Santa's Village: Muskoka's Theme Park — Attraction in District Municipality of Muskoka

We have booked our stay for 11 of us at Santas village for years. Love the theme park but horrible experience staying overnight there.

In 2023 we decided to book four cottages opposed to the cabins for our trip in 2024. We paid a premium price for the first four cottages. The smell from the washrooms for the camping park were at times overwhelming. Also the garbage bin for the park was behind cabin number 4. Great to wake up with the garbage truck picking up the garbage EARLY and waking up the kiddies - not!. We were assured by the staff in 2024 that this would be remedied for the 2025 year and we booked cabin 1, 2,3 and 4. July 2025 we enter the four cabins and garbage behind cottage number 4 was not moved and we were notified it will never be moved from behind cottage number 4, not like we were told last year.

We lined up the picnic tables on our arrival and started our steak supper to celebrate the family trip to Santas village once again. Supper was spoiled with the vision and smell of the new transfer station between cottage number 4 and the restrooms. Each camper leaving....transfered their feces and urine before heading out. We complained to the office. No one could handle the complaint as it had to be a manager. The next day I showed up to the office and a manager would not be in until the next day, however a maintenance person did come over to chat and apologize for the inconvenience.

Not only is it a visual disturbance but a sensory issue as well. We were told the plan was that the four cottages were going to be moved but that did not happen in 2024 or 2025. He was quite apologetic but only a manager could assist further.

Our day of leaving....I visited the office twice before a manager came by. She understood and explained the cottages were to be moved but obvious it didnt happen. I advised cottage number two had no air conditioning when we arrived and we had to go to the main office to get airconditioners (it was broken a few weeks in advance) so the maintenance person brought two window air conditioners so it should have been ok, according to the manager.

My issue was, before we spent thousands of dollars for this type of accommodation, why did they not advise us and provide different options? If the air was broken down in cabin two, did they truly expect that two air conditioners would sufficiently cool three rooms in the hottest week of the summer?

No options were provided, it was disgusting to watch people empty their "matter" while we were eating, or trying to eat.

The manager offered 15% off for the price of the cabins. I did not accept. The manager then advised she would have to speak to the general manager to get any further consideration.

Today, I received an email retracing the 15% refund but offering 10% and another 10% if we book for 2026.

This is not only "bait and switch" but a vast disappointment for our continued loyalty in going to Santa Village and paying a premium price to stay. Not even to mention the amount of money we spend in the park for lunch, supper, gifts and treats.

If in the future we decide to ever go back, it is with confidence, unless something drastic happens with the consideration for a refund, we will be booking an air BNB at a fraction of the cost to...

Premium Price, Poor Service.

Before I mention what frustrated us about the park I want to acknowledge we made multiple mistakes and hopefully someone reads this and doesn’t do the same:

We went on a weekend and had to wait about 30 mins for every ride. I would suggest going during the week, I assume it would be less busy.

Our kids were young so still take a nap, we decided to put them down a little early and come from 1-6. Definitely not enough time. I wouldn’t recommend going unless your kids will make it through a full day and going from opening until close.

With these thoughts I do think our experience would have been a lot better if the staff cared more about their jobs and were trained to provide good customer service. There were some really good older staff! We had some poor experiences with a multiple student summer workers, one bad one in particular:

On bumper boats the height limit is 40” ( not sure why but we respect rules) which we didn’t check when we entered the line. The student worker walked through the line with the measurement stick and informed a couple families that their kids were too short. He walked by us, not indicating any issues. We also figured we were fine as there were smaller kids than my daughter allowed on the ride. Unfortunately after waiting for 30 minutes he asked to measure her and she wasn’t tall enough. Obviously she was disappointed but I was more frustrated at the inconsistencies. In that 30 mins other than walking through the line he didn’t measure any kid. I’m not sure why my daughter got centered out but I tried to have a constructive conversation and let him know that being inconsistent is not fair to anyone. He then got very aggressive, kept cutting me off and saying that he measures everyone and that I’m lying. I was with two other adults that witnessed and agree with what I have stated above. I went to inform guest services of the poor interaction and they took my information but I haven’t heard from anyone about a week later.

We purchased a digital photo package however only one photo was uploaded (they say it takes two hours for them to upload so we were already gone from the park) and we have been trying to get ahold of someone to either get a refund or to have the other uploaded, again it’s been about a week.

About half the time we said thank you to someone who let us on or off a ride we were met with a stone cold straight face. Shouldn’t Santa’s village be a happy place for kids?

In summary there is a lot to do there, you definitely want a full day if you do go. I don’t think it’s worth going with younger kids, might be better for kids aged 4-10. We were hoping to make it a yearly tradition but we aren’t going back...

worth the read I’ve been to Santa’s village a few times and have never been disappointed…until today. Today’s experience was 1 star, and that is being generous. During some of the hottest days this year, the splash pad and beach were off limits. I can understand maintenance but they chose a poor time to do maintenance. Also, after removing one of the main roller coasters, they replaced it with apparently a bigger and better one…however, it was also not functional. One of their older rides, a ferris wheel was also not functional. Again, I understand maintence however, if 2 of your biggest attractions are down and a few others, I don’t understand charging people full price to enter the park. The second disappointment, were the workers operating the rides. There are height restrictions which we all understand, but depending on who is operating the rides, will decided what child gets on. Example: A small girl ahead of me and my nephew didn’t make the height requirement to ride the bumper boats, she was quite a bit shorter than my nephew, but was waved through by a female employee, when it was our turn to ride, a different employee came over and refused my nephew entry for being 1/4 inch too short, after waiting in extreme heat for 30 mins to get on. It’s hard to explain to a 3 year old why a child smaller than him ahead got to go, but he couldn’t. He was refused bumper boats, with a life jacket, and an adult riding with him, but was allowed on a roller coaster that was 40 feet in the air, this makes no sense. Last but certainly not least, it was a day where multiple schools had their school trip, which is great…however, throughout the day, some classes or groups were splitting up, some kids would go to a ride, while others in the group would choose a different ride, when the children from another ride finished, they would rush over to the rest of the class at another ride and the teachers waiting in line with the partial group, would wave them all ahead and let them skip a whole line of children not part of the school who had been waiting for half hour or more to ride. When called out on this the teachers would respond “they want their group together”. This made for some very upset parents and disappointed kids who had been waiting forever, to have other kids just cut in front. Unfortunately the workers are mostly all young and weren’t enforcing any rules (or manners). Santa’s village has always been a great place to bring kids, I’ve been multiple times. I’ve heard it’s under new management now (not sure if that’s accurate) but if it is, they need to do better. If this is the way it will be run from now on, unfortunately it will be my and my...