Dublin Zoo Santa a disaster today

Irish Steve

The Santa experience at Dublin Zoo today was a disaster.

My daughter has just called in on her way home, having had to queue for over 3 and a half hours so that her daughter could see Santa. There was no warning that the delay was so long, and by the time they eventually got out of the Santa experience, everything, the food concessions, and the Santa Globe, was closed for the day.

By the time they'd seen Santa, there was also no time left to go round the Zoo, so they'd effectively paid for something that due to bad organisation they were unable to see.

Surely the people managing the event at the Zoo could have organised things so that people who were waiting could have been given a timed ticket so that they could go and see other things and then come back to the Santa event closer to the time of their ticket. It's unrealistic to expect young children to stand in a queue for that length of time, especially outdoors. What made it worse was that having queued for over an hour an a half outside, they get inside to discover that the queue is as long inside.

The pity is that the Santa himself was very good, the presents are good, and the way it's set up in the immediate area is good, but it's being very badly run.

What could have been a good day out has been spoiled by the failure of the people organising it to manage it properly. Given modern techniques of queue management, it's not hard, and could have made today a much better experience.

Nolanger

Do you listen to Joe Duffy? All these Santa/Xmas things are a scam, rip off, and badly organised. This is Ireland and nothing will change, ever.

John Mason

you would be better posting this in the consumer issue forum - its not really a dublin issue

mathepac

Dublin Zoo is in Dublin City, ne c'est pas?

Sorry to hear the kids had a bad experience. From my youth I remember Santa at the "azoo" as being amongst the best ones in town, that and the one run by my father's employers in the 4 Provinces Ballroom / TV Club in Harcourt St.

ThisRegard

For the month of December the entrance fee is only €2.50 in order to try hit 1 million visitors which should have alerted people to the fact it would be packed every weekend now. And to be fair, there's some ridiculous queues for some of the more popular city centre Santas.

PauloMN

Wow, I was there myself yesterday with my wife and two kids, and our in-laws and their 2 year old and baby. I thought we were bad with a 2 hour 15 min wait, but the queue behind us was getting longer and I was thinking the overall time would hit 3 hours.

Totally agree with what you say, good aside from the wait, good presents etc., but very badly organised.

anto2

Was it the real Santa ? LOL ,otherwise why wait more than 30 minutes .:)

dudara

OP - posting on the internet isn't going to achieve anything about this.

Write a letter of complaint to Dublin Zoo management. They have to hear this feedback so that they can become aware of the issues and maybe start to do something about them.

ejmaztec

When one considers that the real Santa can can delivers billions of presents to the entire population of the world in a flash, it must make kids wonder how he manages to do that in such a short space of time, yet take hours to see a few hundred kids at Dublin Zoo.:(

vicwatson

Nolanger wrote: »

Do you listen to Joe Duffy? All these Santa/Xmas things are a scam, rip off, and badly organised. This is Ireland and nothing will change, ever.

Not true, the Wexford Winter Wonderland Santa is brilliant I have it on good authority. Not fair to tar them all with the same brush.

Apparently the Wexford Santa, you pay a tenner for the child and you get your ticket, they take your mobile number so you can go off around the town and text you 10 mins before your allocated time - no/little queueing time, good system

Sorry to hear you had bad exp OP

PauloMN

dudara wrote: »

OP - posting on the internet isn't going to achieve anything about this.

Odd thing for a mod to say I think!

While I agree a complaint to the zoo directly will be a good idea (which I plan to do), it's useful for other parents to see what the reality of the situation is if they are planning to bring their own kids there. It's also a good venting exercise.

dudara

PauloMN wrote: »

Odd thing for a mod to say I think!

It's the truth. The OP came on here to vent. They weren't looking for any tips on how to proceed. This kind of behaviour isn't going to achieve anything in terms of getting this situation resolved or improved.

The only way forward is to write to the management of the zoo and make your dissatisfaction known.

PauloMN

dudara wrote: »

It's the truth. The OP came on here to vent. They weren't looking for any tips on how to proceed. This kind of behaviour isn't going to achieve anything in terms of getting this situation resolved or improved.

The only way forward is to write to the management of the zoo and make your dissatisfaction known.

I disagree with your first point completely. Had I read the above post before I went, I'd have at least known that the queues were crazy, and been able to decide what to do. Others will now at least know what awaits them if they decide to go.

So, in your view, should nobody ever post anything negative about any service or item they purchase? Surely the idea of a discussion forum is exactly that - to discuss things?

Seriously, that'd the oddest thing I've ever heard a mod come out with in all my years of reading Boards.

Dodge

PauloMN wrote: »

So, in your view, should nobody ever post anything negative about any service or item they purchase? Surely the idea of a discussion forum is exactly that - to discuss things?

Seriously, that'd the oddest thing I've ever heard a mod come out with in all my years of reading Boards.

The charter states

This is a forum for discussing any Consumer Issues,we don't just want to hear bad story's.

So its clear the thread isn't for this forum. However in the OP's defence, they dind't post in this forum, it was moved here (erroneously IMO)

mathepac

Dodge wrote: »

... So its clear the thread isn't for this forum. However in the OP's defence, they dind't post in this forum, it was moved here (erroneously IMO)

Agree 100%. I posted earlier in a similar vein. It's like with the civil service "You're in the wrong place, which is our fault, but now you're here we'll take pot-shots at you".

dudara

PauloMN wrote: »

I disagree with your first point completely. Had I read the above post before I went, I'd have at least known that the queues were crazy, and been able to decide what to do. Others will now at least know what awaits them if they decide to go.

So, in your view, should nobody ever post anything negative about any service or item they purchase? Surely the idea of a discussion forum is exactly that - to discuss things?

That's why we have a Best/Worst Customer Service thread - for all those topics on which posters want to rant. The main brunt of this forum is for discussing consumer issues and how to get resolution on those issues.

If the OP doesn't respond shortly, then I'll merge this thread into the best/worst customer service thread.