Thomas Land February 2016 VIP Day Out

On Saturday 27th February we embarked on the long drive to Thomas Land, Tamworth (Drayton Manor Dr, Fazeley, Tamworth, Staffordshire B78 3TW), for a VIP Blogger Day Out (as pictured above on arrival). It's a journey we are familiar with as Aaron has been going to Thomas Land since he was 2 years old. This is our post about it which to date has had nearly 23,000 views: Thomas Land August 2012.

We found with our first visit to Thomas Land that it was tough doing the return journey with a day on your feet, so the next two times we went, we stayed in the Drayton Manor Hotel, which is lovely. I guess it didn't help that the first visit was in August, their busiest month of the year LOL. The Drayton Manor Hotel is quite corporate as it has a lot of business customers, but there are Thomas statues and wall features everywhere so you are in no doubt as to where you are. There are even Thomas themed rooms but we are yet to try one of those. Our hotel review: Drayton Manor Hotel. Make sure you bring a couple of Thomas carriages as there are several tracks near the dinner/breakfast tables. Aaron was so distraught not to have one (they were all at home) that they opened the hotel shop to let him have one - amazing service. Actually that Drayton Manor hotel review is from June 2013 (when we went for Aaron's birthday) and the wooden green Thomas train: Smudger that he is holding in the picture is one that we bought for him on our previous visit. The time when we didn't have one was October 2012 (yep we went twice in 2012, August and October half term) because every day Aaron asked when we would go again). It's so long ago I can't imagine him saying much at that age but equally I remember him talking about it to and from nursery and at nursery.

The rides that we go on each time we go, are totally different. 2012 he screamed on the Troublesome Trucks rollercoaster - this time he'd have been fine with it but we ran out of time. 2012 he loved Harold the Helicopter and thought Jeremy Jet's Flying Academy was too fast - whereas this time he ADORED the planes and was cooler on them than Mummy. Our video footage on the planes is hilarious. Part of my Vlog that I'll link to below. 2012 he was frightened by Bertie Bus whereas this time he couldn't get enough of Bertie Bus AND Toby's Tram Express (which he called flying Toby). Loved it so much he went on it twice.

I guess what I am trying to say, is, not only does Thomas Land cater for a large range of ages, meaning you can grow up wih it, which Aaron loving it at age two and at age 5 (6 in June) proves, but also it means you can take siblings  or cousins with a really wide range of ages. Drayton Manor was not open when we were there as it was February, but if you go from March onwards you even have the thrill rides in the theme park to entertain teens and tweens. The dates that Drayton Manor are open are here: Drayton Manor opening days. Limited opening dates from March and fully open from April. August 2012 we brought a young and an old cousin. The younger one did Thomas Land with Aaron and I and the tween did Drayton Manor with Daddy. We did spend the first half of the day all together though. It's exceptional value when you consider that the entrance covers you for both theme parks.

In 2014 I don't think we went at all and Aaron really missed it, so we ensured that July 2015 we made a return visit - our excited Vlog says it all really:

July 2015 was a particularly special experience as we got to see the fruits of the Thomas Land expansion that had happened in April. After having been a few times, it was so exciting to see our favourite place revamped

After undergoing a huge £2.5million expansion that will see the attraction be bigger and better than ever, Thomas & Friends™ enthusiasts will come face to face with new characters with the introduction of Flynn the Fire Engine, who is equipped with on-board hoses so riders can help to put any fires out, and Captain’s Sea Adventure, which introduces not one, but six rotating Captain lifeboat carriages, all complete with their own cannons to squirt water.
The exciting new Thomas Land will also see the arrival of the brand new two-storey Sodor Airport.

It actually felt as if Winston's Whistle Stop Tour was part of the expansion too as when we went July 2015 it was our first time experiencing it (pic of a carriage below). There's footage of a journey on there, on both vlogs. It's a wonderful ride as there is a voiceover all the way around explaining what you are passing and you are high above the theme park with a view of everything. Perfect for youngsters as even though you have an amazing view it's really not that high. Ah it opened July 2013 and before 2015 we hadn't been since June 2013 that explains it.
 
July 2015 visit was just Mummy, Daddy and Aaron, so he was thrilled with our current visit February 2016 as he went with his best friend and enjoyable things are always best shared! Yes! Aaron's best friend's Mum is my best friend so it couldn't have been more perfect. They travelled to see us Friday night. We all travelled there together and they were with us Sunday too.

 

The best way to get an insight into our day though is to watch our Vlog. Despite having really bad flu I spent all day yesterday editing it:

This post is our entry to be chosen as blogger ambassadors for Thomas Land. The full selection of Thomas Land rides can be discovered here: Thomas Land rides. 

As you can see there is something for every age and it's popular with girls and boys and even more so with the avid Thomas fan.

We even brought the new member of the family proving that Thomas Land caters for newborns too. There was 3 of us bloggers at the VIP event with newborns :-)

  

Drayton Manor Hotel Review 2013

We've just come back from a weekend at Drayton Manor.  We stayed Saturday night (15th June) at Drayton Manor Hotel.  

We had to decide whether to drive up Saturday late afternoon, have dinner and the night there, then theme park or, travel early and have two full action-packed theme-park days.  Wouldn't be our natural choice but our special boy Aaron was 3 years old on Saturday and LOVES Thomas and Thomas Land.  So we chose the latter.  In fact, this was our 3rd visit to Thomas Land; our 2nd time staying at the hotel.

On arrival on Drayton Manor grounds, we could not find a space in the Drayton Manor Hotel carpark and did not realise the ones that say Tower Suite and Hamilton Suite were also places we could park, so we actually drove to the theme park car parks in the end and did not check-in until after a day at Thomas Land.  Our luggage remained in the car all day, which wasn't a problem.

When we did later check-in, we were pleased.  Our room was airy and spotless.  

All three of us liked it:

The bathroom was modern and spotless too:

The thing that strikes you about Drayton Manor Hotel on arrival, and also the thing that leaves a lasting impression is how beautifully landscaped it is.

I think years ago I would have taken this for granted and it would have 100% gone over my head, but as a Mum who sometimes gets stressed and runs that very same 100% on adrenaline, the landscaping had an "ahhhh" effect on me, which tangibly lowered my blood pressure and had me breathing more deeply - no exaggeration!  Aaron fell asleep REALLY early, and with hindsight, THAT was my chance to go and "chill" and walk around the grounds... missed opportunity right there.

If you like the above photos and would like to seem them full size, go to my Google Plus Drayton Manor Hotel photo album.

Please read right through to the end of this post, for my "pros and cons" of the hotel.

The reception area feels slightly like a conference hotel, but is softened by the character people, the carousel, and the Thomas Land hotel shop.

The carousel is a lovely touch and only works if you push the red button (if you are on the far side of it, don't assume it is off or broken like I did the last time we stayed):

I love the "character people", who help to stop the hotel from feeling too corporate.  Aaron went and talked to them all with Daddy.

All of the above give little ones something to do, if there is a queue to check in or check out.

I can't comment on our dinner Saturday night, in the restaurant sense.  Aaron was very poorly and so he fell asleep early.  We took the option to order room service, which the hubby later confided he preferred anyway, as he was worried about Aaron misbehaving through dinner.

The room service menu was good and actually the prices were reasonable.  See if you agree:

Click it to big it (the pic that is)

This is what we had - the cold beer went down very well and I liked that it wasn't in a can or a bottle:

Bless Aaron. After a busy birthday in Thomas Land he fell asleep on the sofa bed.  It was really convenient for us as it was already pulled out AND the bed was made!

It was while he was asleep as above, that I should have treated myself to a walk of the grounds.

Aaron and I went down to breakfast at 8, leaving Daddy to get ready (he's ALWAYS slow)!  We looked around for the Character Breakfast but it was in a room off a room as below, and we hadn't booked for it:

The room off the restaurant that leads to the room used for the Character Breakfast!

The Character Breakfast - yes that is The Fat Controller sat right there in the middle!

Aaron played with trains for most of the time that we were at breakfast - there's 3 play tables dotted around the restaurant, but be warned, DO bring a train as they are not provided and the last time we came (October) there were SO many tears from Aaron (and I was tweeting about it) that they had to OPEN the shop at 2100 to get him one! You need a wooden style Thomas train, that fits wooden tracks, as the die cast ones will not fit.

The train he is playing with above is a wooden train called "Smudger", which I actually bought in the Theme Park Thomas Land shop on Saturday as despite knowing the above, I still managed to forget a train, but I am glad I did as what I bought fit the track better :-)

He did spend some time at the breakfast table with me - it wasn't all at train tables as above.  He even ate a whole plate of scrambled egg, despite being ill all night. I was happy as that meant he was set and energised for day 2 in the theme park.

We sat there till Daddy came down at 9!!! (he promised he'd be down at 08:40) and we even stayed with Daddy till 09:30.  I then sent the two of them out to the gorgeous hotel garden so I could go upstairs and tidy the room.  Daddy said "pack don't tidy" but for me you cannot do one without having done the other and the room was trashed a mess, despite us staying only one night.  Despite being up there from 09:30 to 10:00 we still didn't check out until nearly 10:30.  They didn't tell us off, which surprised me, as check-out is a strict 10:00 (which also surprised me given it was a Sunday).  Every hotel I have ever stayed in does 12:00 check-out at weekends.  Ah well.


The train tables do get very busy and children do fight over track space, until they start to learn to move around each other so do expect to have to supervise and ideally get a table near where they will be:

In the morning, there's a really convenient walk from hotel to theme park:

 
You start to see attractions as you walk along which builds up the excitement!

Drunken Barrels (below) is the first ride you come to but it's very average... we did not do that Saturday or Sunday as we experienced it in October.

On day two I went on the LONDON EYE lookie likey and loved it:

I don't want to make this review grim, but basically when he woke up, from that sleep I show you above, he vomited.  I somehow could tell it was coming, and got him to the bathroom, so all the bed linen was saved.  All day he'd been too excited to eat, so all he brought up was his bottle of ribena and some of Daddy's crisps that he'd eaten. So, it was NOT anything he'd eaten whilst there if you get what I mean.

He then came into our bed, (I had the opportunity to get his PJs on - Thomas ones OF COURSE) and to cut a long story short, it happened a few more times.  These times the bed linen was NOT saved, so I had to make many calls to reception.  Their patience, understanding and help was way beyond the call of duty even taking soiled ones away (which I'd dumped in the bath) so as not to smell out the room.  It came across as really considerate, but maybe they were also thinking of not having a smell linger for the next guests.  The beds had waterproof mattress protectors on, so I needn't worry about soiled mattresses.  I said to the hubby that it was actually a good thing it happened there and not at home, as at least it wasn't adding to our laundry pile and we could focus on Aaron and not on worrying that we were running out of changes of bed clothes.

Each time he woke he insisted on drinks, as he was dehydrated but they each in turn came up (ribena as above, then 3 oz of a bottle, then orange juice).  I went and got a bottle of water from reception and he woke me every half hour for the whole night having a sip each time, till morning when the whole bottle was gone.  He kept the water down, and thanks to its recovery properties WAS able to spend a day in Thomas Land the next day.

Thank God I brought 3 pairs of PJs (two of them Thomas) as we did need the two Thomas ones! 

In our bed before later going back into the sofa bed.  Oh what a night!

It did take it out of him though, so he did have an afternoon nap on Sunday even though he's grown out of them:

This gave us chance to walk back from the tea shop near Spencer's Adventure Playground, to the main park and have a wander before he woke up.

I will do a separate blog post about our time at Thomas Land. It'll be a while yet though, as doing the last Thomas Land review August last year took me 9 hours to put together (due to photo and video content), and I want to edit some great video content for you again this time, even better than my last review.  My God, my last Thomas Land review is my 3rd most popular blog post EVER!  THOUSANDS of people have read it :-) and I even get emails from the States :-)

Pros and Cons of the hotel

Pros

1. Spotless room, hotel, grounds and restaurant
2. New hotel
3. Friendly helpful staff
4. Rooms with everything you may need (including a safe, fridge, etc...)
5. Our room was way way nicer than the one we had in October (which was two singles) - this time we had a proper double room AND a sofa bed for Aaron.
6. Evening kids entertainment was available from 1700 to 1900.
7. Character Breakfast (we did not try it).
8. 15 Thomas Themed bedrooms (we did not book one).
9. The Manager of the front desk was on duty Saturday night AND Sunday morning (she finished at 10 p.m. and started at 7 a.m.) so she was available for all of my queries etc... very professional.  She was the one bringing me fresh bed linen (until the last occasion after she'd clocked off) and gave me the complimentary bottle of water that kept Aaron hydrated throughout the night (which he DID keep down).

Cons

1. They don't seem to be consistent with giving the Thomas welcome pack - we did not receive one.
2. Check in does feel like checking in for a flight, with a script that they roll off similar to "have you packed your own bag".  It needs to be a bit more theme parkie, but I guess I am particularly fussy about this, having experienced Butlins. There probably wasn't time for them to say much more to be fair, given that I had Aaron in the buggy who was impatient and a queue of people behind me, same.
3. We got a newspaper on Sunday morning, which we were charged for and did not request, despite them being free in the restaurant (I still have not read it - oooops)
4. The checkout of 10 a.m. is really wrong in my opinion. I would like a lie-in, leisurely breakfast and the option of checking out by 12, although with a theme park to head off to, maybe that's NOT such a good idea actually. 

For a limited time.. upgrade for just £50

Offer ends: 18th July 2013

For a limited time only, upgrade to a Thomas & Friends themed room for just £50! (Sundays to Thursdays).

I am linking this post to Mama Buzz's Inspire me Wednesday.



Liska xx

Thomas Land - Drayton Manor - August 2012 - a review

This is going to be a long review of Thomas Land at Drayton Manor.  I will try to divide it into sections for the speed readers amongst you :-)  ALL photos /videos are my own.

 If it is your first time going, things you need to know:

Before you go...

You need to know Gordon from Thomas.  Otherwise you may see signature blue and like my nephew try to take a Thomas photo ;-) Aaron's face says it all:

Aaron says: "That is not Thomas!"

  So I suggest you go here and take a look at this - you need only know the main characters... Thomas and His Friends.  On the link I just gave they are called the Steam Team, but on the DVDs they are called The Really Useful Crew!  BUT, if you go on the train, the main attraction in Thomas Land (with the longest queue) you will note that it alternates between the carriages being pulled by Steam Engine Thomas, and every second journey by Rosie.  She is not a main character, so I assume it is done for gender reasons: Rosie for the girls and Thomas for the boys.  But it's a real novelty if you get Thomas as your Steam Engine of choice when you get to the top of the queue.

   You need to book online.  Adults are £20 to get in (online) or £36 at the gates.  Unfortunately you still need to queue to collect your tickets.

   You honestly need to get there BEFORE the rides open.  The theme park opens at 09:30 despite the rides starting at 10:30.  Plan your day ahead of time as much as you can.  We would have left home way earlier if we knew then what we know now but we're theme park novices, being that Aaron is only two.

EDIT on 11/06/2013 to add a link to their site:
  Spend some time on >> the Thomas Land Official Website, if only to hear the classic Thomas theme music - there are great sound effects if you hover on the buttons on the top.  Get little one excited by spending some time on the site before you go. That's what I am going to do now, as we're going again, for Aaron's birthday. Will be our third time going :-)

Drayton Manor Hotel...

   I would advise staying at Drayton Manor Hotel, and making it a 2-day event - I was gutted to leave after 1 day - it is tiring doing a return-journey, in addition to a a fun-packed day.  Thomas Land continues to be open for the whole of September AND October.  So, there is still plenty of time to book up, and although the Drayton Manor Hotel website doesn't make it clear, your stay DOES include tickets to the theme park, as long as you book "Stay and Play".  It is a great place to go if your children are a mixture of ages as you have the adult rides plus the rides for tots.  Being that Thomas Land is there, there are way more tot friendly rides than in your average theme park.  My nephew was happy to stay with us the majority of the time (as he loves Aaron) but he did go off and do 1 adult thrill ride with my husband.

   If you go at peak time as we did - the last Friday before the kids go back to school - there is a long queue of cars just to get in.  You sit in it for a long time, but it gets you ready for the day ahead - queue queue queue:

We'd have left home earlier had we known but apparently this is just at this time of year!

Once you are in...

We made the mistake of queuing for over an hour for Harold's Helicopter Tours (helicopter ride).  What I would say is these feature rides are best done in the last 90 minutes when the queuing time is less than halved.

Harold's Helicopter Tours...

With hindsight, I would have picked the planes instead of the helicopter but unfortunately by the time we got there at 18:45 with no queuing time, Aaron was traumatised by the rollercoaster so would not sit down :-( It saddened me really as I have always had a fearless boy, who never cares how tall slides are, and always acts like a climber beyond his 2 years.  So we had to make do with watching and videoing the planes (we even got as far as getting on a plane but Aaron wouldn't sit down):

Jeremy Jets...

   After the helicopter, Daddy decided that he wanted us all to go on the main attraction - Thomas train - as the queue was so crazy long we started to walk towards the zoo, so that we could get on at the other end of the park, where we were assured the queue was shorter.  Me and Daddy stopped to have a row discussion and while we did the kids wandered nearby and Aaron happened to look in the window of the soft play area:

Soft Play Area...

Aaron insisted on going in but the next session was at 14:55 (15 minutes away) and then session would be for 15 minutes.  That was a precious half hour we did not have to spare, but reminded ourselves it was Aaron who we were there for, so we went in.  My niece climbed with him, while me and my nephew watched, and hubby stayed outside on a picnic bench fiddling with his smartphone and I think enjoying a few moments of kid free time.

I must say, you should factor this soft play area into your day as it is EXCELLENT.

Here are some snaps.  Just LOOK how long the slide is:

Slide is very long and shiny enough that it is actually very slippery - superb for speed!

So we came out of the soft play area at 15:10 with that and the helicopter being the only things we'd done so far.

 ***

Although we left home at 07:30 a.m. we spent an hour going to and from Grandma's house to collect 2 of Aaron's cousins, which delayed us considering we live on the M25.  Then we spent about an hour queuing in the car just to get into Drayton Manor.  We were in the carpark by 12:07 (according to my tweets) but due to queue to collect tickets, we were standing on theme park land at 12:30.  We definitely queued way over an hour for the helicopter.

***

So soft play done, we headed off to the zoo, thinking our only intention was to get to the other end of the train track to board Thomas on the shorter queue, but we got an unexpected bonus.

There is a SUPERB dinosaur trail, we discovered en-route and the only thing Aaron likes as much as Thomas, is dinosaurs.  He was transfixed:

Dino Trail...

He also loved the zoo.  I was toe-tapping like Sonic The Hedgehog as I wanted to get to the Thomas station, but Daddy looked at the monkeys, snakes, turtles, etc... with him and they were in their element.

We then sped passed an OUTDOOR play area (Spencer's Outdoor Adventure Play), and I knew Aaron would love it but we just didn't have the time.  This was what we saw as we flew passed:

Had I known then how many rides we would do later, in the extended hours of 5-7 p.m. when loads of people had gone home, I would have risked it.  Like I said before, I would have left the helicopter for then too, to keep queuing to an absolute minimum.

We then finally got to the station but because it was nearing the end of the day there was a queue (in the morning there hadn't been when it had been hours long the entrance end).  Anyway it was still shorter than the other end so we joined it and got talking to a wonderful couple with 3 boys.  They had been there before so they told us how the engine alternates - Rosie, Thomas, Rosie, Thomas - so we prayed for Thomas.  They also gave us the super tip that the train turns at the end so when a train approached that we weren't possibly going to get on, I sent nephew off to film it (and he did so on 2 occasions):

Knapford Station...

After the journey on the Thomas train which took us back to the main park, we split up and let the boys go on Shock Wave while I grabbed the opportunity to take the tots on Sodor Classic Cars:

Sodor Classic Cars...

After that we went on a cute carousel, called Lady's Carousel - Drayton Manor say it is for the very small:

Lady Carousel...

After that, given that it was about 1700 and we hadn't had lunch I took the tots to the burger bar:

After that it was straight onto Crazy Bertie's Bus, but bless Aaron it made him shout out "help me" as you'll hear on the video (but then he is only 2 years' old):

Crazy Bertie's Bus...

After that I did something I regret.  I took Aaron on a rollercoaster.  It traumatised him.  Although he met the height restriction he is only 2 years' old (but tall) and with hindsight perhaps clearly too young for it.  Photos followed by video here:

Troublesome Trucks Runaway Roller Coaster...

So I will leave you with this photo.

I can't wait to make a return visit and the next time we go we will stay at the Drayton Manor Hotel.

They even have Thomas themed rooms which would be a dream come true.

Critique...

My only criticisms would be that I feel the Burger Bar should have its own toilets.

I think the car queue to get in should be sped up in some way (but apparently it is not typical - on Friday they had 12k + guests).

It would have been great to have known that they would stay open till 7 (as opposed to the published 5 p.m.) as then we wouldn't have wasted so much time queuing in the morning when it was so quick to get on rides in the evening.  Even on the way in the board said: "rides open at 10:30" and "rides close at" was left blank.  But MAYBE everyone would have stayed had they known and maybe we wouldn't have enjoyed nearly 2 hours of getting on rides so quickly.

I didn't like the fact that the helicopters often went up with 2 people per carriage rather than 4.  Really delayed the queuing time.  Met other parents who also commented on this.  The staff member made no attempt to ask if there was a parent and 1 child who could fill the carriage.  He was also very slow at opening and closing the carriages which when you have been queuing for over an hour is a tad annoying to watch.

I really loved it on the whole, and I hope Aaron will go on rides again, as his lasting memory at the end was of the Troublesome Trucks Rollercoaster.  I tried to erase the memory with a fab trip on the planes, but it wasn't to be as he would NOT sit down - it was very very embarrassing as I spent a long time physically on the plane trying to get him to sit down but we had to give up - yes it was us!  Let's hope he returns to my brave Aaron and forgets the coaster!

We drove there from London, and I would say that the journey was doable.  It is a 2 hour drive each way and was fine even with 2 adults and 3 kids (inclusive of 2 tots)...

FAB Souvenir Shop...

Oh I forgot to mention the SHOP.  The Thomas Shop is FABULOUS, and I got Aaron 2 gorgeous winter items there: a hooded fleece and a hooded jumper, both saying Thomas Land on the front.  One was £12 and the other £10 which I thought was affordable.  Love 'em!

Liska xx