North Pole at the Fair

The Gaming Expo is one week away. After the Easter Egg Hunts on Saturday and Church on Sunday, bring your family for some real Easter fun to our family's newest event in Puyallup!

Attention all video and tabletop gaming fans, the Washington State Gaming Expo is coming to Puyallup from March 29th through the 31st. Come meet the voices behind Princess Peach and Bowser. Meet iconic characters including Halo's Master Chief, Kratos from God of War, Freddie from Five Nights At Freddie's, Mile Morales, Metal Gear, and many more. It's Three Days Of Play, Competition And Fun with Video Games, Retro Arcades, Pinball, Tabletop Games, and Competitive Tournament Play!

Serious gamers can compete in Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros and Mortal Kombat! Bring a friend and play Halo Infinite, Helldivers 2, COD, Madden24, and Mario Kart to name a few titles. We are featuring Classic Tetris World Championships and Dr Mario Tournaments.

The tabletop gaming area includes a CATAN National Championship Qualifier, Disney’s Lorcana, Star Wars Unlimited, Pokemon, and Magic the Gathering. The Gaming Expo will cover 140,000 sq ft at the Washington State Fair and Events Center. One-day or 3-day tickets are now on sale. www.wagamingexpo.com

Yesterday's launch went spectacularly well without the traditional melting of the server fun! After one day, 34% of all of the Reservations have already been purchased and five time slots are already sold out.

Remember, friends don't let friends miss out. Tag someone that always forgets before it is too late. Get your Reservations for the 2023 North Pole at the Fair here: www.northpoleatthefair.com

It appears that Jack Frost is making some mischief with the weather. After careful consideration, the North Pole will remain open for the remainder of today and all day tomorrow. Santa is good with the sleigh and the staff will be here without interruption.

A power outage would be the only concern that would cause some trouble, but we would post any info here first to let you know.

For everyone with Reservations, please drive safely and plan ahead for your trip down here. If anyone with Reservations has additional needs, please message the page and we will help. BE SAFE, and have a Merry Christmas to everyone that has already made their trip to the North Pole.

North Pole at the Fair updated their information in their About section.

Have a safe and fun Halloween out there to all of the spooky little elves, witches, superheroes, and Stranger Things characters. After you dry off tonight and sneaking all of the kids' peanut butter cups, someone in the house might want to start planning for Santa if you haven't already.

Only 32% of the available slots to see Santa are still available for the year. Don't wait much longer because opening day is on November 12th!

www.northpoleatthefair.com

Updates, some thoughts, and more info.

The servers are running strong for the last 10 hours, and we don't expect any other issues. It is always that ridiculous first wave that knocks everything over. We are "out of the sandbox" and emails (order confirmations and password resets) have been sending out since 4am.

There were many kind words sent in. Thank you. To the others that feel the need to pile on, complain, and vent... be nice and show the patience that we are sure you would expect from us with your kids while they are enjoying the North pole.

DOUBLE-CHECK your times and details prior to making your Reservation. We spend an amazing amount of time adjusting Reservations without fee or penalty that could have been avoided on your part. At some point, we will start enforcing the $10 reschedule fee when this becomes obnoxious.

Pro Tip: Including "I'm a Kickstarter" in your message to us never grants you extra favor or expediency. We respond to each message as soon as possible. :)

Why does the server go down? The simple answer is too many people are all hitting the site at once. The better answer is too many impatient people hitting the site at once repeatedly clicking links and refreshing necessarily. The panicked booking is what does us in.

In short, one person ends up taking up the space of eight people and we have to shut the front door and reset everything. It is annoying and really unnecessary, but it has become a tradition now.

Tomorrow the website will open for the 2022 season. At some point in the afternoon, Reservations will open for Kickstarters. 8 hours later, they will open for everyone else. Please save your questions for tomorrow as we are up to our chimneys coding throughout the evening and in the morning.

If you are headed to the Washington State Fair in September, stop by and say hello and get some amazing snow cones this year! Our North Pole faithful will see plenty that they recognize at the Fair.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=452652820211154&id=100063993189835

Quick Update: We have a busy weekend ahead here at the North Pole. Just want to give everyone heads-up on a few quick items.

1) The fair's Holiday Magic event will be happening on select days while the North Pole is operating. That is a completely separate event with its own separate entrance on the fairgrounds. We still use the Red Gate to enter and exit the North Pole. There is no access between the events.

2) The photo of a photo option with Santa will be posted on the website in a few days. Santa will be taking his updated 2021 photos with the frames this weekend, and we will post those for you to order.

3) We will announce the opportunity to play without photos next week.

Bundle up with all of this North Pole weather!!!

ONLY 3 more sleeps until opening day!

We know the site is currently down, and our support team is getting things back online. To most, thank you for your patience.

Update 11/11:. Traffic is very heavy, but just be patient and a couple of tips to consider. Once you get to the calendar, click on the green date and give it a minute. Do not keep clicking the day over and over. Every time that you click, you are sending another request to the database. If the site goes down again, just be patient and we will get it back up.

Update: This issue is going to take a bit to fix. Have a coffee or cocoa and rest those F5 keys for a while. Our team is working on restricting a few things on the server. At this point, we restarted the site 8 times, and the traffic instantly hitting the site took it out within seconds.

Not to worry... nothing is sold out, life is good, and this too shall pass. :)

Welcome to the North Pole for 2021

We are back! Please read through all of this information because there is plenty to share. Reservations go on sale on November 11th. We no longer state a time because it creates a frenzy and melts our servers. If you were a Kickstarter in 2014, then look to make your Reservations early on the 11th.

Later in the evening on the 11th, Reservations will become open for everyone to book. The website is currently being updated for the 2021 season. Please be patient with the website on the 11th and 12th. The traffic load will be massive and it will slow down at times.

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Masks: Anyone 5 and older must be wearing a face covering the entire time inside the North Pole. Persons having their photos taken with Santa will have the option to quickly remove their masks for the photos if they wish. Santa will not have a mask on for the photos. We have been given guidance and limitations for the North Pole in 2021 by the Governor and Health Department. Our opinions and your opinions don’t really matter. If we don’t follow the rules, we won’t be able to stay open.

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Vaccine Mandate: Our event will not be subject to the vaccine mandate, and we will not be checking anyone’s vaccine status. As an aside, Santa, Steve, and the North Pole Crew are fully vaccinated for their safety and yours.

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Santa: After thirteen seasons in the chair, the Santa that everyone has grown up with has had some health issues this last year and will not be able to join us for the 2021 season. We know this may be a surprise to all who have grown to love and expect him to be sitting in that chair.

His condition is improving each month and he is in great spirits. Santa fully expects to be back in the chair again next year, and he specifically wanted us to send all of his love to the families that he will miss dearly this year. Many of you know that we are a tight family, and will carry the load while he takes a well-deserved year off to recover. Please don’t concern yourself with any specifics, we are respecting his wishes and his privacy and ask that you do the same.

The good news is he has called in for a great reinforcement to carry the torch this year. It has always been the plan to bring additional Santa support for years. The number of hours to complete a full season is staggering and the demand for North Pole Reservations is always much greater than one person can handle. This is the year, but instead of a sharing-the-load plan, we are implementing the reinforcement-plan.

Santa is suited up and ready for the 2021 season. You can always expect a first-class and exceptional experience at the North Pole and we will make this transition as seamless as possible. As for any inquiring children, we will have an explanation for them if needed in Santa’s Studio. So buckle up for a fun year, send your best wishes and love to Santa at home, and come enjoy an awesome experience again with Santa sitting in the same chair as always.

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North Pole Play: The North Pole Play Area will once again be open for play before and after your pictures, BUT there will be a few changes. Due to occupancy limitations and our desire to relieve congestion specifically on the weekends, we will not be allowing any walk-in play if you do not have photo reservations. We will cover this more in greater detail in another post, but this year, this is our limitation.

Additionally, we are going to limit your entrance into the North Pole Play Area to a maximum of 30 minutes prior to your Reservation. We also ask that you limit your play to an hour after photos. Kids often don’t understand boundaries like adults, and we are also asking all parents and guardians to help space out play as much as possible and help us enforce proper mask-wearing. Not every person has the same opinions and viewpoints regarding masks, but we beg you all to BE KIND and respect each other.

Do not despair. We will be opening the North Pole Play Areas for kids that are not having their pictures taken with Santa. These opportunities and times will be highlighted and explained in a later post. Think of it as a drop-in like you would at a bouncy house play area where you will have a limited capacity in the North Pole where you can still enjoy the fun.

We have some great new sanitizing machines that will be cleaning the North Pole daily. We will have a new check-in procedure that we will cover in a later post. Fisher Scones will be out front again. The Retro Arcade is coming back again. We have some great surprises still to come.

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One last closing thought. We are not out of this yet. We have fought and fought to bring you this North Pole for 2021, but the threat of this virus is not yet over. Please respect people’s space, sanitize your hands with Santa’s Special Sanitizer from the North Pole, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you or anyone in your party feels ill, have a fever, or is actively showing symptoms of any sickness, please stay home. We will always make the effort to reschedule a Reservation rather than risk the chance of getting Santa or anyone else sick while at the North Pole. Thank you.