Similar to most families, we have not traveled much this year and wanted a short end of summer trip to get away for a few days. We settled on Gaylord Opryland as I have elite Marriott status and thought our son would enjoy the new water park. The water park is nice and kept us entertained for some time, but I agree with others that it needs to do more to operate safely amidst the pandemic. In my opinion, temperatures should be checked prior to entry and people should attest to not having been exposed to Covid. Most people inside the park were not adhering to social distancing and it wasn’t enforced.
Besides Sound Waves, we were disappointed with our experience at Opryland. First, this is a Huge resort and the front desk agent only gave us a map to show us where to park upon check-in. At this type of resort, I expected a higher level of hospitality. The front desk agents should be more welcoming, explaining the property and what there is to do. We weren’t even offered help with our luggage in an enormous resort. You are left to your own devices to figure out what is open and available on property, which is not much right now. It was disappointing that so many things were closed. I think they should open their restaurants at limited capacity if they are welcoming guests back. We felt like we paid too high of a rate to have 40% of the experience.
Our biggest disappointment was apathy to resolve our room request. We reserved an atrium room and expected to have a balcony. When we arrived in our room, we found that our room was only a window view of the atrium, no balcony. We wanted to enjoy a glass of wine in the evening on the balcony or coffee in the morning. You can’t really do that sitting on your bed. I called the front desk before we even put anything down to request a room change. The agent told me that there no rooms available to switch to that afternoon, so it would be the next day before we could move. He took my number and told me he would call me. We kept all of our things in our suitcase, and I really dislike living out of a suitcase, even for a day. The next morning I stopped at the desk to ask about our room change so that we could move and get settled. I was told they were only moving people for maintenance issues. I explained that I was told the day before that we would be moved, so they took my number again. At 3, I stopped back at the desk to find out the status. Now I was told there were no rooms available, maybe the next day. I wondered how it was possible that a single queen room with a balcony had not become available, especially because I have elite status. I spoke to the manager and she told me that they didn’t have enough housekeeping staff to keep up. I can empathize that they are short staffed, but we were paying more than $300 night and expected more. Again they told me they would take my number, and truly I felt not valued as a customer. When we came back from the pool and our room was not clean, my husband called for the 4th time and asked for the manager. She called back awhile later as were getting ready to leave for dinner and offered a room in an area of the hotel that they had not reopened yet. We packed up after I had finally unpacked and moved at 6:45pm. We appreciated moving, but felt like it took way too much effort to resolve our issue.
During this time, the hotel has the opportunity to wow their guests, but they really disappointed us. Why not put your guests in all of your best rooms instead of packing everyone into 2 areas of a huge hotel and giving people undesirable rooms. Bring your housekeeping staff back to provide the service people expect. Staff your dining facilities so that people can have the full experience of the hotel. We left the property for every meal after breakfast at Cascades that was on par with the free courtyard breakfast, but for $70 for 3 people. Parking is way too high for a suburban hotel. We paid $100 to park our car for 3 days.
Would I choose Opryland again? Not likely. Sound Waves was the only saving grace of the hotel experience.
