Vala's Pumpkin Patch & Apple Orchard — Attraction in Gretna

EDIT TO UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM I want to start by saying I have gone to Vala's for the last 20+ years and have seen lots of great changes and fun additions. That being said, the last few years have just been an average, at best, experience. This year, we went this past Thursday with 4 tickets I was given by a customer. They were given to me in an envelope last month and admittedly, never looked in the envelope till we were in the parking lot. My fault, not Vala's. I learned they were only good for some dates in September. Decided it was worth at least asking if there was anything they could do to honor the tickets or at least possibly give at a discounted price. The lady in the admissions barn was initially helpful and said she could give us admission for $12.50 per person. Great, that was a compromise I would expect from a local company. She was ringing us up and then stopped saying, please wait while I ask my manager something. She comes back and tells me that she cannot give me that price and we will have to pay full price which was listed right at the ticket window as $21.99. As much as it sucked to have to pay full price when we had went thinking we had free tickets, it was my bad for not looking at the tickets prior to coming. She rung us up and the total was $108. $21.99×4 = $87.96 plus tax. $20 worth of tax? It seemed off, so I inquired why the tax was so high. She told me that the price was actually $25.99 and they had just not changed it on the price board. So now we go from free to to $12.50 to $21.99 to $25.99 all in the span of 5 mins. Since they had not changed the board, I asked if she would honor the $21.99 price. She wouldn't budge. There was nothing they could do. What a crock! They could've honored that price if they wanted. They are not bound by corporate America. They are a local company that started small and was built up on the shoulders of the very community that supports them each and every year. A little grace would've gone along way in this situation. On top of that, there was a long list of all of attractions/food that would be closed while we were there. So no budge on the price yet we didn't even get to experience a lot of the attractions and food they normally offer. One of the attractions that I really wanted my small daughters to see was the storybook attraction. This is not a "haunted" attraction although you would've thought it was by how gross, dirty and dusty everything was. I'm not just talking about expected dust from this season. It looked like it hadn't been touched or touched up for 20 years. Come on Vala's ... do better! Was disappointing to say the least. There are other pumpkin patches in town that we will give our business to going forward. EDIT TO UPDATE: Valas reached out to me, apologized for the confusion and promptly refunded my admission fee. Wasn't looking for that but it was very much appreciated. That definitely changed my mind about future visits. We...

Honestly, this was a very scary experience. I’m not sure everyone knows or understands the gravity of the situation. Nebraska has been very dry. So dry, we are under a burn ban. It was also very windy, fire spreads quickly. Think about this, the fire jumped a 4 lane highway. The fire did reach the Vala’s pumpkin patch side, the news did not make this very clear! This could have been bad. I went to the front entrance to ask’s questions about the situation and if they were evacuating. A staff member said she is getting information over the walkie. She added Vala’s does not have a fire plan, that this is a first and they are not sure what to do. She said she was probably giving me more information than she is supposed to. One person quickly leaving said she was one of the last tractors in from the pumpkin patch and the employee on the tractor said get out of Vala’s now. Another staff member said that if we need to get everyone out, it will be difficult. Because there are only a few places to exit the pumpkin patch itself, and one exit for the parking lot. Those who left including us were stuck in our cars waiting to get out of the parking lot for up to an hour. We were staying on top of the news feeds. We found out that the fire was contained and they were just working on a few hot spots. We never made it out of the parking lot. Think about that, not everyone left and we still couldn’t get out. If the fire was not controlled a lot of people would have been hurt or killed. There are thousands of people at Vala’s on the weekends. You would have had to abandon your vehicle and run. No. I’m not overreacting, fire is NOTHING to underestimate or play with. Vala’s is lucky nothing bad happened on that farm. Vala’s better work hard to come up with a fire safety plan. I left my name and number for someone to call me about the situation and for compensation after being in a very frightening situation that no one knew what to do in. It was 2 hours from the start of the fire until they announced it was contained. The lady who took my name and number was obsessed over my kids ages. Vala’s I had two 14 year olds, a 6 year old and an 18 year old with me. But I value all their lives the same, including my husband that was also with us. I no longer want compensation but awareness of the situation. I was never called just emailed and I didn’t even provide my email to her. Vala’s Pumpkin...

We always love going to Vala's. It's been a yearly tradition for as long as my kids and I can remember. The prices continue to go up, but I understand and am glad that they do continue to add attractions to make it more valuable. Last night we went there just after 7:30 PM for a family members wedding reception/gathering where we knew we wouldn't have time to do anything since they close at 9 PM, but we wanted to see the family around the campfire and maybe spend some more money on food. After explaining the situation to the staff we had hoped that they would at least give a discount on the ticket prices seeing as there was less than an hour and a half left until close. Unfortunately, they didn't offer any discount even knowing we had very little time to do anything. By the time we got inside and inhaled our food from Grandma's Kitchen it was about 8:15 PM and things were already winding down with lights going off and staff cleaning up. We walked across the park and got some cider and tried to make it to the jump pads which is the best thing in the world to my daughter but since this amazing place is so big, by the time we got to the other side there was 15 minutes left until close and they shut it down. The staff at the pad were nice and let my daughter jump for a few minutes so I was thankful for that at least. My real gripe is that we had more family show up 20 minutes after us and they got in for free as they should have with so little time left. This trip ended up costing $200 to get into the park just to go spend another $150 on food, drink, and the gift shop and the attractions closing down 15 minutes early with people being rushed out for cleaning.

I love Vala's and it's absolutely worth the money if you have more than a couple of hours to work with, but I'm very shocked that they still charge full admission for the last hour and 15 minutes and then start closing things 15 minutes early on top of that. I want to take the family back for a full day in the next week or so but after spending so much just to get in and spend more and turn around and walk out, I don't know that I'll be able to.

Long story short, it's a great place, but don't waste your money going if you don't have enough time to enjoy it as there are no discounts or price drops to make going for the last couple of...