Santa's Flight Academy Walk Through at Cherry Creek Shopping Center #BeAHero #hosted

Disclosure: My family and I were hosted for a fun filled Santa meeting. All opinions are my own.

Yesterday the family and I took off to Cherry Creek Shopping Center to check out Santa’s Flight Academy and make sure that Santa had our final list ready for the big holiday!

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We arrived at the mall and Santa’s Academy was very easy to locate. The line was not as long as I had expected it to be with only a few days left until Christmas and it actually moved quite quickly. We asked how long they expected the average wait to be and they said about an hour and a half. The elves also told us that most parents come with two adults and one adult takes the kids to the play area while the other waits in line. Seems pretty reasonable to me and really a great way for kids to enjoy a fun day!

When you start your journey through the Santa Academy, you first register and choose your elf friend to lead you through your journey. Each of our kids created a badge that they scanned throughout the experience and had different elf friends to guide them.

The badges printed right there with our kids names and photos on them and the elves helped to place lanyards on to ready us for our training!

First off, we had to insert our badges to check and see if we were qualified to complete training. We had to be on the nice list to go through and luckily both kids have been doing great and made the nice list.

Their names popped up on the screen to welcome them into the flight academy and off we went on our training.

First we had to be fitted for our flight suits. Height, shoe size and hand measurements were taken. The husband and I were so surprised at how tall our kids have gotten this year! Our boy is the second tallest in his class and the tiny peanut is finally as tall as a normal 3 year old…just not weighing in like that.

Once our flight suits were measured, it was time to try them on and see how well we moved. Both kids jumped on the flight suit visualizer and danced around making sure their virtual suits moved well!

From there we moved to make sure that Santa’s sleigh was loaded with gifts, and that his navigation station was prepared for the big night. We chose his flight pattern and checked the weather. The kids loved how interactive all of this was. The sleigh was huge and so amazing for the kids to walk into.

When all the settings were ready on the sleigh we moved to the power station where a boisterous “Merry Christmas” sent a jolt of power to the sleigh! My children were incredibly loud and had the elves laughing.

Final checks to the sleigh engine were next. We made sure all the buttons were pushed and everything was prepared to make the Christmas Eve flight safe and sound.

Before meeting the big guy for our final check, we met with our elves to see how well we did preparing the sled and getting through the flight academy. Both kids were Santa’s Hero’s and were approved to meet with him!

We played a little inside this area with the fun mirrors and actual snow falling from the roof before meeting Santa!

When it was our turn the kids happily sat on his lap, enjoyed a nice conversation and were not rushed through. Santa was extremely patient and jolly and did a great job giving each child special attention. When we were done, the kids were given special tags for completing the academy and mom and dad purchased our photo package. Their photo packages were awesome and I am so excited to give some photos to our most special family members!

Before we left Santa’s Flight Academy, the kids sat for a fun caricature. They are complimentary and fun. We did tip him though, which we got the feeling, most people did not. The artist was awesome, very personable and able to work well with the hyper and excited kids of ours.

The picture was complete and was awesome! I love how he captured out kids cute little features and this moment. What a great way to end our visit with Santa.

The day was nearly over so we grabbed some dinner, did a little shopping and headed home. We were spent and our kids were in bed early after all their training and excitement. The entire way home, the husband and I talked about how awesome this experience was. We are totally making the hour drive again next year because this was by far the most fun for our kids.

If you have yet to see Santa or you need to finalize your list like we did, you have to go to Cherry Creek Shopping Center and go through Santa’s Flight Academy! Even with a wait you will not regret the time you spent and the fun and magic that your kids experience.

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