Our Day Out with Thomas the Tank at Edaville 2011 Recap

This past weekend, my husband and I took our daughter, Savannah to Carver, MA for the Day Out with Thomas 2011 event.  The day included a 20 minute train ride around the Edaville grounds, storytelling, song and dance activities, a temporary tattoo stations, unlimited access to Edaville amusement rides, concessions, a Thomas the Tank Engine gift shop, with hundreds of products related to the Thomas the Tank series and photo opportunities with Thomas the Tank and Sir Topham Hatt!  

We arrived around 12:30PM to begin our day with Thomas.  My first impression upon arriving at Edaville was the number of toddlers and young children who are fans of this show.  My daughter is only 14 months old and enjoys dancing to the Thomas theme and listening to the train whistles, but she doesn't understand the concept of the show.  But, I guess this doesn't stop her and the hundreds of other toddlers and young children who turned out for this event.  Upon entering the grounds, we were handed a map and told to have it stamped as we visited the different activity areas.  Then, upon leaving, if we retrieved all stamps, we would receive a prize.  What a fun activity for children to participate in.  As we strolled through the event with our daughter, we were listening as children were asking parents about the stamps and showing their parents where to go to get the next stamp.  This made for a fun family activity. Unfortunately, I don't know what the prize was at the end, as we thought Savannah was too young for this activity, and skipped the tattoo and storytelling stations.  We attempted to have her sit for storytelling, but she began to get cranky and tired after 2 hours in the park.

But, before she got tired, we enjoyed a 20 minute train ride around the Edaville grounds.  My only disappointment with the train ride was that I thought there would be more interaction and Thomas-themed activities occurring on the train.  For one, I thought they would play the theme music and have Thomas talk over the speakers to the children.  But, neither happened.  Instead, it was a quiet ride (minus the noise of the children) through Edaville.  I feel that if they included some form of entertainment on the ride, it would have made it more enjoyable for the children.  The only thing Thomas-related on the train was 8"x11" photos of each of the train characters that they placed around each train cabin.  So, children were pointing out their favorite train characters to their parents as they boarded the train.

Overall, this event was enjoyed by the children, as seen and heard from them as we strolled through the Edaville Park.  A few parents we spoke with agreed that there should have been more Thomas-themed activities to keep their little ones entertained, but for $18.00 per person, they said their kids enjoyed the train ride and unlimited access to the amusement rides.  

Here are some of the photos we took at Edaville.  Enjoy!

Disclosure:  I was given free tickets to Day out with Thomas 2011 in order to share my thoughts about this event.  The views above are mine and mine alone.