点评:It's an obvious tourist thing. It's OK. It's fun. But it's no bucket-list, not-to-be-missed experience. If you don't get to do it for some reason, your life will be perfectly complete without it.
Tickets should be bought in advance. When I reserved a day ahead for April 9th, they were almost sold out; so do buy in advance. It's probably easier when there it isn't a total eclipse weekend! The tickets are $6 each. The tour was well-organized, they bring in groups of the right size, the tour guide was awake and alert and non-robotic. They say "30 minutes" but the tour seemed shorter than that.
Don't imagine you are going to be walking around in room after room. First you get seated in a room to watch a movie about the history of Ben & Jerry's. The main "tour" is a glassed-in room like a balcony over the factory floor. The main production is done in a single room about the size of a gym. Big numbered signs identify the process steps. They warn you when you buy the tickets that there is no guarantee that there will be actual production at the time of your visit. We did get to see it in partial operation. They had just finished cleaning and were getting it started.
I was entertained by a machine that's supposed to put filled pints onto a conveyor belt, where tumble over the end onto another conveyor belt. They supposed to land lid down, so that another machine can stamp time and date on the bottom end. A lot of the containers did not land properly, and two guy were madly reaching out and hand-flipping ones that had not landed lid-down. It was like a scene from Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times." I noticed they were fiddling with adjustments on the machine and conveyor belt, and after a few minutes all was well.
The third phase is a "flavor lab," which they acknowledged had been revamped for tours and was no longer the primary flavor lab... but was the historic location where the Cherry Garcia flavor had been developed. We got a single generous scoop of a test flavor--mango-something--in a little paper cup. There is then an opportunity to watch the QA lab in operation through a corridor window.
When we bought the tickets on line, it offered us an opportunity pre-buy a pint of ice cream. It added... was it $7? to the price of the ticket. The deal is that you get a coupon, and immediately after the tour you can choose a pint out of the freezer case in the gift shop and pay there with the coupon. Why is this a big deal? Because there's no waiting. The regular line to buy ice cream in their "scoop shop" was showing a 45-minute waiting time!
So... eh... it's OK. We liked it, we're glad we went, it's nothing fabulous. Uh, the tour of the Taza Chocolate Factory in Somerville, Massachusetts was better.
翻译:这是显而易见的旅游项目。没关系。很有趣。但这不是人生清单上不容错过的经历。如果你因为某种原因没有去,你的生活就没有那么完美了。
门票应该提前买。我提前一天预订了 4 月 9 日的门票,但门票几乎卖光了;所以一定要提前买。如果不是日全食周末,买票可能更容易!每张门票 6 美元。这次旅行组织得很好,他们带来了合适规模的团体,导游清醒、警觉,不像机器人。他们说“30 分钟”,但旅行似乎比这更短。
不要想象你会在一个又一个的房间里走来走去。首先,你会坐在一个房间里看一部关于 Ben & Jerry's 历史的电影。主要的“游览”是一个玻璃房间,就像工厂地板上的阳台。主要生产是在一间大约健身房大小的单人房间里完成的。大数字标志标识了流程步骤。他们在你买票的时候提醒你,你参观的时候不一定有实际生产。我们确实看到了部分运行情况。他们刚刚打扫完毕,正在开始生产。
一台机器让我很感兴趣,它应该把装满的啤酒放到传送带上,然后从传送带的末端翻滚到另一条传送带上。它们应该把盖子朝下,这样另一台机器就可以在底部打上时间和日期。很多容器没有正确落下,两个人疯狂地伸出手去翻动那些没有盖上盖子的容器。这就像查理·卓别林的《摩登时代》中的一幕。我注意到他们正在摆弄机器和传送带,几分钟后一切都好了。
第三阶段是“风味实验室”,他们承认已经为参观进行了改造,不再是主要的风味实验室……而是 Cherry Garcia 风味开发的历史地点。我们用一个小纸杯舀了一勺,里面装着一种测试口味——芒果味。然后就有机会通过走廊的窗户观看 QA 实验室的运作。
当我们在线购买门票时,它为我们提供了预购一品脱冰淇淋的机会。它增加了……7 美元?到票价中。优惠是,您会得到一张优惠券,参观结束后,您可以立即从礼品店的冰柜中挑选一品脱,并在那里用优惠券付款。为什么这很重要?因为不用等待。在他们的“冰淇淋店”买冰淇淋的常规队伍显示等待时间为 45 分钟!
所以……呃……还好。我们喜欢它,我们很高兴去了,没什么特别的。呃,马萨诸塞州萨默维尔的 Taza 巧克力工厂之旅更好。