Thomas the Train … a review.

Ahhhh — riding on THE Thomas the Train. A child’s dream come true.

A friend said this to me the other day and it really is oooooh so true, “an event that a kiddo loves just isn’t going to be that great for the parents (except for Disneyworld),” and after our experience, I couldn’t agree more.

If it were up to me and my husband, there is no way we would want to go to this event again. Why? It was almost an hour drive to get there, you don’t even get to touch the face of Thomas, the little events before and after the ride are lame, and the inside area is a schmorgasborg of Thomas crap to buy. And other than the ‘I got to ride Thomas,’ t-shirt, it’s the same stuff you can buy all around town or at your local Wal-mart but for twice the price. And when I say that the events are lame, I mean that very lovingly — but they basically set up a huge plastic train track and throw out a bunch of trains and (shockingly), the kids fight over the trains. There are tantrums happening everywhere. But — on the day we went, it was pouring rain. So, our three choices were 1) go in the building to stay dry but then have your child throw their body on the floor when you refuse to buy trains or 2) squeeze into the covered tent where the kids are fighting over trains or 3) stand in line to board the train.

The Thomas the Train event is a ‘rain or shine’ event and from what I understand, it sells out every year. So, we bought our tickets over a month ago. And, of course, the day that we had tickets it poured … and I mean, it poured. We were soaked to the bone — our hair was dripping and our clothes were stuck to our bodies (and this is with our umbrellas). But thankfully, the kids didn’t care. They were so excited to see Thomas (even my six year old was excited). And the very thought of riding on THE Thomas the Train was so exciting that none of the children complained that they were dripping and that it was chilly. And the parents, well, we had my husband who was a comedian in a previous life so we laughed the entire time. I wish I had a picture of the line — half the people forgot umbrellas, some had worthless ponchos … but not a tear was shed by any child in this line.

None of us had gone to this event before, so we stood in line for the train fearing that we wouldn’t be able to sit together since we didn’t have assigned seats (we went with another family) . Plus, we were avoiding all the tantrums as listed above. But the staff for this event are so well organized. They shuffled us on the cars based on the order we were in line (but it doesn’t matter because the kids don’t care). Whether you are in the first or last car, you are still on Thomas. So, there’s really no rush to get in line.   We were in the third car and the first two rows (which made for cute pictures). But, the train smelled, the seats were wet, we weren’t allowed to open the windows and there was no air conditioning. Again, the kids didn’t even notice. Oh, and I should mention, Thomas is just a car that they hook onto an Austin Steam Train. There’s a huge engine in the back that does all the work. I don’t know what I was expecting … but it wasn’t that. The other thing is that it’s literally twenty minutes — ten minutes out and ten minutes back. So, on the way out, you are riding backwards.

But — the entire train ride was completely adorable. As soon as our car was full, we got entertained by the staff and the kids were mesmorized. And then when we started, the kids were ‘choo-chooing’ and giggling.  And they were dancing and pointing at everything they were seeing and it made the trip 100% worth it. My little 2 year old is STILL telling everyone he sees that he got to ride on Thomas followed by a resounding ‘CHOO CHOO’!  See these faces?  This is what they looked like for the entire twenty minutes.

If my little boy is still into trains next year, I’ll take him again and I’ll keep taking him until he has moved onto super heroes or whatever is cool when he’s over trains.

And if you have a kiddo who is into trains, you simply must go. As an adult, you’ll be ready to leave the entire time … but it’s worth the $20 for this face: