Ad disclosure: We were provided with free tickets to Thomas Land for the purposes of reviewing the new Thomas & Friends film. We were also given a contribution to travel costs & a Thomas & Friends goody bag.
About a month ago, I got a very exciting email that had me messaging James immediately to demand he book a day off work… an invitation to visit Thomas Land at Drayton Manor to view a VIP screening of the new Thomas & Friends King of the Railway film!
I’ve already blogged what I thought about the (rather fab) film, now here’s what we got up to at the theme park. We were really lucky with the weather and I think we probably had the last really good day of the summer.
Georgie, it turns out, is a bit of a thrill seeker. She LOVED the rides, and went on absolutely everything in Thomas Land that she was allowed to go on, as well as a few other non Thomas Land rides too.
The newest ride, Winston’s Whistle Stop Tour, was our first ride – and I would recommend it to anyone as their first stop in the park, as it gives you a great aerial view of the Thomas Land area, allowing you to choose what you want to do! Georgie and Lydia were both allowed on this ride, so all four of us piled in to a covered Winston car and enjoyed the monorail ride.
Georgie then went on a whole host of rides while James & I took turns accompanying her. Crazy Bertie Bus was a firm favourite, and she really enjoyed playing at driving a car on the Sodor Classic Cars ride. Next up came Lady’s Carousel which is probably the tamest ride at the whole park, perfect for the most nervous tiny people, and then I joined her on Diesels Locomotion Mayhem which was actually really quite fast and dizzying – Georgie staggered a bit after that one!
After lunch (a fairly average burger at slightly high prices) we headed to the cinema for the film screening, before walking through the zoo area through to Spencers Outdoor Play Area and the Tidmouth Hault (aka Drayton Manor zoo) train station. From there, Thomas pulled us back to Knapford Station in Thomas Land. Georgie really enjoyed the zoo, and they have a good variety of animals there. The play area was a huge hit and I actually had to pick her up and carry her away to get her away from the amazing array of slides!
Next up Georgie and I climbed onto the pirate ship style ride Rocking Bulstrode which also swivels as it rocks, something we both loved. James took her on Harold’s Helicopter Tours, Jeremy Jet, and the Troublesome Trucks Coaster which were probably the three biggest rides she was allowed to go on – and she loved them all!
I joined her on the rather more tame Blue Mountain Engines, and Lydia & I also managed to catch a short bit of one of the shows – it was great fun & all the kids watching clearly loved it.
Once we had exhausted the entirety of Thomas Land we ventured out into the rest of Drayton Manor, and had some fun going on the Polperro Express Train which is a lovely length train ride that Georgie was very excited to go on, followed by a few goes on the rather gorgeous Vintage Carousel and the Pirate Adventure ride.
After that lot, we were exhausted ourselves! The rides were all closing so we trudged back to the car and headed home – Georgie was asleep before we even left the car park, a sure sign of a great day out!
I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised at the sheer amount of rides and activities that Georgie could go on. She’s almost a metre tall, so was about to go on the 90cm+ rides, but she is still only two years old. She was able to go on all but two of the rides in Thomas Land, as well as a few in the main park. We hardly had to queue all day as it was just about term-time, and midweek, so even with minimal delays we were still able to keep Georgie well entertained all day long.
We also got an amazing goody bag to take home with us, which Georgie (in her newly invigorated Thomas-mad state) absolutely adored. In particular the buildable Mega Bloks Henry was a firm favourite and so we’ll definitely be getting her a few more from the same range as stocking fillers this Christmas. She’s even taken Henry to bed with her!
Our day at Thomas Land was a raging success, and I can’t wait to go back next year! I’m definitely looking forward to both our girls being old enough to go on things together.
We absolutely loved out day there, too. And my daughter has watched King of the Railway countless times now!!