The Ripken Experience Myrtle Beach — Attraction in Myrtle Beach

The Ripken Experience is not an experience. It's a host site/company with nice facilities and well-organized, smoothly-run tournaments. If you want an "experience," you and/or your team will need to plan activities. There is free parking in large lots, and free admission for spectators. You're allowed to bring food, drinks, coolers, tents, chairs, etc. But complimentary cold water, cups, bleachers, and shaded picnic tables are also available. There are several concession options on site, too. Professional photography & game streaming services are available at an extra cost, but personal photos, video, and streaming are permitted, too. There are two sets of covered bleachers and a functioning scoreboard at each (turf) field. An announcer and 2 umps are provided for each game. Fields are modeled after big league fields, with posted facts. Metal cleats are banned, but gum & sunflower seeds are allowed. The complex is large and well-maintained with lots of batting cages & bullpens/warmup mounds. There's also a climbing structure playground. The main snack bar and merchandise/photo shop are air conditioned. The shop has a good variety of souvenir items at high-but-not-horrendous prices and some practical (no logo) items like bat grips, wagons, and catcher's gear. I thought the digital photo package was a great deal, but the prices for printed photos seemed a bit silly. A lot of people were buying them, though. The snack bar prices were way too high, but the souvenir cups were cute. There was a former MLB player at the opening ceremony, and skills competitions on the first day. There were no other supplementary activities, just games. There weren't clinics, speeches, events, practices with other teams, big screen replays of classic games or highlights, etc. No activities - baseball related or not, at the facility or away - were organized/planned. The location also doesn't have a museum, looping reel on a monitor, or even a wall of captioned posters from Cal Ripken Jr's career. There are a few pictures of the baseball great, and a recorded message from him played towards the start of each game. The orange playground may even be a nod the the Orioles' colors. But, there is not a lot of Ripken at Ripken. Myrtle Beach isn't a baseball town. The Pelicans, a Cubs' minor league team, plays nearby and there are some batting cages at mini golf courses. We didn't see anything else baseball-related outside Ripken. Players will see kids from all over the country during the tournament, but they could/will see kids from all over the country just by being in Myrtle Beach. Teams don't interact beyond playing baseball against each other. Games finished early each day, with only a game or two per team, even during brackets. Probably smart since it was incredibly hot and humid throughout our stay. But it felt like a lot of "down time." My son's age group had 20 teams, and 3 were from our state. (Those teams' areas geographically touch. Not Ripken's fault. Maybe our coaches wanted to hang out together at the beach.) After playing 5 games, teams were separated into a A and B brackets, not unusual for large tournaments. There is a rushed, assembly-line type "ring ceremony" for each team after elimination. I don't know what winners experience -- the kid I cared about didn't make it that far. Going into this, you should know/remember 80-95% of teams leave after a loss. (Depending on how you classify runners-up and the B bracket.) So, winning is a big deal, and "losing" isn't so bad. Each player got 3 "free" souvenirs: a tumbler mug, a bag tag, and a ring. Not very exciting swag for kids, but maybe the cup and tag are practical, and a lot of people love souvenirs. The tournament is cashless, but the rest of the town isn't. In fact, most of the places away from the complex add a surcharge for credit cards. This is a nice tournament with nice fields. There are lots of touristy things and a beach nearby. My son had fun, but he loves almost everything about baseball. Overall, it wasn't an experience, just a long tournament in a tourist...

Fields are nice because they are turf but park grounds are nothing special. Facility smells terrible. I think it’s the murky pond waters scattered throughout the facility. The “ponds” look like mucky sewer water and filled with trash. No working score boards on every field. For the “Experience”, it’s shocking and disappointing that we never know what inning we’re in or the score unless someone sits in the heat to manually change it. The nostalgic manual scoreboards should at least have a Ripken employee manning them. NO SHADE. They planted bushes along the fence lines of some fields which leaves hardly any area to sit. Whoever designed the landscaping was not wearing their bright idea jeans! Bathrooms are spread out and quite a walk. Venders should be spread out and not all at the entrance. You have to miss 1-2 innings just get ice cream. Announcers are boring and forget kids names. Out of 8 games, we only had two that were good. Water in the dugout is a joke. A small case of water per team with no ice is ridiculous. You should provide COLD Gatorade type dispensers. The kids gifts were lame. A mask that no one wears now and a snap back hat in colors no one wears. CHEAP I’m trying to understand the experience? What was offered that we can’t get at a local weekend tournament? Concessions were TERRIBLE. Glossy Finish was horrible. I’m pretty sure no one was a professional. They upload raw images that have had no post editing so the image quality is just terrible. The number of images SEEMS like a lot but it was only because they upload an image burst. Just what I wanted..the same pic of my kid 20 times. Most pics are kids just standing there. The photographers have NO CLUE about baseball and how to track a play so action shots are minimal. They have a ton of pitchers & catchers and kids at bat. However, they can’t track the play for true action pictures. They are like Sears portrait photographers with super nice cameras. I don’t need pics of my kid standing there. As a photographer, I am disgusted. Worst waste of money, ever! For the championship games, it would have been nice to have at least glossy finish there to capture those games. Absolutely no games should have been photographed in the 12-2pm overhead high sun due to shadows. If you’re not post-editing those, the images are horrible. They should stick with promising early games or late afternoon. All championship games should have been played and the nicest fields with working score boards. We were a 12U bracket champion and the experience should have been a lot more exciting from the announcer to the presentation of rings. They basically handed the kids a box that they had to open themselves. There was absolutely nothing special about it. Very routine for your staff so it seemed like just another day for them. You should’ve had someone organizing team pictures for both teams after the game. It was all very lack luster. Kids didn’t get any encouragement from pro coaches or special guests. Your guest speaker was no one the kids knew and kids had no time for meet and greets. Opening ceremonies was boring. Where was the parade of teams? We run a large youth rec league and we have numerous select teams that play at our park. I don’t think I will be recommending this to anyone. You need to work on a lot to make this...

Came here for 12U tournament which was an alternative to doing Cooperstown. It’s a great facility and here are my pros/cons:

Pros •Dedicated person to announce players live and they let siblings sing 🎤 Take me out to the ballgame at the 4th inning which is adorable •They play music in between innings keeping parents in a good mood •Professional photo options through partner Glossy Finish •Concession stand/cafe area has air condition and metal chairs so it is such a relief to get out of the heat and into those cold chairs •Ample parking everywhere •Facilities are nice •Turtle pond at the front of the park provides entertainment every time we walk up for a game 🐢 •They provide buckets of cold water in dugouts for players - that is a nice touch •You are never far from someone who works there if you have a question •Provide complimentary gifts for players and coaches plus free tickets to local attractions for players

Cons •Need more shade. They have shades over bleachers but they could add more •Sometimes they play ads in between innings which seems crazy cause we spend so much money to be here - why do you need advertising money 💰 •Bathroom next to sno cone station needs full cleaning and updating (others are good) •Team photos require 8 families to buy them which is nonsense imo

Overall great trip and great area to be...