For many one of the elations of the Christmas period is the opening of the giant, Germanic inspired Winter Wonderland. And of course this year despite rising cases of omicron this was still very clearly the case as was evidenced by my visit to Winter Wonderland. 

 

As a 9 year old I remember going to Winter Wonderland and being absolutely enchanted by the whimsical winter lights scattered around the place and the magical ice kingdom however this year round although elements of that were still there other factors seemed to dimmen out that reminiscent Christmas spirit. 

 

Now arguably this all lies in age. However…

 

From stepping into Winter Wonderland we were greeted with mass crowds and a reasonably efficient but from first impressions overwhelming queue. Then once in Winter Wonderland you were left slightly incognisant of what to with yourself with swarms of people taking up every step you took. My friends and I naturally were drawn to the rides which we had pre booked beforehand. So we went to our first ride “ice mountain” where of course there was a prodigious queue taking us around an hour. In more conventional circumstances ie. the temperature being maybe 10 degrees this would be although tedious at least slightly bearable however it was nearing to 0 degrees and by the end of our hour long queue I felt numb with cold and slightly malaise. So a quick rush of adrenaline from the ride was what I needed. Having said that yes the ride was quick but very, very quick. Was it worth the hour long queue? 

 

No. 

 

Now post ride I invest in some warm salivating churros. However my sugary, doughy fantasy is brought back to earth when I see that my reasonably small triangular package of churros with a scarce amount of chocolate sauce is £8. Although I have little spectrum for the average cost of churros this seems a lot to me.

 

Now to end our visit we have a familiar experience to our last ride however this time the queue being maybe 45 minutes and the ride being the “haunted mansion” (even more disappointing than ice mountain). Was it worth the long queue in glacial temperatures? 

 

Definitely not. 

 

So now  fed up of queuing, unprepared to spend any more money on food, and too young to go to the beer tent  we were left to get the tube home. Which leads me to my conclusion that:

 

Winter Wonderland simply is not worth its stately reputation. When your forced to see beyond its size and magnificence you are just more and more disappointed by everything else. Not to mention after booking all our rides it came up to nearly £30 with even more spent once there.

So by my recommendation save yourself the trip to Winter Wonderland it’s not really worth it.