the thomas pantomine is at 10 am,then we can wander around and see the other things at the station,trains leave regularily to lakeside,we can go straight there after the 30 minute show and come back to the station at the end for animals etc,we can just go with the flow,im not confident that we can get there much earlier as we have a long drive.otherwise everyone can get there as early as they like to see the animals etc before the show.