On Friday night I had told Mason that we were taking him somewhere special on the weekend. His Grandmother Ginny had bought us tickets to see The Polar Express in Squamish.
Mason is a big fan of Chuggington & Thomas the Train and we thought taking him on a real train would be a great experience!
We decided on the 2pm show (there are a few other departures) and left Vancouver at 11:30am as we had a bit of a drive! A quick stop at White Spot for lunch and we arrived at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park just 30 mins before our departure (they said to be there 45 mins in advance).
Some of the families were dressed up in jammies (just like the movie) but we opted for winter clothes as it sure was chilly out!
A quick wait in a line up and we were given a lanyard with our ticket to enter the train.
A conductor allowed us into a middle car and we went near the end to find our seats which were seats of four grouped together.
The train seemed older but it was in very good shape. Mason squirmed from seat to seat while we waited for the train to prepare for its ride.
The Conductor came down the aisle asking 'Tickets Please" just like in the movie!
The “Polar Express” Soundtrack could be heard from the speakers and soon after 2 we started to move. The tracks lead through a residential/commercial area of Squamish and only one side of the train really had anything appealing (a snow covered field or lake). I was a bit disappointed to discover we didn’t actually go anywhere. The train went back and forth many times in the one hour so we never had the ‘scenic’ view on our side of the window as the train didn’t turn around anywhere.
Yummy chocolate chip cookies were handed out followed by delicious hot chocolate for everyone. A song book was offered and Christmas caroling began and most everyone joined in (which was really nice). At this point we figured Mason would fall asleep as he was nestled in my lap! No such luck. After quite a few songs, we were back at the ‘station’.
We hopped out to the front of the train where pictures were taking place:
And then inside the building for the rest of the festivities. There was part of a HUGE train, the biggest I've ever seen, I couldn't even get it all on the picture!
There was a gift shop containing souvenirs of the Polar Express ride, craft tables for children to design paper plates, a food cart with snack, take your own pics with Santa and Mrs. Claus (the line up was long and slow moving so we bailed). And the big attraction, a mini indoor train ride which Mason and Ginny went on:
After about 2 hours, it was time to say good bye to the trains and head home! Just before we left, the door man asked if we had received our Christmas Bell (we hadn't) and went over the to gift shop and grabbed one for us (Retail Value $2.00!).
A great day of family fun!