Nothing To Write Home About
Written: Jun 02 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: It was free.
Cons: Not much to do on the resort.
The Bottom Line: Great if you like to ski or play golf, otherwise go somewhere else.
|
|
|
| terrid's Full Review: Massanutten |
While I was in Kuwait, my husband was given the opportunity to get a "free" 3 day, 2 night stay at Massanutten Resort. He thought this would be a great mini vacation for us after I got home. We'd been on promotions like this before. In fact, we went on a different one when I was home for R&R leave and loved it. We loved it so much, we bought into it. Anyway, we expected a similar experience with Massanutten. Besides, my sister owns in this resort and recommended us and my sister has awesome taste in resorts!
So, we were scheduled to arrive on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. Not much traffic and we played around on our way. It's about a 3 hour drive from our house but we took almost 7 hours. (We stopped and geocached.) So, we arrived at the resort around sun down, 8pm. We followed the directions that were given and only took one wrong turn. On the final road to the resort, there is a bill board that advises you to stay on Resort Dr. The problem is that unless you read the street signs you don't know you're on Resort Dr. The directions give you route numbers. We turned onto what we thought was Resort Dr and should have stayed straight. An easy fix.
We finally show up to check in. The young lady at the check in counter is friendly and helpful. We get checked in with no hassles and are given lots of information on the resort and surrounding areas. We're told we are staying in building 6 and it's a couple of miles away from were we were.
As we drive to where we are staying, we're checking our this resort. The grounds are well maintained. Everything is clean. There is a guard booth at the entrance where you have to show your pass. There is also a sign that states no 2 or 3 wheeled vehicles. Strike one against the resort. We just purchased a new Harley motorcycle.
The directions to the building 6 are excellent and we get there with no problems. We enter the building and open our door.....my husband was ready to leave. Think cheap hotel and you have what they put us in. There were 2 queen size beds, a small circular table with two straight back chairs, a desk and an entertainment center with a 19in tv. Now, don't get me wrong, we did have an alarm clock, a hair dryer and some hygene products (soap, shampoo, and lotion). What we missed and expected was a coffee maker, frig and microwave. After all, those are things I usually find in any motel room. Strike two against this resort.
My husband is a big time coffee drinker. After getting over the disappointment of the room, he decides he'd like a cup of coffee. I look through all the papers that we got and find that there is a snack bar back where we checked in. Off we go to the snack bar. No, coffee!!! We got to the check in desk and ask where we can get coffee at 9pm. Most places on the resort are already closed for the evening. We're told that the golf course resturant is still serving and we could get coffee there. This is back the direction we came from. We are able to get a cup of coffee to go at the bar for only $1 which is about what we pay at WaWa or Sheetz. The coffee isn't great but it is coffee. I notice that this place doesn't open until 7:30am and I'm usually up way before that so I ask where I can get coffee in the morning. I'm told down the mountain at the Exxon station.
The next morning after 2 cups of coffee from Exxon and a drive around the resort, we attend the sales pitch. We're suppose to get a contiental breakfast at this pitch too. I'm already not impressed and really don't want the pitch but we agreed to it and we would get the money back my husband paid for this stay if we attended it. I wanted the money back.
Our sales person was really nice. We let it be known up front that we were not impressed with this place. He smiled and gave us a good tour anyway. The tour started with him driving around the resort and telling us about a big water park that they are building. As we had already drove around the park, this really wasn't necessary. We finally got to stop and see one of the condos. It was okay. It was big but nothing great or even good for that matter. I could see a bunch of college kids hanging out there for a ski weekend but that's about it. It's nowhere that I would stay unless I was taking a bunch of kids somewhere. We get back to the sales office for the close. We're not interested. I haven't seen anything that would interest me. Then, another condo is available to be seen and bought. I want to go see it because I know my sister and nothing I'd seen says she'd stay there. The second condo is nice. In fact, it's more than nice. This is what they should be showing people if they want them to buy. This condo is a townhouse. It has two bedrooms, a living room and a sitting room on the second floor, full kitchen, two baths and a sauna. Not bad, at all. I'm still not interested but I finally saw something that I could see my sister in.
The resort itself is not bad. There are two golf courses. One is harder than the other and Arnold Palmer designed them. As I don't play golf, that's about all I could tell you. We took the ski lift up the ski slope. I don't ski either but the ski trails didn't look very challenging. Of course, my comparison are slopes from the Alps. I thought the bunny trail was a place to learn cross country skiing. It looked flat. The pools near where we stayed were closed. There is a mini golf course. It looked okay and is suppose to be on some kind of mini golf circuit. There is a skate park with several ramps and jumps. It looked pretty good. They allow skateboards, skates and bikes on it. No one was useing it while we were there. There is a store and as mentioned earlier a snack bar and resturant. Expect to pay as you are on a resort.
Overall, we used this as a base of operations to do things elsewhere. There are only two things to do here: play golf or ski. Well, actually three, you can hike around the resort. Expect to travel several miles to get anywhere. The coffee at the Exxon station was much better than at the resort. Personally, if I was trying to sell something to someone, I would put my best foot forward not my worse.
Recommended:
No
Level of Experience Needed: Beginner
Best Time to Visit: January
Best Suited For: Students
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
terrid
|
|
Member: Terri Doughty
Location: Lexington Park, Md
Reviews written: 397
Trusted by: 43 members
About Me:
Life is good.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.