Advent Event: The Grand Canyon Polar Express

The second weekend of December we travelled to Williams, AZ, for the Grand Canyon Polar Express. Gus cannot hide his excitement.

Cora is skeptical.

I ordered the tickets to the Polar Express back in January before I knew I was pregnant. Once we found out that we were having a baby, I figured that it would be a fun thing to do with Gus, to make up for the fact that so much attention would be funneled away from him and instead would be focused on a squalling newborn.

Gus is still talking about this experience.

Of course, Gus wants to know all about the trains.

And, of course, Gus breaks the rules, unknowingly but aided and abetted by his father.

Me: Look! It's Teddy Roosevelt on his train tour.

The Pilot: You're such a nerd!

The train approaches.

Don't worry. This isn't our train. It's the stationary one that Gus keeps trying to climb upon.

The chef takes his ticket, and we board.

Now, I purchased tickets knowing very little about The Polar Express beyond it taking place on a train during Christmas. I ordered the movie and the book, and the movie was pretty awful and soulless. Even Gus found it plodding and uninspired. He played with his own trains almost the entire time. The book is different in that it's simply written and warmly illustrated, and the significance of the bell rescues the more awkward elements of the narrative. Everything gets lost in the movie which tries to stretch a children's book into an hour-and-a-half-long feature film. The extra characters, the long pauses, and the "adventures" take away from the message of the story.

We brought a copy of our book on board, and we followed along as a recorded Liam Neeson read the book. We ate blah cookies and sipped on not-hot chocolate, but the quality of the food didn't matter. Gus did not have time for such trivialities. There were songs to sing and a Santa to see.

I had read reviews of the Grand Canyon Polar Express before purchasing tickets, and most of them were positive. The negative reviews came from adults not appreciating the experience from a child's point of view. 

I took my chances, and I'm glad I did. We all had a wonderful time.