Mel's Horse Buggy Rides — Local services in Dover

We called on a Wednesday to make reservations. He said 10 AM on Saturday was fine. We told him it is 3 adults and one kid, no big deal. Just show up and he would take us on a 30 minute tour for $30. We showed up at 9:55 and called him. He forgot about us but would be there in 10 minutes. So we waited, he comes pulling into the parking lot at 10:18 and a lady stops him in the parking lot, he decides to give her a quick ride while we wait. So he tells us to wait, the people who have been scheduled for 4 days to wait longer while he takes this random person for a ride. We wait, he comes back and asks if we can all fit in the back? I said there is 3 adults and one kid and we scheduled it several days ago, why do we have to stuff in the back??? He shrugged and acted surprised so we told him to forget it. We were told he would give us a buggy ride and we would have the buggy. He was late, then ignores us longer, and then tells us that 4 of us need to sit on a 3’ long bench.

The lady did offer to get out cause she didn’t know but by that time we realized Mel wasn’t running a very good business and if we are gonna spend our money we aren’t gonna beg for good service and not be comfy. I’m sure nothing will change but we won’t use him. Need another buggy ride place in town cause this...

Mel was very nice. We caught him after lunch in a sunny March afternoon. I sat up front while my wife and two kids sat in the back. Even while trying to continually ask Mel questions to keep him awake, he slept nearly 50% of the ride. We were nearly hit by a car where my wife and kids sat when trying to cross a busy road. We went off the road and hit a fence (Mel was asleep). We also nearly went into a two feet ditch because he fell asleep and the wheel nearly went into the ditch and could have caused us to flip over. We will never do one of these again unless it’s through a licensed/insured company. Mel was on his 7th trip of the day and put our lives at risk because he could not stay awake. Again he was very nice, but that doesn’t keep the riders safe.

His horse JoJo was 17 years old and would go to a crawl everytime Mel fell asleep. It made for a very tense and unenjoyable ride. Thankfully my kids didn’t recognize what was happening. The tourists in this area also do not recognize how important it is for them to SLOW down.

We will never do this again. If you use Mel's service, we would recommend being one of the...

The buggy ride was great, and Mel did a great job engaging our 3 little kids in conversation (ages 4, 5 and 6). He even let each one of them hold the reins in turn. Jojo (the horse) was great, and seemed to not have a problem hauling 3 large adults and 3 small kids up and down the hills.

Mel was very personable, and chatted politely the whole way. He made jokes that our kids enjoyed, and pointed out interesting things in the area.

But there are definitely some potential frustrations that you (may) need to be prepared for:

everything operates on Mel Standard Time. By that I mean, he'll give you a ride when he shows up. We asked to do a ride at 10am - he didn't arrive until 10:30. Not a huge deal, but it did affect our morning plans by a bit.

he doesn't really do appointments. Sometimes it's more first come first serve, so sometimes if there are people waiting he'll let them go first, even if you have a reservation

Overall, we had a good experience once we got in the buggy. If we decide to go again, we'll be sure to allow more margin in...