Too disorganized to of any real value.
by SWFLDad on 6/8/15Germain Arena - EsteroI had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into. The billing of the Expo was an appearance by Thomas the Tank, however in all likelihood most attendees never saw the show or had an opportunity to get their little ones up close. For $10 per adult you are paying to attend an expo where various, mostly for profit, entities will try and peddle their services and wares. Some of this is valuable to parents such as summer camps but other vendors selling chiropractic services were a little less compelling. All in all, you're paying to be sold to and this should be reversed. Upon entering you had to run a gauntlet of vendors who have bright and shining toys for kids but be prepared to wait in line. Then you enter the arena where you stand and wait for Thomas, the show schedule was 2 shows hours apart that ran only for a few minutes. The vast majority of time will be spent staring in lines. I'd like to blame the parents for the mad rush that occurred after each show to "see Thomas" but honestly the shows were mismanaged and parents holding and sitting with little ones for an hour or more couldn't stand in line for another hour just to spend 20 seconds with Thomas - the crowds broke any form of line management and the free-for-all upset many parents and resulting in screaming kids. We waited for about half an hour (and we started near the front) but ultimately left finding the whole process a waste of time and the few minute of joy our son had with seeing Thomas from afar was not worth it, he would have enjoyed a trip to Target more.