Pros:
Convenient location and very easy to find, yet still tucked away from the hustle and bustle of CT suburbia, Cranbury park is situated on a sprawling estate consisting of both open and wooded areas. Driving into the park, the parking lot closest to the disc golf course is adjacent to a Tudor Revival-style English mansion. The level of sophistication doesn't decrease once you get to the course.
Cranbury park is another good example of a course design that makes the most of the land available. The course is mostly wooded with a few open holes. The course features elevation changes throughout and also factors in natural features, such as baskets situation on large boulders, and rustic yet classy man-made features, such as rock walls. There are two baskets on every hole; one fixed (Bluebury) and another longer basket that changes to up to four pin positions (Cranbury). This makes it possible to play two separate 18-hole layouts in the same location. The wooded holes at Cranbury require accurate throws, but they're fair. Discs that stray from the fairway or riccochet off a tree won't typically make for terribly punishing upshots. There is a solid amount of variety with regard to the fairway shape and length and include straight and left and right-turning fairways and a few "S" shaped fairways. Hole lengths range from 178 up to 550, with a nice mix of distances in between.
The course featured very detailed tee signs depicting fairway, pin positions, distances, and possible lines. Bag hangers are available on the tee posts. The fly pads were level and solidly secured to the ground, so tripping on an exposed or raised lip isn't going to happen.
Cranbury park was exquisitely maintained. The lawns were mowed, bushes were trimmed, and there was little-to-no underbrush, briars, or shule. With the exception of an occasional water bottle, the course was clear of litter.
Navigation wasn't much of an issue as the next tee was easy to spot. When the next tee couldn't be seen, the permanent baskets had pavers underneath them with arrows pointing to the next tee.
Cons:
Some of the fairways were very close to other public areas, such as walking paths. Any time you have a course in a public park, this is a danger that needs to be negotiated. While I believe that much of this danger was mitigated in the course design, there are still a few holes that could be dangerous for pedestrians, bystanders, walkers, and joggers using the park.
There are very few cons with respect to the layout of the course. For the most part, the non-wooded holes at Crunbury were wide open. With the exception of #18, there wasn't much in the way of obstacles on the "big drive" holes. Overall, there wasn't much in the way of OB or other hazards to push the risk vs. reward aspect of the game. It doesn't appear that Cranbury has much flowing water on the property, so I doubt that this is something that could be incorporated in the future.
The rotating baskets didn't have the next tee arrow pavers like the permanent baskets, so finding the next tee was a slight issue on a few of the holes. This is a fairly minimal inconvenience as the course should be easy to navigate on subsequent rounds.
Other Thoughts:
We got to start our round by asking a few of the local players about the course layout and they were VERY helpful and friendly and were kind enough to let us know that after you finish hole #6, you need to walk to the left and backtrack a little to get to hole #7.
There is a lost disc box adjacent to hole #18, but it's wide open. So while it may be easy to return a disc to the box, anybody can just as easily pull their disc or a disc that doesn't belong to them.
I played Cranbury just after playing a championship-caliber course, so to be sure I didn't have any unfair bias I gave myself a week to collect my thoughts before writing this review. I'm glad I did. In that week, I've come to realize what a gorgeous course the folks of Norwalk have and if the site allowed for 0.25 disc ratings, this would easily be a 4.25. I frequently travel along the Merritt Parkway and Cranbury Park makes a fantastic halfway point in my trip. I look forward to playing this course again and recommend it to anyone that happens to be traveling along the I-95 corridor in CT, or anyone that wants to play a course that is both fun and challenging.