Davis Farmland — Attraction in Sterling

In short: we had an inexusably terrible, humiliating, and straight-up traumatic experience trying to exit the park with a one-year-old and a four-year-old with autism. We will not i, and I will actively dissuade other families from going, especially those with kids with special needs.

A bit more context: I tried to leave with my squirming one-year-old daughter. My husband and four-year-old had already left for the car with our bags; both kids were melting down. I learned when trying to exit that 1) one needs staff intervention to exit the grounds, and 2) one needs to present a wristband for all parties at the exit in order to leave. My baby's wristband was on the diaper bag, which my husband was taking to the car. The sheer baffling and seemingly secret nature of this policy aside, the rules for exiting were not articulated at the entrance or readily readable upon entering. (If I missed it, I am indeed sorry, but it should be stated clearly enough that someone juggling two very young, excitable kids can see or hear it.) I was stuck at the gate with an increasingly fussy baby, the rest of my family unknowingly a parking lot away with our only ticket out. The person at the gate was completely inflexible ("I literally can't let you out.")

Meanwhile, a line of gawking families waiting to exit grew behind me as I begged to be let out, to please make an exception. My baby was losing it, I was losing it, and my four-year-old was losing it in the parking lot while his mother was trapped behind a gate.

Did I lose my composure? You're damn right I did. When my kids need to get out of a place, and I am literally trapped inside, and can't help them, all bets are off. Someone dispatched reinforcement, presumably to try to placate the angry mother making a scene. She offered an equally convulted and unhelpful way to - again - just exit the park, which involved showing my ID - which I didn't have on me, because my husband left in a hurry with our bags to get our autistic son out of the scene before he really lost it. He had to bring my son, pantsless, back to the exit gate to hand me the diaper bag so the teen at the gate could cut the wristband off our diaper bag.

What we experienced is clearly systemic, not just a product of individual decisions. It wasn't the teenagers "just doing their jobs" who were personally unreasonable. It's a reflection of how staff are trained, and of the values of the business as a whole. I've worked in some form of customer service tor my entire career - retail, restaurants, assistant director of an academic program at a major university- and there is no question that, given the very clear circumstances of our departure, someone should have just de-escalated the situation by opening the gate.

I've never written a bad review for any business: independent, family-owned, or otherwise. And with more upsells than a snakeoil show, it shouldn't come as a surprise that this place prioritizes squashes the distant possibility of a single re-entry over the comfort and safety of a paying family of customers. But this was next level humiliation, and a textbook display of atrocious hospitality. When I first crowd-sourced opinions about visiting with kids our age, someone said "avoid at all costs," which seemed dramatic. If only...

Way overpriced, disrepair in most playground equipment. my family has been a few times. visit was 21sept2023.

The safety issues:

Jump pad had water on it where when the kid/kids jumped, water was going airborne.

Bounce house had standing water, kids who went inside would have wet clothes.

-- rainfall had not happened in a day or two

The excavator area had 1 of the 4 broken but was able to be still energized.

The play area with the hand metal excavator one of the three was broken and still left in place without removing the broken part. High trip hazard and the sharp bolt were a poking/ leg scraping hazard. In the same area, a bolt holding the tunnel slide was loose dangling at the top of the slide.

Moo town perimeter fencing very easy for a child to escape, especially near the log. My kid did escape but was able to call him back. Small walk through a field to the road.

Animal: I felt sorrow for a few exhibits, the American alligator, cow calves, and camel

Camel pen seems very small for an animal that should be able to run. My estimated size of the pen was 40ft x 60ft with a sleeping shed in the middle.

Cow calves were very stressed as they were panting.

American alligator exhibit would have any real alligator lover outraged. There is only one small pool for several adult alligators and a few juveniles in my estimate 30 x 30 ft pen.

Now, for my last issue, the food. All food was precooked and kept warm with stainless steel tray warmers.

$10 for a kids' meals. Each came with a drink.

The kids' mac and cheese was a 4 oz container with kettle chips or 6 grapes.

The kids' hotdog tasted like a bar-s jumbo frank again kettle chips or 6 grapes.

Now, for the great experience that will cost you 15 dollars, and pay extra for any drink.

The hamburgers were dry, and the bread was dry and tough, and to go with the dried out food kettle chips.

The pulled pork was so bland that I ended up dumping lots of BBQ sauce, just I can tolerate it and go with the dried out food kettle chips.

There were 5 or 6 people in the dining working (if you can call it working) all talking to each other. there was no real work because there was no need to cook. It seems to be a waste for payroll. One employee was using his phone with serving gloves on his hands. So he is just trying to give you some virus and bacteria from his phone...

This was my first time at Davis Farmland. My husband and I took our almost two year old granddaughter. She absolutely loved it. I like to go off exploring with her a lot, but nothing has gotten her attention like this place.

There are areas where you can go in and animals are running wild. So, you can go right up to them and pet and feed them. There were baby goats everywhere. You could get in pens with tortoises, baby cows, goats, sheep, and more. Other animals to view included pigs, a camel, alligators, yaks, bunnies, alpacas, guinea pigs etc.

We liked how there was hand sanitizer all around the farm and other wash stations. They had child height options so kids could get sanitizer themselves (even our almost two year old). We also noticed there were first aid stations as well (although we didn't need it).

There were several play areas, a bounce house, jumping pillow, a kids' village, toddler area, a hayride, and a large spray water park. One area of the water park had a bubble machine. This was great fun for the kids to get all bubbled off and then go wash off in the water spray.

There are several places for food on site including a healthier grab and go shop that had salads, wraps, and fruit. Apparently, they usually have veggie wraps, but there were none available. The freshly made food was mostly fried stuff like fries, chicken nuggets, mozzarella sticks, and burgers. The good thing is that they allow you to bring your own food in.

We spent 4.5 hours here and still didn't get to everything. We had to leave for naptime.

The only downside was the cost. It is not cheap. It costs $37.95 a person for anyone 2 years old and up. Thankfully, our granddaughter hadn't turned two yet so she was free. AAA saved us $6 off a ticket. Many Massachusetts libraries have coupons for reduced price tickets.

Once inside, everything was included except pony rides (which we didn't pay for so I am not sure the cost) and feeding cups to feed the animals which were $5.

With cost not an issue, I would definitely recommend going. We had a wonderful time.

One thing to note is that any adult going must be accompanied by a child 12 or under. They do give matching wristbands to check you leave with the child you came with. I did appreciate this...