We spent New Year's with the family in the Altai Mountains - just the four of us, two adults and two kids. It's a great way to ring in the new year, if you ask me.
Winters on the Altai aren't as packed with activities as summers are. You can take a stroll, enjoy the views, go dog sledding, or visit the water park on Tursib. We did all of the above, and it was a blast.
And, of course, Manjerook is a big draw for tourists. The Dreamwood Park website has a great program lined up, which was exactly what we were looking for since we have kids and wanted to keep them entertained.
Pour yourself into a magical atmosphere
Winter program at Dreamwood Park: an open ice rink, a 6-lane tubing attraction, and a 2-kilometer-long rodelbahn track.
Expect an animated entertainment program, a lively light show featuring the White Maral, and engaging workshops.Now, about Dreamwood:
The entrance ticket to the park costs 1,300 rubles, with free admission for kids under 90 cm tall, measured right next to the ticket booths. We paid 5,200 rubles for our family of four, which I thought was a bit steep.
As it turns out, the entrance ticket to Dreamwood Park includes:
Two hours on the ice rink
A workshop on making a New Year's toy
Led show 15 minutes
Light show 10 minutes
The atmosphere in the park is really nice, with music playing and everything well-maintained - almost like a European park. But it turns out you can walk through the park in either direction in just 5 minutes, which was a bit of a letdown.
We really wanted to try the tubing, but it's paid separately: 30 minutes for 500 rubles, 1 hour for 800 rubles. Kids can go from 6 years old, so we left the park and went to the tubing. We waited for a while, and luckily, there weren't many people at the time, but after our 30 minutes, the line was much longer. The tubing slide is long and safe, with a comfortable lift and a soft descent with rubber mats at the end. Our 5-year-old son was allowed to go, even though the minimum age is 6, and they provided helmets for the kids. After you go down, it's best to hurry up and get back in line to go down 4 times within the 30 minutes. We barely made it, and if we hadn't rushed, we would have only gone down 3 times.
The rollercoaster is included in the Dreamwood ticket price, but you'll pay around 2,500 rubles to get into the park, or you can pay extra and wait in line again. We didn't ride it, so I don't know any details.
After tubing, we returned to Dreamwood park, and we really wanted to warm up in the cafe, but there weren't any tables available. We went to the indoor play area instead, where you can shoot targets for a fee. After our second try, we finally got a table at the cafe and had something to eat and warm up. And after that, we watched a 10-15 minute ice show and a light show on the Marale.
Looking back, I'm really disappointed with the organization: why not just pay for everything upfront, so you don't have to wait in line every time? There are a lot of visitors during holidays, and the endless lines are really stressful.
We paid a pretty penny for the entrance ticket, but what we got was essentially two short shows of 10-15 minutes each, with additional charges for the rest.
The infrastructure is basically non-existent - I'm not even talking about the entertainment, which I've already covered. And don't even get me started on the lack of warm cafes, which is a definite oversight.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the service quality at Dreamworld will improve over time, considering it's still a relatively new park. Whether or not we'll be returning is a big question mark. To be honest, I'd rather go for a thrilling ride on the cable car - the enclosed gondolas at Dreamworld are a major letdown.