Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

I can’t be the only one who is willing Spring to hurry up and make an appearance!! Warmer days, longer evenings and the chance for more family days out, I can’t wait! Thomas Land and Drayton Manor’s 2016 season is about to start in earnest (the full park reopens 12th March) but before all the thrill rides are back Drayton is hosting two Thomas & Friends Weekends events. Last Saturday the park invited lots of bloggers including my family to the first weekend, so today is our Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review!Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

As usual we had a wonderful time, despite a chilly start. The park is looking as good as ever and there’s loads of new additions coming soon. The Tamarin Trail opens just before Easter and offers you the chance to get up close to some moustached marmosets as you walk through the new enclosure, so this year promises to be better than ever!Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

The park partially reopened for the Thomas and friends Weekends event which is also running on the 5th & 6th March. Thanks to Thomas Land’s expansion in 2015 plus the zoo, farm, cinema, carousel and so on there’s still plenty to do, in fact we were exhausted when we got back home.

Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

Thomas Land is great for all ages but it’s really aimed at families (and kids at heart) so here’s what my mini train conductors thought:Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

Little Miss Train Driver:

There are loads of animals at Drayton, I love riding Thomas and watching the other trains. Rides like Jeremy (Jeremy’s Flying School) and Troublesome Trucks are really epic! They always make me laugh and Troublesome Trucks makes my eyes water when you go round the fast bit! Toby’s amazing because he swings round and goes up and down, once I went on him seven times in a row! I really want to go back soon, especially when the new monkey trail opens in the zoo 🙂

Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 ReviewMini Controller

Thomas Land has a water bit which is really fun because you spray water at a house which is on fire (Flynn’s Fire & Rescue). Then there’s also another water ride that you can go on (Captain’s Seas Adventure) and sometimes you can spray onto the walls and sometimes you can get really wet! There’s a driving school (Terrence’s Driving School) where you can drive Terrence around a track, I’m the only one small enough to go on it and it’s great.

Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

The Biggest Signalman (who in the pic above is illustrating how not to dismount a horse)

The rollercoasters are great, Cranky is awesome when you drop up and down fast, that’s definitely one of my favourite rides. I really like Rocking Bulstrode the Tug Boat as well, it spins really fast which make us laugh. Although the first ride I always go on is Troublesome Trucks, they go really fast and I love rollercoasters! Plus Mummy loves the Carousel (it’s true I do!)Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

As you can tell we always have a great time when we visit but just in case you need more convincing watch our short video which captures some of our favourite rides, plus a flamingo or two and a talking Cockatoo!

For more information

Tickets for the Thomas & Friends Weekends Events are priced at just £15 (pre-booked) for ages 12-59 with concessions available. Check out the event page here.

Visit Drayton Manor online for more details of upcoming events and attractions and to book early bird price tickets.

Disclaimer: We were provided free tickets to the event but all opinions are my own.

Having a Pant-tastic Summer with Spongebob Squarepants!

In my last post I wrote about the challenge of keeping kids entertained at home during the Summer holidays, but what if you want to take a trip out? Not all activities have to cost the earth. For example our local shopping centre Westfield Derby runs kids events throughout the summer, all of which are free! For some of the events, such as craft activities you just turn up on the day. For others (like character meet and greets) you need to obtain a timed wristband from the concierge desk on the morning of the event. Westfield operate shopping centres throughout the country so it’s always worth checking out the website of your local mall to see what’s on.

We toddled along to Westfield Derby yesterday to meet SpongeBob Squarepants in the flesh/sponge. As you might imagine all my children were very excited at the prospect of meeting SpongeBob in ‘person’, so they prepared a short selection of jokes to share with him. Jokes such as:

Why did the hamburger cross the road? To Ketch-up with the fries!

Why did the Octopus cross the road? To get to the other tide!

Knock Knock! Who’s there? Fish! Fish who? Bless you!

That’s some comedy gold right there!

SpongeBob wobbled about in appreciation (his nose spun in circles!) before pausing to take a photo with the kids.

They all received a sheet of small SpongeBob stickers from NickToons, where SpongeBob is having a ‘Pant-tastic Summer’ on the channel everyday from 9am. See Nicktoons.co.uk for details.

As we left SpongeBob gave them all a larger sticker so they could proudly display their visit to the world!

For More information

For more wonderful events ranging from indoor shows through to craft activities visit Westfield Derby online.

Or you can contact the Westfield team on Twitter, or through Facebook.

Mike the Knight at Warwick Castle

Last Saturday my family and I travelled to Warwick Castle to meet Mike the Knight as part of a weekend organized to celebrate series two launching. The castle in conjunction with Hit Entertainment had arranged a selection of Mike themed activities. If you fancy crying ‘Be a Knight, do it Right’ Mike will be back at the castle again this coming weekend (6-7 July).

To say my children were excited would be an understatement, however my heart sank when I saw a queue at the castle ticket office (I imagined hours of waiting in line for each attraction).Thankfully this was not the case as everything was very well organized and only the Face Painting had a long queue.

The Mike the Knight area was set in little Medieval style tents and children were given booklets listing all the activities. As each activity was completed they were given a sticker and if they finished them all they received a prize (it’s a flag). The adults in charge of each event stayed in character throughout and seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the kids having fun!

My little knights started by taking a Wizard Workshop with Mike’s sister Evie. They watched as she pulled things out of a bag and helped her to cast magic spells and create something out of thin air.

Next they took to their (hobby) horses and galloped to victory in a race. The Knight in charge of this event had all the parents in stitches as he organised our kids; he had endless patience as they ran in the wrong direction, set off in twos or just generally caused chaos!

A little castle building, target shooting and face painting later we made an orderly queue and waited to meet Mike himself. He stood happily as each child came to meet him in front of the beautiful castle backdrop!

Everywhere we walked the Mike the Knight theme tune played through speakers concealed in bushes and trees 🙂 We finished by joining Sparke and Squirt’s Dragon Egg Hunt. This went all over the grounds and certainly gave the children some exercise (and the parents a chance to admire the views). We all had a fabulous time and if you have any Mike fans at home I thoroughly recommend going to meet him.

That wasn’t the end of our day though, we had the whole of Warwick Castle to explore! I have many childhood memories of visiting the castle and after reading some reviews online I wondered if I would still enjoy it. I did 🙂 The castle sometimes receives criticism for being part of the Merlin group and people accuse it of being more like a theme park than a historical monument. However I feel this couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes it is owned by Merlin, yes there are photos you can buy and gift shops to visit but the Castle is very much aware of it’s past and importance in British history.

There are little rooms all around the walls with wax figures dreaming on the eve of battle, or ghosts squealing down staircases. I suppose this might not be to everyones taste, but for a child this really brings the castle to life! There’s no standing around looking bored while Mum and Dad read a plaque on the wall, here they can watch the story unfold and get involved with the action.

We visited the Princess Tower, where my daughter was picked to test a stack of 7 mattresses to see if she could feel the pea (she could, she’s a princess! 🙂 ). We went through the Merlin Tower where my son was spoken to by a dragon and somehow they knew my daughter’s name and warned her to use her powers for good (she was astounded and promised faithfully that she would).

We saw bald eagles and owls flying between the battlements and knights teaching us why metal shields would never have worked before chopping apples held in someones hand! It was thoroughly educational and more importantly… it was alive!

For more information on Warwick Castle and the Mike the Knight event click here.

To find out more about Mike the Knight visit his website here.