magical, immersive, walk-through Christmas experience the North East has to offer”.
But now organisers of the Road To The North Pole show have apologised to families who branded it “daylight robbery”.
People who paid up to £125 for a family ticket on the first two days will now be offered free visits to next year’s planned show, after the team behind the event, at Newcastle’s Vertu Arena, apologised for “teething problems”.
The first two days of the show, which opened on Friday, earned scathing reviews online. One reviewer said their children were “bored from the start”. It was labelled “embarrassing” and “a shambles”, while one person said customers were “herded around like cattle”.
Jamie Webster took his two daughters, aged five and 11, to the show on Saturday night. The Durham dad, 32, said he and his family endured long waits in crowded corridors and queued for 40 minutes to see Santa only to get ‘nanoseconds’ with him and a gift in a brown paper bag. Meanwhile, he said, children couldn’t hear the stories they were being told and the ‘interactive’ experiences they were promised didn’t live up to expectations, with little audience participation.
He told The Chronicle: “A lot of the actors were doing their best but ultimately from start to finish it was nothing like how it was advertised.
“The whole time we walked round all you could hear was the other groups. It was very disappointing.
“The only thing I want is that this doesn’t continue to happen to other people because I just felt they were robbing people of their money; that’s the only way I can describe it, daylight robbery.”
Meanwhile, Jamie and other customers raised concerns about Covid precautions, as the long queues meant big crowds standing together for long stretches in small corridors.
By Monday, online reviews had begun to improve, with several five-star ratings, seemingly from parents who’d visited on Sunday – though at the time
of writing the overall rating stood at just two stars. And not everyone was disappointed with the event - Chronicle reviewer Georgia Meadows attended and said she found it “original and creative”.
Directors Kieran Stewart and Daniel Burnett said they were grateful to those who had raised concerns, and said they’d listened to feedback and improved the event for its subsequent days.
They said supply chain issues had delayed the arrival of several key items, including mics for actors and branded gift bags for Santa, which had now arrived. They said the set had been designed before fears about the Omicron variant were raised, and with no Covid restrictions in place they had initially planned to have solid roofs on each individual set to reduce noise from other areas – but swapped those for permeable coverings to improve airflow given the current infection spread.
They said queue times had now been drastically cut, with children waiting a maximum of 12 minutes to see Santa and a new activity to do in the queue. When The Chronicle visited on Monday morning, queues for Santa were within this limit, while groups of visitors seemed to be moving immediately from one attraction to the next without queueing in corridors. Organisers Covid vaccine passes were being checked for all who came in.
Dan said: “We’re not here to make an easy profit and run, we’re here to build magical Christmas memories. A lot of thought has gone into what’s been created and we’ve done everything we can to provide what was promised. Prior to yesterday [Sunday] we did have teething problems. We’ve really taken on board what people have said and we’ve done our best to act on that and give people the event they hoped for.
“We are planning to do an extended run next year with a brand new story so we hope to really take on board what people are saying this year and hopefully get people back onside and to return next year.
“We can only apologise for the teething issues.”
Organisers say they’ll contact those who were disappointed on Friday or Saturday to offer 2022 tickets.