Theme Park Christmas, Queen Mary Chill Style

The final holiday event that we wanted to attend this year is one that we started going to in 2012. I think it was a fairly new event at that point, as it’s become better every year since then. Their Santa was the only one that didn’t freak William out and the following year, we found that they were using William’s Santa picture on their website for the event!

We did something different this year, and took a weekday off instead of attending on a weekend.  First thing we did was to tour through the ice sculptures.  Personally, I always find ice sculptures to be simply amazing and it’s one of the the primary reasons I do this event. Their theme this year was A Christmas Carol, the story of Scrooge, a little spooky, but then the movie itself is a little scary, so it’s to be expected.

After that, we had signed up for an ice skating session, which is something I’ve always wanted to do there, but just never have.  it’s pricey, but it’s a neat memory to have.  Skating on ice in front of the Queen Mary is just way cool.  One thing they had there which I haven’t seen anywhere else is “ice skating assists.”  Little penguins or pandas on skis with handles for little ones to hold onto to get their balance. William loved it because it gave him confidence to be independent, and I loved it because I didn’t have to hover over him for too long.

William and I rode on the wave swing that is on loan from the Neverland Ranch.  I’ve done the ride a couple times before, at this event and at the county fair.  I love swings and so does William, so I knew William would love it.  He did!  He laughed the entire ride!

We had lunch on the Queen Mary and checked out their Christmas decorations. It’s just a special sort of thing to visit the Queen Mary, we always enjoy it and this was the first time we decided to take the time to wait to be seated and actually eat on the ship.  The ambiance was far, far better than eating out in the Chill area.  All the food there, whether in the event area or on the ship, is overpriced. Turns out, the overpriced food on the ship was worth the wait & the price.  Soooo much better than the “carnival style” food served at the event.   As a bonus, there was a 4D showing of a shortened version of the Polar Express, which (ironically) we had just let William see the full movie the evening prior to us going, so he was enthralled and it was kind of fun to have the 4D experience.

Our day continued as we headed back out to the event.  Tony managed to get a picture of William with their gingerbread character, and then we rode on the World’s Biggest Rocking Horse.  We did a couple sessions with the Chill Santa. The second session was much better as Mrs. Claus was with him and she is the bearer of candy canes.  For William, the entire visit with Santa is all about the candy cane.  If there’s no candy cane, then it is all pointless.  The first session had no candy cane, and the broken candy cane I had in my purse was not a worthy consolation.  The second session, he was given a candy cane and when he was getting in the stroller, it flew out of his hand and shattered on the ground and landed in a puddle.  He was devastated. Thankfully, Mrs. Claus was understanding of the dilemma and gave him another!

It had started raining by 5pm,  which helped to expedite our departure.  William wanted to take one more turn through their maze, he was hoping to see the fairy who was blowing bubbles in there, but he was disappointed to find that she wasn’t there the 2nd time through.  Despite that, we were pleasantly tired and had put a full day of good experiences in.

We had a good experience and I hope to do the event again next year.