The Crabby Apple Family Orchard & Market — Attraction in Lapel

I want to start by saying that prior to my recent experience with Crabby Apple Orchard, I had nothing but kind things to say about the family owned business and that my kiddos loved going each year. I also want to say that I am sure the owner, Andrew, will have a defensive response to this review, as you can see the pattern when negative reviews are left. :)

This is a very lengthy review but I do not want anyone else planning a birthday party here to have this experience. My son had a birthday party schedule for this past Sunday. The weather was not looking great for the afternoon so that morning I quickly tried to come up with a plan to change the party time or just keep the same time and play in the rain. I was unable to get a hold of anyone from Crabby apple via messenger/phone so 1 hr before the party my husband had to DRIVE to orchard to make sure they were still open (they sometimes close for bad weather and actually ended up closing on Sunday) and if we could still have our party in the rain. When he arrived the manager was nice but said he did not even know about the party. My husband called me on speaker phone to come up with a game plan with the manager. He said we could re-schedule or only use the cuddle barn because everything else was soaked. It was too late to re-schedule (the party was in 45 min) so I asked for a refund and quickly switched the party to our house (not ideal). He tried to call his boss but he didn't answer. The manager made the decision to go ahead and refund our deposit due to lack of communication and not knowing about the party. We were thankful and kind despite being frustrated. Anyone in this situation would have been frustrated. If you own a business and host parties, you should absolutely ensure that your party guests have SOME way of contacting you and make sure there is some form of communication available. I expected to receive an apology message/call from the owner regarding the poor communication about the party, however, I instead received the message in the attached photo. The statement about “not sure what else we could have done” really struck a nerve with me. They didn’t do ANYTHING about the situation other than refund my deposit. They didn’t try to get a hold of me with a plan, they didn't respond to my messages, and they didn't even know they had a party scheduled. We only figured out a solution for my son’s party because we physically went to the location for answers. I agree, life is TOO short to have unhappy customers. Maybe try calling the unhappy customer, getting the full story, and apologizing for the lack of communication instead of sending an unkind message with one side of the story. Maybe try being available to come up with a plan on the day of the party? Yes, Indiana weather is totally unpredictable, which is even more reason you should be available to communicate with your guests. It should not be up to the guests to figure out a plan at your venue. If you are a business owner and do not let your manager communicate with guests via social media/phone then you should absolutely ensure that your phone is ON during business hours. You should also communicate a back up plan ahead of time for rain/weather prior to the party if you have a policy for a nonrefundable deposit. It’s yucky behavior to make the customer seem like the bad guy when it was their mistake and so sad for our community as this could be a really fun place to take kiddos! I truly hope he does some self reflection and works on his customer service. I want to make it very clear that the manager did nothing wrong and handled the situation much more professionally...

I was very disappointed in this place. There were 3 different animals to put in the petting zoo. We paid $40 for 1 adult and 2 small children. 100% not worth it. The goats were cute(the only animal that wanted pet)and the sheep and 1 donkey didn't want any attention really they were mostly just pushy for the food. We had to be followed around by the staff because the animals apparently are not always the friendliest. The play ground looks like it was from the 70s and hasn't been kept up with. This place was very run down. All the apples were bad even the apples they were selling in their market were full of holes and such. Their canned items were so over priced! $9 for 1 pint of pickles! They are supposed to have 3 bounce houses 2 of which were completely unusable. One was full of water, one was deflated, and the other was covered with grass which they easily could have cleaned up with a leaf blower after mowing. Unfortunately, I'd recommend going else where. We...

Great place if you want to get tetanus, have the inflatables deflate down and trap your kid, and to get rotten, bug infested bugs. At least it cost 18 dollars for my son and I go get in.

The inflatable deflated on our kids, nobody was manning the equipment, and was told the reason was because the old generator wiggles and comes unplugged and he didn’t want to waste the gas in that one instead of using the new generator. If there was more kids in the bounce house, I don’t know if all would have made it out. I thank god they were able to get through the tiny hole.

0/5...