Winter Wonderfest

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! I took my family opening night and it was laughable! For the price you pay, you still have to pay for all the things to do ($20 for 25 tickets when zip line is 9 tickets, obstacle & bounce houses are 3 tickets, slides are 1 ticket, $10 for 4 arts & crafts stations). They had the world's smallest Ferris wheel AND it required constant stopping, cautious seating by weight and an additional operator to run the ride due to weight limitations and operating difficulties. And what they advertise on their website, there is no redeeming factor... there were less than 20 vendors, maybe 5 food trucks and their light show was a joke!!! If anything they should charge $10 for parking and free admission since you pay for everything else.

If anyone remembers hearing about the Fyre Fest situation.. (for those who dont recall: a music festival with pricey tickets promised a luxury experience, but those who attended basically were stuck on something out of survivor)...apply that to a holiday winter festival and that is what this is. First issue: even if you bought tickets ahead of time, you had to wait in line with those buying tickets on site. There was a long line while no one was entering the site. Seems messy to me. Once inside.. I don't even have words. It looked like the local trailer park set up a carnival for the neighborhood. There was zero ambiance.. the light display looked like Clark Griswold set it up, Santa and the Frozen chick were in tacky cardboard cutout houses. The rides looked like they were about to fall apart. And the inflatables were a disaster. The maybe three food trucks who hadn't abandoned the grounds looked miserable. The "snow" was straight up soap flying out of a machine. Run. Run far away from this place.

If you're looking for a fun night away from your backyard where you spend your evenings lighting money on fire, this is it. But if you don't enjoy wasting your hard-earned dough, skip it. I came with my sister and bro-in-law and their 3-year-old son. We all bought Groupons. I had a discount code, but I believe it was $16 per person. Kids under 2 are free; any kiddo older than that pays adult admission. I didn't realize that price only includes admission. Similar to a county or state fair, you must buy tickets for all the rides, which are $1 each. You save the more you buy, but the best deal was 25 tickets for $20.Each ride or activity was 3-9 tickets each. In hindsight, we didn't need to buy that many tickets, because my nephew was content to run around one small bounce house for the entire time! And that's really all it was, several bounce houses and inflatable slides spread out over a muddy gravel lot. I was surprised they had a bar and a 16 oz. beer was only $6. That's not cheap, but considering it was $10 for a s'more you have to make yourself, that seems like a decent deal. Everything was expensive. Kids could get pictures with Ana and Elsa or Santa, but they wouldn't allow you to take pictures of your own; you had to buy theirs. Huge ripoff and disappointment.If you are looking for a similar-type activity, make the trip to the Marana Pumpkin Patch/Post Farms for Christmas on the Farm. Much better family outing and it costs a lot less.

All I can say is wow. When you first enter the park, you are greeted with happy parking attendants who are about as excited as someone attending a funeral. When walking in, the snow pile is nothing but a slushy pile of mud. After paying an additional $10 to ride some of the underwhelming rides in the park, you find out that the Ferris wheel will not accept single riders. So a family of 7, someone has to sit out. There are more lights on a single house in a neighborhood than there are at this place. The only thing I could hope that would redeem some of my disappointment is that the sponsor of this event all proceeds to charity. I doubt that would happen, and refunds won't be issued. Be sure not to waste your money here. Lesson learned.

Not a single employee to direct customers as to which of the two massive lines was the appropriate line. We waited and eventually went for the short line, since we had our tickets printed and all. Finally an employee at the gate! Back to the non moving monstrous line. Can you not put one person out there to direct people? We haven't even made it in yet lol! I'm a patient person and waiting about an hour to drop this review. My 8 and 6 year old have lost all excitement, fought, made up and fought again. Good griefUpdate: still not in.Update: We're in. Bring lot's of cash. Smores are $10Rides are additional Snow spot is 2 ft by 2 ftWasn't for us. Seemed extremely poorly planned. I'm sure the heart was in the right place. The execution however left a ton on the table. This was to be a fun family event, not the trailer park's Christmas party. It's ok guys, I grew up in a trailer park. I can say that.

We bought our tickets in September at half price, plus a service fee. Now, tickets are the same price at the gate. My "deal" is worth nothing now. Can't even re-sell The pictures and reviews people have posted of the event hardly reflect the grandiose promises of the"greatest holiday event in Arizona" that was promoted when we purchased in September. The website has since been watered down, claims of 50+ vendors are gone, claims of being the greatest holiday event in Arizona are gone, beautiful wonderland pictures have been replaced with their own mediocre pictures. The hours on my tickets say 2-10pm. After so many bad reviews they changed the hours to 5-10pm. People are claiming on Facebook that they sometimes shut down early too. I tried to ask a question on their Facebook page, but my question was deleted and I was blocked. Their reviews have been boosted by obvious fake accounts. They are changing the rules as they go, keeping our money hostage as they figure out what the hell they are doing, and offering no refunds. How long are we supposed to wait for them to get their act together? Hopefully our bank can intervene to get our money back. Update 12/17/17: they are STILL falsely advertising. I've attached some screenshots from today.

Winter I Wonder how I got roped in to this complete waste Fest is more like it.It's dirty, poorly lit, super expensive to get in the gate and absolutely NOTHING is included in the price of admission.$12 hot dogs still taste good, but NOTHING is included. There are no carnival games, the bounce hoses are closed, it's just bad.Nothing like Santa's Village (same location years ago) so don't expect much, if anything.

This is not as described on their website. This is nothing more than a small type fair you would usually see in a grocery parking lot. For $30 a ticket prepaid and no refund is absurd. Total bait and switch. Check out the internet on this. If you comment on FB they block you to hide the truth. They will not offer a refund.

Don't waste your money. I wasn't expecting much, and I was still disappointed. The admission price gets you access to a few workers who need deoderant and breath mints, and that's about it. My daughter loved the ice castle, and Anna and Elsa were a pleasant surprise. After that it went downhill hard and fast. The carousel and ferris wheel, which we thought were included, but weren't, would have cost my family of five an additional $35 if the nice lady at the Smores land hasn't given us free passes. Outside of the ice castle and the Smores lady this place was more like a movie where Christmas is taken over by a bunch of dirty carni grifters. The craft lady was nice, and the kids craft bag was reasonably priced. Everything else requires a second mortgage. If you're into three different Christmas songs playing too loud at the same time, gas fumes, muddy snow, dirty bounce houses, a bumpy shaky carousel, a miniature ferris wheel, all while spending your life savings...Head on over. Next year in skip this place and go do something more enjoyable, like getting a route canal. That will also cost less.

Do not waste your money on this place. The advertising for this family activity was over exaggerated on the internet. We were all disappointed including the kids sad faces on what you get for the $10 price, which is even half of what the original door price would be. Once you enter you are greeted by ticket booths to spend even more money on rides that aren't all that exciting. Extremely disappointing and hope you don't have to make the same mistake I did.FYI. The images I posted are shared from a Facebook post I found as I didn't get a chance to take any pictures when I was there at night. This pretty much sums it all up!