Day Out With Thomas: The Celebration Tour 2015

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Disclaimer: I received complimentary tickets for my family to attend Day Out With Thomas in order to facilitate my review.  All opinions are still my own.

This past Saturday we took Nick to Day Out With Thomas for the fourth time. It’s hard to believe that we have been going for that many years. The first time we took him was just after his first birthday, and we have gone every year since. It has truly become a family tradition. This year was especially fun because Nick has really gotten into watching Thomas the Train and playing with his Thomas train set (he has the Thomas the Train TrackMaster Set which is really cool!), so this time he really knew the characters as well as the music that was being played.

For the second year in a row I picked the uglier of the two weather days for the opening weekend of Thomas. Not sure how I always manage to do that! Since it wasn’t supposed to be warm we decided to wait until lunch to head out. This turned out to be good and bad. It was good because it did warm up more in the afternoon than they thought it would (plus it was a bit better than last year), but it was bad because we didn’t have enough time to do everything we wanted to. There are so many amazing things to see and do at Greenfield Village, and when you add in all of the Thomas excitement there is a ton to do! This year we took some friends that have never been to Greenfield Village before. We wanted to show them all of the great things that there are to see, but Nick had a one track mind that was focused on trains. Luckily they were happy to go for the ride.

When we get to Greenfield Village our first stop is always the Firestone farm. Seeing the farm is a lot of fun. Nick always loves seeing all of the animals (although this time he was focused on going to see the model trains). Going in April is especially fun because they usually have some newborn lambs, and this time there were some that were only 3 days old. They were so cute!

After the farm we decided to give in to Nick’s demands and take him to see the model trains. We were stopped on the way though by a “peep peep.” Thomas was coming, so we stopped to wave to him and all of the passengers he was carrying. The kids were so excited to see him. Thomas makes a trip around the village every 30 minutes, and there are a lot of places in the village to see him which really helps keep the fun and excitement up for the kids.

Once Thomas had passed us we continued on our way to the building that houses the model trains when Thomas visits. This isn’t a regular activity at Day Out With Thomas. The one at Greenfield Village is actually put on by the Detroit Historical Society.  It is always a huge hit with the kids. It’s a really nice set-up and they have several Thomas trains running around the track. The men that run it will often stop the trains in front of the kids and they’ll wait for the kids to tell the train to go again. It’s really cute. The only problem is that it’s hard to get the kids to leave!

We were eventually able to pull our kids out. We almost stopped to see Sir Topham Hat, but he was just about to take a break. We told the kids that we’d come back later, but we never got the chance. Instead we headed into the antique round house. There’s a lot of interesting stuff to see inside. We got to go up close to a lot of old train engines, and we even got to walk underneath one! There also was a presentation going on teaching kids (and adults) about the safety of not playing on railroad tracks.

After we left the round house we decided that it was time to get ready for our ride on Thomas. He was just pulling into the station as we were walking up to get in line. After boarding we sill had about 10 minutes before our ride was to start, so we did what every modern family does…we took some selfies!

Like every good train Thomas left the station right on time. Nick was so cute on the ride. A lot of people stopped to wave as we rode by and when he saw them Nick would put his hand up and give the smallest little wave. He’s starting to come out of his shell more and it is so much fun to see. Nick also enjoyed the recording that they play during the ride because this year he really understood the characters that they were talking about. The train ride itself was a bit chilly at times since the train cars are all open, but it wasn’t too bad.

As soon as our train ride was over we quickly got off and went to get pictures taken with the little blue engine. Tip: At Greenfield Village when you get off the train you have to walk to the back of it it to get off the platform. So those sitting towards the back can be first in line for pictures. We got in line so fast that we had almost no wait. I got some OK pictures, but Nick is going through a weird phase where he’ll say cheese but doesn’t really smile. Luckily I got some pictures quickly because then he freaked out on the professional photographer and said he needed his mommy.

After pictures were done it was time for a trip to the gift shop. No visit to Thomas is complete without it! As always we got Nick a shirt to wear next year and a big Thomas balloon. We also let him get Diesel for his TrackMaster set and a cute little bag to store his Thomas trains in.

Nick and the little girl with us had a really good time playing with the wooden train track that had been set-up in the gift shop, but eventually it was time to go. When Nick saw that we had a Thomas balloon for him he was more than happy to get in his stroller, but the little girl with us didn’t want to go and got upset. To calm her down my mom offered to take both kids for a ride on the carousel (kids 4 and under ride for free!). This stopped one tantrum, but set Nick off because he wanted to go home to play with his balloon. It was very obvious that both kids were worn out from an exciting afternoon!

The kids did ride the carousel and then we slowly wandered toward the exit. It was pretty windy and we didn’t want to lose our balloons, so had decided that it was best to call it a day. The kids were worn out anyways. It had been another fun Thomas visit. As we left I wondered about how many more years of Thomas we have left. The years are just flying by. For now I’ll take what I get and cherish the memories.