It was billed as "the most magical, immersive, walkthrough Christmas experience the North East has to offer".
But now organisers of the Road To The North Pole have apologised to families who branded the show "daylight robbery".
People who paid up to £125 for a family ticket on the first two days will now be offered free visits to next year's planned show, after the team behind the event, at Newcastle's Vertu Arena, apologised for "teething problems".
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The first two days of the show, which opened on Friday, earned scathing reviews online. One reviewer said their children were "bored from the start". It was labelled "embarrassing" and "a shambles", while one person said customers were "herded around like cattle".
Jamie Webster took his two daughters, aged five and 11, to the show on Saturday night. The Durham dad, 32, said he and his family had faced long waits in crowded, empty corridors; queued for 40 minutes to see Santa only to get 'nanoseconds' with him and a gift in a brown paper bag. Meanwhile, he said, children couldn't hear the stories they were being told and the 'interactive' experiences they were promised didn't live up to expectations, with little audience participation.
He told ChronicleLive: "A lot of the actors were doing their best but ultimately from start to finish it was nothing like how it was advertised.
"It was really really upsold, it was supposed to be a magical experience. The whole time we walked round all you could hear was the other groups, it was very disappointing.
"The only thing I want is that this doesn't continue to happen to other people because I just felt they were robbing people out of their money, that's the only way I can describe it, daylight robbery."
Meanwhile, Jamie and other customers raised concerns about Covid precautions, as the long queues meant big crowds standing together for long stretches in small corridors.
By Monday, online reviews had begun to improve, with several five-star ratings, seemingly from parents who'd visited on Sunday, boosting the overall rating on Google reviews - though at time of writing it still stood at just two stars. And not everyone was disappointed with the event - Chronicle reviewer Georgia Meadows attended and said she found it "original and creative".
Directors Kieran Stewart and Daniel Burnett said they were grateful to those who had raised concerns, and claimed they'd listened to feedback and improved the event for its subsequent days.
They said supply chain issues had delayed the arrival of several key items, including mics for actors and branded gift bags for Santa, which had now arrived. They said the set had been designed before fears about the Omicron variant were raised, and with no Covid restrictions in place they had initially planned to have solid roofs on each individual set to reduce noise from other areas - but switched these out for permeable coverings to improve airflow given the current infection spread.
Meanwhile, they insisted queue times had now been drastically cut, with children waiting a maximum of 12 minutes to see Santa and a new activity to do in the queue.
When ChronicleLive visited on Monday morning, queues for Santa were within this limit, while groups of visitors seemed to be moving immediately from one attraction to the next without queueing in corridors. Organisers claimed cutting queue times reduced crowding and Covid concerns as the performance spaces remained large enough for social distancing. And they said vaccine passes were being checked for all who came in.
Dan said: "We're not here to make an easy profit and run, we're here to build magical Christmas memories, a lot of thought has gone into what's been created and we've done everything we can to provide what was promised. Prior to yesterday [Sunday] we did have teething problems. We've really taken on board what people have said and we've done our best to act on that and give people the event they hoped for.
"We are planning to do an extended run next year with a brand new story so we hope to really take on board what people are saying this year and hopefully get people back onside and to return next year.
"We can only apologise for the teething issues we experienced in the early days: we tried our hardest, but for us it's so important for people to have the experience we promised so for next year we want to invite everyone who had some issues on the first two days back to experience the event as it should be."
Kieran added: "That doesn't change [what happened this year] for them and we recognise that but we hope that next year we can give them something to look forward to, knowing that this has been rectified."
Organisers say they'll contact those who were disappointed by Road To The North Pole on the Friday or Saturday to offer replacement tickets to next year's show, which will feature a new storyline and new activities.
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