Thomas Land at Drayton Manor Park - Questions!

[crokky]

I am thinking of going to Thomas Land at Drayton Manor Park.

DS is 2.5 and is obsessed with Thomas - is he too young to enjoy it? He is v tall for his age (100cm when wearing shoes) so would the rides be OK?

Is it OK to take a buggy in? Would you take a [wide] double buggy or 2 single Maclarens? (DD is almost 5 months and DS is fairly difficult without a buggy).

Do you go to a specific place for the Thomas stuff? or just to Drayton Manor Park in general and then go to Thomas Land? Or does the same ticket go everywhere? Is there time to look at anything other than Thomas?

Will it be really busy on a weekday in August? Will be for 4 of us - me, DS (2.5), DD (5 months) and will have my SIL to help me.

Last thing - it is 2 hours drive from me. I'm happy to drive both ways, but am just more concerned about the kids. Would you do it? I just worry that 4 hours is a long time for my 5 month old to be in a car in one day, or is this OK? I don't think I would stay overnight.

Any other tips gratefully received.

hi we went to tl last month and it is fab fab fab.
your lo is agood height our lo was just under a metre so missed some of the rides but he loved it he keeps asking to go again!
tl is just inside the entrance of the main park but your ticket covers the whole park however we just did not have time to do the big park as we just stayed in tl as there is enough to do already. we found the staff really good even taking pictures of us before setiing the ride off etc.
there is a thomas shop too which wasnt too expensive either.
have you considered staying overnight-there is atravelodge not far away also i would maybe take your own food it did nt look bad but just typical theme park food ifyswim.let me know if you need to know anything else

Sounds good!

Now this is a really ignorant question (please excuse as my oldest is only 2): What age do they grow out of Thomas the Tank Engine? I was just wondering - is the Thomas Land aimed at really young kids? Just wondering if it would be significantly less busy when schools are in term time?

DS1 is 3.3 and loves thomas the tank. We went to thomasland and he loved it. I would say if you can go during term time it might be better. It was heaving when we went and some of the queing was too much for ds.

That said we found that by mid afternoon it was much quieter.

I would say that it isn't just for really young kids, my 8 year old niece enjoyed most of the rides as they really are just smaller versions of adult rides.

We went in April.

Thomasland is an area in Drayton Manor Park. The ticket is for the whole of the park.

There should be plenty of time to see the rest of the park, if you want. DH managed to do all the big rides and we had a quick look at the Zoo.

The food was awful. Would definately recommend taking your own. There is a nice picnic area near an adventure playground type thing. You can get there if you go on the train ride.

Thomas Land is fantastic. We went just before the schools broke up with dd aged 6 and ds aged 4. It is much cheaper to go in term time, under 4's are free but you can get a mother and toddler ticket in term time for £14 as compared with £18 adult admission online or £22 on the day.

Pushchairs are fine, however if you go on the train ride to the other side of Thomas Land you might struggle with a double.

Although it may be busy in August they don't let unaccompanied kids into the Thomas Land bit(the Fat Controller or a woman in Victorian costume was standing on the entrance making sure that only families went in so no unruly teens etc in that part.

It really was a fantastic day out.

We first took DS when he was 95cm and he could go on all but one or two of the rides. He will love it!

Oh and yes to the shitty food at drayton manor. It has always been terrible and Thomas hasn't made it any better.