airhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2000
- Messages
- 4,991
To all of you who have been entering the Lottery to win tickets for the Polar Express ride in North Conway,consider yourselves lucky (and richer!) that you never won!
We went for our "magical" ride to the North Pole on the Polar Express. There was NO magic! No music for singing Christmas songs. No one walking up and down the isles talking to little kids in there pj's about visiting santa. The story says the riders drank "Hot chocolate that tasted like melted chocolate bars". That's a good one! We were all given a small styrofoam cup filled with (less than half!) watered down SwissMiss cocoa that was luke warm! It was terrible. Then everyone was "treated"
with a very small piece of candy. Gimme a break. The ride to the "North Pole" was about 20 minutes. There was absolutley nothing on this stinkin' train ride that made it magical or different than a ride on a commuter train into Boston. Now,all of you with little kids KNOW what that means; total BOREDOM for all the kids! I looked around the train at the faces of parents trying to see if maybe I was missing something because I didn't have kids with me. Nope. I think i was one of the lucky ones that didn't have to keep saying,"we're almost there,try to sit nicely". I really felt bad for the families I saw toting 3 and 4 kids. At $35 a pop,that's a lot of money for what was suppose to be a wonderful,magical event.
We finally reached the "North Pole",where lots of elves were going to meet us and bring us to Santa. At this point I'm figuring this is where they probably go all out,lots and lots of elves siging,Christmas lights,maybe some awesome decorations.
All of a sudden,the train stops. No warning to parents to get your kids ready we'll be getting off the train. Now,we're in the middle of the White Mountain National Forest,its freekin' dark
out there! Where's the decorations? No lit up Christmas trees?
No singing? Oh but wait,there are a few(I counted 9,n-i-n-e)elves greeting 2 cars full of excited kids and adults. There were 400 people (maybe 6 cars)and maybe 20 elves. I am not kidding!!
There we all are,dropped off in the dark to walk up the most
pitifully lit path to a building high on a hill. I felt bad for the grammies and grampies that had to navigate this path! There were ruts and puddles(mind you,its dark so we can't see what we're walking in until you feel your feet wet!) Parents were carrying little kids because they couldn't bring carriages!
We finally get to the building where I was convinced this is where the magic will be! All 400 people file in and find a place to sit. I'm thinkin' there's gonna be an awesome show,there's gotta be.
All of sudden,some guy comes out,pulls up a stool,sits down and reads the story from Polar Express. He then tells everyone to call for Santa maybe he'll come out. So out comes the skinniest santa I ever saw! WHAT'S GOIN' ON?????? Santa walks around the crowd a little, picks out a kid( pre picked so he could learn his pathetic lines). And that's it!!!! Santa goes back to making toys and the elves thank everyone for visiting!!!!
I look around again at the faces of people. One mom says to her husband," this was a mean joke". They had 4 lilttle kids.The least amount they spent for their "magical moment" was $210. And that's if they bought coach tickets. When I think I was disappointed I couldn't score the $55 tickets.....
The ride back was quieter because all the little ones were sleeping. Thats when 3 elves thought it would be a good idea to sing Jingle Bells. What a rip off. The best part of that trip was stepping off the train at the North Conway station!!!
We went for our "magical" ride to the North Pole on the Polar Express. There was NO magic! No music for singing Christmas songs. No one walking up and down the isles talking to little kids in there pj's about visiting santa. The story says the riders drank "Hot chocolate that tasted like melted chocolate bars". That's a good one! We were all given a small styrofoam cup filled with (less than half!) watered down SwissMiss cocoa that was luke warm! It was terrible. Then everyone was "treated"
with a very small piece of candy. Gimme a break. The ride to the "North Pole" was about 20 minutes. There was absolutley nothing on this stinkin' train ride that made it magical or different than a ride on a commuter train into Boston. Now,all of you with little kids KNOW what that means; total BOREDOM for all the kids! I looked around the train at the faces of parents trying to see if maybe I was missing something because I didn't have kids with me. Nope. I think i was one of the lucky ones that didn't have to keep saying,"we're almost there,try to sit nicely". I really felt bad for the families I saw toting 3 and 4 kids. At $35 a pop,that's a lot of money for what was suppose to be a wonderful,magical event.
We finally reached the "North Pole",where lots of elves were going to meet us and bring us to Santa. At this point I'm figuring this is where they probably go all out,lots and lots of elves siging,Christmas lights,maybe some awesome decorations.
All of a sudden,the train stops. No warning to parents to get your kids ready we'll be getting off the train. Now,we're in the middle of the White Mountain National Forest,its freekin' dark
out there! Where's the decorations? No lit up Christmas trees?
No singing? Oh but wait,there are a few(I counted 9,n-i-n-e)elves greeting 2 cars full of excited kids and adults. There were 400 people (maybe 6 cars)and maybe 20 elves. I am not kidding!!
There we all are,dropped off in the dark to walk up the most
pitifully lit path to a building high on a hill. I felt bad for the grammies and grampies that had to navigate this path! There were ruts and puddles(mind you,its dark so we can't see what we're walking in until you feel your feet wet!) Parents were carrying little kids because they couldn't bring carriages!
We finally get to the building where I was convinced this is where the magic will be! All 400 people file in and find a place to sit. I'm thinkin' there's gonna be an awesome show,there's gotta be.
All of sudden,some guy comes out,pulls up a stool,sits down and reads the story from Polar Express. He then tells everyone to call for Santa maybe he'll come out. So out comes the skinniest santa I ever saw! WHAT'S GOIN' ON?????? Santa walks around the crowd a little, picks out a kid( pre picked so he could learn his pathetic lines). And that's it!!!! Santa goes back to making toys and the elves thank everyone for visiting!!!!
I look around again at the faces of people. One mom says to her husband," this was a mean joke". They had 4 lilttle kids.The least amount they spent for their "magical moment" was $210. And that's if they bought coach tickets. When I think I was disappointed I couldn't score the $55 tickets.....
The ride back was quieter because all the little ones were sleeping. Thats when 3 elves thought it would be a good idea to sing Jingle Bells. What a rip off. The best part of that trip was stepping off the train at the North Conway station!!!
I'll probably just take the kids on the local Santa Train the Hobo Railroad does every year and this goes during the day light too
sorry it wasn't so magical...
I should really read threads through! lol My first impression was "What?? 
I LOVED the movie!!! and the book was really good too!"
