Main Street Station

Having gone to school in grapevine and been in marching band it is interesting that I never rode the train or had been a spectator for the parades until I had my daughter after high school and lived elsewhere. We’ve come up for homecoming and Christmas parades this year and last year. We did Thomas probably 2 or 3 years ago and we did the polar express train ride two times.
If you come for a homecoming parade parking is usually fine and it doesn’t take all night, so its good if you have small kids, just bring a plastic bag because they toss the kids candy.
Christmas parade get their early and bring food & drink because its crowded and you will be there for awhile because most if not all of the GCISD schools are represented so 2 high school bands, 4 or 5 middle school bands, a bunch of elementary school and the various other clubs and such from the various schools all have floats … as well as Santa’s float at the end.
Thomas … is good if you have a little one who is a die hard thomas fan. I’m glad we did it the once, when the kiddo was littler. Its not something we’d do again. Most of the children train rides are really short and because it has the Thomas name its one of the higher ticket prices for the kid train rides they do, so save your money for one of the other events if your kiddos are not that on Thomas.
Polar express … The first year we went, back in 2010 was a blast. We went with a friend and her daughter and they had a wonderful time. The folks who put on the show did great and we’re wonderful with the kids. There was a general magic about it, which is what that experance is all about. In 2011 we went back, thinking that it would be nice to make this an every year tradition. They must have passed this event off to someone who didn’t want to do this because there was a major drop in what we experienced. We were one of the first groups to be in line for our train. They put us in the middle near the stage which was OK, but people who were in either big groups or were walking in at the last minuet were being put to the left of the theater, and they got put on the train first. Big groups I understand, if I came with a big group I’d like to make sure we’re all together but ²⁄₃ of the people sat there were the late comers who got on the train first while the folks who came early like the ticket said were some of the last on the train. Huh. The folks that they had running the show we’re a little less enthusiastic about what they we’re doing. The girls, I guess from a local modeling or talent agency, many we’re of middle school or early high school age, and you could tell they we’re not interested in talking to or interacting with kids smaller than them. It made the whole thing frustrating on a parents end and I did over hear many parents complaining. On the shuttle back to the parking at the library I met someone who had been going to this for many years and was somewhat knowledgeable to the grapevine visitor events council & other city official stuff & she actually apologized for our experience and was actually already planning to complain to hire ups. Even with that I still didn’t want to risk another bad experience so we didn’t go in 2012 but I don’t know if we’ll do it this year.
We might give the ride to Ft. Worth a try or some other event when we have family from out of town here. Who knows.