A. Casola Farms — Attraction in Holmdel Township

One of the worst farms I've been to. I decided to take my son and his cousin to this farm after reading on their website that they offered a haunted house, a haunted sunflower maze, a Wild West show, petting zoo, and other typical attractions. Admission is free, but all of these attractions are extra at $6-$7 each for each person. The petting zoo is a joke. There's no petting. Animals are in cages, except goats, but they're underneath the cages so children really have to bend and be careful not to hit their heads. Next we watched the Wild West show, which I thought was going to be an actual reenactment - no, it's a cowboy demonstrating how to lasso a rope and then called the kids up to practice. We did miss some of it, so I can't speak for the whole show, but it was cute what we did see - just glad we didn't have to pay for this one. Next was the haunted house which isn't scary for adults, but scary enough for kids, so I was happy about that one. Hayride was next. That wasn't bad. That brought us to the food court and gift shops - again, not bad. We finished with a quick ride to the "haunted" sunflower maze. We enter a sunflower maze with all dead sunflowers. We went through all of it and there was absolutely NOTHING remotely haunted about it!!!! There was a family in front of us and as we exited, I was so happy that the woman in front said something to the guy collecting tickets. She told him it wasn't haunted. He told her there should be 2 guys jumping out. We both told him there was no one there at all. I proceeded to approach a cashier at the ticket line. I explained what happened and she told me they can't really give refunds. I told her it was not her fault, but could I speak with someone else, maybe a manager. That's when this older man came out of the office to talk with me. I explained the same thing to him. He was incredibly rude and said the flowers aren't dead, they're leaning and there are men jumping out and no one has ever complained. I told him about the family in front of us and we didn't get what we paid for. All he said was there are absolutely no refunds. I told the people on line don't bother to to waste their money on that so called haunted maze. He came back out and told me he could kick me off the property and call the police. I told him we were leaving anyhow, but why should other people waste their money?? I will NEVER come back. Everything they advertise is misleading and there are signs everywhere that nothing is refundable - I'm certain because they know the place sucks and is a complete ripoff. False...

I had high hopes for this place because it was recommended to me by some friends but it was not what I expected. It's really cute when you first walk in, and slowly but surely you realize it's just a plot of land that was literally bought out to make it look like a farm. The pumpkin patch is literally a plot of dirt where pumpkins are stocked, not grown. You can even see the giant boxes that stock pumpkins, the ones you would find at Walmart or ShopRite, in their backstock garage area, where you are driven by during the day time hay ride, which is 5 minutes of travel to the pumpkin patch I mentioned earlier, that you can actually walk to, unlike what I was told by one of the employees. She said I had to take the hay ride to the pumpkin patch and spend the $5 for the ride. Waste of money and time. Everything is super commercialized and overpriced. The food was bland and too expensive for the amount you get. Also, lots of Chef Mike's, AKA microwaves. My fiancé and I spotted at least 5 microwaves in one cluster behind one stand, nothing is fresh. The tables where you can eat were left a mess, no staff around to clean up after visitors (though visitors should have the decency to clean up after themselves). The pony rides/petting zoo is an awful mistreatment of animals. The ponies are kept in a tiny fenced in area and tied up, not free roaming and their stables are tiny and also in the enclosed area. The petting zoo animals are literally kept inside a greenhouse. It's hot and smelly and they are all cowering in fear, with little to no room to even walk. One enclosure had to be 10-15 feet by 5-7 feet with 5 sheep packed into it. It's absolutely awful. The ONLY somewhat saving grace for this "farm" was the night time haunted hayride. We got the $20 combo for the haunted corn maze (which wasn't good at all) and the hay ride, because you can't buy those separately, you have to do both. Not at all worth $20 but I appreciated that the haunters who worked there tried to scare people and were very interactive. All in all, save your money and go somewhere else. My fiancé put it perfectly that it's a Walmart with pumpkins, abused animals, and an ok haunted hay ride if you bother to waste money on tickets and stay until 8pm. For the love of all that is the spirit of Autumn and Halloween, go to an actual farm that grows their own pumpkins, has free roaming animals, and isn't...

So here's a sad story. This place has brought my wife, friends, and I years of joy every Halloween for the past... 5? 6 years? Every year, we'd look forward to the A. Casola haunted hayride, corn maze, and haunted house -- all with the same cast of characters year in and year out that never got old. They stopped doing it last year due to COVID even though most things were outside, and even though C. Casola (a sister farm) still did haunted attractions. As a result, we went to C. Casola. It was of course good, but not the tradition that had become an important part of our (and many others') lives. When everything opened back up again this year, we were happy that we'd get to go back to A.Casola. However, I noticed that none of the haunted attractions were listed on their website. I called to see if maybe they just didn't get to listing things yet. Nope. I was told by a woman in a stern voice that they "don't do nighttime attractions." I mentioned that they always did do them with the exception of the previous year. Again, I was met with a cold and robotic "we don't do nighttime attractions." Instead of expressing anger, I very kindly tried to have a conversation. I mentioned that this was sad given that their haunted hayride had been a local staple for years. I asked why. She told me that they just decided after the COVID year to not do haunted attractions anymore and that other farms are doing them. I asked if it would be coming back in the future. She said no. I told her that this was a shame and asked if she had any other information. She merely just repeated, "other farms are doing attractions and this one does not," in a manner characteristic of a cold decontextualized robotic customer service agent rather than a representative from a local community farm. There was absolutely no concern in her voice. She was angry even -- as if expressing how loved and important her farm's tradition had become to people was dreadful or meaningless. So although I never thought I'd be saying something negative about A. Casola, I thought that the level of apathy and disdain here needed to be...