minie_meese
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2007
- Messages
- 897
Sorry - this is a bit long.
For the past week my family has been staying at Massanutten, a timeshare resort in central Virginia. We've had a terrific time especially with respect to the spectacular nature everywhere around us (we needed a week that wasn't Disney). The resort is less than 10 miles from Shenandoah National Park, the nearby towns are quite nice, and there are services on the resort property that are enjoyable, but the resort itself left us less than thrilled and it makes me realize how spoiled I am after staying at a Disney resort so often. I enjoy vacations that are not about Disney vacation (as much as I love Disney), but my non-Disney trips will never include one at Massanutten again.
Massanutten is a very large complex with skiing in the winter and many outdoor activities in the warmer months. It is spread out over many square miles. While there are tons of things for kids and adults to do on sight, you need to drive to every one of them (most families have one car providing a challenge for families wishing to do 2 different things) and many of the attractions are well short of great.
The staff left us underwhelmed, our accommodations were poorly constructed and poorly maintained, and we found many of the on-sight attractions were mediocre at best.
Our check in clerk was very grumpy but we figured it was one person and it was after midnight when we checked in. The next day we went to the concierge to get some details on activities and we felt like the young lady we talked to was doing us a favor by answering our questions. Every person we talked to at the concierge was like that. Most were young but that is no excuse. The absolute worst staff we encountered was at the on-sight spa. After complaining about the poor services my daughter received, they took $20 off of my $300 bill (my daughter's services totaled $150 as did mine). I have never encountered such poor spa service from the 2 people my daughter had. The 2 individuals I had were very good. We did encounter a few good resort staff throughout the week but it was the exception and most were associated with outdoor activities such as the mountain bike rental staff. These individuals were very helpful and friendly but they were the exception.
We managed to avoid the timeshare sharks entirely thank goodness. I got to observe them - and they were sharks.
The property itself is constructed of sub-standard materials and is poorly maintained. Most of the problems were small or medium, but together I felt it pretty significant. When we arrived, the light outside our bedroom window in the parking lot had a loud buzz that lasted all week so we couldnt keep the windows open. There were large holes in the parking lot asphalt that one could break an ankle in. The refrigerator door was full of dings, one of the tvs could not be tuned to more than half of the available stations and two of the remote controls had dead batteries. The turntable in the microwave didn't work. Instead of providing a few boxes of Kleenex for our 2 bedroom unit, we were given 2 or 3 individual packages of purse-sized Kleenex for a weeks stay. The gas grill supplied for our unit was a nice touch but it had a broken starter so we had to use matches (which were not supplied) and the deck where it resided was covered with grease from previous grill users. The beds were very uncomfortable, and the sheets were very scratchy. I ended up sleeping on the couch most nights because I couldn't sleep in the bed. The walls were very thin and you could hear conversations in the unit next door.
There were some very odd resort practices too like clearing the pool of children for 10 minutes every hour for adult swim - even from the kiddie pool.
Don't get me wrong, we had a great week in Virginia and I was not going to let the problems we encountered at the resort spoil our vacation. There are a number of different resort complexes in Massanutten and maybe some are better than ours (Woodstone Meadows) but I'm not willing to try it again. It was not even in the same league as the least expensive accommodations at Disney. I am sure other people have had much better experiences at Massanutten but I will never stay at Massanutten again, nor could I recommend it to a friend. If we come back to the area I would much rather stay in one of the rustic cabins inside the National Park. At least there I know what we are getting and know that the staff will be helpful.
In
December we are staying 5 days at Old Key West followed by 3 nights on the Disney Wonder. I am sure it will remind us what quality and good service is not always perfect, but a lot closer than we encountered this week.
Thanks for letting me vent a little - I think that was all I needed to let it go. Yep - I let it go
For the past week my family has been staying at Massanutten, a timeshare resort in central Virginia. We've had a terrific time especially with respect to the spectacular nature everywhere around us (we needed a week that wasn't Disney). The resort is less than 10 miles from Shenandoah National Park, the nearby towns are quite nice, and there are services on the resort property that are enjoyable, but the resort itself left us less than thrilled and it makes me realize how spoiled I am after staying at a Disney resort so often. I enjoy vacations that are not about Disney vacation (as much as I love Disney), but my non-Disney trips will never include one at Massanutten again.
Massanutten is a very large complex with skiing in the winter and many outdoor activities in the warmer months. It is spread out over many square miles. While there are tons of things for kids and adults to do on sight, you need to drive to every one of them (most families have one car providing a challenge for families wishing to do 2 different things) and many of the attractions are well short of great.
The staff left us underwhelmed, our accommodations were poorly constructed and poorly maintained, and we found many of the on-sight attractions were mediocre at best.
Our check in clerk was very grumpy but we figured it was one person and it was after midnight when we checked in. The next day we went to the concierge to get some details on activities and we felt like the young lady we talked to was doing us a favor by answering our questions. Every person we talked to at the concierge was like that. Most were young but that is no excuse. The absolute worst staff we encountered was at the on-sight spa. After complaining about the poor services my daughter received, they took $20 off of my $300 bill (my daughter's services totaled $150 as did mine). I have never encountered such poor spa service from the 2 people my daughter had. The 2 individuals I had were very good. We did encounter a few good resort staff throughout the week but it was the exception and most were associated with outdoor activities such as the mountain bike rental staff. These individuals were very helpful and friendly but they were the exception.
We managed to avoid the timeshare sharks entirely thank goodness. I got to observe them - and they were sharks.
The property itself is constructed of sub-standard materials and is poorly maintained. Most of the problems were small or medium, but together I felt it pretty significant. When we arrived, the light outside our bedroom window in the parking lot had a loud buzz that lasted all week so we couldnt keep the windows open. There were large holes in the parking lot asphalt that one could break an ankle in. The refrigerator door was full of dings, one of the tvs could not be tuned to more than half of the available stations and two of the remote controls had dead batteries. The turntable in the microwave didn't work. Instead of providing a few boxes of Kleenex for our 2 bedroom unit, we were given 2 or 3 individual packages of purse-sized Kleenex for a weeks stay. The gas grill supplied for our unit was a nice touch but it had a broken starter so we had to use matches (which were not supplied) and the deck where it resided was covered with grease from previous grill users. The beds were very uncomfortable, and the sheets were very scratchy. I ended up sleeping on the couch most nights because I couldn't sleep in the bed. The walls were very thin and you could hear conversations in the unit next door.
There were some very odd resort practices too like clearing the pool of children for 10 minutes every hour for adult swim - even from the kiddie pool.
Don't get me wrong, we had a great week in Virginia and I was not going to let the problems we encountered at the resort spoil our vacation. There are a number of different resort complexes in Massanutten and maybe some are better than ours (Woodstone Meadows) but I'm not willing to try it again. It was not even in the same league as the least expensive accommodations at Disney. I am sure other people have had much better experiences at Massanutten but I will never stay at Massanutten again, nor could I recommend it to a friend. If we come back to the area I would much rather stay in one of the rustic cabins inside the National Park. At least there I know what we are getting and know that the staff will be helpful.
In
December we are staying 5 days at Old Key West followed by 3 nights on the Disney Wonder. I am sure it will remind us what quality and good service is not always perfect, but a lot closer than we encountered this week.
Thanks for letting me vent a little - I think that was all I needed to let it go. Yep - I let it go
), Whenever I have that kind of thing happen I can't help but compare what my money would have purchased at WDW for the same price.
