Christmas at Sundown Adventureland

This was mine and Ida’s first trip to Sundown after hearing so many good things we thought it was time to give it a try. It worked out well because Noah’s birthday wish was to go to Sundown and his birthday falls in December so we thought why not?

So what is Sundown Adventureland like at Christmas? Well if was to pick one word it would be magical. On arrival the queue was already fairly long but was moving fast. We were greeted by an elf obviously and ushered through the ticketing gate. John noted he’s never seen it so busy so I expect because it was the festive season it was busier then usual.

We made our way around Sundown Market, which was dressed up for Christmas. We had a look inside the Pet Shop and Witches Cauldron. When you buy your tickets for Sundown at Christmas you pick a time slot to meet Santa. We arrived not long before our time slot so after a wander round we headed to The Arena where Santa’s grotto was. Walking into the arena itself felt like walking into a kid’s birthday party there was food, an entertainer, music and places to sit. We joined the queue for our time slot; we eventually started our journey on The Night Before Christmas Ride that the kids really enjoyed.

We got our turn to meet Santa and it was honestly adorable watching the kids tell him what they wanted, Noah was very specific with his request for a Mcdonnell Douglas MD-11F, where as Ida and Patrick wanted Pokémon games.

Sundown has nine rides in total but eight are open all year round where as the Night before Christmas ride just open’s for the festive period. There were two rides with height restrictions, the Ostrich Safari and the Monkey Driving School where you need to be 110cm, which was not a problem for our three. However for the Monkey Driving school if you were above 140cm you would be too tall which Ida is very nearly at.

After the driving school we headed over to Crash Landings indoor play area where it was a bit warmer. It is a huge soft play area with plenty of seating for parents and hot food. Next stop, which I think was my favourite, was Lollipoppet Castle a huge pastel coloured castle, each room smelt of a different sweet scent, there was bubblegum and liquorice even mint too. It’s fully interactive and the kids absolutely loved running through all the different rooms and pressing every single button they could find. There was even a toothbrush puppet show to remind them what they need to do after eating all the sweets; I found it a little on the demonic side personally.

We then made our way to Shotgun City an American western theme town complete with a bank to rob and The Rocky Mountain Rail Road ride. As we walked through we ended up at Fort Apache, at this point many people were starting to leave so a lot of the rides we avoided earlier in the day due to long queues were much quieter. We were able to get on Santa’s Sleigh Ride, Sundowns Tractor Ride, Robin Hood’s Merry Adventure and Rocky Mountain Road Ride with minimal wait time. The one ride we did avoid was Jolly Pirate Barrel Ride as this involved water and when its only 2 degrees we didn’t want to risk it.

The park opening times are different depending on the time of year, in December the park is open until 6pm on the weekends and Christmas Eve until 4pm, please check opening times for the rest of year here. There was still much of the park we didn’t explore as it was getting colder this includes the Angry Birds Activity Park, The ‘WILD’ Ostrich Safari and Storybook Village but I guess this gives us an excuse to go again which is definitely on the cards when the weather gets warmer.