We visited lapland UK 22nd Dec 2015 and sadly was very disappointed. The overall experience lacked any magical feel and didn't live up to the Rolls Royce of Christmas experiences! There was minimal fake snow, couldn't ice skate as there was so much water on it, couldn't pet the reindeer, the walk way to meet Father Christmas consisted of bumping into other visitors not making the children feel special to be seeing him, extras were over priced and £15 for a photo is completely unnecessary. The only positives are the personalised invitations sent out in the post and the personal touches during the actual visit to Father Christmas and the staff were all very friendly. The experience is completely over priced especially that adults pay the same as children. We saved for months to give our children this experience and quite frankly the £380 we paid plus the photo is appalling and I'm so disappointed and a very dissatisfied customer. I would not recommend anyone goes there. I have written to lapland uk complaining more than once and they havent even acknowledged the complaint! Please please dont waste your money.

Myself and my family went to Lapland Uk on Saturday 14th December 2014 for a family of 3 we paid £224. As a repeat customer I got priority booking for this, and I was told by my friend who was also a repeat customer she got a free Eco Elf, I did not receive one of these?? When we arrived and parked the car we found ourselves in a muddy bog and then had to walk through this toward a make shift tent to “check in” when we checked in, half an hour before as advised we had to sit down and when purchased 3 drinks and a cake for £10, realised that this was a ridiculous amount of time to advise people to arrive as when we checked in all we did was show our ticket and got a wrist band for my daughter, this would not take half an hour to “check in”. Upon entering we noticed not one person was checked to ensure they had a ticket. The “elves” relied on people checking in, anybody could have walked into the queue and strolled through. Once into the elf land inside we were sitting behind adults so my daughter could not see and could not stand for fear of the children behind not being able to see, surely it should have been organised for children to sit in front?? After this we were all huddled into a tiny doorway where the helper told all the children to come to the front to knock on the elf door. There were at least 80 people in that huddle and my 4 year old daughter was lost in the crowd among strangers!!! Once the door was opened she was aimlessly wondering in the elf workshop desperately searching for us. I also noticed that one toy was broken and so siblings were at opposite ends of different tables and could not sit together. When we got to Mother Christmas House we were lined up again and children told to go to the front (I didn’t let my daughter this time) cue; lots of treading (muddy feet) all over me and others and scrambling through the crowd, only to then be told to “go back to your adults and make a funny face” – more scrambling and muddy feet!! Once the Mother Christmas story was over I was feeling quite stressed with the 1 hour we had just endured. We were then told we had an hour and a half before seeing father Christmas. I can only imagine that this length of time is given so we had to spend more money on over-priced hats/baubles/tat! When we had ice skated for approximately 20 minutes and we had stroked 1 husky dog we had 45 minutes to walk around the 4 shops and the post office. When we asked to see Father Christmas early we were told this was not possible and we had to wait a further half an hour!!! Ludicrous! We were not at all happy with this, it was cold and we were stressed and my daughter tired after a long drive and insisted we were to be let through, to which the “elf” eventually gave in. I must say were happy with Father Christmas he was lovely to My Daughter. However felt completely ripped off that we were not allowed to take our own pictures when with Father Christmas (the whole point of the day) and charged £10 per picture surely this should be included in the £224 we paid??!!?? The quality of the picture was terrible (I could have taken a better quality picture on my mobile phone) and I felt I had no other choice but to pay for the picture as a memento of when my little girl met the “actual” Father Christmas. The reindeer were behind 2 fences so we could not get anywhere near them and the “Sami Herdsman” hardly said 2 sentences whilst we were standing there? Not the “stories” we were expecting Once walking back to the car we had to again face a boggy car park and almost fell down 3 times as we had to walk down a hill to get to the car! I will have to valet my car due to the amount of mud and dirt both inside and outside !! On the whole the experience we had with Lapland UK was awful! I was expecting a magical enchanting day for myself and my daughter instead we had a one off experience for all of the wrong reasons.

This was so expensive, the food was terrible and very expensive again, there was a plastic ice rink, and not much more for my two ten year old grand-daughters to do It was very badly organised, and was not one bit exciting as I would have expected for the money that they would have had a lot more people making it a very memorable day for the children. Queing up to get in took forever and caused the two youngest children to be bored and fed up by the time we got into the actual place. The only good thing about the whole afternoon was father xmas who was very lovely and really made an effort with the children. Dont both it was not worth the money especially as adults, there were four of us had to pay so much yet there was nothing for us to get in the least bit excited about, needed some more christmas stuff to make if feel like christmas. Very boring indeed.

I think people going to lapland uk for 1st time this year prob think it's a nice experience. However we went last year and have just got back from our 2nd trip. On comparison, last year was miles better.really MAGICAL! And much better organised last year! The ice rink this year was terrible, even the penguins couldn't go round properly. & with the time on the ice rink massively reduced (it was at end of visit last year) we only got 15 mins on the rink, and unlike last year no Helpers were on the rink. We saw one husky - briefly on way in, and there was no storytelling! - even though it was listed as an activity on the passports. last year when waiting to see Santa the kids were in a room with games, this year we were just herded into a tent with nothing for them to do. The gift was less too-last year a husky and lovely book, this year a husky. Very dumbed down, and we won't be going again.

Very disappointing, from the original telephone booking- which lasted almost an hour as apparently they were training that day, the staff suggested phoning us back in the end as the call is more expensive than usual rates. How to sum up, well its the first time i've left somewhere feeling totally robbed. Forget mud and lack of security and lighting when you exit into complete darkness,a four hour slot, lose an hour for lunch where you're just wandering aimlessly, lose another half hour on arrival, as much queing and looking blank takes place, followed by much shouting akin to a butlins meeting- assemble a toy in the factory that you're not allowed to keep as its nailed to the table, only one huskie dog and no real ice rink-very overpriced all round and unfair to those of us who graft for a living, the local garden centre proves much better value.Not an experience to be recommended or repeated.Would have loved to say something positive, but unfortunately keep thinking of other things i could have done with the money.!

LaplandUK is a total rip off from start to finish. Groups are far too big for any sense of a peronal touch. Could all esily be fitted into 2 hours but then they'd miss out on charging £6.50 for a tiny bowl of macaroni cheese. I ordered a glass of wine which was served from a 3 litre screw top bottle which simply said 'WINE' on the front. It tasted totally vile. Two very sad looking reindeers and an equally sad pair of huskies. The elves however were marvellous and very enthusiastic and deserve medals for working for this shoddy money grabbing outfit. Gift shop prices were ridiculous. As with previous readers the car park was a sinking mud pit that was positively dangerous to walk through. And the ultimate disappointment was father christmas's beard which was coming loose! This was pointed out to me by by 6 year old daughter. In short....save your money.

I have been to Lapland Uk for the past 3 years with my children and I have to say this year was terrible. I will not be going again. The car park was like a mud swamp, the waiting time led to bored children. The lay out was awful, the ice rink was even worse with fake ice. To say they had decided to not to include food in the ticket price was unbelievable. This added another £40.00 to the cost with food and drink. I had a Hot chocolate and only got half a very small cup. Then I paid ful price for my 1 year old and expected him to get the same as his brother he got some rubbish doll. The adults got nothing this year. Overall I would say it was all profit making and no attempt was made to make it a memorable experiance. The shop was pretty rubbish too. Not very well stocked and photo choice nothing like last year. I would say all expense had not been spared.

We had to walk through mud from car park to entrance; stand around for two talks (which we could not hear) to give time for the previous group to get ahead of us; listen to baby talk from elves and watch children perform simple tasks. We were then given one hour free time (aS IT WAS DESCRIBED)to purchase overpriced food from their eatery which compared unfavourably to a works canteen. The children had a short time on the ice rink before we walked through mud to see father Christmas. Finally we had to walk back through mud to take it all into our cars. When I calculated how many people went through this system, and how longthey had been operating the park, they seem too greedy to spend money on people's comfort. When booking we told the ages of our children,10 and 12 we should have beentold that this place was only suitable for smallchildren up to the age of 6 or 7

We had the booking for 19th december 2009 and it was cancelled due to the weather, after 19 till 31st jan Lapland Uk were issuing information about refunds. It is more than 45 day and no refund and now we are asked to deal with and administration company and they are waiting for insurance to give them the refund and then they will pay us. It was a very bad experince for me from Lapland.

we traveled 5 hours from west midlands for appointment at 12 o'clock.when we arrived lapland was closed due to bed weather conditions,after we received a mess about closure,but it was after,it was at 1 pm!so nobody told us before travel.staff said about refund,but today we still waiting for refund,we have 45 days and still waiting.I have hundreds of trying to call them,but their phone line are closed,end of season.today we received a letter about insolvency act from an administrator of a court...so if you did not pay by credit card nobody give you refund?!now i have to guess...because i used my debit card to pay my visit....who knows does the company have enough money to give refund to thousands of customers?.Do not reccomend!I am very disappointed

Severe lack of planning and communication for the recent snow - very poor

I am sure the event for those who got there was fine, but for those who were due to attend over this weekend it was a shambles - hours on the telephone, an out of date website

We have just returned from Kent we travelled 5 hours from East Yorkshire on Friday afternoon in anticiapation of our visit start time of 1pm Saturday. We recieved a text at 8pm Friday informing us that Lapland was closed the next day due to a bit of snow and ice, further information was available on the website, but unfortuntately I don't carry my PC with me!! I couldn't get through on the telephones Friday evening; it took me 53 minutes to speak to someone after trying from 8am Sat morning after an hour and 20 minutes on the phone all they could offer me was 5.30pm on the Sunday and with a 4 and 6 year old and then a 5 hour journey home I said this was totally unacceptable. I was then offered 11.30am Sunday but no guarantees as to whether they would be opening on Sunday. We had to make the very difficult decision to travel home with two very disapointed boys and a vey guilty mum and dad. LLUK do not care that we have incurred the costs of a hotel and fuel and 10 hours travelling in a car. SURELY IF THEY WERE CLOSED FRIDAY THEY COULD HAVE GOT IN TOUCH WITH US BEFORE 8PM FRIDAY TO FOREWARN US THAT THERE WAS A POSSIBLITY THEY MAY NOT BE ABLE TO OPEN SATURDAY. HENCE WE ARE £175 OUT OF POCKET AND WE NEVER EVEN MADE IT TO THE VENUE. Looking at doing the real thing now next year, lets hope my 6 and a half year old will still beleive in another year. An extremely disapointed family in East Yorkshire!!!!!

You can not liken the event at Bewl Water to be any thing like the Rovaniemi day trips to the real Lapland, you do not get a sleigh ride with the Lapland UK huskies (to be blunt the Lapland UK huskies don't even look capable of doing a days work whereas the Lapland (Finland) dogs look well and truely fit and happy. No reindeer rides at Lapland UK also no fun & games in the real snow. Unless your scared of flying I can see no good reason as to why you would choose Lapland UK over the real thing, as someone has already pointed out, save you pennies for another year & do the real thing. Only 1 shop in Lapland UK so many to choose from in Finland. I was surprised to find shopping in Finland was much cheaper and staff in Finland were not nursing hangovers. Lapland UK never again, Lapland Finland Definately.

EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING - if you want to show Santa to your kis then you are much better going to Selfridges where you pay about £4 and also get a present... the whole experience is TERRIBLE - first we are gathered with 50 other people or so watching a very bad performance of the elves (and if it's raining like it was when we went las tweek, you just stay outside under the rain), then you stick with your massive group for the bakery and the toy factory. Don't expect much snow either, there is just a little bit of powder in some trees but otherwise it is a white carpet (which does not look like snow) and they project some blue light in the trees to give a snow impression... The food is ok but served in tiny pots which is not practical, choice of drinks on the table are ribena, orange squash and water, nothing hot offered (you can buy hot drinks outside). We had to wait for one hour to see father Xmas in a tiny room with fifty kids running everywhere, they were writing the name of families five by five to let you know when you can go to the other room where one elf takes you to see father Xmas. Waiting so long killed the experience... and then to see Father Xmas you have to cross a terrible path which was completely floodeed. Take wellies otherwise your kids are guaranteed a good flu like ours did catch. All in all, think twice before booking, we paid a fortune for something worth one tenth... At the end of they day I felt cold, wet and robbed!