Guests visiting Lakeland Orchard & Cidery will have to wait a little longer to get a bird\u2019s-eye view of the sprawling property in Scott Twp.<\/p>\n
The delivery and installation of an 85-foot gondola wheel from Turkey has been delayed by ongoing shipping disruptions in the Middle East, said Jeff Roba, co-owner of Roba Family Farms. He\u2019s holding out hope it may be running before the fall season wraps up Nov. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cShipping is delayed everywhere,\u201d Roba said. \u201cThe wheel\u2019s been done since May. We\u2019ve just been trying to get it here, which has been the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roba said the wheel was loaded into containers and was scheduled to leave Turkey this past weekend. Additionally, Roba added that the wheel should arrive at a port on the East Coast of the United States on Sept. 25.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, I\u2019m anticipating a couple of weeks to get it here and assembled, and inspected, and all of the final checks,\u201d\u00a0 he said. \u201cThere is still a chance that we have it up and operating, for the last two or three weeks of the season, but that\u2019s if everything goes according to plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lakeland Orchard & Cidery was granted a variance by the Scott Twp. Zoning Board in February 2025 to install a \u201c100-foot-tall\u201d gondola wheel at the farm-based entertainment site, which would exceed the maximum structure height of 45 feet allowed in the municipality.<\/p>\n
In May 2025, the Roba family selected G\u00fcven Amusement Rides, a Turkish company, to build the wheel, which will cost approximately $1 million, Roba said.<\/p>\n
The term \u201cgondola wheel\u201d refers to the type of passenger compartments able to accommodate up to six people in each gondola unit, as compared to other Ferris wheel bench-type seating that generally accommodates up to two or three people per unit, Roba noted.<\/p>\n
The wheel represents the biggest addition to the property since The Lakeland Express train was introduced in 2022, Roba said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always looking for new, fun attractions that are unique to what we can provide,\u201d he said. \u201cOur orchard is the highest point in Scott Twp., so you already have pretty good views to begin with, if you go up 85 feet, they only get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wheel will offer sweeping views of 1 million tulips planted in the spring, 15 to 20 acres of sunflowers in the summer, and a Halloween Light Show in the fall, Roba said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the light show, you can take the train ride through it and that\u2019s one way to see it but now, with the wheel, you\u2019ll be able to see pretty much the entire show from the air,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Roba also teased several new attractions planned for the orchard in 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a bunch of stuff to be built in the offseason,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
MONDAY UPDATE<\/p>\n
THEN: The owners of Lakeland Orchard & Cidery were granted a variance to install a gondola wheel on the property in Scott Twp.<\/p>\n
NOW: Delivery of the wheel has been delayed by shipping disruptions, but it may now arrive by mid-to-late October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guests visiting Lakeland Orchard & Cidery will have to wait a little longer to get a bird\u2019s-eye view…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,3103,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-276850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scott-township","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}