Winter Wonderland Anmeldelser 

I am writing to report a serious and unacceptable incident that occurred at the “Corn Dogs” stand at Winter Wonderland at approximately 9:30 PM.

Three employees were present:
• One woman at the cashier, who appeared to be of South Asian descent
• Two blonde women responsible for preparing the orders

My friends and I ordered two corn dogs. A mistake was made during the payment process. When we calmly and politely pointed it out, we were ignored several times. It was only after insisting that we received a response.
After insisting again and requesting a refund, the situation became even more shocking.

Her colleague then handed us only one corn dog and refused to give us the second one, claiming that we had already eaten it. This accusation is completely false:
• We remained in front of the stand for the entire duration of the order
• The corn dog was thrown into the trash in front of us
• It was large, making it impossible to have eaten it so quickly

When we insisted on receiving what we had paid for, the blonde employee with tattooed eyebrows looked me directly in the eyes and said:

“It’s always the same problem with you.”

This statement is deeply shocking. I am a Black French woman, and it was my very first visit to Winter Wonderland. This remark clearly constitutes a racial generalization.
In this context, there is no possible interpretation of the word “you” other than a racist connotation.

Only after a long and humiliating exchange was a corn dog finally given to us. And when she handed it to me, she called me a liar several times.

Being falsely accused, insulted, and subjected to remarks with racist undertones is completely unacceptable. This behavior is incompatible with the values of an event that claims to be welcoming, inclusive, and family-friendly.

I expect this incident to be taken very seriously and that appropriate measures will be put in place.

I would like to report a shocking and racist experience I had at the “Corn Dogs” stand at Winter Wonderland.

Two employees (two blonde women) handled my order. I ordered two corn dogs, but there was a mistake during payment. When I calmly pointed it out, I was completely ignored several times, until I insisted on getting an answer.

One of them then refused to correct the mistake, even though one corn dog was already with me and the other was still being prepared, and the error was clearly theirs. After insisting, I went back to the counter to request a refund, and only then did they agree to make a change.

One of the employees then took my corn dog and threw it in the trash without any explanation. Because of the language barrier (I am French and they had a strong accent), I initially assumed it was to remake it.

To my surprise, her colleague handed me only one corn dog and refused to give me a second one, claiming that I had eaten the other even though their colleague had thrown it away in front of me.

When I rightfully got upset (since I paid for two), one of them said:
“It’s always problems with you.”
This comment was clearly inappropriate, stigmatizing and racist.

The situation escalated further:
- I was called a liar
- They tried to make me pay for a third corn dog
- Only after I went back again to ask for a refund did they finally give a third corn dog to my sister

This experience was humiliating, unfair and unacceptable.
I sincerely hope that Winter Wonderland management takes this report seriously and takes action, as this kind of behavior has no place in an event that claims to be welcoming and family-friendly.

Kids did not like it. Went after 5 yrs food stalls only care of that one of sale. Chips, sausage, crepe. Is what's all around not much good food. Drinks way too expensive, rides way too expensive. The only good thing was the toilets.

It was wonderful seeing our grandchildren enjoying themselves today .. this is one of the best santas grotto we have ever been as Santa takes good time to chat to them and this is what my Grandaughters have to say ……
we love the toys he gives and we get to choose .. penguin or bear, we definitely recommend him ….he knows your name and says when your naughty he gives lovely toys I know I already said that but this is way to good to explain to all the haters why are you hating we love this know matter how much I say it, this is the best and we loved him and he is so lovely and amazing we all love him and his toys are always so special for the kids …from Alana age 8 and Dulcie age 5 and Max aged 2 ….our nanny helped us with this too…thank you ..

I got scammed today by the Shooting Stand in the Park.1 Star

Terrible experience. I hadn’t been in about 10 years but had such a good memory of cute markets a couple of rides and food a dance floor and Christmas music and overall great atmosphere so I decided to take my 12y/o niece. Not only did we get turned away for not prebooking (so we walked in the cold for an hour - we found the many others in the same boat at the hard rock down the street) when we got inside the food was bad, (hot dog was cold), the cute market really isn’t all that cute anymore - there were barely any stalls, and the rides were not only over priced but the most expensive was wildly inappropriate. We paid 20 to go on a VR ride which from the outside looked like it would be a fun mystical trippy type of thing, but the VR was a straight up horror - a murder scene with zombies , blood and demons. I took a 12y/o on that!! I was so angry. She was too young, there was no warning it would be anything like that and it rly wasn’t Halloween so why was I looking at that..? There was no Christmas spirit at this place - I wouldn’t recommend anyone go. It was an all round rly bad experience. We couldn’t wait to go home.

Truly,truly terrible. Over priced, too many people, enormous queues. Absolutely horrific. Don’t waste your money.

AWFUL and TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. Winter Wonderland has turned into a money-sucking machine. The entrance ticket costs £9 and gives you nothing—just access and the ability to look around. Every ride has an astronomical minimum cost of £5–£6. The food is of very poor quality and obviously expensive. The staff are rude. Please don’t waste your money going there. I should have checked TRUSTPILOT before!!!

Absolutely loved it, it's central London at Christmas so will always be expensive but even so it was a great day out. Want to leave a message to Wayne, the security guard in the ski type bar last night, he was absolutely amazing. My little one gets anxious around loud people sometimes and Wayne consistently checked to make sure he was ok, sat and had a chat with him and made him feel safe and happy so thank you Wayne you absolute super star!!

Paid £9 to ride and the lady couldn't count so I was unable to join my family.they offered me a seat on my own on the next ride but decided to not to use my ticket and request a refund after pointing out their error. They refused and smurked from behind their plastic screen. Perhaps their English was too poor to offer a sensible resolution or beyond their capacity.

I have been attending this annual event for more than ten years; however, I have missed the last two. I am seething as halal meat is mainly served on the menus, and many menus have small print saying what meat they are using. On one stand I asked the vendor what ‘Halal’ meat was in her store; she proceeded to say, ‘The only thing on the menu is the festive burrito, which spoils my menu!’. I was in disbelief and asked my daughter if she really said that. She had clearly got her wires crossed because she thought I only ate halal; the penny did drop when I walked off saying I don’t eat halal. I felt really insulted at a CHRISTMAS event. Why sell HALAL at a CHRISTMAS event? It seems people want to cash in even when they are not Christian and sell their food. Do you think they sell sausage at a Ramadan event? I think NOT. Tolerance is over now. This is insulting and anger-provoking, to say the least. One thing is for sure: I will save money next year because I will not be eating anything. And for a Christmas event, many of the employers were miserable and the atmosphere dead, probably because many don’t even celebrate this time of year, and it showed this year. Taking money without gratitude is a feeling you are left with. That said, the rides are always fun. Maybe Thorpe park will become an annual event my daughter and I attend at Christmas going forward.

We went on a Saturday and had a 3-4pm entry time. If was supposed to be myself, my sis and my 6 year old twin daughters. My sis train was delayed nearly 2hrs, as I had things booked circus and unlimited Santa land tickets I went ahead and my sis said she'd join us later. Unfortunately as she had a small suitcase she was unable to come Into winter wonderland which I didn't see on the website. As she got there just in the nick of time the security guard said by time you drop off the bag somewhere and come back she would have missed the time slot and wouldn't be able to enter after her slot. When I went on the site to just buy another ticket the event was sold out so my sis was unable to come inside and once we were in we couldn't leave and everything we pre-booked was so expensive it would be a big waste of money if we just left, plus the disappointment of the kids as they had seen all the rides. They should have lockers at the event in case of people dropping luggage or heavy bags they don't want to carry around.

Other than that big disappointment, The circus performance we booked was not as good as previous years, If you weren't in a central location it was difficult to see much of the performance. The kids however enjoyed it anyway but as I'd been there a couple years before it was not as good.

There was no bottled water anywhere that I could find, only canned water however, there are water refill stations. I forgot to bring the girls water bottles and to give them a can would be impractical.

Food was expensive, we did not eat there. Thankfully we ate before and we ate again when we left the event.

I bought Santa land tickets £25 per child so £50 in total, this was for unlimited rides in santaland. They were just under 1.2m like 1.15m each which meant on some rides I had to pay £5 to go on with them and other rides required 1 adult per child and as it was just myself so they couldn't go on some of the rides due to their height which did cause some tears so another thing to note.

As I went on a Saturday and it being the first time I went in the evening I have to say the entertainment was amazing as I was walking through. I was vibing at each point where there were live performances. Mad rme want to go back without the kids lol.

The event was so crowded. I felt sorry for people with buggies and I really had to hold on to my children for fear of losing them. One thing they do on entry for small children is they give them a wristband so the adult can write their phone numbers on in case they get lost.

When I went to winter wonderland last, zippos circus was closer to santaland which made sense as it's more of a family type of event good for young kids so it was in a central location. This time santaland was at the top of the park and Zippos circus at the bottoms meaning we had to fight through crowds and walk a really long way just to get to the circus. They should locate it more centrally in future years as the crowds were crazy and the park is so big.

Avoid this overcrowded event full of drunken revellers. Several brawls on the night we attended; Saturday 13th December. Very intimidating atmosphere and nowhere to sit. We have been attending for the last 5 years and it has progressively gotten worse. Drinks are now very overpriced, greed has obviously taken precedence. I complained online and got an unhelpful standard reply so I decided to complain again with different criteria and got exactly the same reply so they are not really interested in addressing concerns of attendees.

The experience was significantly overpriced, and unfortunately the staff were rude and unprofessional. The Santa Grotto costs £26 per child, yet the visit with Santa lasts approximately two minutes. Additionally, the complimentary gift was the same cuddly toy (a dog) that was given last year.

The food was extremely poor in quality. A plain cheeseburger and chips cost £20, and it was without question the worst we have had. Overall, the pricing does not reflect the quality of the experience or the food provided.

This was extremely disappointing, and I will not be returning next year.

Avoid waste of money! Long waits to everything, unworkable with a child

They have a big space hidden beside the Wheel that you can't see with two employees holding customers behind the wall so they don't queue where people can see them, the real queue is 10x bigger than the one that you see behind the ticket cabins, disgusting behaviour.

I bought 3 adult and 1 child entry tickets. A week before we were due to go on 12 Dec our plans had changed which meant my grandchildren couldn't go. I had paid extra to include a refund should their travel plans be affected. The refund policy didn't include cancelled flights so couldn't get a refund. I tried to reschedule the tickets but the system didn't allow me to do this. I went around in circles on the system following their instructions to do this. It had to be done 72 hours before event on 12 Dec. The day before I just chanced trying it again and found this option available but too late for me to change tickets. Extremely annoying. As I had my coach booked from South wales I decided to go on my own and to give my spare tickets away. I seen two young lads queuing to get tickets so gave them my unused ones. Why should winter wonderland get an extra £12 at the ticket office. The lads were delighted which made my day. On entering the park I was so disappointed to see so little xmas huts selling xmas things. Its really gone down hill. Its just a huge fanfare. Never again will I go. So disappointing.

I have been visiting Winter Wonderland for around 16 years (with a few breaks in between), and sadly this year it truly felt like the quality has declined significantly, while prices have become ridiculously high.

Food and drinks are extremely expensive and, for the price, the quality is very average at best. What used to feel festive and special now feels rushed and overly commercial. The Bavarian Village, in particular, used to have much better performances years ago, more live singing, longer sets, and a better atmosphere overall.

It is also important to note that entertainment is not consistent every day. I attended once on a Sunday and once on a Friday within a few weeks in December 2025. The difference was huge.
On Sunday, the 80s–90s section and Bavarian Village had longer, better-quality performances. On Friday, the 80s–90s area had only a DJ, and the Bavarian Village performance lasted around one hour, with very few songs actually sung live. It felt underwhelming and not worth the cost.

What shocked me most was the way visitors were treated at closing time. When the Bavarian Village performance ended around 10:00 pm, the toilets were closed immediately, forcing people to use outside facilities. When we got there, around 90% of the toilets were already closed, leaving people queuing. To make matters worse, the gate leading to those toilets was also closed shortly after.
Security staff were extremely rude, particularly to an elderly lady who was politely begging to use the toilet. She was not drunk or disruptive. Despite multiple people asking staff to let her in, they refused. My mum and I eventually physically moved the fence so the lady could use the facilities, while staff stood there refusing to help. It was genuinely disgusting to witness.

Being charged to enter, then charged excessive prices for average food, drinks, and service only to be literally kicked out at 10 pm without access to basic facilities is unacceptable. There was absolutely no Christmas spirit, just a feeling of pure business and money-grabbing.

Overall, yes - if you are with good company, you will probably still enjoy yourself. But you can do that at home or at any pub with Christmas music, without paying a small fortune.
Save your money. In its current state, Winter Wonderland is simply not worth it.

Waited near on an hour at our designated time slot Sat 6th December, 2pm-3pm. The reason I don't recommend buying tickets in advance of going, is because I would highly recommend not going at all. Less Winter Wonderland, more over crowded Winter Compound. There is absolutely nothing nice about this pop up theme park which has grown and grown and become so unpleasant and commercialised. Simply designed to exploit families who are hoping for a nice day out. If you are going with kids, pram etc, I would highly advise against
against. Also staff are unpleasant and untrained.

Not sure why everyone is moaning about the prices. Just like every other event you visit , be it the cinema, theatre, sporting event or even your local pub, the prices are always inflated. £7.50 for a beer at a place like this is reasonable considering most bars charge the same if not more.
Instead of complaining, do your research before you go and then you'll know that the drinks and rides are too expensive then you can stay at home and be miserable instead.
The customer service is probably bad because the people working there have to put up with all you miserable id*ots.

Me and my girlfriend go every year and we love it. We just walk around having a few few beers and eating great food. We know it's going to be expensive but it's only one day out of the year.

We are on our way there now