Santa Sucks!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
That about sums up our experience visiting Jolly Ole Saint Nick at the mall today. It sucked. Big time. I was alright about waiting in line for an hour, even though there were only half a dozen people in front of us. That meant that they were going to take their time with everyone (including us), right? Nope. Not to be. They tried to rush us through and get us to choose one of their crap pictures once it was finally our turn. I told them they all sucked and that I didn't care if they had to clear out their "system" that could only hold 3 pictures and try again. It was their fault Marin was crying anyway. He was doing just fine and actually interacting with Santa and playing with his beard and smiling at him. Then one of Santa's helpers showed him this Elmo doll and Marin started balling like nobody's business. It scared the crap out of him for some reason. Or maybe her he didn't like. Who knows? Now I know a lot of kids are scared of Santa and we'd already decided we'd take the photo crying or not crying if that was the case. But he wasn't scared of Santa. He was scared of the stupid lady waving toys in his face trying to make him smile. He'll smile if you just smile at him first. We tried telling her that, but she was so busy trying to push us through that she didn't listen. Since we'd waited patiently for everyone else, I refused to let her rush us.
I felt bad for the people behind us in line, but then again, we'd stood there patiently while every other parent tried to get their little munchkin to smile. Plus, we were paying an arm and a leg too. I couldn't believe that it was 30 bucks to get one 5x7 and then have the picture put on cd. What a rip off! I thought the price included the raw picture in a high resolution so that we could do with it what we wanted once we got home. Yeah right. Fat chance on that one. It was just their crappy, cropped picture on the cd. Just one lousy picture.
When we got home, we found out that we could have had his picture taken for free at another local mall. That one really stung. We figured they'd have the best people working at Green Hills, since it is the nicest mall around here. Nope. Just a grouchy old Santa and his even grouchier elves.
Marin still looks cute in his picture because he's well, Marin. But we had to do all kinds of cropping and editing to get the shot half way decent. They had a fancy camera, lights, and all set up and that was the best they could do? For 30 bucks?Yeah, I about fainted too when I found out the price. Plus, you'd think they'd have nicer people taking children's photos. I know we shouldn't have expected an hour long photo shoot and we didn't. But spending 10 minutes with him and getting 30 bucks out of it should have been a good deal for them! I thought for sure it would be $5 max to get a picture made with Santa, but these folks must be able to buy a new sleigh every year and some high quality reindeer chow for what they charge. Now 10 minutes does seem like a long time to spend with the mall Santa, but that was about the pace that the folks in front of us were doing. Maybe they bought the $50 package and that granted you some extra lap time? Who knows.
They put a coupon in his photo envelope for $2 off a visit with their Easter Bunny this spring. I won't even repeat what I said when I saw that in there.
I felt bad for the people behind us in line, but then again, we'd stood there patiently while every other parent tried to get their little munchkin to smile. Plus, we were paying an arm and a leg too. I couldn't believe that it was 30 bucks to get one 5x7 and then have the picture put on cd. What a rip off! I thought the price included the raw picture in a high resolution so that we could do with it what we wanted once we got home. Yeah right. Fat chance on that one. It was just their crappy, cropped picture on the cd. Just one lousy picture.
When we got home, we found out that we could have had his picture taken for free at another local mall. That one really stung. We figured they'd have the best people working at Green Hills, since it is the nicest mall around here. Nope. Just a grouchy old Santa and his even grouchier elves.
Marin still looks cute in his picture because he's well, Marin. But we had to do all kinds of cropping and editing to get the shot half way decent. They had a fancy camera, lights, and all set up and that was the best they could do? For 30 bucks?Yeah, I about fainted too when I found out the price. Plus, you'd think they'd have nicer people taking children's photos. I know we shouldn't have expected an hour long photo shoot and we didn't. But spending 10 minutes with him and getting 30 bucks out of it should have been a good deal for them! I thought for sure it would be $5 max to get a picture made with Santa, but these folks must be able to buy a new sleigh every year and some high quality reindeer chow for what they charge. Now 10 minutes does seem like a long time to spend with the mall Santa, but that was about the pace that the folks in front of us were doing. Maybe they bought the $50 package and that granted you some extra lap time? Who knows.
They put a coupon in his photo envelope for $2 off a visit with their Easter Bunny this spring. I won't even repeat what I said when I saw that in there.
