Castaway Bay by Cedar Point Resorts — Attraction in Sandusky

From the beginning making the reservations on Groupon was very convenient and easy to do! I called reservations and they explained to me that I could arrive as early as 9am to start utilizing the water park and the room would be ready by 4pm. We arrived just shortly after 9am and to our surprise the entire hotel was locked up. Confused we called reservations. She explained to us we wouldn't be able to get in until noon. I explained to her we drove for 3 hours and I didn't know what to do for the next few hours (we were tired and hungry) she suggested that we go to a local museum. I was not at all impressed with her customer service. We ended up going to breakfast and then going back to the hotel about 11am and they were open. Immediately we were greeted at the door and I had explained that this was a surprise for the kids and our experience thus far with reservations. Apologetic they showed us the front desk where we met a gentleman named Shane. He was so kind and patient with me and my story and apologized. As an apology he even gave us complementary bowling passes (this made my son very happy as he loves bowling) he went over all that the hotel has to offer. He went over all the weekend activities that were in store for us.

We got upto our room and was very impressed with how clean it was. The beds were very comfortable and pillows were too. (Only complaint was that whenever we tried using our microwave and the tv the microwave would go out. (we ended up moving it to another part of the room) was a bit inconvenient

We went down to the water park and ended up getting a little bite at the concession stand. The two women in there were so friendly, I explained how we were there for my son's birthday and they even gave him an ice cream cup for free. He was so excited especially since it was a cotton candy ice cream his favorite!

We were impressed with how clean the water park was. How alert and friendly the life guards were. Our only complaint was in the pools and spa the ground of the pool and spa was super rough and scratched up our legs knees and feet

One of the first activities we did was the craft room. We were greeted by Holly and Nancy! They were so kind and friendly and helpful. Very excited to see us they explained all the crafts and knowledge of how to make them. Super hands on helping my kids complete them. We explained it was my son's birthday weekend and we were headed to Santa next. They took it upon themselves to take a photo of my son with his crafting and holly slipped away....

After crafting we went to see Santa. Amazingly Santa knew who my son was by name! He knew we were celebrating his birthday. (Thank you Holly) 😊 my son was in awe by that magical moment. He even asked my husband and I if we set that up we explained that we didn't. He even made us show him our reservation to show that we didn't have anything to do with Santa knowing his birthday or his name.

We had too much fun with Oscar and Ava during the lobby games! They were so energetic and excited to play games with the kids! Their friendless was contagious.

My son isn't one to dance in public or be center of attention but when Josh ava and Oscar hosted the dance party they had him dancing like noone was watching their energy was on fire!

The steel drums were absolutely beautiful. The drummers even played happy birthday for my son (upon request) he absolutely loved it

I'm not sure if my review will be seen by anyone who can recognize these employees but I sure hope it does. Upon checking out I asked for the names of these employees from a manager because they need to be recognized for their excellence. This hotel was nothing short of absolutely wonderful!

So to : Shane at the desk Holly and Nancy in crafts Oscar ava and Josh who were live entertainment The drummers (on Nov 17)

You deserve all the recognition!! You made my son's birthday absolutely nothing short of amazing!! He even said this was way more fun then Kalahari!! Because of these employees and their positive energy we will be looking forward...

This place is disgusting and awful. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR SLEEP HERE! This was the absolute worst place I have ever stayed. EVER. And it is certainly not a cheap motel.... So after getting the family back to our rooms late at night after starting off our afternoon at cedar point (almost 11pm) I quickly noticed some ants in the middle of the floor. No big deal, I think....so I kill the 5 ants and start moving suitcases. Then I realize THE ENTIRE ROOM is teaming with ants. I found hundreds just walking around the room. And the obvious reason was that the floors were DISGUSTING. Food chunks and filth literally everywhere- pieces of chicken strips, shredded cheese, giant wads of dust, you name it- we found it in the middle of the floors, behind the chairs, etc. Nasty. Checked our adjoining room....same story although not quite as many ants. Maybe bc their room had a huge spider that was keeping them at bay.... huge🕷😬 Basically the rooms looked like they hadn't been cleaned in weeks. Tables, phones and fridge were sticky. Bathroom was filthy. After a very long discussion with management, the manager overnight (it was almost midnight by now) came and apologized but told us there were no other rooms and no overnight housekeepers to clean the room. So they told us to sleep there and they'd clean in the AM. I asked if they could at least bring a vacuum, broom, SOMETHING so I could clean the room myself (which I had already started doing suspecting this might be the answer). After another half an hour (during which time I was cleaning our room with the few towels we had) a housekeeper brings me a STRAW broom and dustpan 🤣 I was appalled but took it and did the best I could while strongly considering moving the whole family to sleep in our car. By around 1 am I had the room as clean as it was going to be, using all the towels available to clean all surfaces and floors. See pics below for just a bit of what we documented during cleaning. These towels were used to clean just the bathroom counter and floor. So after all that I decide to finally get in the shower (exhausted and grimy). No vent in the bathroom of course but kept the door shut. As im getting out of the bathroom, open the door around 130am, and our smoke alarm goes off. Realized quickly that it was ONLY our alarm. This of course woke up our entire family (kids had just barely fallen asleep after the whole cleaning endeavor) and was so loud we took the kids out of the room. Clearly no fire in our room. After a few minutes front desk calls and asks "did anyone use the microwave or the shower? This happens sometimes." Are you kidding me?!? I cant use the shower without setting off the smoke alarm now? 😡 So after much more discussion with manager who again came to our rooms and apologized, we were told someone would turn it off soon. Apparently "soon" means 32 min later when the fire department arrives! The poor firefighters (who should be out helping people who actually need help) have to run down to this crappy hotel everytime an old smoke detector goes off BECAUSE SOMEONE AT A HOTEL TOOK A SHOWER. At this point I am speechless as the very kind firefighter apologizes, saying they have to come here "constantly. This happens all the time." What kind of a company not only disrespects their patrons but also abuses the emergency responders like this? It's despicable. Needless to say, we left that day, found another hotel in another town 45 min away since we had more days planned at cedar point. After a lot of discussion, both in person and by phone we did end up getting most of our money back, although not without threatening to call our credit card to cancel the payment. And that took weeks. In addition, even at checkin the staff was dismissive and unprepared to handle what appeared to be the usual daily checkin of many patrons... it was the first indicator of a bad stay. There was literally nothing good about this place. Save yourself the drama-STEER CLEAR OF THIS...

We booked on Groupon with an advertisement of $94.00/night. We booked a two double bed room and sleeper sofa for two adults and one child. We found two nights for a higher price and booked through Groupon anyway thinking we were still saving money. When we arrived check in was smooth. Headed up to the room and the first thing we noticed were there were no hangers to hang our winter coats up in the designated area. We put them over the rod and disregarded it. When we saw the size of the beds, they were much smaller than we had anticipated and I immediately called the front desk to ask for an upgrade to our room. The front desk said because I booked thru Groupon I had to go thru them to make changes. I immediately started a chat with Groupon because you can not contact them via phone. The person who picked up my chat was Sandeep G. @ 7:37 p.m. I asked for an upgrade to my room (was hoping for queen beds). He looked into it and told me they couldn't do anything, the hotel was the only party who could help us. I told him I already asked the hotel and they told me it has to go thru Groupon. I asked for Groupon Management and he said he would place ten dollars in Groupon Bucks on my account to help make up for this experience. (It has been three days and there is not ten dollars in my account as of yet!!) He said he would send me to Groupon Management and they would email me. I asked him to stay on the chat with me until I received the email and he left the chat without acknowledging that request. While waiting for the email, I contacted Castaway Bay Reservations Line, the person who answered told me there was nothing they could do and I asked them to elevate to management. They transferred me and told me they will call Castaway Bay front desk and discuss it with them. They did this and told me there was a miscommunication and the front desk thought that I wanted a free upgrade and if I was willing to pay the difference they could change my room. I never once said I wanted a free upgrade! Noone even mentioned upgrade fees, which I would have been okay with if they were reasonable. I already figured there would be rate differences for queen rooms. Castaway Bay Reservation Management told me they just talked with the front desk, would connect me back to them and I could get the upgrade. Transferred back to front desk and the person told me he was sorry but there was still nothing he could do. I asked to talk to Management at Castaway Bay and he put me on with a supervisor. The supervisor told me to contact Groupon again, I told them the reservation desk agreed I could have the upgrade but he insisted there was no way to help me. He said Groupon would have to refund me and he said good luck getting that to happen, as they have had several issues with customers who booked Castaway Bay thru Groupon. Other disappointments include: We asked for additional toiletries- noone brought them after several hours, we interrupted room service to get what we needed. The breakfast buffet dishes were dirty The hotel posted different schedules than were handed to us at check in, and some of the activities did not even happen (leaving large groups disappointed) The waterpark bathrooms were dirty and the shower stalls were stained and scuffed. The provided towels for waterpark were very small and very rough Our room key stopped working the first morning of our trip (had to go to front desk to get another) they said this happens a lot. I could not believe I couldn't get an upgraded room, even when I was willing to purchase the upgrade. The hotel was not crowded at all, so that was not the issue. We made the best of our get away, but this was the most awful customer service I have...