Antoinette Smith

Review of Blue Bell Creameries

We took our young sons (entering 1st and 2nd grade...

We took our young sons (entering 1st and 2nd grade) today and were impressed by the tour. This wasn't so much because it was a fantastic, can't-miss tour but because it was relatively short (about 30 minutes), informative, to the point, and--the best part--held our older son's attention. That's no easy feat. It's a little annoying that they don't have tours on weekends but honestly, if they aren't in production while you're on the tour, what is there to see? A bunch of steel pipes, that's what. So yeah, whatever the company's reasons for not having tours on weekends, it's worth it to actually see the cool machinery (especially the ice cream sandwich machine!) in action. The ice cream at the end consists of a generous scoop, though if extra servings really are $1 apiece, as another reviewer noted a year ago, it would have been nice to see some signage saying so (and we would have gladly paid more to get more flavors, and there may have been signage that I missed). Our tour was pretty crowded, but there was another literally right behind us that wasn't full at all, so we just hung out with them instead and it was no big deal to the tour guides, and then our kids could actually see what was going on and we could hear. The factory's a hike from the Houston area (especially given the length of the tour), but we found the most direct route from south Katy was up Katy Hockley Cutoff to 290 west. Glad we bought tickets online a few days ahead of time--it's too far to drive and then take your chances, since there's nothing else to do there. It's worth the drive but be sure to plan it well, and stop for snacks etc. in Brenham since there's not a decent (modern/clean) gas station along 290 for quite a while, at least until you get to the CVS and Love's.