It’s springtime in Kansas City…and that means that one of the metro’s jewels will be opening! Overland Park’s Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead will open on Thursday, April 1, 2010.
Located in south Overland Park at 138th and Switzer, the Farmstead has nearly 200 farm animals within its 12 acres. There are also beautiful gardens, carefully tended to by the Master Gardeners/Johnson County Extension. In addition, there is a dairy barn, chicken coops, pony rides, wagon rides, a mining exhibit and much more! New this year is an old-time bank and ice cream parlor.
There is a concession stand where you can buy brown bag lunches or snacks; and many picnic tables and swings to stop, rest your legs and eat! When we go, I always take a handful of quarters for the goat and fish feed. The Farmstead has done a great job of placing handwashing stations around the property but I always have a stash of wet wipes with me, too! There’s a playground there, as well.
Admission to this wonderful attraction has been in the news throughout the past year. Admission has always been free, which is amazing considering how neat the park is. The Overland Park City Council approved a $2 admission fee, to be charged Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Admission will still be free for children under 1. And families can buy season passes – $35 for Overland Park residents; $50 for non-residents. This is an effort to reign in attendance, which has soared to 5000-6000 on weekend days.
The Farmstead operates April 1 through October 1, 9am-5pm, with some holidays and special event hours. How do YOU feel about the new weekend admission charge? Will this have an impact on how many times or when you visit? Let us know!
bummer!! we love this farmstead because it’s free. we visited many times last year but with this new charges it will cost us $10 each visit for a whole family, it will definitely affect our decision to go to this place this summer.
I wasn’t too happy about it. It was our one treat that was a definite. And as a single Mom $2.00 a person can mean alot.
I understand the new fee. We will gladly purchase a family membership. Attendance reached such high volume that it was no longer enjoyable, maybe this will thin the crowds a bit. The fee is minimal considering what a gem it truly is!
Who could complain about $2 admission? It is a GREAT place to go, totally understandable for an admission charge.
I think the admission charge is totally reasonable. If you have a big family, purchase a family pass! This is such a great place!!
Deanna Rose Farmstead is a favorite place to take my grandkids. We always have a grea time! It is well worth the admission fee and we’ll go several times this summer.
We discovered Deanna Rose last year and fell in love. Compared to the other places and the amount of activities as Deanna Rose, it is worth the cost. I’m more than willing to pay that. We’ll probably get the family pass.
I agree the crowds have become out of control on the weekends. We generally spend $10 already for the pass to do everything so another $6 (for the 3 of us) will not stop us from going.
Great place……where else can you go for $2.00 and do and experience all they have to offer.
I have to say that if you are not a resident of Overland Park and you visit Deanna Rose frequently a $50.00 family pass is out of the question, especially when you factor in the price of gas. That is $8.00 less than the Individual Plus pass at The KC Zoo, or $29.00 less than a Family Pass. Most families like mine can only choose one and the Zoo has so much more to offer esepcially with the new exhibits this year. It would have been a fair amount at $35.00 for everyone but $50.00 is way too high this is not the zoo and it is not even open year around. Sounds like price gouging to me.
My kids and I visit Deanna Rose often in throughout the season. The $2 fee will not affect my decision to go there. I typically visit on weekdays anyhow. I am glad that Deanna Rose has decided to keep Mon thru Thurs free. I do hope the $2 weekend fee does not make the weekday crowd increase! It’s not fun when the place is jam packed. That is why I genereally avoid Sat and Sun trips.
Though I was saddened to learn that Deanna Rose is now charging admission, it doesn’t deter me from going. In fact, I hope to take my daughter tomorrow (Friday). My family always made it a point to put cash in the donation bucket anyway when we went–because we were realistic that “free” was costing someone somewhere a big chunk of change–so to us, the new fees aren’t much of a change to our wallet. We appreciate having such a wonderful gem in our metro, and we will support it.
I think a $2 admission/person is absolutely reasonable. We always put this much money in the donation bucket anyway thinking that someone had to pay for the upkeep of all the attractions and we needed to support it.
Really $2 isn’t a bad admission fee for such a wonderful place…but we probably will choose to visit on weekdays and spend the admission money on extras there!