My experience was more like a 3-3.5, but I'm rounding up -- both because weather is not in the orchard's control, and because as an adult I don't think I'm necessarily the target demographic.
Unfortunately, as soon as we pulled into the parking lot it began to POUR rain. We waited it out in the car for a while, like 20 minutes, but it didn't seem to be stopping, so we attempted to leave, but because so many other people were leaving traffic came to a standstill and it took us 10 minutes just to get to the end of the parking row -- which was kind of a blessing because the sun came out more and we decided to stay and chance it.
There seems to be only one entrance and like 1-2 exits which kind of seems like a safety concern.
Admission is a bit pricey - about $23 per person on the weekends if you don't buy online. I guess it's a good price if you enjoy mostly everything, but for that you'll need time.
We grabbed a snack. There are a lot of food places - BBQ, grilled cheese, pizza etc. I actually thought the prices were pretty decent and the food was high quality for the price. We split a gourmet grilled cheese which was melty and tasty, and got a honey lavender cider which was absolutely delightful.
We did the wagon ride out to the tulip fields. You can pay to pick your own but we just admired them. There are a lot of colors and different varieties, and cute photo ops all around.
There was a scenic train ride that went through the fields. There were also a bunch of carnival rides, which we didn't go on. I read that there was axe throwing but we missed that. There was live music in the food area as well.
They have some other fun things like giant bubble blowing stations, lots of snack stops, a retail space with gourmet goodies.
Our second big thing was going to the petting barn, psyched about the "baby animal" experience. This consists of baby chicks and ducks. If you want to get up close and hold them you have to wait in a long line - we were waiting like half an hour to hold a duck for like 30 seconds. It was very cute and wholesome but honestly I wouldn't do that again. The chicks were unfortunately too young so we could only pet them, not hold them. It was a little underwhelming and I've seen other farms do baby animal days with much more variety.
There were some other animals (that you could get up close to more immediately) like pigs, alpacas, goats, and highland cows -- some of which had cute babies.
I don't think anything besides the flowers was open for u-pick, but I believe you have to pay extra for that anyway?
This place is huge and very popular but I did get the sense that for the amount of people it draws, there are limited things to do. Granted, it was a holiday and a weekend, so I'm sure that contributed to the crowds. But also a TON of people left during the rain storm and we still were waiting in some pretty long lines so I can't even imagine how it would be if it was sunny.
Overall this place is cute and I think everything is top quality, but ultimately I think it caters more towards families who have time and money to kill. It's probably a good deal if you live close and get a seasonal pass and come multiple times a year for all the different festivals- I do like that they have different things going on at all times.
I wouldn't turn anyone away if that was their thing and I'd recommend it to a certain type of person -- but this is probably a once and done or once in a blue moon type place for me. read more