A Day out with Thomas ( April 29, 2006)

It had finally come, our Day out with Thomas. Having a 2 year old son means everything little boy!! Andrew has always loved trains, especially Thomas the Tank engine. When watching one of his movies, we saw that there was an actual real live Thomas the Tank engine that tours the world, It is this big even called " A day out with Thomas". I was thrilled to see that they toured the US, at first all I saw was Europe. And I am ashamed to admit that I was so bummed that it was not here so we could go and take Andrew. Then steven called me one day and said that he found it and that Thomas was going to be here in April at a railway in Fillmore, Ca.. Which is located near Magic Mountain in Valencia. So, we packed up Andrew, and along came Grandma and Grandpa.

"The nightmare arrival"

So, after a long detoured drive around the Valencia area, tired as you can imagine from a long drive with a 2 year old that is not always the happiest of campers.. We arrive at the Holiday Inn. Seeing as I worked for a major Corporation, I was offered a discounted rate on the room. It all started when she had us sign in. I noticed that the rate on the form was not the rate in which I booked the room at, so of course brining this to her attention, she had claimed that there was nothing about the room being the rate I am claiming ( I even had the original piece of paper that we wrote all the information on at the time of the call that had the price I was quoted on it) but nothing in her computer had this rate. So, she had to call and get a code that would allow her to bring the room down to that rate. This took 30 min of her being on the phone.. while we were waiting ( tired and getting very irritated ) Finally, after me coming back to the bathroom, she had got it all squared away and the rate we were given. So, we loaded up and went to out room.

" Round 2 "

We arrive at our room, expecting 2 beds and a couch, we get in there and there is only one bed and a couch. So, I told steven that she just told us this was 2B and a couch. Regardless of that , It is what we booked the room for!! So, he went down there and told them that we are short a bed..( At this time we were waiting in the room ) frustrated enough with the situation, I headed down to the front desk to see what the hold up was... because we were waiting in the room we had to go back and get all our stuff out and them go back down to the front and get the new room. So, we get the other room... And would you know that we walked into someone else's room. The TV was on , all there stuff was there.. Thank god they were not in the room. How humiliating!!! AGAIN... we go down and tell them that they gave us someone else's room. Now this took another 15 min or so for them to finally figure out what they had been doing wrong. ( In the mean time Andrew was enjoying a cookie that he had got on there couch ;) ) So, as they handed us a 3rd room key they admitted to us that now when the next guest comes to check in , they are not going to have a room for them. At this point I was just livid!! I just wanted to go to bed!
However , we headed to Denny's for a late night dinner... Nacho's ( not the best I have had ) But by this point I was not expecting perfection.

We get back to the room after our dinner and Steven decides that he was going to call and make a complaint about the experience. we were told we would get a call back on the issue after 72 hours. Forgetting about it for now, we woke up to have our day with Thomas. We got there so early which was so nice because we did not have to fight through people. They had it totally set up for children , it was so wonderful! Lots of Activities.. Andrew especially loved the Table where you can play with the Trains. He pretty much did that until it was time to beard the train for our ride. It was finally 10:40, time to pile on to Thomas so that he can pull the 500 passengers they came from all over to see him! It was a 20 min train ride , on a real Thomas the Tank Engine. It was so adorable and Andrew had such a wonderful time!

After this we got some mexican food and this yummy place ( cannot recall the name ) we looked through some of the shops and then headed back home. It was a long trip but so worth it to give Andrew such a good time.

" Holiday Inn Redeemed"

That following Monday I believe it was , I got a call back from Guest relations. The call was short and sweet! She basically explained that the staff was spoken too about the situation was there was no excuse for out experience, that they would be refunding our entire stay! Sheesh , I thought I would be getting some magic mountain tickets, so this was awesome to hear!!

We cannot wait to go to see Thomas again next year!