Black Creek Pioneer Village — Attraction in Toronto

I cannot speak highly enough of Black creek! My husband and I got married here on September 3rd, 2023 and it was unbelievable. We do have some pros & cons which I'll share below:

The venue itself was stunning. We had the ceremony at Town Hall Green and then went into the Pavilion for the reception. We received so many compliments on how beautiful everything was and how much people loved it there. The food was stellar, Peter & Paul catering absolutely smashed it (I just wish I got to eat more...bride problems, I guess). The team were extremely accommodating of all of our needs and our guests' food restrictions. They really worked with us for any concerns we had and worked with our budget. Overall, a huge chunk of our guests came up to us after to say it was the best wedding they'd every been to which was amazing to hear.

Now, the cons are things that are easily fixable, so I'm saying this only to better the experience of future couples that book there.

There was a big miscommunication about the meal options. We were told we could pick 1 entree for everyone, but that's obviously impossible as everyone doesn't eat certain types of meat or have specific restrictions. I was told I could offer all the meal options to my guests, but I would have to make sure there would be no changes in the future. We got everyone's choices, made & printed all the place cards, filled out the food order for the venue, and then found out that they would not be able to accommodate that. Admittedly, it was frustrating, but the venue worked with me to find other options on how to go about the food changes. I had to reprint all the place cards, but Black Creek did cover the cost of that which I appreciated. It was stressful, but we worked through it.

When they tell you they provide you with on-site coordinators for the day, I would disagree with that. Jeffrey & Pankit were our contacts and they are amazing in a lot of ways. They were very supportive and helpful and definitely were running around on the day of the wedding getting things done. However, we could almost never find them. If my husband texted them, they would come immediately. But I wasn't keeping my phone on me and I had a massive bridal party to wrangle by myself. It would have been extremely helpful if one person was assigned to stay with the bridal party and one person was out taking care of other things and then THEY communicated with each other. Because of this, my brother who was our MC, took notice and jumped in to basically be our coordinator. He kept everyone on time, made on-the-spot changes for us so we weren't stressed, counted the bridal party in for our ceremony entrance...all while MC-ing the actual wedding. If I didn't have him, I feel like a lot more things would have gone wrong. So, I highly suggest hiring a day-of coordinator outside of Black Creek. I definitely regret that I didn't.

Unfortunately, it was 37 degrees with the humidex on our wedding day. The Pavilion was obscenely hot. It would be amazing if the venue could provide industrial sized fans in those cases because the first 2 hours of the reception were uncomfortable due to the heat. Luckily we provided enough entertainment for our guests that they didn't seem too bothered for too long.

At the end of the day, I have zero regrets about booking my wedding at Black Creek. Were there things that could have been done better? Absolutely. Would I book with them again if I re-did my wedding? Absolutely. The day was still...

I am reviewing their Ghost Walk specifically. Myself, my husband and another couple attended one of their Ghost Walks on October 22nd 2022 and left feeling very disappointed. Our reasons:

It was a rushed tour to the point where when given "a couple minutes to look around" is literally a couple minutes so you do not get to see the entire space in many of the buildings. Especially when the tour group is large. There were many buildings we went into and only saw a fraction of it because of how rushed the tour was. We actually heard another tour guide speak to our guide and say "Sorry I am going as quickly as possible!" When their tour was still in a building we were waiting to get into.

Many of the ghost stories included certain buildings or rooms within the building but we were unable to go see those rooms or that building. Full upper levels blocked off yet the ghost story was about that floor? Just don't share that story then.

The tour seemed very rehearsed and not authentic. A part of these tours is how good your guide is. They just came across like a bad actor that had other places to be. No magic was created by their story telling.

Ticket of tour DOES NOT cover parking. After a disappointing tour we were greeted with a $10.50 parking fee for being there for 75 minutes. This was the nail in the coffin for us,

The tours are booked basically back to back so throughout our tour you could hear other tour guides which affected the overall feeling of our tour. Some guides voices echoed throughout the grounds above our own guides voice.

There was a scavenger hunt going on at the same time and these groups had big bright lanterns. Between all the people, the bright lights and the chatter, there really was nothing spooky about it. The ambiance was stolen- and it felt like it was because they were trying to book as many things as possible for profit, forgetting that this would negatively affect the experience for the patrons.

During the tour the guide was telling us about other dates and saying we should come back, selling us on other tours they offer with Toronto. This was so frustrating because it was during our tour time we paid for. There were other times this information could have been shared, like walking back to the main building AFTER the tour was over. Not while we're walking through the village hoping for a spooky experience.

Overall this was a very disappointing, unauthentic experience. It felt like a cash grab, Myself and my friends are big fans of these ghost walks, however after last night we will never be back and will be sure to let others know about our experience.

There are many ways to make improvements to this tour, however the main focus is going to need to shift from capitalizing on how much money you can make in a night and more on the overall customer experience.

Big thumbs down. I wouldn't pay more than $10 a person for...

First off, the idea behind this place is very interesting and strictly from a historic perspective, it's stunning and worth it, however, there are a few shortcomings that are hard to ignore and leave you wanting more.

We arrived as soon as they opened and I guess they wanted to emulate the famine stricken 1800s as all the bread that they make fresh was already sold out. (There were like 3 people in the park... all they have to do is just make more and the bread shortage problem is solved)

The food options are abysmal. First off we got 3 muffins from the gift shop/cafe which were all premade and prepackaged Otis Spunkmeyer brand. These would have been unacceptable in a truck stop on a the highway let alone the cafe. The banana one tasted of banana medicine. The #1 ingredient is sugar. Then we went to the pavilion which according to the front desk, is sometimes open, sometimes closed (not sure why the staff doesnt communicate daily on what attractions are open, but ok). The veggie wrap was 9 dollars before tax and consisted of a soggy wrap filled with a bunch of unseasoned, unsalted soggy veggies and nothing else. The guy selling them said there were "tomatoes, cucumbers and other stuff" but there was not a shred of tomato or cucumber. Just some soggy, cold eggplant among other random things. I threw about 4 dollars of it in the trash.

Another complaint is the lack of "life' in the place. it almost looked like a bunch of missed opportunities, like no brewery, no butter churning, no feeding for the animals, no horse rides, no music (of the time), no costumes/picture booth, no ability to do things yourself. Also there was no care or thought put into what you could purchase. It was like every attraction could have been improved. They could really improve the place with a full functioning cafe, with a limited but good menu of the time, some sheppards pie and ale, anything at all.

Finally the gift shop is a joke. No one in costume and nothing "pioneer village" 1800s inspired.

All in all it was...