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Thank you so much to The Queen Mary for inviting us to this media preview to facilitate this review post of The Queen Mary’s CHILL. All opinions are my own.
The Queen Mary’s second annual CHILL event has started and I’m so happy to bring you this review! CHILL is So Cal’s only frozen holiday adventure featuring everything from Ice Skating to The Ice Kingdom, a huge igloo filled with amazing ice sculptures in a 9-degree winter wonderland and so much more! Some of the offerings are sweet treats, tasty food, a holiday village, a gift shop, a huge snow globe for kids to play in, a snowman bouncy house, a bucking reindeer, and the worlds largest rocking horse!
We brought our little one with us this year and she had a blast! We will be bringing back the older two also because it’s that cool {pun intended}. I’ve always wanted to have a place to go at the beginning of the holiday season to really get into the Christmas spirit, you know the warm feeling of hot chocolate, snow, and family all together… this totally did it for me. I’ve been thinking of the cookies I’m going to cook on Christmas Eve and listening to Christmas music ever since we were here.
Let’s play a little game of “It’s Christmas Time” so you can get a true picture of how awesome this is… Imagine walking into a town that is all about spreading holiday cheer. With jolly elves skipping by, where you can visit with Santa and listen to Mrs. Clause read stories. Now think about taking a stroll over to the Gingerbread cabin and meet “Ginny” the gingerbread girl while you decorate gingerbread houses.
Then stop by this rocking horse, the worlds biggest rocking horse that is. It fits three people and the view from on top is beautiful. You can see all the sparkling lights of the holiday village! Are you feeling it now?
Next head on over to the Glacier Glide and grab a tube and head on down a six-lane tubing run made completely out of ice!
After that, you will want to take a moment and enjoy some merry refreshments. May I recommend either a huge slice of pizza or some Gelato?
After a quick break for food, you might consider playing in the huge snowman bouncy house!
If you have a little one with you be sure to take a moment to just enjoy all the lights. Our little one loved to play under the lights that looked like snow falling down all around her. See you are in the Christmas Mood now aren’t you? It’s like 100 times better than I explained too…
Back to our night… After all that bouncing and dancing under the lights we needed another break and a quick warm up. There are tons of quaint spots to warm your body up and enjoy the festivities. We chose one with a fire!
After a few moments to warm up we were quickly back in business and ready for more fun… enter the HUGE snow globe! The little one is STILL talking about this one. Every time she has held a snow globe in her hands she’s imagined being inside and playing in the snow. This was her dream come true! She made a snow angel, threw snow in the air and just sat there in awe! It was amazing.
There are lot’s of opportunities to shop for some unique Christmas presents… so don’t forget to stop into the gift shop and see what you can find!
As if that wasn’t enough… we also went into The Ice Kingdom. Inside is over 2 million pounds of ice sculptures. To say it’s almost unbelievable is an understatement. The theme this year is “The Nutcracker”. It brings to life, in a whole new way, the classic tale that so many of us love. The Ice Kingdom is kept at a constant temperature of 9 degrees and if you are a cold weather wimp like me, you will love that they provide a very warm parka that keeps you toasty warm so you can enjoy the whole thing without getting frostbite.
Be sure to stop and go down the slides too! One quick tip… make sure you are sitting on the parka when you slide down the ice slide. I won’t mention why I know this tip…
This flower is made out of ice. Enough said.
The little one really loved seeing everything made out of ice. She did not love that I made her stop and take a picture… I just wanted to show you all the parkas and my Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, nose. Does anyone else turn all shades of red in the cold or is it just me? And really it actually looks like I’ve turned completely pink and blue, it’s the reflection I promise.
There is so much to do that I would really plan on spending a good 4+ hours seeing and doing everything. We checked out the ice skating rink and we will be doing it next time. They have skate rentals so there is no need to bring your own.
Towards the front, when you first walk in is the candy lane and it is perfect for pictures. We took a couple with candy canes and snowmen… but there were lot’s of other options too…
We ran into a bunch of friendly elves too… this is Papa Elf and he is a gem! He was kind enough to take a quick picture on his way back to the North Pole… he said he was very busy helping Santa this time of year. I can only imagine how busy he really is but he is still very happy… it’s the Christmas Spirit I tell you, makes everyone happy!