Bloomsbury Farm — Attraction in Iowa

So this place has pros and cons. If you have kids and you have money to burn. This is probably a top notch place to go. They have slides and tractor rides and all kinds of food and animals, etc.

All of those things seem cool. But me and my wife had never been there before. We don't have kids. But we wanted to go visit a pumpkin farm that had stuff to do cause it sounded fun and fall-ish.

When we were getting the tickets online we checked out the site and saw a long list of amenities. And on that list, is a comment that says "items that include an * cost extra after the ticket price."

So we looked through and shockingly only 2 things out of the whole list had the astrix next to them. So we were like wow, what a deal, and it looks like a blast.

Well turns out they really shouldn't have bothered with that astrix because literally everything costs money. And not a small amount either. It would add up very very fast there.

We got there and saw it was swarming with kids and it was like, ok, I guess this is a hot locale for the kids. And I could see why. Everything there is to do is designed primarily with kids in mind.

Another thing that wasn't really brought up on the website.

I don't have much of an issue with a ton of kids around as long as they don't cause strife for me and everyone was pretty good at that so no worries there.

But as I looked through all the activities it was like 15 bucks for one go, 30 for this 20 for that. And half of the things we're so small or made for tiny people's weights that I would just fully break any of those if I even tried to use them. Also I'm a grown man so I'm not gonna go join kids playing on a structure or whatever.

So one thing after another it was just, nope, not that one, maybe this? Nope. How about over here. No not really. Etc etc. You get the point.

The only thing we could find that's wasn't explicitly for children or charging way too much for the thing. Was feeding the goats. We got to do that. It was still pretty lackluster though cause there were 10 people surrounding us at our fence spot to all do the same thing for 2 minutes before the next family was pushing their way in.

So I decided, ok then. Fine. I'll go have some coffee. People watch for a bit. Maybe we'll just get some pumpkins and head home. So we check out the pumpkin prices. And the tiniest pumpkin they sell is 5 bucks. The largest is 15. After paying to get in there and for whatever else people get, you're expected to pay 3 times the grocery store average for a pumpkin. At a pumpkin farm. Straight from the producers. I mean what a racket.

So that was upsetting. It's just gouging people because they know they'll have kids that will cry if they don't get their pumpkin now. So triple the price, that's the way to grow loyal customers and word of mouth!! Lol...

Ok, so the pumpkins are expensive too. Damn. I'll go get some coffee. Well I stand in line for a bit. And I see, oh! That looks nice. A coffee float. I couldn't see the price cause people were in the way but I was just thinking, it can't be more than 10 bucks right? We're not at a ballgame or something.

Well I was wrong. They wanted 16 dollars for a cup of cold brew with some chocolate and a scoop of ice cream. At that I just walked out.

That's just dumb. I mean come on.

Anyways. I'll never be going back. If I had kids. I might take them there. But I'd rather go spend the same amount on things at Disney world or something. Cause by the time I have kids old enough to enjoy that, it'll be 3 times whatever the prices are now. I guarantee it.

I'm leaving one extra start cause if I was a kid I'd love it. But my parents would be struggling to pay for it. So, still...

We went there this past Saturday. Perhaps I was to excited from the posts but was very underwhelmed. Obnoxiously overpriced… spent $50 on a burger basket/hot dog basket and cheese curds. Spent $45 on a wine slushy, kids slushy and 6 donuts. I refused to pay $16 for an apple cider slushy. I felt it was poorly organized. Had to stand in one line for slushies. The line went indoors but you had to stand outside. However people were moving the barricades and cutting in front of everyone standing outside. Then had to go to a different stand for the apple cider slushies… when you have toddlers the last thing you wanna do is stand in line after line. The corn area was way over crowded there’s no one there to limit this. Older kids running around like crazy no parents monitoring their children. It was really unsafe. My kid got kicked in the face in the bounce house that was supposed to be 4 and under but again no one supervising this. The place definitely has lots of potential with more organization and realistic pricing would be more enjoyable. We travel to different patches every fall and this was by far the most over priced. Still can’t get over a $16 apple...

We came here for the tulip festival and were pleasantly surprised! I kind of expected it to be underwhelming. When I moved to Iowa 4 years ago everyone talked about Pella's tulips which were really restricted to little patches through the town. This was an actual field of tulips!!! Not as big as the Netherlands or even Holland, Michigan, but still very substantial for Midwestern America! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!

After strolling through the tulip fields, we visited with the animals, went through the farm market, and enjoyed other various activities. The geode cracking was pretty cool. My personal favorite is probably the slides. There's a short hay ride if you want. This place was so much fun for children and adults, alike. You also get a lot of bang for your buck! There are so many activities for the just the price of admission. The animal feed is also really cheap. We got our tickets during the flash sale so the deal was even sweeter! There are wooden stands in front of most of the photo ops so you don't even have to bring a selfie stick. The staff is also more than happy to take your photo! Everyone there was...