Polar Express Station — Attraction in Woonsocket

Best thing my 8 yr old son ever did according to him. A bit of a mob scene at the beginning and the end but just stick together and you'll be fine. They have it very organized. You check in and wait in line and your ticket already has you assigned to a car so there is no need to get there too early. Kids will just want to wander and shop etc. Then you board your individual train. Each train has a chef and a story/song leader. As you ride he reads the story, tells jokes, you get cocoa and cookies, you sing Christmas carols, the kids have a dance party. All kinds of fun. The North Pole is a golf course they have set up with elfs playing outside and sledding etc. Luckily there was snow on the ground when we went. You don't get out of the train. Them the train goes backwards heading back to the station. Guess who must have hopped on at the North Pole and wants to say hi to the kids. Santa walks through the train cars taking pictures and passing out bells in a pretty red box. At the end of the ride they give you a nice badge that says "believe" on it. You can put your cookie, commemorative cocoa cup, bell, music pages and coloring in the bag. When you get back to the station there are photo areas and Santa is there on a sleigh. There are refreshments that are fairly expensive and a bunch of souvenirs. Some reasonable and some pricey. We got a conductor hat for 20 bucks but the ornaments were fairly reasonable considering it is from Polar Express. The popcorn is free refills so you may want to buy that first so you can eat in line, fill up before the ride, eat on the ride and refill for the ride home. It comes in a flashing bucket. But if you're lucky you can avoid it all together. Definitely bring your own bottles of water. We even won the Thomas Kincade picture they talked off. As you leave everyone gets an ornament to take home. Ours was a ceramic Santa. The staff all stays in character as elfs and they make it very magical for the kids. My son was 8 and 10 months and he was so enthralled. Granted he's a Santa addict but it was a great experience. He started talking about his trip for next year in the car on the way home and still brings it up. We are in March and right up till Feb he's been...

This year, I wanted to buy memories for my family for Christmas, instead of more "things". - We will cherish these memories forever!!! 💗🎄🚂 What a beautiful experience!!! Money well spent. (The tickets after tax were about $120.00 per person, and my family of 4 went.)

The outside is beautifully decorated, clean and magical. There are picnic tables to sit at while you wait to board the Polar Express, along with tiny sheds made into stores full of inventory from the store to buy ahead of time, as well as cookies, popcorn, cotton candy, water, soda, apple cider for sale. (the only downside; no coffee! that's the only thing I would add if I could suggest anything be changed 😁)

The train was comfortable and clean. The employees were friendly, kind, fun and in character 100% of the time. (I won't go into details of the fun we had on the train, to leave some mysteries for you to unlock!)

We were on the Prancer car, we had a table for the 4 of us. They served us hot cocoa and a cookie once on board, and got to keep the beautiful ceramic Polar Express mugs. Santa was aboard and he gave all of the children a silver bell in a cute red box. It was a wonderful experience!!!

((Tickets went on sale in June and sold out before the holidays began, subscribe to their email updates to get an alert when 2024 tickets go on sale.))

I highly recommend any family who loves making memories, The Polar Express, Trains, or all of the above - to...

I don't normally leave bad reviews, but I know people who are die hards about Polar Express will come no matter what, so I am not harming a small business. For those on the fence, I'd like to caution you to maybe find something else to do with the money? My family and I are baffled by all the positive reviews. Our tickets were over $90 a piece and I don't feel like this experience was worth more than $20, $30 max. For 5 folks it was close to 500$. I wish I spent the money to go to NYC to see Cirque De Soleil world-class gymnasts and performers for the same price.

Pros: Kids are easy to please so my son was amused most of the time. No long lines, smooth boarding, bathrooms on the train. The ladies doing the signing and acting were great sports and pretty funny.

Cons: The whole thing was so overwhelmingly campy. They were obviously making the best of what they had to offer. Your view from the train is mostly trash. The interaction with Santa was about 5 seconds. We went during daylight...would have been much better at night so if you do buy tickets go at night. Very minor adjustments to the choreography, script and timing of Santa would have vastly improved...