Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Abi

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!

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!

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:

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 🙂

Mini 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.

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!)

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.

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Drayton Manor Theme Park is riding high after a record breaking 65th Anniversary season!

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Abi

Drayton Manor Theme Park is celebrating the end of a record breaking 65th anniversary season, with its biggest ever attendance numbers recorded for 2015. As an Ambassador for the park my family was there for all the big events and we had a fabulous time!

The award winning attraction based in Tamworth, Staffordshire has seen more guests visit during 2015 than any other year, with a 10 per cent increase on the previous season in 2014.

The action packed anniversary year kicked off with a £2.5 million expansion of Europe’s only Thomas Land™ back in April 2015. The park welcomed a host of new rides and attractions including Captain’s Sea Adventure, Flynn’s Fire Rescue and Toby’s Tram Express, which increased the overall rider capacity in Thomas Land to 5,130 people per hour. The exciting new Thomas Land also saw the arrival of the brand new two-storey Sodor Airport, in a traditional terminal style it has a top level balcony for VIP ‘travellers’ with not-to-be-missed views of Thomas Land and a ground level café for guests to relax during their visit.

Following a successful summer, the much loved family attraction hit a record attendance for its Fireworks Spectacular weekend, welcoming nearly 33,000 visitors over three days at the end of October. It was a whopping 28% increase in the number of visitors compared to the previous largest fireworks attendance and also the largest firework display the park has seen in 25 years. Set to the critically acclaimed soundtrack from The War of the Worlds, visitors were dazzled by a fantastic, colourful array of explosive rockets and lights.

To top it all off, the 65th anniversary season ended with another record breaking attendance during its Magical Christmas event with a 34% increase in guests from 2014. On Sunday 20th December, the park welcomed 45% more people than on its previous biggest day in 2014, smashing its biggest selling Magical Christmas day six times over!

Despite the park’s momentous success in 2015, it is looking forward to the coming year and there is plenty to keep existing and new visitors excited. In spring 2016, the Staffordshire based theme park will see the opening of its brand new Tamarin Trail. Guests will have the opportunity to walk through the beautiful planted gardens in the attraction, getting up close and personal with the cute and inquisitive monkeys. It will have eight new enclosures that will be housing a variety of tamarins and marmosets. There are five species so far, including the white lipped tamarin, red handed tamarin, emperor tamarin, cotton top tamarin and the common marmoset.

2016 will also mark the five year anniversary of the opening of the hugely popular onsite four-star Drayton Manor Hotel, which has featured Thomas & Friends™ themed rooms since its opening in 2011. The park’s onsite restaurant the Grill Inn will also celebrate its fifth anniversary this year.

CEO of Drayton Manor Theme Park, Colin Bryan, said: “Our 65th anniversary year has been a truly momentous year for the Bryan family and all of the staff here and we’re so pleased to have been able to provide so many families with lasting memories.

“We always want to go above and beyond to make sure every season is better than the last for our visitors and this year we did just that, we’re really looking forward to another fantastic year in 2016.”

To book tickets, or for more information about the park, visit www.draytonmanor.co.uk or call 0844 472 1950. Reduced prices are available for tickets bought in advance. For regular updates and news about Drayton Manor Theme Park join it on Twitter www.twitter.com/Draytonmanor and Facebook www.facebook.com/DraytonManorPark

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Drayton Manor’s Magical Christmas Review

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Abi

Drayton Manor reopened yesterday resplendent in Christmas finery. We’d been counting down the days (in a super excited style) and can now finally bring you our Drayton Manor’s Magical Christmas review.

We arrived just after lunch and made our way through to Thomas Land. Everywhere you turn there’s snow (the non-melting, permanently fluffy variety) glittery lights and Christmas music.

The kids were particularly excited to try out the indoor ice-rink (called Slide & Glide) and had oodles of fun whizzing (& falling) round the rink. It isn’t a real ‘ice’ rink but one of the plastic gliding kind (I’m not sure if there is a technical name for that kind of rink) but that did nothing to damper their enthusiasm. The ice-rink is one of the few attractions that has an extra charge (£2 per person for 15mins) but it’s certainly a lot of fun.

Thomas the Tank has had a festive makeover and his track has been strewn with snow. Take a trip on his carriages and you might even catch a glimpse of Santa’s reindeer at the farm park!

The 4d cinema is playing a special 15 minute version of the Polar Express complete with snow that splashes you in the face!

Then every half an hour the large Christmas tree at the centre of the park plays a wondrous light show which looks fantastic once the daylight fades (see the vid below).

Of course the main event has to be a trip to see Santa in his Castle of Dreams! We had a bit of a wait but thankfully the queue has overhead heaters and there are TV screens playing Christmas songs to keep you amused.

Once at the head of the queue we were greeted by a jolly elf who gave each of the kids a fabulous medal from Santa. Then we went into the castle to meet the big man himself.

After some very important present talk, Santa took a pic and gave each child a giftbag (I’ll leave the contents a secret!)

After saying our goodbyes (until Christmas Eve) we left to view the pics. Incidentally all photo orders come with a free digital download which I thought was a really nice touch.

Before the exit there’s an area with seats, various props and crafts, there’s even some Princesses sitting on thrones!

But our day wasn’t over yet, we made our way to the lake and waited with anticipation for the festive fireworks. I love the fact that they end every day with this festive display, it really ends your time there with style.

Given that we had high expectations before our visit (which is sometimes a recipe for disaster) we loved our day at Drayton’s Magical Christmas. There’s a fabulous atmosphere in the park and despite the larger rides being closed there’s so much on offer (we missed the snow shows and various performances due to lack of time). See my previous post to get an idea of what else there is to see, I’ve also made a little video which gives you a sneak peek of features like the Christmas tree light show.

The event is on until 31st December For full details and to book tickets visit Drayton’s website.

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Thomas Land Weekends at Drayton Manor 2016 Review