The annual trip to the shopping center to see Santa Claus has been reimagined with the opening of the holiday season”™s marquee attraction at Westchester”™s Ridge Hill in Yonkers.
Designed by DreamWorks, the DreamPlace North Pole Adventure is an interactive experience in a six-room, 2,000-square-foot house featuring animated surfaces comprising more than 3.1 million pixels and 15,000 LED lights. Inside, children venture on a journey to meet Santa Claus.
“We developed DreamPlace with the hopes of creating a unique experience for the entire family that transports guests to a very special destination up north ”“ way up north,” said DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was joined on stage for the opening of the attraction Thursday by children from the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester, as well as Shrek and Santa Claus himself.
The DreamPlace North Pole Adventure is touted as a new take on the visit to sit on Santa”™s lap. Nine people can go through the North Pole Adventure every two minutes, making it possible for nearly 10,000 per day to go on the virtual journey.
“Since 1890, parents and children have been lining up to sit on Santa”™s lap, and since 1890, they”™ve been doing it in exactly the same way,” Katzenberg said. “We figured the big guy and all the families in line deserve something a little bit newer and a little bit better, and now it”™s here.”
DreamWorks, which produced the “Shrek” series of films, is opening seven other North Pole Adventure locations across the country. The Ridge Hill location is the only one in the New York metropolitan area. More than 8,000 had made reservations to visit the DreamPlace North Pole Adventure before it opened.
“That”™s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Kathryn Welch, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner Cos.”™ retail development division.
Welch said Forest City Ratner, which owns the Ridge Hill retail complex, hopes the DreamPlace will draw new visitors.
“That”™s a lot of what it”™s about, bringing people here who haven”™t experienced Ridge Hill before,” Welch said. “Based on data from our unique-to-the-market retailers, we draw from a pretty great distance, so we”™ll go into Manhattan, Westchester, Orange (County) and New Jersey. We”™re expecting a very wide draw.”
Planning for the interactive space began in June, when Welch first met with DreamWorks. The project, which Welch said required significant time and resources, officially got the go-ahead in August.
“To see the culmination of all those efforts is pretty wonderful. It came together exactly as we hoped,” said Welch, who declined to put a dollar figure on the project”™s cost. “We did buy the DreamHouse, and we”™ll have it for five to seven years.”
The DreamWorks DreamPlace North Pole Adventure will be open every day until Christmas Eve, excluding Thanksgiving.
Do you know where I might find reviews about this Christmas experience? I realize it’s very new, but I’d like to read what people are saying about it so far.
Thanks,
Miranda
It was an experience alright!!! Our 7:30pm appt turned into us waiting outside in the freezing rain until 8:40. I will never go back there… Not set up properly.., it took longer for the guy to print our pictures than the whole experience. Santa was nice looking and very nice but after all the prior “experience ” maybe more than 3 clicks of the camera should be allowed and not shuffle us out of there…. I couldn’t believe how this so called magical night turned into a horrible night.