Grand Timber Lodge

After 20 years of coming here, I’m ready to say goodbye. My family left a night early because they couldn’t face another evening of the noise from the room above us. For the last three nights, 3-4 unattended children were running, stomping, and shouting every afternoon and well past quiet hours. It sounded like they were river dancing in ski boots and bowling in their living room, and we weren’t the only guests who complained. The first two nights, a manager seemed to do their best and said they’d had a serious talk with the parents. Tonight, a different manager told me he couldn’t do anything except listen outside their door and maybe find us another room. It felt like he was dismissing the people complaining instead of speaking with the family making the noise. That’s ridiculous. It seemed there were no consequences for being such a bad neighbor, and management didn’t care how much people ran, stomped, and screamed. Update: They did find us a room at the end of the first-floor hall and added a $50 credit to the account. That was a nice gesture, but it’s hard to understand why this manager said nothing could be done when his colleague had managed to get the noise down a bit on the earlier nights. I also don’t know why the noisy family wasn’t moved somewhere they wouldn’t be above other guests. Management here is wild. The first night, our fridge broke and warmed all our food to 50 degrees. They replaced it after we called the front desk twice, but we had to stay there for three hours while they swapped the fridge out twice.

The pool and hot tubs were nice, though they weren’t as indoor-outdoor as I’d expected. With so many older guests, it felt a little awkward for my kids, and the place seemed more aimed at adults and seniors. Lift tickets were so expensive that we didn’t end up boarding from the resort. Inside, our room was nice, and the front desk staff were kind and gave great service. Room service staff were annoying, though. We’d been told what to do if we didn’t want service, but they still knocked and acted strangely. The location also made the room feel loud, with trucks and traffic outside. Our balcony faced the main entrance, so it was an odd place to sit. I was disappointed that the advertised in-room jacuzzi tub wasn’t there. A plaque said it was about to be renovated, and I’d really been looking forward to it. Calling the kitchen gourmet is a stretch, even though it was well equipped for a hotel. Please put oven mitts in the units. Having an oven with no safe way to take food out is unsafe and a liability.

We stayed for seven nights and had a wonderful time. The condos were comfortable and had all the amenities, including fireplaces, jetted tubs in the rooms, balconies looking toward the slopes, covered basement parking, and washer-dryers in the larger rooms. The staff were very friendly, and the rooms and facilities were clean. Great location, too.

We loved being able to walk from the hotel to dinner each night, and the free shuttle made the ride back up the hill easy. The rooms were very clean and comfortable, though we could hear our neighbors talking at a normal volume through the connecting doors. The pool was warm, but I wished it were a bit warmer given how cold it was outside.