๐ Welcome Aboard the Polar Express
Yesterday, we took the-toddler-gorilla and the-baby-gorilla on The Polar Express - A train journey to the North Pole to visit Santa and his Elves.
The Story
If you are unfamiliar with the story, it's now considered "A Christmas Classic" and was turned into an awful film in 2004. Wikipedia has a brief summary of the plot which I shall attempt to summarise further:
On Christmas Eve, a boy boards a train with a load of other kids in their pyjamas. They're on their way to meet Santa and one lucky child gets to choose the 1st present of Christmas before Santa gets off to his real job. The boy chooses one of the reindeer's bells as his present but the idiot forgets he's got a hole in his pocket and the bell falls out into Santa's sleigh ๐ When he wakes up the next morning, Santa's wrapped the bell up and told him not to be so careless next time. The boy and his sister play with their bell, but the parents can't hear it because they don't believe in Santa. And to quote Wikipedia who quoted the end of the book:
At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.
Our Day
After parking in some random field when they'd put boards over the stinking cow shit, we got on a bus (which the-toddler-gorilla found very exciting) to the train station where our experience would begin. We were a little early and upon entry, we went through a naughty / nice machine. I think the machine was broken as you can clearly see it go red as I went through, and then green when the-toddler-gorilla went through on his own.
Stupid machine. They should get that fixed.
After hanging around for a while and the-toddler-gorilla going on one of those car machine things that rocks around for 2 minutes, it was finally time to board The Polar Express.
On our journey, there was much merriment, a cup of hot chocolate and a tasty cookie to get us ready for bed. The staff on the train were jollily singing songs and acting out the story as the train chugged along - making it as interactive as possible for the children without any hint of it being obtrusive or too over the top.
We eventually arrived at the North Pole where Santa boarded the train. He took the time to visit every table and on it, every child and we were all given a Christmas Bell.
For us, that meant 4 bells - the-toddler-gorilla getting all of them and filling me with excitement about the drive home.
The day was a lot of fun, our children seemed to really enjoy themselves and if you get the opportunity to go on one, I'd recommend it. One family that we spoke to had driven 5 hours down from Liverpool and I'd question whether it's worth that much effort. But then I'm on the naughty list so what do I know?
Can you take me next time...
Naughty list ๐ฒ
How much notice do you need? I think we booked it quite early so whatever quarantine restrictions there are should be manageable.
Yeah - definitely something wrong with the machine. Or it didn't like me because I wasn't wearing pyjamas!
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๐ Thank you
Nice! Wait until your kids are old enough for Harry Potter tour...;-))
Ha ha! We did that before we had kids ๐คฃ
What a great experience. My niece and nephew recently and they loved it too.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it too. You should go ๐
What an interesting and fabulous story) Did you ride on an old steam locomotive?
It was certainly a steam engine as it pulled into the station so there's a decent chance that it was. the-gorilla-father-in-law loves his trains so we go on quite a lot of steam trains when we see him. He likes to use his grandchildren as an excuse but we all know that he is a total train geek!
Well done organizers, they arranged a great adventure for the children. The story of this was very interesting.
Soon my child and I will go to the hut of St. Nicholas. I'm so worried, I don't know if he will give me something. If I was naughty, I would get a birch twig.
Yes, well done organizers indeed! There were a couple of bits that could have gone better but overall, they got a lot right and it was a good experience - not too expensive either in my opinion.
Has your daughter been to Santa's grotto before? It might be best if you wait outside ๐
Interesting! Does the train actually take you to the North Pole?
Sorry for unfollowing then refollowing, my computer was messing around and whilst smashing my mouse, I hit the unfollow button ๐
The train leaves from Tunbridge Wells West and travels out to the North Pole before returning. I didn't take a photo but as you arrive at the North Pole, you can see Santa's homeland out of the window. The train also stopped at one point whilst everybody had to shout at the Reindeer to get them off the tracks.
I got confused when I got the notification. It's good that you cleared, I was starting to judge my content. Ha ha.
The ride seems quite interesting. It's in my wish list to visit the North Pole once in my life.
Ha ha. Maybe I stopped following you months ago ๐ (I didn't)
It was very enjoyable - it could very easily have been tacky and money grabbing but it didn't feel like that at all. The gift shop was a total rip-off but I've never been to a gift shop and thought "this is good value for money". If something like this makes its way to Pakistan, it's worth a look.
Excellent, the little guys must have loved this. We did it a few years ago up near Newcastle and it was absolutely brilliant.
the-baby-gorilla was probably too young but it was more for the-toddler-gorilla anyway and we think that he really enjoyed it. After Santa had left. the-toddler commented "He not say Ho Ho" so there's definitely room for improvement ๐