Royal Winery — Attraction in Lower Paxton Township

Our first trip here a few months back was nice, but what we didn't realise at that time was that it was because of 717Taco and not the winery. Our second trip here last weekend really highlighted why we will not be back. 1st, the newest rules about buying an item of food for EVERY drink is ridiculous. We came to buy food from 717, not an overpriced snack pack, hot dog and multiple candy bars from the vineyard. Restrictions for Covid are now less then the last time we visited. The very simple solution is to keep the ticket open. By running the card at the first interaction and keeping the tab open, it enables the vineyard to still charge the card even if the person leaves without closing their transaction. Thats a no brainer, practiced EVERYWHERE and leads me to believe they know that, but don't care. The food tokens? We were told nothing about them even though we expressed extream interest and excitement for 717. Come to find out, we could have saved $5 but wernt informed. My boyfriend who works at a brewery and knows all of the food and alcohol rules, went up without me and bought a second bottle with an item of food to match it. He said "I'll let the lady try it and I may be back for more". As soon as the cashier heard that she made him buy another food item because he eluded that I might try it, which I did and it tasted like vinegar. No one else is doing that at the places we go to and its stupid. I dont care that the last 5 items we had to purchase were candy bars. Your wine is mediocre at best and far too expensive for what they are. 2nd, NO RESTROOMS? REALLY?! The porta potty that I had to use was HORRIFIC and had more poop in it then I have ever seen. Real classy for a day date out. How dare you charge me $75 for a 2 small bottles of wine, candy bars and a seltzer that tasted like floor cleaner, and then tell me I need to use a porta potty. Its insulting. You want to charge me high end prices while at your establishment, fine, but you need to have accommodations that reflect your prices. The lines are way too long as well but thankfully this time we went on a Friday mid day at around 2pm. Weekends are horrendous and EXTREAMLY packed. Your only saving grace is your staff which we do really like. They are all very nice people. We won't be returning and will go to other locations for our 717 taco fix. That way we can spend our money on good wine and have to view less human excrement in...

Had the MOST unpleasant experience at Spring Gate this week! We were having guests come in from out of town who wanted to to experience some red wines made in PA. So, we tried to call Spring Gate to see if we needed a reservation for a tasting for Saturday. We called several times Thursday and Friday and the line was busy. So, we emailed. Saturday afternoon came and we hadnt gotten an answer so we decided to just drive over to the vineyard. We got there and saw tons of cars and the parking attendants told us there was an event going on but we could still go in for a tasting. There were three wines available outside (with plastic cups and very rushed) for free, but none where the wines we were interested in. We went inside and they told us there was a private tasting going on and we could only buy a bottle a wine. So we did. All of this wouldve been fine except we got an email from the owner/management FINALLY after we had left in which he implied that noone uses phones anymore and that we should check the facebook page for events. He went on to say, " one of the reasons the partners here co-invented the commercial internet in the late 80's and the 90's was the non-scalability of the telephone model. we're not real keen on hiring Indians to answer questions. We know that at two years old, it is very difficult and very expensive to take the deluge of phone calls.

traditional, low traffic wineries like Allegro, Waltz's, Grandview are probably what you are looking for in the future. their red wines are spectacular" Seriously? So basically we're crazy for expecting someone to answer the phone at the number posted on the website. And we're incomponent not understanding that just because there are event flyers posted on the page that from that we should know whether there are full wine tastings available. Then he recommends that we go somewhere else in the future?? Wow!!!...

Decided to go to SpringGate on Saturday for the peach event because we knew the lawn was spacious for social distancing purposes. I've come to realize the lawn was the only saving grace of this place. We walked in and were asked about our basket and whether it had food in it. I was honest and explained that we had some cheese. We were told that was not allowed, which is totally understandable so I took that back to my car. When we found a place on the lawn we noticed a lot of tents and groups of people had obvious outside food which just made it annoying that the rules were not being enforced across the board. We eventually fan out and get in separate lines. These lines were long. It took at least 45 minutes to get wine. Thank goodness we were only getting one type of alcohol as I would hate to have to wait in even more lines. And boy oh boy. I felt crowded in by this line. With half of the people not wearing masks and being right up against me the entire wait. I wish there was more enforcement of the masks especially in these common spaces that you cannot really keep a safe distance. The wine here isn't always my favorite as I like mine on the dry side but the ones I choose seemed to hit the spot on the hot day. Now I did see the signs saying you had to purchase food in order to consume alcohol. Ay'ok with me. The state has quirky laws I get it. It would be nice if there was a sign explaining that you need to buy the alcohol first in order to get the chips. Luckily I was able to get mine and run them over to my friend before she purchased her food. The food trucks were very kind but they seemed to not understand the system either. Overall it just felt very unsafe and the rules were only partially explained...