Elf on the Shelf Reviews 35

Total Rip off , empty room with a few silly games , no grotto not sure how Bluewater are letting these people get away with this , rubbish avoid !!!!

If you are thinking of taking your child or children to bluewater’s elf of the shelf Christmas experience don’t bother!
What a waste of money!
There was nothing special about what’s so ever
My daughter loves her elf’s on the shelf and was so looking forward to it but she was very disappointed . Nothing magical about it whatsoever so even .
They really need to re think .

Appalling! Appalling! Appalling!

If I could rate this experience less than 1/5 I would. But I cannot. So this must suffice.

It's just a room (and not a large room at that) with an assortment of underwhelming, fairly basic, activity stations, loosely based around a Christmassy theme, plonked about the place. There's, of course, paid for photos, which cost extra, if you want to do that. If entrance was free to Bluewater shoppers (upon display of a receipt or something) I'd begrudgingly tolerate it. But, as it stands, I actually quite resent the fact I paid money for this! To portray Elf On The Shelf as a paid attraction, in order to bring people to Bluewater, should be a criminal offence.

What a disaster! So disappointed! Just a room with various boring things to touch! No elves to interact with just pictures on the wall. Parents and kids just roaming round not knowing what to do and waiting for an experience which doesn’t happen! No professional photos taken with Santa as one of the staff said “well no one ever buys them” ! If you want a photo have to take a selfie with a Santa that is just roaming around not interacting with kids at all. Waste of money but more than that it’s spoilt the magical experience of yearly trip to see Santa. Bluewater you should be ashamed!

Just echoing all of the other reviews to be honest! It was just absolutely rubbish and underwhelming in every single way. No official photos with Santa, no personalisation, a cheap sticker book that wasn’t even wrapped up for a gift. The biggest waste of money I’ve ever spent. Please listen to these reviews and don’t waste your money.

I wouldn't even rate the elf on shelf experience a 1 star.
Absolutely shocked how bad it was and we have been visiting since 2016 with our first born. The kids were bored and confused on what it even was, no Christmas spirit atall! A sticker book for a gift and a selfie with santa and off you go. Total waste of money. Please revert back to the old experiences. I don't think you will get anything more than 1 star from all parents for the sham that it is this year. Real shame as my kids were really excited.

My order qualified for free shipping however I paid for express delivery to ensure my children got their items for Christmas

However they use royal mail 48 hour tracked and as we all know royal mail are anything but express

Royal mail have had my parcel stuck in Northampton for 3 days and whilst I understand this is not their fault when I contacted them
They told me it's tough they don't guarantee express delivery and to pay to return the items
They made no offer to chase up the items with royal mail or offer to refund the express shipping fee I clearly wasted my money on

They just did not care
You would not expect this from a company calling themselves elf on the shelf and apparently aimed at children for Christmas

Disgusting

Waste of money, children did not enjoy it at all! A vast space with various activities aimed at younger children! Seems other parents felt deflated by the whole experience as well!

It’s no where near as bad at bluewater that the other 1star reviews say. The kids 3 of them 5,6and 7 had a great time.

Yes the sticker book is a bit cheap but then the price isn’t anywhere near as expensive as some other locations.

Personally I loved the free play the elves were great interacting with all the kids.
One had an elf on the back of his head and was helping people take pictures with Santa he was funny and had people laughing.

One elf was very softly spoken but so wonderful with the kids, playful she just had all of us really feeling Christmas.

Only issue I had was the Santa.
He didn’t seem to know what he was doing and ask what do I need to do to the elves. Sounded like an old man.
My son asked how can Santa deliver presents if he’s is fragile and forgetful.

Over all I’m happy though.
And the elves made it for me they were wonderful.

What a waste of money.
We have gone to Bluewater’s Santa experiences for years and always praised them and was genuinely excited for a new take on a Santa experience.
However, it was rushed. An empty room with a couple of activities suitable for maybe 3-5 year olds? A magnetic tree and a Santa sat for a photo with a pile of sticker books. Not personal, not worth the nearly £100 spent on it.
Every parent in there looked liked they regretted it.
Surely Bluewater Management knew how underwhelming this was after their run of good Santa’s workshops?
Waste of time / waste of money

It was badly organised. We were stuck in there for three hours with an 18 month old child. Each room you were in it dragged on to allow the crowd in the next room to move on first. There was two lines of people to see Santa so was stuck in a line for way to long. My sister asked to leave she wasn’t feeling well and was told she couldn’t as the way out was where santa was so to get out you had to wait for Santa. Because it was delayed so long water should have been handed out for kids. We were booked in for 10 to 6 so there was no hot food left just Pringles buns and some chocolate. For two photos it cost 25 euro which I thought was expensive. Some people thought the photos were included in the booking price so didn’t buy them. I was there last year it seemed more organised. The people I went with all said they wouldn’t go again and I myself won’t go anymore.

This experience was described as “a never-seen-before interactive, theatrical experience that will transport you to the North Pole on an immersive adventure where you'll help the Scout Elves spread Christmas cheer by completing a series of magical games and challenges, including making a wish at the wish-gatherer, Christmas tree decorating and snowball throwing!”

This experience was nothing as described above! In fact it was shocking for the price paid. I took my two kids aged 4 and 2 and other than doing some drawing and sticking magnets on a wooden tree, there was nothing magical about the experience. They each got an elf on the shelf sticker book which I’ve seen sell for about £1.19. This was a complete waste of money and really not sure why adults pay £6.50 each! The kids spent most of the time, which felt rushed, just running around could have done that for a lot cheaper at a playground. Honestly don’t waste your money.

Would not say this is for all ages under 5 maybe.
Wish tree is an inflatable you stand at, decorate a tree is a wooden magnetic tree . The elves did not look like the scout elf all the kids recognise at all! Snowball throwing didn’t exist.
A bland room with some colouring, button pressing and photos.
Wouldn't recommend at all.

This was very poor, Do Not Waste Your Money.
Not magical at all, just a disused retail outlet with some activities in it. My son actually asked me ‘is this really the north pole’ which was really quite upsetting. I am really surprised that Bluewater allowed this as we had a really good experience there last year for Father Christmas.
Kents very own Willy Wonka Experience. A waste of money that actually started my son asking me questions that he would have never asked if they had just spent some money and made some effort instead of profiteering!

From start to finish the ‘adventure’ was disappointing for both my boys ages 6 and almost 2, especially by 6 year old who came out disappointed which was of course really horrible to see.
Our experience we had could not been further from how you described it and definitely not immersive.

The setting was not magical, there were very few decorations, lighting was bright, we were told we were entering the North Pole, the look on my sons face when we entered was something i will never forget.

Unfortunately it was an experience we will never forget but not in the way we had hoped. Please avoid!!

Don't order a letter from Santa from them. I ordered on November third and still no letter. Emailed them and still no letter..emailed again and no letter..once I realized what a great scam it Is to charge $7 a pop for an item that doesn't exist, we agreed on a refund since they were never sending a letter at all. We will see if I get refunded sometime in this next month. Happy holidays to anybody who isn't a scam artist :)

Not sure why it has a theme of elf on the shelf, it’s has nothing based on it once inside. It wasn’t very fun and didn’t feel Christmassy at all!! The gift if a sticker book was a bit rubbish and could have been better and a meet and greet per family with Santa would have made the experience a lot better. Wish I chose elsewhere!

You can find more festivities by opening your freezer door. Kids will probably enjoy it more too.

Picture this, your child is excited - you’re going to see Santa and there might be some elves waiting in store too! You get to the rather corporate looking door but hey ho - it’s just the entrance! A lone theatre student comes and nervously tells you to knock as that’s how the door opens and when it does you’re greeted by another jumpsuited teenager who is trying her best but the mic she has got on is absolutely terrible so no one can possibly understand a word she’s saying.

You’re basically then just let loose in what feels like a formal office meeting room with a few cheap and tacky games placed around. Not told what to do apart from ‘press the stamps really hard or you won’t be able to see it.’ The whole thing feels like a doctors waiting room, there’s hardly any decorations AT ALL apart from a blue office carpet and a green screen. There’s a big cup cake in the corner that doesn’t do anything.

Photos with Santa are ‘selfies’ on a plain white bench yet again no decorations and there is no lighting.

Oh and he’s also seeing ALL the children at the same time. You get what feels like one of those ‘please take’ advertising magazines that you would pick up for free in a McDonald’s as a gift.

There are 5 games to complete.

Game 1) trace an elf on a light box which because of the amount of time the dads were all frantically trying to do while their kids just watched.

2) look at some weird blowup bit of plastic

3) lift a phone and press a button

No idea what the others were as there was NO direction and we were just wandering around in this big blue space while these poor actors just talked among themselves.

Absolutely DIRE. Usually you can just try and get children through rubbish things by jumping around a bit but even the kids thought it was terrible. Two were crying when we were leaving and mine were pretty disappointed too.

Norovirus is more festive. Worst Christmas thing I’ve ever experienced. Would give zero stars if I could. Don’t bother it’s terrible.

Absolutely disappointing experience. We have been going to this place for so many years now. It was always such a magical and fun experience. My children were so looking forward to it this year. But they were also very disappointed this year. Even a small grotto in your town/city will be better than this one. Absolutely waste of money. We did not feel festive at all and the whole experience was rubbish. The staff were also not nice and were hurrying us up to get out from there. There was no special festive room to meet Santa. He was there out and about and we could take pictures from our phone. Very disappointed