We ended up at the Opryland for a quick overnight. We arrived at 6pm on a Saturday, and quickly realized our error in showing up moments before everyone was trying to get to the Grand Ole Opry House next door for the Saturday night show. I started to let the property 'off the hook' for a very bad start to our stay, but that show happens every Saturday night, and shouldn't be such a challenge for them.
In short, they have a fairly elaborate system for getting a lot of people checked in, but we were very disappointed in how we were treated, and could see it in the eyes of most other guests as well. There were multiple queues and "point' people managing cars coming in. At no point did any staffer tell us what to expect such as "you'll be directed where to park" or "bell service is not available" which it seemed it is not? We were clueless, and our pleas for help were answered by multiple people running around in uniform with "we'll get to you in just a moment". We spent about 25 minutes total just getting in the front door, and it would have been much longer had we not gotten fed up and taken matters in our own hands.
Now every hotel has a bad day, but we really felt this was a systemic problem. When you consider they charge you a minimum of $23 a day to park your car, the service should be astoundingly good. We had planned to valet, but with the rocky service evident, we 'self-parked' (eventually). All in all, the arrival/bell service/valet/information sucked. From that point on, life got a lot better. How do you let such an exceptional property be diminished by such a poor arrival?
Our room (Cascades outside room with 2 queens) was lovely, and we had zero complaints beyond some worn carpet. Everything worked, and was very comfy.
The best part of our stay was stopping in the Mexican restaurant (Solaria) on a whim. The staff there seemed to recognize quickly that we needed someone to just make us feel welcome. It started with Casey, who was on his first night. Then Nicole, who took great pride in making sure we loved everything placed before us. We don't have the names, but the executive chef deserves a nod for having some very unique dishes for us to sample. Don't miss the roasted corn on the cob appetizer. Even our barbacoa beef nachos were well above any we had had before. We were so impressed that we flagged down manager Mike to let him know that his staff had made our sour start into a positive one, and we ended up having a wonderful time visiting with them. It's a 'save' in the truest sense, and they deserve a round of applause for pulling it off.
I also had a nice encounter with a staffer named Langston who helped me on a quick mention. He listened, and helped me pull my need off with a smile. Good stuff.
If I had one piece of advice for management, it would be that you have the kind of place that people are very excited to arrive at. Just like some for obvious Mouse influenced places, you should go WAY above the norm to make sure that the arrival is the smoothest, slickest, and pain free thing that happens their whole trip. We had been about 15 years since our last stay, and frankly, we will choose our trip very carefully next time to avoid a mess like we saw. I shouldn't have to think that way.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.