Listen, if you're looking for that old-school apple-picking experience in an orchard with the kids or someone special, yes, this is it! There's no doubt this will give you that experience. However, it's not all great.
It was the most unorganized event I had ever attended, especially considering it's open year-round. I don't understand how they haven't figured out a better system. They have about 15 lines going to a counter, and I couldn't tell you what was being sold where. No proper directing, or signs. I guessed more then i should had. They do have some great stuff, like apple slushies in one building and apple donuts in another. However, I waited 45 minutes to get my daughters the slushies. Then, I had to wait another hour to get a box of donuts. Why these are separated, I am unsure. Luckily, I had blocked off the full day for this; little did I know I needed a full day to stand in line.
I also arrived around 11 am and was stuck in traffic all the way up the mountain, only to hunt for a parking spot for another 35 minutes.
After all that, I paid $60 for 2 plastic bags to go apple hunting/picking. One bag per child, which if full would be far too heavy for them to carry. But you can even bring your own bags; something smaller for kids would be nice. It's also illegal to carry apples in a wagon, I guess to prevent bruising?
And who's going to carry the heavy bags? Yep, it's dad again, along with my tired daughters. It was a long day, no doubt.
They had a lovely playground, though. However, some older teens were swinging on the swings when they clearly were too heavy. This made me leave because I was literally scared they'd break it and hit my children.
The bathrooms were very nice, except none of the toilets flushed. My daughter really had to go, but the guys' toilets had a mound of #2 going over the top, so we waited again, 30 minutes per toilet for the female bathroom, only to find it slightly better minus female products used and discarded about.
I'm going to imagine it's not always that bad because the overcleanliness was great, just excessively used that day. I would plan to stop somewhere close and try to get everyone to use the bathroom before arriving. However, you'll be stuck there long enough to need it again, I'm sure, especially if you drink the hard ciders.
They had a really cool bee train for kids. My girls loved it.
Before you get in any line, visit the gift shop first because for some reason, they have a nice gift shop with no way to purchase anything from it. Actually if you view my photos you'll see nobody was in the gift shop, i guess cause they didn't have the time to spare. I wanted to buy things, but this was after spending over 3 hours in other lines, and it just wasn't worth waiting in line again to buy a $20 bottle of simple syrup made from apples.
I think it's worth the trip once. But if you have kids, just be more prepared, and regardless of kids or not, try to be there when they open. The waiting game was the worst part, and of course, the bathrooms. Don't forget that if you get a full bag of apples, you'll be carrying them for hours if you haven't purchased the items you want first.
I probably spent $60 on $5 worth of apples. So unless you're prepared to carry heavy, awkward bags, it's not worth it for the price and weight. But it's worth it for the fun experience of picking them yourself.
I might visit again if I can make it early. Unfortunately, I live too far to be there first thing in the...
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