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| - I've been coming here for the past 6 years with my daughter and have made it a tradition to see Santa. It's the main reason for going to the Magical Forest for my family. My one major complaint about this year, which will stop me from ever going back, is the change in seeing Santa, from years past. Opportunity Village has now hired an outside company (I assume because I don't remember them using a different company in years past) for photos with Santa. The pictures for purchase have always been around $10 for a 5x7 and you have always been allowed to also take as many pictures as you want with your own camera. This year that entire policy has changed. They now charge $16 for a single 5x7 and an additional $9 for any more prints you want. You can no longer take photos with your own camera. And the only reason they give, and how they justify the huge increase in price, is that it goes to "charity." No, the entry fee I paid ($40 for 3 ppl) goes to charity. Charity is not an excuse to massively over charge people. So after we get the pictures taken, and get rushed away from Santa, the girl showing the photos tells us that they can put multiple poses on the same print. So we order 2 sheets, and they end up charging us for 3. I noticed this after my wife paid, and brought it to the attention of the cashier. She apologized and did offer to make it right on the cost. At this point we've already spent $37 on pictures so I just opted to buy the USB with all 9 poses for $45. What a racket these guys have set up.
Everything else was on par for the Magical Forest. The trees were nice as always, the lines were incredibly long as always as well. I was a little annoyed they closed a few of the rides early on a Sat night (3D ride and the race course) and they didn't check for tickets or wrist band on the carousel (why did we even bother with the wrist band for my daughter???).
Over all, I will not be coming back here next year. What used to be a nice, reasonably priced, family tradition is now an hugely overpriced, crowded, pain in the butt. Guess Mall Santa will get our business next year. Too many other Christmas oriented things to do that won't cost you an arm and a leg, all in the name of "charity."
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