Mapleside Farms — Restaurant in Brunswick

Went here for the wine maze with a small group of friends Friday the 27th. We should have known we were going to have a bad time when we witnessed parking attendents directing vehicles into muddy spots and arguing with drivers over wanting to park in less hazardous areas -albeit the entire lot was a mud pit. We came in a Suburu crosstrek and still had a lot of difficulty getting in and out. I cant imagine how many cars had to call a tow. The areas where we picked up our wristbands was manageable to get to. The first station is not at the start or in the maze, its in the common area of the farm. Some guests were confusing this station with the areas where you can buy food/drink. It was a single staffed table/bar area where they serve dixie-cup portions of wine. You wait for a tractor to take you to the maze with about another 20 guests - no problem there. The ride in the tractor was fun for the short time it lasted. We got dropped off at the start of the maze and thought it didnt look too bad in terms of mud. Some hay had been laid down which only provided mild traction. Figured we could tough it out with the mud since there was hay. We soon came to find out they only laid down hay at the entrance of the maze, and at the first wine station. We didnt bother to go find the second station because we were already struggling to walk in the mud. Im not talking about mud like our shoes are getting dirty, no, I mean water-filled mudholes that had clearly not been walked or attended to by staff in any way. We were ankle deep in mud and struggled with our footing the entire way to what was presumably the 3rd station. We made our concerns known to the staff about the danger the mud was posing. The lady boomer at the wine booth literally said "We cant control the danger." At this station you could see the common area where we came in, so we asked if we could go past them to get to safety/quit the maze. They said the area behind them leading up to the tent was "just as muddy" even though we could clearly see a gravel trail. They gave us some terrible directions to the end of the "first part" of the maze. We trenched through the mud to finally arrive at the gravel trail we saw earlier and that lead us back to the common area. Not many guests were continuing to the second part of the maze. It was dark as we were leaving, and they were still trucking people to the maze. I still cant believe the audacity of the 1 lady who told us they cant "control the danger." We left feeling scammed. Personal injury lawyers should hang out here to drum...

1-star so maybe they'll see the constructive feedback.

If you're selling 'Vino the Way' tickets to adults only, don't make the adults stand in a 300+ person line with the families/kids. It took us 64 minutes to get through the line and we had timed tickets?! Why timeslot the tickets if you're going to make the adults-only stand in the family line? Have a separate line for adults attending this specific event. You made us purchase timed tickets, then you made us wait an hour in line with families, so you could scan the tickets we already purchased. We weren't purchasing bracelets for games, no adult was, we were simply trying to get inside to participate in the adult only event. You need an Vino the Way only line.

The parking lot doesn't mention anything about the Vino the Way event, so we had no idea where to go. We had no idea we had to stand in the 300+people line with families - why would we have to for an adults only activity? After calling the main office they gave us the bad news.

The event was fairly decent and we'd like to go back again but cannot force myself to do so until you fix this rather simply logistics issue. The security guard monitoring people from illegally getting into the event could have been the guy scanning the adult tickets and letting us in. Put up some signs pointing people in the right direction for Vino the Way, how would we know Vino the way and the Pumpkin Village are the same area/same line?

Don't allow people to turn left out of the C Parking lot! Have the left turn option blocked. As we entered, we saw the outgoing line backed up a hundred cars+ (clear back down to the parking grass, down both hills) because people were trying to turn left out of the parking lot and holding up traffic.

None of the pies were marked in the bakery. No dates, no prices, no ingredients, no labels of any sort. No signs for costing either on the shelves nor the sign behind the counter. Instead of buying one, we just left.

No maps on your website. We had no idea where to go for any of the activities, other than just wandering around. No map for parking, no map to tell us where Vino the Way entrance was located. No maps for food options. Help us out, that's the easy stuff to make people visits less of a headache.

You need tables or just use standing bales of hay for eating/drinking at the wine/beer stations within the maize. Bales of hay to sit on in those areas would...

This place is beautiful. That's about the only interesting thing. As a fall destination, it seriously lacks substance. I've been to many "farms" with my family over the years for fall activities and almost all of them have been more entertaining than Mapleside.

First, there's not much to do but spend money. The price to get in to the festival is $17 for each adult. Children are cheaper as are older folk but not by much. Before that, there is a store selling fall things, but nothing worth noting just typical stuff. But beware, there is only one register to pay at and the line was all the way through the building and took absolutely forever. Then, inside the event, there is another store with basically the exact same stuff with another long line. Then there are multiple food vendors with over priced bland food. I would definitely not recommend the vendor at the bottom of the hill close to the "corn maze". Long line, overpriced, and extremely bland.

Second, the attractions are sad. The best they have is their slide. Which I'll admit was the most interesting thing we did. But that's not saying much. It was after all, just a big slide. The corn maze was absolutely awful. It took 5 minutes to get through and half the time we didn't even know if the path we were on was a real path, or one created by the hundreds of children. The pig race was boring, I've seen many at different places and fairs that were so much more entertaining. This one was slow and drawn-out. The hay ride was average, just a loop and nothing noteworthy. There was a however a pretty decent playground for children, but you can find decent playgrounds for free at many parks.

Third, the weekly "theme". We went on the "Wild West" themed weekend. They seem to have several different themes for each weekend, although you'd never know if they didn't tell you. The only thing that we noticed that made it "wild west" themed was random employees in cowboy costumes. Which honestly looked normal since we were on a "farm". Kinda sad, alot more could have been done.

In conclusion, this place is huge but with very little to do. I've seen smaller places do so much more with the land they have. Mapleside was sad and disappointing. Definitely not worth the drive if you aren't local. I've attached some pictures to show how beautiful it is because that is the only...