National Forest Adventure Farm — Attraction in East Staffordshire

Review

We visited National adventure farm on 11/12/21 specifically for the North Pole Adventure.

As a family of 2 adults and 2 children we paid £105.00 which covered the North Pole adventure and admission into the farm park.

Upon arrival we where really impressed with the entrance and the lovely atmosphere, there was music and plenty of snowy Christmas trees as well as other decorations dotted around. Staff where organised and it was easy to get our tickets and head into the experience.

Once we entered our experience we where in awe of the staff who with such enthusiasm gave our children there passports and elf coins and walked through a machine to see if they where naughty or nice! Our girls where so exited and as we entered the first phase of the experience (the portal to the North Pole) there was so much energy from the staff member you could see she was really enjoying her job and loved making all the children smile. At this point our children where bursting with excitement and as they entered a forest walkthrough into the elf town me and my partner looked at each other and smiled both of us wrapped in the magic and excited too.

Unfortunately once we arrived at the elf village the staff in the shops where uninterested and looked bored, they where youngsters probably on weekend seasonal work and you could tell. They didn’t speak or look at the children and just took their coins and handed them sweets - no interaction and our older child commented about it to us . We shook this off and joked some elves are grumpy.

As we entered the several experience rooms we unfortunately found more of the “grumpy elves” than happy ones and the magic began to totally draw from the experience and the children started to get bored and ask when they could see santa.

There where out of the 20 odd elves we came across just a handful who where truly happy to be there and playing there role well. Ribbons in the post office and Tick Tock on the bells where exceptional and if more staff had had there enthusiasm it would have been truly magnificent from Start to finish.

Finally we where led to see Santa and this was truly wonderful although the Santa was rather young and very slim which again wasn’t too convincing to our 9yo but he was sweet and took time to talk to both girls before the photo.

We then went out the door and BOOM photo booth and a room of toys for the children to choose what they wanted. Again my 9yo asked if we had to go in a portal to the North Pole why we didn’t have to go into it to go back to the adventure farm so it would have been nice if Santa said something about the door being Magic and taking them back or something.

Photo prices where reasonable.

Overall it was a good family afternoon out but we felt it went on for too long, instead of doing 3 or 4 experiences really well done, there are 9/10 done mediocre. Was it worth the money? We didn’t feel robbed and had staff been great all the way round then yes I’d say it would have been worth what we paid but we will not bother returning next year.

Another note is the groups where very large and it was very cramped all the way round at times there wasn’t enough for all the children to join in and so smaller children missed out as larger children races to the front each time.

Staff all wore visors which muffled three voices , microphones would be a good solution to this.

Another point is that although access to the farm is included many of the attractions where unmanned by staff and due to the weather this time of year not...

Wasn’t a great experience personally for me and my family this autumn. After a lot of people saying they’ve heard it’s the biggest and best pumpkin patch to go to as it’s Americanised, we decided to go. (now realising that’s just from news articles over hyping the event).

It took us just under an hour to drive here. (so petrol money also). If you booked online the prices were set at £5 each for the pumpkin village only but you couldn’t buy the village and play cause it was all sold out apparently but it was empty when we arrived. (Adults also had to pay for these play tickets which were £10-£15 each).

When we arrived there were no signs and the layout was shocking. Then we found our way and got to where we signed in, it was like they were in a rush for us to show our tickets so we didn’t look around to see how shocking it was.

Once we got in, there was an overpriced store on your left, a man offering tattoos (we had one but that was £2.50!) and toilets just past. Then there was a carousel just behind the toilets that was £4!! A go!! (Disgusting considering we had to pay to just enter the place!)

In the middle there was a wooden shelf house with pumpkins on but wasn’t safe for children as I saw them falling down when toddlers knocked into it. (Maybe they should be secured next time).

Behind this there was 3 high priced food/coffee vans - we are in a cost of living crisis! No one has got £13 per burger to spend! When you looked round if anyone brought anything it was just a coffee cause that’s all they could afford! They didn’t even buy pumpkins but I’ll get to that later!

Next to the vans were seating benches. With ‘live music’ 🤣 literally a speaker on the raised floor and a bar to the left. (it shuts at 5pm roughly - why offer it to a load of parents? Who clearly drove there!!!) safe to say I didn’t see anyone buying!

This was it!!! Then you had the pumpkin patch….i mean swamp. Completely drowned out - yes I know people can’t predict the weather but it should have been closed! Then the cheapest pumpkins were £2.50 for a munchkin size!! And the prices rose between £10-£15! It was £7 for one I got the same size from Tesco for 69p! Safe to say I saw a lot of parents walking away with no pumpkin and quite upset! (The website states prices are kept low because you’re paying for entry🤣 most places were offering atleast one with entry!! Why is this place any different?)

Then when I went to ask ‘if that was it’s you had 5 members of staff clearly ignoring me and as one walked past I said excuse me and he just screamed ‘YOO!’ At the other workers and ignored me. After this I was raging! So we decided to have a wander down to the car - to only realise once we reached the bottom there was no way out (which was hard with a buggy - not really accessible!) so we decided to enter the cabin to get some food and a drink. Food closed down at 2:45pm!!!!! I waited 10/15 minutes to get served whilst the lady served a member of staff a jacket potato! For 2 Pepsi max cans £2 each!!! At this point our daughter went to play in the soft play and I needed to feed my 6 month old so we decided to sit down - that’s what we did to feel like we got some of our value for money back. Horrendous experience though and wouldn’t recommend and we won’t be back next year! (We only came as my daughter said it was amazing when she came with school - god knows what’s happened but this event just wasn’t it!

Don’t read news articles - apparently 6 months it’s taken for this crappy experience! Save...

Fantastic! We booked online for a saving of a few pounds per person. It was just under £20 per person, which we think was very reasonable. You can also buy animal and duck feed online for £1 per pot, and the pots are quite large for the price. It was easy to get in with our booked tickets, and we only waited a few minutes to be served. Farmarama was on when we went, and our 5 year olds loved it! They went in twice for over an hour each time. There are 5 pools with different depths of water in. There are lifeguards at all times. There are little beach huts to change in, which weren't the comfiest, but they did the job. The maize maze was also open, which was enjoyable. The kids loved the various park spaces and the giant inflatable pillows. Again, staff are around to monitor and they had spoken with some of the older kids doing flips and being rough to protect the younger kids (rules clearly stated no flips, the age suitability and other rules). The animal features were lovely. We went into the barn and stroked Guinea pigs, saw the lovely guinea pig village (including a wooden church, pub and town hall which were lovely). There was also rabbits, a chinchilla, a very large (and beautiful) horse, goats, pygmy goats, birds and cows. Out in the paddock were more horses, donkeys and cows. There was sheep racing as well but we didn't get round to it. Staff were present and very knowledgeable and involved, especially with the animal care, which was lovely to see. Food was actually nice and well priced. I am vegetarian and struggle with options, but they had pizzas for about £11, garlic bread for £7, fries for £4, falafel salad for £7 and more. There are also loads of picnic benches around and they welcome picnics. The only ovrerpriced items we felt were the cans of fizzy pop which were £2.50 each. There were lots of popup shops around with swim stuff by the Farmarama event (£5 for goggles, £8 for floats etc), as well as temporary tattoos (from £1.50 each) and face gems (around £4). There were also plenty of toilets and changing facilities. In the main kitchen/soft play area, there were well equipped disabled toilets (elsewhere in the park they had steps up to them). Obviously, it is a farm, and paths were uneven, so if taking buggies/wheelchairs, it may be slightly challenging, but I managed with a walking stick OK. The soft play was massive and the kids loved it! It was well equipped with lots of seating areas to watch them from. We also get a ticket to come back again another time before the 1st September, so we plan to go the week before the kids go back to school, which in turn makes it £10 per person per visit, which is excellent value. We are definitely going to be going again after this, and we really...