St George’s Hall Magical Grotto Liverpool Review
Magical Grotto
St George’s Hall, Liverpool
Reviewed by Lisa Lambert
and the twins 10 months old
St George’s Hall is located facing Lime Street station in Liverpool and the magical grotto is in the heritage centre located on the left hand side of the building.
The heritage centre has a lovely coffee shop that serves tea, coffee and light refreshments and they do cater very well for children and have high chairs and baby change facilities.
The grotto is spread over the building and there is a lot to see and keep the children amused.
I will start by telling you about the grotto rooms, each room has a different theme and what is different about any other grotto I have been to is that the characters in each room are real actors from Liverpool stage school, they are brilliant and respond to the people in the room and what they are doing for example in room there was a scary alien and he could see picture being taken so was saying “cheese” and “would you like to sit on my knee” and “I like having my picture taken” I found this pleasing as they can adapt the reactions and responses to the audience which in our case was small children and they were then less frightened of the fury animal on the chair.
In room two there was a tree maker, again this was a fury animated character operated by one of the students and it spoke to you about the Christmas trees he was brightly coloured and fun.
Room three was Rudolph and he was just adorable, he was animated and the voice again was a student but he was superb with the children asking them to pet him and stroke him. He would also pose for a photo with you. The children that were with us aged 2-5 really enjoyed this room.
There are many more rooms to see but we only saw these to get a taster of what’s more to come. Once you have been in the room you walk across a bridge which has goblins and scary people coming from the sewer on the left hand side they climb up to the bridge and speak to you and will pose for photographs. They are really funny but maybe a little scary for the young ones.
As you go round the corner in the queue to the grotto to see Santa there are some large arches and in each arch there are elves at a worktable wrapping presents. The elves again are actors and they talk to you and ask your name, what you would like for Christmas and have you been naughty or nice. The decorations are fab and there are some lists for naughty or nice with random names on which is quite funny especially if one is your child’s.
You then reach the grotto were Santa awaits you. Well what can I say he was fantastic he really did make an effort and was excellent with the children and made them feel comfortable and happy to see him. He had no issues in holding smaller children for photos etc… as you can see from the below picture. The elves are very supportive and helpful too. We weren’t rushed through and given plenty of time to take a photo and speak to Santa. He was a pleasure to see and the little children before us all had a beaming smile when leaving, some were a little shy but the sleigh was big enough that mum and dad could climb in and be with them so I thought that was a brilliant idea especially for the younger children.
As a parent of 10 months old twins and a 6 and 9 year old this is somewhere definitely recommend as it’s not the usual electrical Santa and a Christmas CD on repeat while you wait, the children will be entertained all the way through the grotto and it’s not just like a broken record which some grottos can be.
Speaking to the organisers, the queues can get quite long and I can imagine with the size of the grotto you could be waiting for an hour or two but they do a pre-bookable time in the morning’s and I would fully recommend this especially if you have younger children.
The access if there for prams but there are some steps and you need use the one little lift to get you to the grotto but it’s only a few steps so had I been with someone we could have easily lifted the pram up. The rooms are quite tight for pram access if there are several people already in but it is accessible. If you had a double pram that would fit going round the grotto but no in all the rooms so you would have to get your children out to show them everything.
I went alone with the twins and staff were very helpful so would recommend to any single parent.
Overall a good grotto few issues with access but staff were very helpful and friendly and this is certainly different that ant grotto you go to in the town or garden centre for example.
The grotto is open on weekend as below
Saturday & Sunday 15 & 16 November
Saturday & Sunday 22 & 23 November
Saturday & Sunday 29 & 30 November
Saturday & Sunday 6 & 7 December
then daily from 13 to 23 December 2014
Pre-bookable slots are at 10am, 10.30am, 11am and 11.30am.
Fast-track advance tickets are priced at £8 per child, with up to two accompanying adults. The ticket includes grotto entry to meet Father Christmas and gift. The price for additional accompanying adults is £1.50, which can be paid on the door.
The grotto is also open between 12pm and 5pm (last entry 4.30pm) on the same dates. These tickets are priced at £7 (payable on the door), and also include meeting Santa Claus, gift and entry for up to two accompanying adults. Queues are to be expected.
Rating: 4.5/5
Tickets from £7
For more information click here.
St George’s Hall, St George’s Place, Liverpool, L1 1JJ
