Thanksgiving Point — Attraction in Lehi

Carasoul was nearly emtpy, but we were forced by the attendant to run to the back of the 'line' each time we rode, rather than just have our membership swiped, or handing over a ticket to continue to ride without having to run to the back of the line. They're making improvements with the carasoul, and most attendants make it easy on members and allow us to provide tickets or our phone for a quick swipe when it's slow. The Museum of Natural Curiosity was shut down at 5pm that day, and I didn't learn about this until 4pm. This is the kind of information (called a 'buy out') that needs to be posted as an alert on their website and their app. If I was a paying customer for just that day, I'd feel ripped off. That should have also been posted at all venues and on the map they hand out. They are constantly out of supplies at the Kenya school, the art studio in the kidstown area, and other places using paper, pencils, crayons and pre printed pages to write or color on. None of the venues are sanitary. I've never seen an employee cleaning or wiping down areas that have really heavy traffic in any venue. Nor do they post cleaning schedules so that we know when a place was last sanitized. The bathrooms surprisingly are the cleanest areas in the whole place, and they look and smell really clean. There aren't enough hand washing stations for places like the puppet show, or the dinosaur play areas, or the indoor water park where germs and humidity are rampant. It isn't enough to simply provide a trickle of water to wash the sand off. Or the puppet show, where who knows how often the puppets are washed. I bring rubber gloves from home for my granddaughter to use, as there are always kids who are sneezing and coughing and who knows when they've last washed their hands. I'd feel better if they posted cleaning schedules for the costumes, toys, climbing areas, puppets, and all items handled by children, so we have an idea of whether it's safe to handle anything. Disability aids such as golf carts (for Ashton Gardens) and wheelchairs come with a fee. The golf cart is $25.00/hr, which is indefensible. They bring in plenty of money, and they can certainly afford to provide their disabled guests (and they can have them prove their disability first if money is that tight) with complimentary mobility aids. I realize that golf carts and wheelchairs can incur costs with use. However, people with disabilities usually don't choose to be disabled, and they shouldn't be deprived of certain venues simply because they can't afford the mobility assistance. I'm sure they make enough money off of members who use these aids for convenience, and don't need to charge truly disabled members as well. I won't be returning to Ashton Gardens due to my own disabilities because I can't afford the golf cart, and when I visited for the first time last week, I had to be rescued because it was such an arduous walk. I wonder if they'd refund some of my membership fee since I won't be able to access one of their venues? Something to think about. So many wonderful ideas at Thanksgiving Point! But the execution is really poor. Too many venue features are closed, so members and customers shouldn't be charged full price when they don't have access to the closed areas. Disneyland does this too and it's both greedy and unfair to visitors. Update: Well, I got my answer. I renewed my membership but was told there would be no compensation for the missing theater, cafe and other venue options that have been shut down for part or all of my year. How disappointing. They're losing another star and I'm not going to...

My review is of Imaginaria - what a disappointment. In past years, they’ve had animatronic animals such as a mastodon, mammoth, and many huge and interactive dinosaurs throughout the entire park - this year - they’ve clumped a few dinosaurs and a few other overhyped attractions together that are much less exciting.

The obstacle course (one of only a couple bounce houses) has a blaring, loud siren that forever went off the last time we were there, rendering it completely obnoxious and making the attraction nearly unusable.

What about the rest of the attractions? Well, do you enjoy being lambasted with how your entry fee or season pass is inadequate by the “attractions” you’re supposed to be viewing? Well, look no further than the talking trees of Imaginaria, which constantly berate you with how your entry could have gone up at least 20 extra bucks per kid with the punch cards you didn’t pay for! (These punch cards apparently buy you some cheap dollar store level crafts, face paints, and water ballons.)

Looking to cool off at Splash Bay on a 90 degree day? Well just hope the one water attraction at the back of the park isn’t barred off to you after you paid to get in. For us, a sweaty walk to the back of the park to get to Splash Bay showed us the only water attraction was some water balloons that were punch card only - meaning we couldn’t participate! And the only other foam water attraction was then closed down for cleaning.

My daughter had been excited to see the advertised fairy portion of the park, only to be let down by a couple flower arrangements that could already be seen more prominently at the Tulip Festival. This was of course capped off by the talking tree advertisements, telling us our family pass, nor the nearly forty dollar a person entrance fee, were not good enough. To add salt to the wound, our favorite little reflecting pond was walled off to us because we didn’t pay for a punch card.

This entire attraction: with its overhyped ads and the money they spent on frequent billboards is just a giant boondoggle, in my opinion, unworthy of the hype. We won’t be going back this summer. I’d rather drop money at a water park or just go to...

Although the activities are rather pricey for families, I will say that we have enjoyed many of the attractions at Thanksgiving Point. However, we recently attended the Dia de Muertos event and we were very disappointed. One would think that after holding this large-scale celebration for so many years, it would be phenomenal. Instead, it was laughably lack-luster and very expensive. Granted, we attended in the afternoon and missed some of the performances (ticket was still full-price). The one performance we heard was nice, but certainly did not occupy our attention for long. There were 3 very silly crafts at rectangular tables in which the cheap, meager supplies were rationed. At one station children could make a mini (itty-bitty teeny weeny) ofrenda. They were given half of a tiny 2" x 3" cardboard gift box. They were even given the choice of the lid with a shorter depth or the bottom that was a little deeper as if this were some sort of magical option (seriously). Then they glued 1" x 1" tissue papers on them. At the next station there were xeroxed coloring pages with minimal coloring options. At the final table, children were making tissue paper and pipe cleaner marigolds. Now this table was watched closely as there was a limit to 1 per child and you could only use 5 of the 4" x 6" tissue papers. In all, if a person did every single craft to the full extent, Thanksgiving Point provided about 13 cents worth of supplies. With a $16 entry fee for adults and a $5 fee for children, I think they could have offered a little more than that. There was also a small roped-off area with children sitting on the floor globbing something on murals - which they didn't keep. The food options were very limited. The rest of the event was a marketing scam with expensive bulk t-shirts and various wares. Face painting was available for an exorbitant fee. The best sponsor was Toyota who offered mini candy bars and a spin of the prize wheel if you gave them your personal information so they could contact you to sell you a car. Needless to say, we were incredibly disappointed with the whole event. I know for a fact that we could have found a better use of our time...