Vala's Pumpkin Patch is located in Gretna, Nebraska. We had been hearing of this establishment for years and this year we decided to take our granddaughter. We were all so excited to go and had JurNee pumped up of all the activities for the kids. Before we decided to go, I did the research of how much it would cost and what activities were available. Although it was a bit pricy, and mind you I knew this before hand, we still went.
Admission for adults
and a 3-year old, was $15.00 PER PERSON. YES! You read that correctly, $15! That should have been a warning from the start, but we were excited for JurNee and proceeded at our own peril. We arrive with our GPS and when we were herded into the back parking lot and told where to park, the GPS told us we still had another 0.5 miles before we reached our destination. So, there is no exaggeration that we had to walk a half-mile to the front gates.
Even though it was a trek to the front gates, we didn't let on to JurNee that we were a little perturbed by this. In fact, we didn't let her know that anything of the day's issues bothered us. We wanted her to have a storybook day. I think we succeeded but when alone, my husband and I really had a big discussion about what we experienced.
Upon entering the gates around 1:00 p.m., we headed for a chow line. We were all so hungry and had to eat. The entire park was uncomfortably crowded. Lines everywhere. It reminded me of our trip to Disney World this summer. Only difference was the crowd at Disney had better control over their children and actually cared whether their children were rude or running over top of other guests. Mind you, this is not an issue with Vala's, but it is for every parent there that day that allowed their children to run wild. Back to the eats, they had a pretty good selection of foods. They weren't incredibly expensive but it does add up when you have four people to feed. The drinks were more outrageous, if they didn't get you at the gate or in the food line, they were going to nail you with the drinks. We were charged $2.25 per bottle of water. That was just ridiculous, but we had to drink. My poor daughter, JurNee's mama, is pregnant and couldn't decide what she wanted to eat and got a sampler of a few different items. We weren't worried about it going to waste, my husband, Ray, he's our human garbage disposal (poor guy).
One thing I wasn't aware of, Vala's did allow you to bring in outside food and drinks. If this was made known before-hand, we would definitely had taken this route for food and water. My daughter, Jes, and I sent PopPop and JurNee ahead of us to find a table because it was quite crowded. PopPop let her pick out our dining arrangements and JurNee chose a table with these milk canisters as chairs with tractor seats as the seat. Nana and PopPop had a small discussion on this matter seeing as Nana's behind barely fit in these seats! But we made it work.
I had their bread bowl with the potato soup, yes I know, CARB OVERLOAD! Hey, we weren't watching calories that day, that's for certain.
After lunch we headed back out in to the crowds and tried to navigate the beautifully colored map we were given, but was quite inaccurate.
The first activity I knew JurNee would go crazy over was the pony rides. This was an additional charge of $5 per child. You read that right. We paid $15/person to enter the park and it was an additional $5 to ride the ponies. To me the additional charge was worth it to see JurNee so happy. But still perturbed at the charge.
The next activity we headed to see was the "Flying Dogs" show. There wasn't a charge for this, thank goodness but it was a little upsetting. We stood around waiting 20 minutes for the show to start and then an announcer came out and stated it would be 15 minutes to the next show. Well needless to say, we didn't get to see this. JurNee was little enough to get a seat but nothing was happening and for a 3-year old to continue sitting there with nothing going on, we had to keep moving.
Here is the troop as we were headed to the train station to ride the train. We got photo-bombed because it was so crowded. Once we reached the train station, the line was so massive and crowded we couldn't wait this long with a 3-year old. Oh, and there was an additional charge for the train ride, $3 per person. When we were waiting for the train to pass in front of us, we noticed that there were at the least 30 seats on this train that were empty. With this many people waiting in line, you would think they would fill all these seats. That would make good business sense to me, but I'm not running the show.
Moving on, we went to Bunnyville. There wasn't a charge to "see" the bunnies, but they charged you to get the food to feed the bunnies and then you had to put it down this pipe. There was no touching the bunnies. In fact, if anyone states that they have a petting zoo, they're a big fat liar-head!
This wasn't much fun for her. she didn't even get to see the bunny eating the food we bought.
We had FREE photo opportunities. Yes, I sound sarcastic, as the day went on it was a rage that was building up for the money that was being spent and disappointments at every turn. Again, we made sure JurNee didn't see our disdain for Vala's.
Then there was the haunted farmhouse. It was a free activity and JurNee seemed to enjoy it. We were glad because this was the last stop of the day.
Our course walking around and drinking water, a bathroom was in need, badly! There were no indoor plumping bathrooms throughout the entire park. You could find port-a-potties everywhere. I have one word to describe these port-a-potties,
SOUPY!
I refused to take a picture of this, and there are things that can't be unseen. I don't want to subject my readers to this mess. They were ALL like this. I held it! It took 30 minutes to walk to the van, another 30 minutes to get onto the highway and a few more minutes before we found a gas station. While at the gas station, we ran in to some of Vala's customers. My daughter overheard them talking about their day, and it seems, we weren't the only customers that felt this was a sham.
After dropping off my daughter and granddaughter at their home, Ray and I had a discussion about the day's events. He explained it to me in a manner that made me understand what their reasoning was for charging such ridiculous prices...
"It's like Wal-mart charging admission to come in and purchase their merchandise."
He summed it up perfectly. I realized that last year we went to a small pumpkin patch a few miles from home (not 110 miles as Vala's was). We had a blast with JurNee and so did she. They actually had a petting zoo, she got to pick out her own pumpkin and ride on the hayride without being charged an additional charge. My suggestion is to support your small local pumpkin patches. Vala's went beyond capitalism, which I do support, to downright extortion. Even at Disney, you may pay excelled prices for a ticket to enter, but once in there you don't have to pay extra for the rides.
 |
| Speaking of Disney, did Vala's pay for the commercial licensing for this? |
