Today was the big day! We went to see
Thomas at Heritage Park. This is our first time going and we may or may not go next year depending on if Grady is still interested in Thomas the Train. I like Heritage Park I think it is a reasonably priced place to visit and it doesn't hurt that it is close to home. Going to Day out with Thomas is our first trip to Heritage Park since
Christmas and we had beautiful weather for it! So nice and sunny!
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On our way into the park
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Since we had 4 tickets Grady got to take a friend and as luck would have it his friend's family has an extra ticket to the
circus for Mother's Day so they are taking him!
Neither of the boys has been to A Day out with Thomas before and I don't think they really understood what it was all about until we saw Thomas puffing down the line. Then it all came to life for them and they couldn't believe it!
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| First time seeing Thomas |
We had heard that the best plan is to arrive at the park before your train ride and then do the ride as the last thing of the day. So we got there around 11 for our train ride at 1:40pm. I thought that would be lots of time to do/see all the other activities before our ride BUT I was wrong! Nope you need a lot of time to see everything (and we even skipped some), we were there until 3:30! I would agree though that it is a good plan to do your ride last as it is easiest to exit the park from there and it is a great way to end a day full of stimulation.
This is a really well organized and executed event aside from them not having enough prizes for the treasure hunt until well after we left (but the boys will never know what they missed!) There are volunteers everywhere and they are all cheerful and friendly. I would highly recommend going and if you want you can check as they might be releasing more tickets for Sunday as I heard they released an extra 200 for today.
Here are some more pictures from our day:
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| Playing Thomas Trackmaster trains in the Imagination Station |
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| Getting the (free!) Thomas tattoos |
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| Taking a ride on the boat swings |
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| Grady took some convincing to get on the carousel but he enjoyed it |
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| Picnic lunch, Heritage Park could use about 50 more picnic tables! |
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| Thomas on the way to the station before our ride |
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| All boarded and ready to go |
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| I would recommend sitting in the caboose because then you get a great view of Thomas as he goes around the bends |
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Photo op with Thomas
If you can time it right the best time to line up for a photo with Thomas before he pulls into the station rather than waiting for after your train ride. |
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| A break in the playground |
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| Grady gets to drive Thomas on the Rocky Mountain Garden Railway |
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| Sir Topham Hatt |
For Sir Topham Hatt I would recommend that you get in line while the kids play on the grass about 5-10 minutes before he is due to arrive. This will cut your wait time significantly.
As I said it is a well run event. Worth the cost of the tickets for sure (although ours were provided for the purpose of review) You need to be on the ball when the announce the event though as tickets sell out in a matter of weeks. I had originally bought tickets so I posted them on Kijiji when I realized we wouldn't need them and I had 8 inquiries in a matter of minutes of the ad going live!
How about you? Did you go to Thomas this year? What did you think?
**Update** Grady is currently tossing and turning in bed unable to go to sleep because he wants to know "Why did Thomas need help to pull the cars, Daddy?" Because to him Thomas can pull anything on TV so what is wrong today that he should need help? Is Thomas ok? The way the mind of a child works is a wonder! Anyone have a good answer for me?
