The Polar Express

Twenty-​five bucks per adult, and twenty per kid, can deliver the following experience:
You’re told to meet at the train station adjacent to the BioPark some 15 minutes prior to departure. Why, I’m still unaware. Granted, Albuquerque was suffering through an unusually cold few weeks of temps in the high 20’s, so yeah, it was pretty awful, but why they have the Arrive Early policy I’ll never know. When the train finally pulls into the station you hand somebody your tickets, the kid gets a glow-​in-​the-​dark bracelet, everyone gets a cuppa hot cocoa and a cookie, and then you go sit in a walled but unwarmed train car, awaiting departure. You listen to Christmas tunes, half-​shivering.
Once everyone is all aboard the train jumps off to a turtle crawl down the tracks, and the soundtrack is temporarily halted. The recorded story of The Polar Express, which has something to do with polar bears and Santa and I don’t know because I found it rather annoying, is delivered over the speakers while your eyes gaze at the River of Lights, which are naturally quite lovely. The kid points out all of the shapes and you kind of wonder why it cost so much to do this, when a ticket to the lights would’ve kept you moving around and relatively warm. But anyway, it does get better, promise.
Spoiler alert! Eventually Santa shows up. At first you crawl right past him while he waves at ya, and you’re kinda like What? But then ya come back around and the train stops and this time a few adult-​sized elves hop on and tell ya that Santa is coming soon. And soon Santa comes into your train car. And your kid is absolutely dumb-​struck. And Santa says something like «What would you like for Christmas?» and your kid is like «cheese airplane reindeer» or something, and then Santa hands the kid a small stuffed polar bear and the kid… well, it’s pretty much over at that point. All natural kiddo LSD. Your kid will be talking about this trip for the better part of his or her childhood.
This is the inaugural year for this event, so expect changes. I highly recommend heated cars.