Thomasland at Drayton Manor Review

Thomasland Review

So Bob's third birthday has been creeping up on us since the beginning of the year and we have been wondering what to do to celebrate, then I spotted the advert for the Easter deal at Drayton Manor, the home of Thomasland. What better way to celebrate for my Thomas and train and three year old.

I immediately looked at the website to see what the price would be. Thankfully the Easter season went on until 28th April, the day before his birthday.

I was immediately tempted by the Thomas themed rooms, they looked great, however when I put in our dates, the room came to nearly £400 for one night's b&b and one day tickets into the park!! £400!!! Ummm no thanks, our budget just didn't stretch to that, so I decided to look at budget hotels near the park. They were great value but wanted to do something special, so I went back the hotel on site and looked at the family rooms.  I found the perfect deal, a family room onsite, b&b and one days park tickets cost £192.

We decided to keep the trip a secret from the boys as I am not sure I could cope with the constant "when are we going?" Or "how many nights sleep? ".

We collected Sam from school and he came home on the Friday night to see the suitcases in the hall. They asked where we were going and we simply replied "on holiday" and they accepted it!! We decided to start travelling on the Friday night as neither of the boys travel very well.

The M5 traffic was hideous but I was glad we had left plenty of time to get though it. We eventually got to our Premier Inn or "Moon Shop" as Bob calls it and felt totally relaxed.We still had a journey to do in the room but the first couple of hours was done.

Next morning we headed off again and thankfully I remembered to film the boys reaction as they spotted the sign for Thomasland.

I wish I could post the video but it wont let me so you may have to check it out on The Mummy Monster social media.

Both boys reaction made my heart swell and I knew we would have a good day.

We parked up in the hotel car park and headed to reception to get our park tickets. The hotel receptions a Thomas themed carousel, a Thomas shop and various Thomas characters. We weren't able to book in but we could leave our car in the hotel car park rather than the main one.

We headed to the entrance and we were off.

The first ride, we saw was Diesel's Locomotive Mayhem. We ended up coming back to this ride four times throughout the day as Bob especially loved it.

We next headed over to Bertie Bus. Ali doesn't enjoy rides so I took the boys on alone. This made it tricky when Bob decided he wanted to get off half way through and Sam wanted it to go faster. Bob's words were "I not like that at all" We didn't go back to Bertie Bus again!! Lol

Next Sam decided to give Troublesome Trucks Runaway Coaster. This was Sam's first experience of a proper rollercoaster and he loved it. It was steep and fast and he was quite chuffed with himself for being brave enough.

 

Bob was too small for the coaster so he and Ali headed off to the Blue Mountain Engines. Bob struggled to choose which engine he wanted so again he ride it several times during the day.

We decided to give spinning heads a rest and head off on one of the engine tours. We just missed Thomas so we caught Percy instead. We seemed to miss Thomas each time but both boys didn't seem to mind.

Percy dropped us off at Spencers play area. The main part of the play area was made to look like Spencer and I felt it looked great, again both boys enjoyed playing in the park.

We did a quick look around the dinosaur trail, which was short but the models and facts kept my boys entertained before we headed back on Percy for some lunch.

 

Due to Sam's requirements and the normally poor quality food I had taken a packed lunch. My one real criticism for the park was the lack of indoor picnic space. The weather was cold and windy and so eating outside wasn't really an option. We did eventually find a spot but I'm not sure we should have eaten there, however we werent alone.

Suddenly we heard some music and we headed to the front of the park where we discovered the Fat Contoller and his crew singing and dancing. The boys were a little unsure of the performance as they didnt know the songs and Bob asked if they were going to sing the orginial theme tune. He would have loved that and actually so would I :)

Once back together we headed over to some the rides which went up in the air. This included James red hot air balloon and Jeremy Jet's flying acamedy and  Harolds helicopeter tours. I was worried they were going to close them due to the wind but thankfully we managed to do all of them.

The boys also went on Lady's carousel before we headed out of Thomasland and into Drayton Manor itself. Some of the rides in Drayton Manor looked scary to me let alone the boys but we did manage to go on the carousel and the Jolly Buccaneer.

We headed back into Thomasland for a quick go on on any of the rides that the boys fancied. As there were no queues the boys could take their pick.

Other rides that were available were 

Captain's sea adventure - it was freezing and we didnt fancy getting wet.

Cranky's Drop tower - Sam decided he wasnt "old" enough to do this one!! lol

Flynns Fire Rescue - again a wet one!

Rocking Bulstrode - just watching made us feel queasy!

Terence Driving School - Closed :(

Toby's tram express - I was keen but the boys werent

Emilys Adventure Play - I HATE soft play so didnt tell the boys it was there! Whoops!

Winstons whistle stop tours - Closed due to the weather - we were gutted as we all wanted to do this one.

We headed out of the park throughly exhausted but happy. The boys had had so much fun and so had Ali and I.

Would I go again? ABSOLUTELY!! I would probably return in the warmer weather when we could do some of the rides and not worry about getting wet.

What did let the weekend down was the hotel breakfast. It really wasnt very good, they didnt keep up with demand, nothing was labelled and it didnt seem that busy, plus they served my hot chocolate that was in a cup with lipstick on it. It didnt even look like it had been though a wash. I have to say I have had much better breakfasts at cheaper hotels.

Disclosure: this was NOT a paid review, all the thoughts and opinions are my own.

For more information please visit:

https://www.draytonmanor.co.uk/thomas-land