Callaway Fantasy in Lights — Attraction in Pine Mountain

I went to this event two years ago during Covid when I might have expected issues and there were none. That year we went on Thanksgiving weekend and there were a lot of folks in town. Still we showed up a little after the beginning of our time slot, 7:30-8:30, but were able to drive right in and go thru the display which was very nice. Total time on site, maybe an hour with 30-45 mins to drive thru.

Last night we returned as we had thought it a fun thing to do for an overnight trip. We bought tickets for the same time frame - 7:30-8:30 but this time on a Wednesday night. I should mention again the tickets said entry anytime between those hours. As two years ago it was a continuous loop of cars only slowing or stopping briefly at some displays we never waited more than a few mins. Well they changed something or just don’t know how to do it correctly anymore.

We arrived at about 7:50, still well within our time window and proceeded to line up and show tickets. It was at this point we expected no more stops as again it is a drive thru, no or few stops event. Well as we left the line to move into the drive we stopped. We remained stopped not moving much more than a few feet until at the point we were in the line an hour we still we seeing signs saying “Fantasy in lights 1mile” so we had still not seen a single light. It was well after 9:00 before we entered the actual display and well after 10:15 when we finished making this about a two and a half hour plus event with over an hour and a half spent sitting waiting to move in a line of cars that is supposed to be continually moving!?

Adding to the problems this time was they had two way traffic at the beginning, which was the cars finishing coming back at you. This required staff to constantly stop cars trying to turn the wrong way, preventing them from managing the line and keeping it moving. This seemed to be at least part of the problem with the traffic and seemed stupid as there was no part of the drive that was two way traffic last time. We simply looped around and seemed to be turned off before driving into oncoming new traffic coming in.

The display was nice, I think a little less so than two years ago but maybe it was just my mood after waiting well over an hour for a line of supposedly constantly moving cars to move. There are some cool elements and young kids and older folks will likely love it. But it is not worth waiting in line over an hour just to get into, then 2 1/2 hours over all just to get to the exit. I should also mention we’d have just left but you can’t. There are no ways or opportunities to turn around or leave so you are just at their mercy should they mess it up like last night. I do not wish to say it is completely unenjoyable, but it certainly was not worth what we experienced this year.

I should add Herschend, the company who manages Callaway, is no longer burdened by the extra work and expense of maintaining Stone Mountain Park and their Christmas display having left earlier this year so if anything they should have been able to put more focus here. Clearly they did not. The only good reviews are first timers who don’t know how it’s...

Honestly this whole experience was a little disappointing. We got there early to do some exploring and to see the butterflies but we were informed that there would be a 5K and everything would be closing early. So that was a bummer. We did get to see the butterflies and that was really fun and really need experience so 10 out of 10 recommend that. When it came to the light show though, we were very disappointed. We bought tickets so that we could get on the trolley between 6:00 and 6:45 and that way we could get out of there a little early because kids had school the next morning. We ended up having to wait because of the 5K and it was almost an hour later that we finally got to get on the trolley. When we were going through the lights, I realized that in the 15 years since I had last been, there were hardly any updates made. I was really shocked about that. Especially because some of the lights weren't working, some had half the lights out, or a few here and there. I know they're making a bunch of money, how about some upgrades? Technology has improved so much, and I really think they could make this better. It would also be really cool if you could rent blankets or if blankets were provided. And I think it would be nice to find a way to improve the trolleys. Maybe like a glass partitioner or something to at least block some of the wind. The mini golf was really fun, it was nice that it was free, but it too was also run down. Broken parts on some of the holes, the t pads need to be glued down more.

I'm glad that we purchased our tickets when they were on sale, because I would have been really really upset if I paid full price with the experience...

This was our first year coming to see the lights and it was definitely far from what we expected or from what they advertised on their website . They oversell tickets so we had to wait 1.30 hours with 2 small children in the car to be able to drive through the lights , by the time we started driving through, the kids were already very sleepy and tired , so they fell asleep before we finished the ride . Then we woke them up thinking we’ll be able to eat some food and drink hot chocolate like they advertised, but we got to the Christmas village and everything was closed ( it was 10:45pm) , they kids were starving and the only option was the pretzel truck , we ordered 4 pretzels and 3 of them weren’t properly baked , they were completely raw so we couldn’t eat them , had to throw them in trash, I went back and complained with the lady that was serving the pretzels and she just said sorry . We paid 8 dlls for each pretzel. We didn’t even feel like checking out the rest of the walking displays because we needed to go find food for the kids somewhere else.

The drive through was nice , some parts better than others but fun for small kids .

We’re not coming back next year , we felt like we...