Portland Winter Wonderland — Attraction in Portland

This was the first time my family has gone to see the lights at Winter Wonderland at the Portland International Raceway since I was a child. At fist I was disappointed with the lights because the beginning of the display is repetitive. And, maintenance of some of the lights was lacking; as sections of some displays were missing lights or not lit up at all, which made it difficult to see what they were meant to be. But, as we went around the racetrack, the displays got better and better. We particularly enjoyed listening to the 12 days of Christmas song on YouTube music as we drove through the 12 days of Christmas section of the display. All in all, my family had fun and my kids loved the lights. If it weren't for the long wait to get in, it would have been a lovely experience. We made the mistake of going after dinner and arrived at the back of the car line at about 7:30pm. We waited in line for about an hour and a half just to get to the ticket booth. It was an excruciatingly long wait for our children. If you plan to go, I would suggest either going right after they open, before dinner, or waiting till about 10 o'clock. We exited about 10pm and the lines were short at that time. Another tip... When the line splits into 4 lines, choose one of the outside lines. It seemed to us that the middle two lines got bottlenecked and the outside lines merged faster past the...

I appreciate what the organizers tried to do and I did appreciate all the lights, but I don't understand why they charge so much for admission. Im on a very limited income right now, but I don't want to miss out on making some nice Christmas memories. We got in quickly as we went late on the last day, there was hardly anyone there. All the lights save one small display seemed to be working, and were very nice, but overall I guess I was underwhelmed. I thought perhaps there would be more. The large wide open empty spaces between groups of displays just made it seem rather barren to me. If the admission was $10 or less per car, I'd say the event was fairly priced, but at $15 to a usual whopping $22 a car, that's quite steep for me for what is presented. I think it's a nice idea, and I'm sure the kids will be fully enthralled and that's great. Im just not sure I can justify returning next year at that price. I do love Xmas lights, and maybe I'm underestimating the work it takes to set all these up, but as an adult I can honestly I wasn't really blown away by the Raceway this year. I'm undecided right now if I will give it another shot next year. I might... I just don't know. Probably not at that price, but if the price comes down enough, I would...

WARNING! We've come from out of town and hear this was a great experience but we have been driving in a line for 1.5 hours, not including the 30 spent sitting on the offramp to the PIR and we are still not into the light show. Of course we had dinner before hand an now every one in the car needs to use the bathroom but there are none and people are running out to relieve themselves in the bushes. For all moms... bring food, car games, tons of patience (it's like Disneyland with 2hrs on line for a 5 min ride)... no liquids b4 you leave. My advice is to give $20 to the Sunshine Division for a great cause and find a place to enjoy time with your family, where you are not fighting MODA Center like traffic, with cars full of people who are so frustrated that road rage is at a fever pitch. = Not a lot of holiday cheer left with kids sleeping in car now ... and now we are past the 2hr mark still not in the gates... Wish I could tell the cars on the offramp they won't make it in before...