Here at Otter we have been working hard this Autumn on planning whether or not we can safely run Santa’s grotto this year.
From the number of emails, Santa has received Santa knows that his visitors want to see Santa at Otter and the team at Otter also want to help Santa to get back into his Magical Kingdom in the manner he used to before Covid-19 came along.
The elves at Otter have wrapped up presents in anticipation, Mrs Claus has made some of her magical cookie mix already and Santa’s train has been serviced in anticipation but the final check has had to be whether we can operate such a fun-packed experience for Santa’s visitors, as Otter has done for many years in the past, in a safe and consistent manner.
After trying to think ahead to cover every eventuality it is with a heavy heart that we do not feel that we can open Santa’s grotto this year meeting the high standards that Santa’s visitors expect from us, whilst keeping these visitors, Santa and the team safe and well.
Santa’s grotto operates in a very small space with a very large amount of people. Everything we have considered to reduce the risk of spreading illness would mean changing the experience almost beyond recognition and we do not feel this is what Santa’s visitors would want us to do as the experience in the Magical Kingdom is a large part of the visit to Santa at Otter.
If we went ahead and hoped for the best, we feel this would be irresponsible and we can only imagine how dreadful it would be to have to let Santa’s visitors down at the last minute if Covid did strike Santa and all his elves and we were, therefore, unable to deliver the experience that we had promised to deliver to all those excited little children.
Updated October 7th 2022
