Just got back this afternoon!!!!!!!!

Hi All,

We just got back from Kittila this afternoon, and it was just PURE MAGIC and ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS HOLIDAY.

For all staying at the Snow Princess ignore all previous reviews. The hotel lobby and bars have had a refurb and look great, the rooms were warm, clean, spacious enough and the in room sauna%26#39;s are brill. The food was fine and although there isn%26#39;t a masive buffet choice nobody to my knowledge went hungry. The Gala Night was fantastic, turkey dinner with all the trimmings, carol singing, the man himself and fireworks over the forest after....truely a night to remember. First Choice Reps were brilliant, very friendly, helpful and extremely entertaining.

The Snow was plentiful too and we regularly had fresh falling snow over the 3 days, in the forest snow depths easily reached 30cm plus. Cloudy a night at the moment so didn%26#39;t get to see the northern lights....locals predict Jan/Feb this year will be best for it.

Can%26#39;t wait to get the photos developed tomorrow and do my staff review the only downfall was that I%26#39;ll recommended that first choice extend stays to 4/5 night rather than 3/4 as 3 night truely just isn%26#39;t enough I will definateley be trying to return next year....I caught the Lapland bug!!!!!!!!!

Tracy

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wicked one, so glad you had a fab time and that there was lots of snow about

let us know if you post any pics, I would love to see them

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Glad you had a good time, it%26#39;s nice to hear from someone coming back, where is everyone else that went last weekend, oh by the way first choice do a 4 night 5 day trip i was booked on one to go to rovi but cancelled it at the 11th hour and booked with inghams to levi instead.

Kelly.

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Hi Kelly, yep I know they do a 4 night and over new year and Jan they do 7 nighters but I will be recommending that the 3 night is made to 4, and 4 to 5. For most they just couldn%26#39;t cram in everything they wanted to do in the 3 days as the optional safaris etc. had to be fitted around the tasters, santa workshop and gala night, and they wasn%26#39;t helped by the popularity of some of the excursions so a few filled up extremely quickly, leaving people sometimes dissapointed.

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Betty,

when i booked mine with first choice i could%26#39;nt understand why they did%26#39;nt do a week long holiday anyway, what was the flight like i think thats the thing i am going to miss most going with inghams it sounded lovely, chrissy songsheets being handed out and sung, chrissy film for kids and all the flight staff wearing santa hats etc did that live up to it????

Kelly.

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Hi there Tracy it was good to meet you even though it was on the last night! We were kept so busy it was difficult to find the time to meet you. Didnt we have a great time?I couldnt agree with you more everyone needs to ignore any previous reviews of this hotel as i couldnt praise it more. Everyone there from the cleaners to the reps to the managers were very friendly.

I will be posting a full review and downloading photos at the weekend

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I completely agree with tracy!

Also just got back from Snow Princess hotel and found all negative feedback left completely unfounded.

Will give my review of hotel etc soon. Will also be sending a letter to first choice to congratulate them on providing such a fab package. People are quick to complain but not as quick to send in letters of praise so here goes.

Also had the pleasure of meeting tracy and her family and also Paul and his daughter Millie. So it was also nice to put faces to names!

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Kelly the flight out with first choice was average. Only one crew member wore a santa hat and there was a selection of christmas cartoons on the tv. No singing or anything. However they had a coloring competition for the kids and the captain judged the winner. The crew were nice enough.

However the flight home was great. mostly a male crew that all had santa hats on, sang songs with the kids and also put on 2 movies. %26quot;deck the halls%26quot; and %26quot;simpsons movie%26quot;. It was a great fun and smooth flight both ways. Food as in the christmas dinner on the return flight was yummy. Breakfast was not so nice.

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Glad you had a good time Tracy, bet you will be off to the travel agents soon to get 2008 brochures!

If you can do a week next time, then do it .... cost wise it%26#39;s very similar to doing an all inclusive package for 3/4 days. You will get more time and you will know what is what too.

Happy Xmas

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In am too just back from the Snow Princess and had a truly fantastic time.

The snow was so deep that my youngest disappeared in it on several occasions and it was so lovely to be a kid again.

The hotel was fine, rooms clean and warm and the food was plentiful.

We did reindeer, husky and snowmobile safari%26#39;s. My favourite by far was the husky ride. We went out at night and it was only the guide and our family that went. My husband drove the sled with me and my youngest daughter, whilst my parents and eldest daughter went in the sled with the guide. To be whisked through the forest with the snow blowing on your cheeks was truly amazing and I would highly recommend this trip to anyone. The guide spoke excellent english and was chatting the whole time, very friendly. Back at the farm we held 8 week old husky puppies and had hot berry juice and cookies around the log fire.

The snowmobiles were also amazing and again we fell lucky with only a party of 6 being taken out into the wilderness, over a frozen lake and seeing herds of reindeer in the wild, it was breathtaking.

The reindeer safari I was not impressed with at all and at a cost of £110 approx for 4 of us, I would say it was really not worth it but that is just my opinion. When we got to the place where the safari was meant to take place the guide didn%26#39;t know if we were in the right place, it was pitch dark (I know people will say that is how it was meant to be) but some sort of candle lighting and maybe a candle lit track would have been good. I feel that we missed out seeing some truly beautiful scenery as it was pitch dark. The guides did not speak and you just went round a track through the forest in the pitch dark. I know several other people that were on the trip with us were not impressed. As I said though that is just my opinion.

I would not travel with First Choice again but that is just a personal thing. The reps were fine but I feel still trying to find their feet in some respects.

The Gala dinner was again fine but the way the visit to Santa Claus was organised, in my opinion was not good. I had to try and keep a 2 year old awake until 10.30, queuing down a stair case to meet Santa in what can only be described as a broom cupboard! As I am sure other parents of young children can appreciate it was hard work and the magic was lost as she was so tired she just threw a wobbly.

I will say again the above comments are my opinions and I would not hesitate to return to the Snow Princess. All the Lappish people we encountered were so very friendly, warm and welcoming and the scenery was truly outstanding, I am really in the Christmas mood now. I will certainly return, hopefully next year but I would do it

independently.

The real downside was when arriving at Gatwick sadly my suitcase didn%26#39;t and they don%26#39;t know where it is. Hopefully I will get it back as it has lots of nik naks and cuddly toys that the children bought for the christmas tree and those I cannot replace, well I guess another trip....

Hope this is helpful to people yet to go to Lapland and if I can answer any questions please ask.

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Tigger 9 ....See my previous post on the broom cupboard Santa!!! I wrote to complain to First Choice saying that the Gala eveniong and Santa meet was terrible! Did they still give out the raffle tickets? The kidswe were with didn%26#39;t really still believe, so anyone wanting a real Santa experience should give it a miss!!!

However like you we loved our holiday and could not fault the local %26#39;Elves%26#39;! We are returning to Lapland for new year!!