A Day out with Thomas

So being a father and having a two year old son I know that kids love Thomas the tank engine and his friends. I decided to take my son to the "A day out with Thomas". I have to say the best thing about this event is that all the extra stuff is free; yeah free. You don't find that very often. Normally you go to one of these events and have to pay for everything you do while you're there. The only charges were for food, drinks, and gifts. Which that stuff you expect to cost. The kids could get free tattoos, pictures with Sir Topham Hat, pictures with Thomas, play golf, and many many toys around to play with. If you wanted the picture they took they had them for sale but none of the people there said anything about taking your own pictures. I believe my son enjoyed this part of wondering around, playing with the toys, and seeing the other kids better than riding the train.

The train ride was painful at best. The first issue is we bought tickets for train two thinking that we would be closer to Thomas since that is what I wanted my boy to see. We ended up on the opposite side of Thomas, by the real train. This would be my fault as I did not investigate to prove that train two was by Thomas or not.

Once we started boarding we found out that train cars one, and two ended up being shut down. So train cars one, two, and three all got stuck into the same car. The seats they have you sit on are about 8 inches long. I am about six foot, two hundred pound and couldn't fit all the way on the seat. I can only image everyone else's discomfort from the seat.

The train car that we were in also was filled with a gas smell that gave me a headache, and was making myself and others sick. I am guessing this is because we were close to the train. I would have expected it to be a train using coal, not gas.

The conductor that made the safety announcement was a guy that was extremely rude. He turned around from the chubby that was right behind me and started yelling at people for talking. If you expect to have hundreds of people on train cars with excited children there is a good chance you are not going be able to get silence to fall over your audience. So his outburst was pointless, and only made him seem like he didn't want to be there. I guess it's a job to him, but hospitality is part of this event. I believe his name was Jim, and he failed at making my family, my son, and me feel welcome. He invited me back and I doubt that I would ever take that ride again.


Overall I have to say it was a good time, and I don't think my son enjoyed the train ride as much as I would have expect. I know I didn't. If you're son or daughter is older and asking to ride the train then it might be more fun. But I think being under maybe 3 or 4 years of age it isn't a big deal to ride the train; seeing it would be good enough. It was just a bunch of noise, and a cluster of people.

Cheers,
Eric N Cincy