Joe Satore
2/5
2.5 stars. Such a beautiful hotel and space to explore and spend Christmas, too bad it isn’t perfect in many ways, matter of fact it is kind of lousy at times. I’d say that 50% of the people we encountered were five star, solid and what I absolutely expect from the Gaylord, but the other 50% were one star and the feeling of “I don’t care” really shined in those encounters. Not at all what a five star hotel of this pedigree should be putting on display at the holidays.
Being greeted properly with helpful and friendly service should be top priority at the Gaylord, but in 2024 - not so much. Our first interaction was with excellent and super friendly staff inside the Village and right outside of Ice. Inside of Ice I’d say it was different. The sculpture artist wasn’t friendly at all and the slide attendants, be it top or bottom, didn’t have one smile amongst The group of five, and well not friendly at all either. The worst was the guy at the photo pickup. No sale.
That’s the real story here, first it’s great service then a second later it’s gone, then repeat. Staff at the two beverage stands were friendly and helpful, especially the bar staff who were talkative and interested in being professional and fun.
The door for Cirque Frost was friendly at first but then rude when no one led us to our seats and we just wandered off.
Staff in the lodge were all great and everyone we encountered couldn’t have been more friendly, but lost again by the Spa staff who was curt and phony. The marketplace was the same and after self-checkout after self-checkout did not work or have an error message we put everything back and left because there was no one around to help. Not many staff seem to have the guests as the prime concern, be them hotel or event guests.
We encountered our worst experience at Mountain Pass.
After several of the clueless hosts allowed person after person to interrupt the line we were noticed by a very helpful girl who took care of us and was apologetic. After sitting we waited quite awhile to be greeted and it was very to the point - like hurry up. We saw our server three times: order & drinks, 2-minute check back, check. We waited 24 minutes for a burger and a piece of fish. No one came by our table for almost a 1/2 an hour.
When it arrived the fish was overcooked and dry and clearly sat in a window dying while the cooks took the opportunity to dry out the burger. The idea of “some pink” and “no pink” apparently means raw or well done here. Neither is true. It’s medium and over medium - that’s traditional. Either way, the burger was somehow dry and still pink.
A man stopped by and asked how everything was and I said it wasn’t great and I explained that the food was cooked poorly across the board, I showed him and he agreed. His response ultimately was that he’d relay the message to the kitchen which will help them improve. No one else stopped by. One star service. One star management.
We decided after taking the kids around for the scavenger hunt, and some drinks for us that we were very glad we did not book a room this year along with the events. Disappointing on many levels, merely saved by the exceptional space and artistry of the resort. Might be our last visit here after this year, certainly not sure I want to be mistreated at Christmas again.
Bottom line: This resort completely failed to live up to its name and class this time around.
Ice: Great, as expected; overpriced.
Cirque Frost: Excellent.
Gaylord: Let down.
Parking: Severely overpriced.
Service: Mediocre and not up to par
Food: Fair to poor
