We visited yesterday 25th Nov for the first Santa's enchanted grotto experience. We were a group of 9, with 3 children age 9, 8 and 5. The whole day was disappointing from the start. We waited an hour in a huge queue to get in the park, children becoming restless and upset, the car park was disorganised with 3 lanes quickly diverting into 1 lane which was chaos. I didn't see any staff helping in the car park or the queue to get in e.g. Keeping people updated or helping the queue flow faster. At the enterence gate staff had no organisation at all for scanning tickets with some people having tickets scanned twice as staff were not communicating. People were also observed skipping the queue if they were buying tickets at the box office so they were able to get in faster.... whats the point in having pre paid tickets if we have to wait in the huge queue! The queue for santas grotto was horrendous with comments from other people stating they were waiting 2 hours to get in. How can you expect small children to wait that long in the queue in the freezing cold with no sight of a member of staff to help. What's the point in having an allocated time for santa as our slot was 14.48 and we didn't even get to see santa until 7.20pm as the queues were awful. The layout of santas grotto didn't help the queues as they have placed a giftshop at the start which clearly disrupted the queue for santa, as people were holding the queue up if they were purchasing things and then the letters to santa again disrupted the queue flow. We waited an hour when in this area before reaching santa! Surely it makes sense to have these activities and the shop after santa or completely seperate. The whole day was a queue after queue with us adults becoming frustrated nevermind our children who had enough of the queues very quickly. We didn't even have time for a meal or a rest. We had to get dinner after leaving the park at 8.30pm at McDonald's as there was simply no time in between queuing for the very few experiences we manged to fit in. We missed out on rides and the zoo which we were upset about.Also the staff in the grotto who were dressed as elves near the santa letter writing area were standing around in a group talking to each other about their personal lives and it definitely seemed like they couldn't be bothered to be there or interact with the children. Also a young girl on the hook a duck activity opposite the Christmas tree was very blunt, rude and tried to rush our children to choose their winning prize. This was very disappointing and upset one of our girls. It seemed some some of the decorations were not finished e.g. Star on top of the tree was missing with huge gaps of lights and the small Christmas tree lights near the Thomas train ride were not switched on. There were even shop labels left on some in the grotto! One of our children found a large nail on the floor in the park which we moved incase a small child picked it up. Also it was sad to hear one of the members of staff having to shut a ride for 5 mins and run to the toilet as she had previously called for cover 45 mins ago for said toilet break. Clearly speaks volumes about how they treat staff! We tried to discuss our concerns on the day but again there was a massive queue for guest services which highlights how bad the day was yesterday. No way was this a technical issue Drayton Manor! - more like terrible organisation!! Very disappointing start to our Christmas! We definitely will not be returning and recommend families to go elsewhere!
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