Story Land — Attraction in Bartlett

Bee-en There, Done This, WON'T Be Back....

First and foremost, if you have a bee allergy, do NOT come here. They are EVERYWHERE and ALL in your face, on your person, in the air. This place is a honeycomb. Sonny's family are HERE! I've never seen SO many bees in ONE place ever and I'm FROM New England.

This is not an amusement park for the WHOLE family. It's in the name. If you're someone that doesn't ride rides or a grandparent here for the kids, you'll be fine. It's for SMALL kids. If you have a kid under 8, they will love this place. It has cool VIEWS and fairy-tale vibes that my small relatives ate right up. It's a nice public park(?) to walk through.

And that's where the positivity dips. We got in early enough and saw a family already leaving. I was like, that's odd. But I've never been here, so I figured the park wasn't big, so they were in and out. That's not the case.

I have a pass that allows me to visit all the parks across the US and yet, I couldn't figure out if we were supposed to bring our home park cup or not. I called ALL of the other parks all week to ask, INCLUDING Storyland and NO ONE answered their phone. Rude.

Turns out, we were supposed to bring our original park cup with us, but from my research online, nothing but our pass gets us in and is transferable, so I wasn't sure IF said cup would work there, so I didn't bring it. I DID try to find out prior to coming. It should be better posted on ALL sites what each park policy is.

And with small kids, who wants to get their hopes up for unlimited soda and that's not the case? I figured it's just a cup, we can get one there. No, we can't.

The staff member was nice enough letting me down and tried to scan my badge to see if I could just get it and go. They also informed me some OTHER parks don't even ACCEPT sister pass cups! Bruh.

It's giving red headed step child. Do you all not have the same step-dad???!! These parks definitely call him by his first name, Parque. Another staff member at Guest Services was less than polite about informing me that I couldn't get a cup from Storyland, even though I have a pass! It's not the park, it's the person. The Dunkin's lady was super polite about it and didn't make me feel like a criminal for asking. Guest services? Made it seem like I was doing insider trading to their face. It's a CUP.

I get that some people just take to take, so can't give them out Willy Nilly with a budget and stock, but this was off-putting. Corporate Bureaucracy ruins ALL the fun. So that started the trip out on a sour note. Bless Storyland 's heart.🙃🫠

ANYWAY, we walked around the park for Happy Hauntings and some cast didn't care how much you took in candy, but Mother Goose sure did!🫠 The websites all have everyone with these large pumpkin bags and we were given ...a gift bag. Like the kind for treats at a kids party. These are small children. The place is FOR kids. But with adult eyes, there were signs of "this could be better."

The teacups were fun though. And the train. That's it. It felt like it was an amusement park still being built, because, this can't really be it? Drained pools? The food vendor we went to wouldn't accept our pass for the discount since they said they weren't with the park, but they were IN the park. Go figure.

New Hampshire really leaned into that LIVE FREE OR DIE motto here. Free to be terrible.

I'm sure Storyland will reply with a very New Hampshire response, but Parques Reunidos may want to rethink this one. It COULD be better managed to make it...more pleasant for all and clearer to visiting pass holders what is and isn't ok.

The staff were more or less polite to us and it's the policies they're enforcing that are so..... disappointing. But execution is everything. Again, some....were better than others. Dunkin's lady said Storyland accepts sister cups, but I didn't SEE any

But again, this is through the eyes of a paying adult. My mother was not impressed with Discovery Zone and I LOVED it, so I get it.

Thanks for the fun day for my littles, Storyland. Don't call me,...

Storyland was probably 100X better than I expected. I have spent most of the later part of my youth living near Disneyland, and most amusement parks are pale in comparison; but not Storyland. In fact, it reminds me of a nicer version of Fantasy Land (a section of Disneyland). I was spoiled for a good part of my life as I was able to spent lots of time visiting multiple amusement parks throughout Southern California. So when I compare this to Disneyland, I am saying that as someone that is very particular when it comes to places like this. Storyland is really that good.

Storyland is such a great place for families to bring their children (all ages). It is very clean, the staff was extremely friendly, the rides were surprisingly well done. I was surprised by the attention to detail, and how well laid out the children's play area is... There is so much to do for a family with children.

We took our two children there today (3 & 7), and since we drove from the seacoast, we were there pretty late and didn't expect much from our visit. At first we spent a good part of our time in the kids area, where kids could roam and visit tree houses, meet Cinderella, etc. We thought that was great, and didn't realize they have so much there to offer. Whether you are going for simply a relaxing trip to walk around and let the kids loose, or you want to go on a few thrill rides, Storyland truly has it all. I will break down all the reasons this is such a great place to visit...

There are so many reasons to love this place:

They have a dog kennel. It's free to use, it's secure, and we had no problems leaving our Labrador Retriever there. It was easy to come out and check on her, and take her potty. This was one of the reasons we decided to go. We hate leaving her at home along when we go on trips. Since this is almost 2 hours away from us, it means our dog would easily be alone 8 hours or more, depending on how long we stay. Since she can come with us, it's less stressful for her, and convenient for us.

They offer tickets to come back if you get there a few hours before closing. This is a very generous policy and they have no reason to offer it, and I hope they continue this policy. It demonstrates that they care about accommodating guests that arrive late. I was very impressed by this.

The staff all seemed professional, and friendly; something I didn't see as much at other amusement parks in NH or Maine.

The food was not only very reasonable, but had great portion sizes, and very good quality food... Even the grilled cheese and fries were restaurant quality. I could honestly say, this was my first experience enjoying fast food at an amusement park. Did I mention the prices? They are more than reasonable.

The rides are great. Whether you are going simply to go on a few roller coasters, or want to sit around reading while your kids run around various playground or the water area, this is place to go for many different experiences. The park is very large, very clean, lots of area to cover, many rides, and is completely worth the price of admission.

I hope they never change... At least not very much. This has instantly become a family-favorite destination, despite the fact that we were only there for about 2.5 hours. It truly is that impressive of a place for families; which is exactly who this place is geared towards. We look forward to our next visit (sometime in the next few weeks), and I will very likely add to this review at that point to share my experience then. If you are thinking about where to go this summer, I can wholeheartedly recommend you...

As a family we went to the Nostalgia Night (adults only with alcohol served, targeted to those families who took their kids when they were younger), and we were really looking forward to it. We loved taking our kids there when they were younger many years ago and have many happy memories. I don't mind businesses making money -and the Saturday night we went it looked like a big success for Story land, so let's start with the positives...

The band they hired to play was pretty good and very entertaining. You can experience those rides again and have a lot of fun. My advice is to go to the Polar Coaster first, as that seemed to be the most popular and a line forms pretty soon. And of course as a parent you can experience a bit of that Nostalgia magic.

Ok, here come the negatives:

Really surprised to see if you park on the side closest to the park, you have to pay for parking! (I can't recall this being done when we visited with the kids years ago) Hang on, didn't we just purchase tickets to get into the park? I can't help but feel this is a bit of taking advantage in a greedy sort of way.

Secondly, we arrived at 4:40pm with the event opening at 5:00pm. And there was a huge line already. I'm patient and can wait but we didn't get into the actual park until an hour later. Yep, Storyland sold all those tickets and knew the numbers and then decided to only have 2, maybe 3? people for the security check process for a huge line of people. Clearly all the money made off parking certainly wasn't going into considering hiring more people so customers could get into the park in a more timely fashion.

Alcoholic drinks ($16 for a drink?) in the park were very expensive, and food was standard amusement park fare. You have to be hungry to think it's good. But in all fairness you don't have to buy drinks or food, so I can't complain too much about it aside from it's just way overpriced for what it is and they are taking advantage of a captive audience.

There was a magic show, and being a sucker for magic shows, I really wanted to see if. But where was it? I stopped 4 park employees and 2 didn't know anything about it, and the 2 others gave different locations! I did not see any of the park employees with walkie talkies (don't know if they had phones either but none of them used them so perhaps not), so it seems they aren't in great communication with each other, nor were some exactly eager to help. Maybe some of this you can say is the attitude of the employees, but..... clearly all that parking revenue isn't going to training employees appropriately!

Was I disappointed? Of course -and if you're reading this and saw the rating it's obvious. My impression was that they were interested in making a quick buck and don't seem to be too bothered about the customer or investing in the experience. Would I recommend Nostalgia Night? Absolutely not. At least not until they think more about the customer experience and less about...