Jude loves trains. He is all about trains this and trains that. He hates trains with eyes but, loves moving trains and wooden trains. His favorite is the Polar Express and then the Metra. Two weeks ago, we decided to take him to the Great Train expo, in Rock Island, Illinois at the QCCA expo center.
We pre-ordered the tickets for the event online from the event show page; they were $7.00 a piece, not bad I thought, for all they were supposedly offering to consumers.
We get there and right away I could smell disaster. The parking lot was overcrowded, no one monitoring the parking lot so people were pulling up to the curb when there were small children around. The line was out the door and upon going in there was no real structure behind who in the line got to go next.
We found out after waiting for 4-5 families ahead of us that we could just walk in and give the kind gentlemen (who seemed to be lost), our tickets.
When we went in the expo center was a rather large facility however, the utilization of the space was inadequate. Everything was scrunched together and you could barely get through some of the exhibits with a stroller. Also, the website promised activities, models, exhibits, door prizes, and a train ride for the kids. I really didn't see but one big exhibit where at that time you couldn't really view much because men were walking around with the trains. Most of the purchasable items were way over priced and not something that a child could have anyway.
The only child focused activities that they had were, the train ride which, was a pump and go train so you had to pay $2.00 for your child to pump themselves around a circle for five minutes. There was a sting ray exhibit that seemed to be pretty popular but I still can't wrap my head around how a sting ray has anything to do with trains? And there was the Thomas center where they had one small train set up and fifty kids all trying to hoard the trains. This exhibit also had wooden trains, which I purchased one for Jude at twice the cost of getting it at Target for the exact same train.
While I know that these expos aren't necessarily geared towards children, the website made it seem like it would be something fun for the children when in fact, it was pretty stressful and boring for a child as young as Jude.
All in all, I can't give this expo any smiley faces. It was a pathetic excuse for a show and lacked imagination. I heard some people also went to the counter and got their money back; I sure wish I had!
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