Sacramento Magical Christmas Train Ride by River Fox Train

This is our third year visiting the Christmas train with our children, and in the past it’s been a 5 star experience. This year was very disappointing. While check in was easy and the staff was friendly, the experience really lacked the Christmas magic we have experienced in years past. We missed the joyful Christmas elf games (bingo and snowball fight), kids craft and singing. We had not one Christmas song sung in our car, no Christmas music even playing from speakers. Essentially it was a decorated train ride with hot cocoa and prepackaged cookies. Santa didn’t even come to our car until after we were already parked back in the station and people were disembarking. While the snow outside was cool, I would have rather we had more magic in the train, as that what was we paid for and wanting. By the time we exited the train, we wanted to go home not hang around outside and wrangle our kids who were bored on the train. We wandered into the gift shop (while we were waiting for the white structure to be blown up outside) and we couldn’t even find anyone to check us out. We had to track someone outside to come in to be the cashier. We never even saw what the white blow up structure was because it was still not inflated more than 10 minutes after we got off the train. I also looked back at the marketing email I received, and they showcase a signing elf with a guitar (which is not included this year) and advertising expanding the magic. The magic is definitely reduced, not expanded.

For $80.00 we were disappointed. The Elves did not do any entertainment. They didn't even know the lyrics to Christmas carols. Cookie was bad. Hot coco isn't anything special ( swiss). Santa didn't say hi to my kid. Kids were bored. If you want to pay that type of $ to sit on a decorative train go for it.

Waste of money!! This experience is so not what they advertise. There was no entertainment, no friendly elves, and no music. Santa had to fight through the line of people ready to jump off the train at the station. Please reconsider before booking this train ride. The $69 per person ticket is so overpriced .

We did the high tea train yesterday, concept was cute, the staff was great, tea was good, scone was the best part of the meal, the sandwiches were small and just ok but the dessert ..... was inedible, we were shocked they were so bad! When we asked the staff where they get their desserts she did say usually from a bakery but yesterday from Target .... yes target !!! It's a bit offensive that the price is $100 per person (that was not including tip) and we got served Target chocolates .... I feel like they should have given us an option to reschedule or refunded part of our money back !!! Unfortunately this is mot something I would recommend !

This is a diamond in the rough. Fun to ride the rails, but you don't find out much about where you are, where you are going, or what the wine you are drinking is. There is so much more that could be done with the train....narration that tells what you are seeing, the history of the train, more about the winery and wines they are serving. Access to the car we were in was a long way from where we boarded. Tables very nice, but tight if you aren't skin and bones. Would love to see them upgrade the wines a little bit and make it more of an experience. Need amplification for speaking, especially for older tour groups. Wish I could rate it higher, but they have some work to do.