With how thrilling the 80th Anniversary has been so far for Thomas, it's such a bummer the event's coming out underwhelming; the cake seems to be reused from the previous Thomas birthday event and is VERY much showing age.
[2025 Event] Big Blue Birthday Bash - February Half Term
- Thread starter Elise
- Start date
We are here today & it's a shambles! They have clearly over advertised this event, park is definitely over capacity for the amount of rides that are open! There are still hoards of people coming in, Thomas Land feels unsafe with the amount of people in the area & ride queues are all out of their queue line area!
Quite impressed with the cupcake decorating (we've decided to do this early before the crowds end up in the castle too), lots of toppings to be added to the cakes & I'm going to have 3 very sugar happy kids all day. Decent amount of the standard swizzels sweets for the bag too.
Overall, not a great event. Feels cheap, rushed & as stated, over advertised. Accelerator is currently closed (hoping it opens at some point) but more rides should be open. Why are Bounty & Jolly Buccaneer closed? Really should have a 4D show on too. Can't help feeling Sheriff's, Barrels & Sleipnir could've been opened ready for the event incase they needed it due to the numbers they KNOW they've sold!
Quite impressed with the cupcake decorating (we've decided to do this early before the crowds end up in the castle too), lots of toppings to be added to the cakes & I'm going to have 3 very sugar happy kids all day. Decent amount of the standard swizzels sweets for the bag too.
Overall, not a great event. Feels cheap, rushed & as stated, over advertised. Accelerator is currently closed (hoping it opens at some point) but more rides should be open. Why are Bounty & Jolly Buccaneer closed? Really should have a 4D show on too. Can't help feeling Sheriff's, Barrels & Sleipnir could've been opened ready for the event incase they needed it due to the numbers they KNOW they've sold!
I was also there today and we left after two hours as we got on two rides and there were way too many people in the same area as barely any of the Park was open
I think a lot of the ticket holders are guests who went to the Christmas event so they using there free ticket return.
I think they spend the last 6 weeks getting the Thomas rides stripped down and ready for the event.
I think they spend the last 6 weeks getting the Thomas rides stripped down and ready for the event.
Actually its a good point here in terms of Slepinir. It is a kiddies ride and fits with the demographic that the event is targetted at. I know its out of the way but if you have the sweetie trail thing it can drive the footfall up there. Spreads the crowd and effectively acts as a queue without it feeling like one. Also showcases areas of the park that may drive revisits in the summer.
I think they really need to look at there future ride offering as Paulton’s park can manage to open 75-80 % of the park for Feb Half term. I can understand with Frontier falls area as that was open to 31st Jan but they could have easily had 3 of the rides open in Vikings then they wouldn’t have had no excuses for not finishing the re-theme on Accelerator.
Drayton do open their main season late though compared to others. I would rather an even more fleshed out Xmas offering and skip half term all together (or stick to basic Thomas land )
For Xmas they could close the two water rides. Close the wave. Keep the rest open weather depending
Wouldn’t mind weekend only dates as well after peak summer to allow maintenance to keep up in exchange for bigger winter… as some rides were suffering by end of season
For Xmas they could close the two water rides. Close the wave. Keep the rest open weather depending
Wouldn’t mind weekend only dates as well after peak summer to allow maintenance to keep up in exchange for bigger winter… as some rides were suffering by end of season
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Paultons is way more than 75-80% I went yesterday and only Edge and Splash Lagoon were closed (as already advertised). Some rides opened later which is a personal pet hate that mine, but again it was displayed on the app so wasn't a suprise
Elise
Administrator
All 3 event shows have been uploaded to the DT channel (https://www.youtube.com/@DraytonTalk)
We would have done a vlog for the event, but decided not to as we visited so late in the event's run.
However, we managed to visit on a nice day weatherwise and had a pleasant time.
The birthday bag was a great idea and it was very generous, especially if you visited all the shows & events (And really nice cupcakes!)
The shows were great fun as always, lots of bubbles in the theme for the event (and a very impressive song about all the engines, nice work Dusty!)
For this event myself and Sam dressed for the occasion with our very own DraytonTalk themed station uniforms (which the cast and staff loved)
However, we much preferred Dinosaur Breakout, this event had a lot more going for it and we easily filled our day chasing dinosaurs. Thomas doesn't hit quite as varied an audience by itself.
We would have done a vlog for the event, but decided not to as we visited so late in the event's run.
However, we managed to visit on a nice day weatherwise and had a pleasant time.
The birthday bag was a great idea and it was very generous, especially if you visited all the shows & events (And really nice cupcakes!)
The shows were great fun as always, lots of bubbles in the theme for the event (and a very impressive song about all the engines, nice work Dusty!)
For this event myself and Sam dressed for the occasion with our very own DraytonTalk themed station uniforms (which the cast and staff loved)
However, we much preferred Dinosaur Breakout, this event had a lot more going for it and we easily filled our day chasing dinosaurs. Thomas doesn't hit quite as varied an audience by itself.
