The gist - Disney is promoting its new animated feature "A Christmas Carol" starring Jim Carey. They have outfitted a train to be a rolling museum with cars with costumes and behind the scenes information. The big reward is the last car of the tour which allows you to have your picture digitally taken and morphed into one of the characters from the movie.
The Problem - oh, there are so many
- 3 hour wait for what was supposed to be a 20 minute tour
- 100+ heat with little shade and little to no breeze. They had 3 small misting fans near the end of the wait, but not everybody got to enjoy them. Those who were fortunate to stop in front of one, huddled around them, blocking the air to others in rows farther back.
- 100+ heat with little to no water or other beverages. I don't think any of us anticipated this kind of a wait. I took two bottles of water with me but those were gone before the end of the first hour, and we still waited two more hours. The Amtrack train station had vending machines but after a 30 minute wait in line to get to the vending machine, my friend with me discovered the machine was out of water and only took exact change. It would not take her dollar. She had to buy chips from the neighboring machine to get change to get a drink. Near the end of the line we did find 2 water stations offering dixie size cups of water which did help, but not enough for older people or very young children.
- Staff - the staff outside was very patient and understanding, but the staff inside was rude. We were told to hurry along. I just waited 3 hours to get in this train and now you are telling me to hurry!?!
- Exhibits - the first train car had costumes. Why would you display costumes if the actors never wore them? Supposedly the actors wore black jumpsuits with wires and acted in front of a green screen. If there was an explanation somewhere, I wouldn't know since the staff told me to "hurry along." They had a number of screens with different stuff being shown but you couldn't hear anything coming from the speakers over the crowd noise. As far as I could see, there were no written explanations of what you were seeing, but again, I was told to "hurry along." From what I could tell, there was nothing on the train that you would not see on the DVD in the 'Behind the Scenes" section.
- Snow - We live in Houston so snow is a pretty big deal. The radio stations were promoting that Disney would bring snow to Houston for this one day event. There was no snow. There were two pillars that periodically spit out the top a handful of bubbles. They were pitiful bubbles to boot.
Bonus
For waiting 3 hours and "hurrying along," we were ushered into a very small booth to have each member in our group's photo taken digitally. Each picture was then morphed into 4 different characters from the movie. You got to pick your favorite and supposedly that picture is being e-mailed to me for each member of the group. I still haven't received the e-mail, but the directions did say it could take up to a week to get the pictures.
My dilemma was when to cut and run. In all fairness, we were told when we got in line that we could be waiting 2 to 3 hours, which we did. The deceptive part was how fast the line moved in the beginning. The first hour went very fast. The lined twisted and turned, and there were radio stations to talk to and booths to sign-up for sweepstakes. We decided to wait a little longer. At an hour and half the line turned behind the train, and then we could see exactly how long the line truly was. We were mortified. We had already invested so much time, but we could tell the line was just as long if not longer over here. We hoped the line would move fast like the first part but we were very wrong. The line came to a crawl and did not twist and turn and there was nothing to look at or do. At the end of the line we did get treated to one carol by some strolling singers. We did see two screens showing trailers for the movie, but you couldn't hear the screens over the crowd noise. Besides, what you saw on the outside screen was exactly what you saw on the inside screens.
I suppose if we had not waited 3 hours in 100+ heat with little to no shade or water and told to "hurry along", it would be worth the trip. I guess if you happen to live in a small town that the train is visiting. Go. But if you live in one of the 4 largest cities in the USA and the event is coming for only one day, skip it.
Trip Stats
- Who: two Mamas, one 10 year old boy, one 8 year old girl, and two 5 year old boys
- What: Disney Train Tour of "A Christmas Carol," http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/christmascaroltraintour/
- When: Tuesday, we arrived at 9:45 am and left at 1:15 pm
- Where: Downtown Houston Amtrak Train Station
- Why: Museum
- Cost: Train Tour was free, but parking in downtown Houston cost $9, plus the $2 spent on vending machine chips and $2 spent on vending machine sodas
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