Yesterland Farm is overwhelmingly a great place to visit. Take any critique I make in this review with a grain of salt because it's all an after thought or idealistic in my eyes.
I think the first positive thing that needs to be said is that the staff is incredible. It's very impressive to me that a good portion of the employees seem to be high school kids, or ones fresh out of school. At amusement parks you often get employees who just TOLERATE the guests, but we never got that impression here. The staff interacted extremely well and appropriately with my two young daughters and all of their friends, enthusiastically and genuinely engaging with them. There were several moments at the park where the staff went beyond what would be expected. One such example was an employee at the BBQ food court who noticed after I was given my bottles of water that two hadn't been chilled, and swapped them out for cold ones. I really appreciated the gesture, because I hadn't noticed.
Sticking with the food court, the quality of the food was very good. The sausage on a stick, and smoked pork were especially great.
The rides vary well and there are ride options for those as young as 2. They are operated well, and height restrictions and rules are strictly enforced. While in the moment it was a bit irritating, as a grown man being told I can't stand inside of the gate while my 2 year old rides a motorized horse carriage going .02mph, I understand that if any rules are going to be enforced, all need to. So respect to the employees for sticking to their guns (I didn't argue it).
The petting zoo part of the park is great. Those goats make me laugh so hard. There's something about 40 goat heads poking out of holes that gets me. On top of that, all of the animals seem very friendly and domesticated. I'm no zoologist but they all seem pretty well cared for as well.
Now for the negatives, which, again, are just nitpicks:
We had my daughters' joint birthday party out there today, and got a discounted rate during an online sale on a lot of the tickets earlier, but still had to buy a handful of tickets at the gate, to cover all guests. Tickets at the gate are a bit hefty I think. For 4 tickets I think I paid $120 or so. One of these was for a senior who didn't ride anything and just wanted to be around for the party. A discounted senior rate would be nice. Also as a parent who only got on rides to support or ensure my child could ride them, it seems a bit steep.
Also, we need to discuss the price of water at YesterLand Farm. A bottle of water is $3. I understand a markup for profits, but when you can nearly get a 24 pack of water for that much, $3 is excessive. Especially for an amusement park that is 98% outdoor with very little shade. The rest of the inflated food and drink prices I can deal with, but water should literally be half that price at most. Also, they won't fill your souvenir cup up with water for $3 either, you have to buy a 20 oz bottle.
Sticking with the heat, another covered pavilion or two would be nice. There's one toward the front, near the main food area, and one near the back. Part of me appreciates the wide open nature of the place, but some shade, in the way of trees or tents would go a long way.
And that's it! If you're looking for a cutesy date, OR you have grade-school aged kids, Yesterland Farm should greatly appeal to you.
Friendliness 5/5
Overall Quality 5/5
Overall Value 3.5/5
Experience 5/5 read more