Experience to the fullest by paying to skate ; see varied rates for practically all ages on their website. They have cute blue seals and a few brown reindeer to push Keiki along while you glide over the ice. The line is indeed very long to get your skates ie our entrance time was 7 pm, it's 8:10 pm and the kiddies are yet to get their skates and be on the ice. You must sign a waiver before stepping foot into the squarish shaped rink. Tonight was K/Pop theme nite from 6-8 pm... you know, Soda pop song and characters in costume. Christmas icons decked out in lights: reindeer, stars suspended from the ceiling and draped teal twinkling bulbs are strung like a circus tent chandelier. Okay it's 8:23 pm and a new group is on the ice. Some obviously have had practice before. A few vendors selling snacks and bracelets with what looks like The Polar Express movie projected on a screen against a back wall. It's quite stunning but I've seen even more wow on a massive scale off island. read more

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This place was amazing, there's so many places to take fun pictures. I swear we were just at the front door for an hour. The psychedelic room was pretty fun as well, Surrounded by Christmas videos. And then the main hall has a lot of picture ops Santa slays presents Christmas balls. There's a Christmas shop and a Christmas bar. The ice-skating was fun. I like the boots they were sturdy and didn't hurt your ankles. And they have strollers for those of you that are a little wobbly on your feet. It was $35 with the Rollerskating with military ID. I went with a bunch of adults. We had a blast. I'm sure kids would love it as well. Parking was $15 cash or charge . read more

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We came for a 2nd year in row. They definitely made some improvements to last year. The immersive room is easily our favorite. You can tell they made improvements because the images were more seamless than last year. The definite draw was the ice skating. Was it fun, sure. The Christmas tree in the center of the ice made for good photo-ops. Skates rental comes with the purchase of the skate ticket. Need to fill out waiver to ice skate. The only sour note in was getting a skate aide for my son. The whale and reindeer skating aides were cute and a cute photo-op, but needed to be rented for an additional fee ***which is not enforced consistently amongst the staff.*** When I asked the staff on the ice, they said to ask the skate desk and it should be free. When I asked skate desk they said they were out, but we could ask any one of the of guests who are no longer using it if we could use it. So that's what I did. I asked a lady who was leaving if I could use it for my son. She had a whale and reindeer one, she gave me the reindeer one and the whale to another mom who asked for it. As I was walking to my son, a staff member stopped me and said "you can't do that you have to pay for the rental". The lady I got it from told the guy she didn't have to pay anything. The guy then said no, you had to pay to use it. Not wanting to cause a scene. I paid the $15 fee, while someone directly behind me asked another leaving guest for a skate aide. The person that charged me the "rental fee" saw but I guess decided not to tell the other person that it needs to be rented. So yeah, inconsistent enforcement. The bounce house and ball pits is a definite upgrade to last year. My son enjoyed his time there too. They also upgraded the food and drink, and merch selection this year. They did host outside food vendors, but where they were placed seemed to get very little traffic. They were tucked away in the corner. Overall much better than last year, but still lacking. read more

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I think for the price it's not worth it. My wife said it was the same decorations from a prior year with the addition of the ice rink since they didn't have it last year. You're pretty much paying for the ice skating. It's nice to have the props to take some nice pictures with and the big screen with the movies playing. But overall pretty bummed I paid $90 to take our daughter ice skating for an hour. Drinks overpriced the food mediocre at best. Just better things to spend your money on during the holidays. I wish it had a little more thought and care that went into getting the event to be memorable. Was not worth the hype. read more

Terribly mismanaged event. I'd give it zero stars for if I could. If you pay this much money to go ice skating and you are never allowed to ice skate you're not even getting what you paid for. We paid for skate tickets but they let other people in at the wrong time, ran out of skates, and we spent 2 hours standing in line for ice skating. And then they're going to clear the ice for the next group. Why have timed entrance when you don't respect it? We paid for a 6pm entry and it includes 1.5 hours of skating until 8pm. But we just stood in line. Never got to the ice. And it's $15 to park. Don't give them your money. What could be such a good event was so horribly mismanaged. My guess it's out of greed by overselling tickets or not enforcing timed tickets. I don't know. But kids are just standing in like the whole time. If you're holding an event at the convention center I expect you to know how to hold an event properly but this is absolutely horrible. Unprofessional. There's a snack bar in the back. Bathrooms in the back. Lighted stuff to take photos around. Bouncy house. There's a line to get your wrist band then you need to go to another line to get entry onto the ice. Good luck. But if you just lose all your money in it at least I hope I've helped lower your expectation. Also the ice rink is tiny. I'd rather give ice palace $18 for a reliable consistent good experience. read more

Nice immersive Christmas experience with lots of opportunities for pictures. With all the different Christmas events happening around town, I think this is worth visiting if you are looking for a different experience with personalized photo ops especially since staff are happy to take videos and pictures of you. It felt like a photo studio in a sense, since it wasn't very busy when we went. It was nice though, since we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves making it perfect for kids to run around while the adults chatted and took pictures. Our friends invited us to this event and we live nearby so we don't have to pay for parking. I think it is a little overpriced for what you get, but it was a new enjoyable experience for all of us (especially the kids) and we made the best of it! They definitely try to get you to spend more money with all the drinks/snacks/gift shop in between each room. Next year they will have an indoor skating rink here for the holidays! Looking forward to that. read more

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Disappointed. To go through the entire experience takes literally less than 20 min. and the for what the tickets costs I truly expected more. My husband was shaking his head in disbelief that I actually chose to check this out. Maybe if you have kids it would be great for them but for adults, not worth it, then to top it off, there is a $15 parking fee for the convention center. Photo ops, indoor, AC were the positives. read more

I agree with other reviews that it may have been a little too pricey for what you get but I also think it's worth a shot. It is a little different than the City lights or the Aloha Stadium shows but I say if you're really looking for a new experience to kick off your holiday season then I recommend it. read more

Twas The Light Before Christmas - Virtual Reality Centers Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Perfect way to start off the holiday season!! Create memories with your friends and family. Lots of different photo opportunities. There's also a snow globe area you can go inside and play with balloons!! I had a blast with my friends! read more

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If you have kiddos, then it's worth the price because they have an opportunity to be indoors (and out of the sun) and look at lights, play in the ball pit(s), play with balloons, enjoy Christmas in Hawaii. There are a lot of photo opportunities and there are some stations that have staff on stand-by so that they can take pictures for you (with your phone/camera). We weren't sure how the crowds would be or how long we'd have to wait so we opted for the VIP tickets, which includes: lanyard, admission (can enter at ANY time), 1 drink of your choice, and a souvenir gift (ornament mini mug). It was nice to not have any restrictions on what time to actually enter (during the day time or at night time), but the pricing of the VIP tickets were really expensive. If we were to purchase all over again, I think we'd opt for the cheapest one(s) or even go when they had the family day ticket promotions going on. There is also a Santa and elf walking around the exhibits, but he's not the typical Santa Clause that you'd expect - he's a very local kine Santa :P Location: Inside the convention center Tip: purchase tickets prior to going to make the process smoother read more

This was so cute! I love the fact that it's completely indoors so the air conditioning is nice and cool, and the lights glow, even at midday! They have some pretty cool photo opportunities around every bend, lots of fake snow, and even some play areas for the kids. I was happy it wasn't crowded when we went this opening weekend. The staff were all so happy and sweet, offering to take our pictures along the walk. There were also plenty of benches to sit and rest as we went through. The spiked eggnog was strong! Also important to note, they are cashless, so cards and contactless payments only. read more

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Came here to check out this new event at the Hawaii Convention Center. We came at 3:30pm on a Monday, hoping to avoid crowds. We did. We got the VIP tickets that allow you to enter before and after your scheduled check-in time. Also included with a VIP ticket is a free drink (including alcohol) and a free gift. The free gift was a cute ornament. It was a nice set up. Good for kids. I would say for the price they could do a lot more. Staff were nice and willing to help take pictures of you. There are treats and Christmas gifts you can purchase. Which include tote bags, ornaments, lights, stuffed animals. The one thing I am disappointed in is the fact that they don't validate your parking. Parking is $15 which is a rip off for 1 hour. The parking wasn't even included in the VIP experience which I highly recommend. I would recommend you park elsewhere. Next year there will be an ice skating rink. read more

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This was such a cool experience. I went here with my parents and my nieces and we all had a lot of fun. There were a bunch of different rooms and activities that you can do. My nieces dragged me into one of the snow globes which I had a surprisingly fun time in. There's balloons and balls flying all over and I felt like a little kid again. I love seeing all the Christmas lights, it really put me into the Christmas spirit. I love that the workers are more than willing to take your photos in all the rooms. At the end, you can take photos with different props. They also told us that we were free to go back through the rooms and do it all over again, which was neat. One downfall was that the drinks took a very long time. You would think that two hot chocolates would be quick but we weee waiting for a while and the line wasn't even long. read more

Twas The Light Before Christmas - Virtual Reality Centers Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

I decided to check out "Twas The Light Before Christmas" right after the Christmas holiday but before it ended on New Year's Eve, and the tickets are pretty expensive for what you get. There are different package types, and I don't think the VIP experience is really worth it, which is why I opted for the most basic ticket option. I ended up spending only about 30 minutes overall and yeah there were some cool decorations along the way and then the immersion room at the very end. There are good photo opportunities along the way, but I think they are trying to get you to purchase their food and drink along the way, which would have added even further to the cost. On top of that, it's $15 for parking inside the Hawaii Convention Center garage. The two large snow globes would be more appealing to younger children and families. The staff are willing to help take pictures of you, but I didn't see a whole lot of them in certain areas and had to depend on other guests to help me. Overall, this was an okay experience but if it returns in December 2025, I would probably skip it. read more

Bright tour of large lighted figures like reindeer, ornaments, Santa's sleigh, etc., with several places to take your holiday photos -but expensive and parking is $15. Probably not more exciting than other Christmas lights for any child who isn't at least pre-school age. Activity areas-there are two large snow globes to enter and a hat photo room that will interest pre-school and elementary students. There is an impressive "immersion room" the size of a gymnasium, with changing projection scenarios on all 4 walls. When we were there the adults sat in the chairs and admired the show while the kids spent their time just running around the large room. It is lovely for adults who watch -with changing colorful projection scenarios-like sitting in a 4-sided indoor movie of winter scenes. Purchases-There are small places to buy souvenirs and toys, as well as t-shirts, but they have the "Twas the Lights before Christmas" large words on them and are not general Merry Christmas logos or words-if you would want to buy them & wear a sort of advertisement for the event. There are two places to buy food and beverages. The alcohol beverages have to stay in the show area -so you can finish them sitting in the immersion room if you like. We saw new parents there to take photos with the lights to commemorate baby's first Christmas. It was not crowded when we were there in the daytime and the garage was not full. read more

I only gave it one star cause zero stars isn't an option. It was incredibly ill managed from the get go. We were here on K-pop Demon hunters night so, as expected, it was really busy. First of all, there were two separate lines to get into ice-skating, but it wasn't clear, which was which because no one was giving any directions. Turns out one line was to get the waiver bracelet. And then once you had that, you had to go all the way back to the end of the other line to get to the ice-skating rink. Once on the ice, they had plastic push toys for the smaller kids to use who weren't good at skating. You were supposed to, apparently, get a number at the skate rental desk, but that also wasn't clear and no one mentioned anything to any of the parents with small children, so you were just supposed to know. But, even if you had a rental number they were telling people to just take the push toys on the ice if one became available. So there were plenty of adults, here on K-pop Demon Hunter night remember, pushing each other around. I even had a family where no one was under the age of 25 with two of the push toys refuse to give me one for my two year-old toddler, and there was no one on the ice on staff who was managing the situation. On top of this, the kids were very unruly and parents were doing nothing to supervise or manage their kids. At the inflatables kids were throwing balls jumping from a one bounce house to the other, pushing other kids, stepping on the little ones, while the parents stood around, gawking. In short, a complete waste of money. Save your money, time, and sanity, and just go to the ice palace. Edited to add: the one star I can say was for the storybook entertainment actresses, who played the K-pop Demon hunters. They were so kind, gracious, and patient. When I complained that I couldn't get a push toy for my toddler on the ice, one of the kind workers did offer to give us free tickets on a night when it wasn't so busy. Which I do very much appreciate, but this isn't an event. I'm looking to come back to ever. read more

Be aware they just want to take your money! We attended the first day. My husband bought tickets online for myself, my husband and my son. He accidentally bought an extra ticket so when we got there we told the front desk and the guy who scanned us in about it. They were really accommodating and nice. They explained to us that he only scanned in the 3 of us, so it will show on the back end that the 4th ticket wasn't scanned. They gave us a card to call a 1800 number or email the mainland manager. The next day I emailed them to take care of the situation right away. I emailed the Honolulu manager by accident and was told to call the 800 number on the back or email the one on the back. I called the 800 number, it does not even work! You can't get through to a human to talk to, to resolve any issues. I emailed the other email address only to be told that we cannot get a refund due to their non-refundable policy. I get it, it's their policy but every situation is different. This was truly a human error. We spent $159 for the tickets ($44 per adult with service charge, $29 for children 3-13years), $12 on macaroons, parking was $15, gas and time out of our day. To be honest the experience itself inside was just ok. It wasn't spectacular. I've seen and been to better ones but just thought it would be nice to take our son. We were nice enough to come support this event but there's no empathy or aloha at all. I will take it as a loss but I will never support this business or come back. Make sure when you purchase your tickets that you purchase the correct amount or plan to go for sure because they will not accommodate any refund! read more

Overpriced and not worth your time. My baby cousin got sick the night before and my uncle bought refundable tickets. They were unable to go but the company demanded a doctors note which was impossible due to closure and booked up appointments. It feels like a scam and don't recommend going for a pop up that's supposed to spread Christmas cheer and aloha for the holidays to the locals. read more

Huge disappointment and rip off! Couple cool photo opportunities but that was it Kids couldn't run around "Snowball" area was bust up so the balloons kept getting sucked to a corner of the floor Could get through in 30 minutes: with picture stops Not worth the money Way better free options around the island! read more

We could walk to the venue so parking was not an issue for us. I bought the VIP package which allowed us to come anytime on our set day. It was a fun family outing but not sure I would do it again. I think I was expecting more but still enjoyed the adventure. read more

Regarding response of owner that my tickets were non-refundable. Website states that if cancellation is done before 24 hours of scheduled time, one could receive a new date less an $8 handling fee. I had received two emails. One stated I could not get a refund and exchange -- I believe this was when my QR codes were given to someone else. The next email and there was a long string, stated that I would receive a refund however, when I provided that I had paid for the new tickets, I was told then that the first set of tickets had been used! As a retired CEO, I am not one to scam or try to get something for nothing; however, the principle is most disturbing. Of course, the owner also replied this has never happened before...hmm...yeah right. FYI. I did attend. I went at 4pm so almost no one was there, so it was perfect for photo ops. Is it worth the $40x 2. If money is not an issue, yes, but I think the downtown one is just as magical. read more

Absolute rip off. If it was $10 maybe I'd say it was OK. But for $30/person. No way. This is the problem I have with so many of these events. It reminded me of the "lazer show" they did at the stadium. Absolutely sucked and a waste of time. Im sure the people that acutally put it together worked hard to put it all up and connect all the lights. But it took my wife and I literally 15 min to walk through. Also, PUT UP STANDS FOR PHONE SELFIES!!!!! All these photo opportunities and nowhere to put your camera. YEah..don't bother. Save your $$ on loved ones. read more

Kids will love it, the lights,ball pit, ballon snow-globe, but as a parent this walk thru was not worth $40 per person. Inside they have drinks (alcohol) hot cocoa,cookies, all of which is way over priced. Save your money and go to Honolulu City Lights. Just not worth $40.00 read more

My family and I thought it would be a nice holiday experience. Unfortunately we had a couple of family members become sick the day of. So of course it's not within the 24hour period. Tried to contact them about it. Instead we find that the company is just about taking your money. With their "non refundable which was stated when tickets were purchased". But a little aloha would go a long way. Instead they don't make any exceptions. The amount of money that we paid for this is definitely not even worth it. This is only going to bite them in the butt if they decide to do this again next year. I feel like they will get less people to go. I know that I will for sure not support this event again if it were to happen next year. I will also be sure to tell family and friends that is definitely an event you can miss. You are better off going to the Honolulu city lights for free and spending your time there. read more

We thought this would be the ending to a great night, being this was my first Christmas here in Hawaii. Don't get me wrong, it was cool, but we did expect more and things could have been handled better. We purchased the VIP package, for the convenience of being able to enter at anytime, being that we did have other plans and didn't want to rush, and drinks and a gift? what could go wrong? For the price, they could have at least include parking. Less than an hour at the event and parking cost $15! We checked in and low and behold, no drink, no gift, but we figure we'd go though the experience, perhaps it was waiting for us inside. It wasn't crowded, a lot of families with their young children taking pictures at the many photo opps, a lot of young adults making out also! Get a hotel room! The audio was great! The immersive part could have been better or more of it. It was cool though. We finished at the end in the gift shop, still no drink or no gift. We went back to the check in to inquire. The person scanned our qr code again and realized the error, but told us it was too late to get the drink and the gift because we went through already. Felt a little ripped off and discriminated against. Not even difference in the price between regular admission and the VIP admission. read more

Typical Hawaii event - underwhelming, poorly managed, and expensive. The marketing is better than the experience. We waited close to an hour to get inside 1 of the 3 little snow globe things (basically small ball pits). One of them broke while we were there. I get that things happen, but it just added to the amateur hour ghettoness of the whole thing. The "immersive room" is just a big waiting room with a screen saver playing on loop. read more

Was really disappointing. The lightning displays were nice for photo ops but the immersion room was a dud. For the most part the scenes were almost static. Not much atmosphere at all. Don't waste your money. read more