Timber Ridge Lodge & Waterpark — Attraction in Town of Lyons

This is our 6th year in a row coming here and will DEFINITELY BE OUR LAST! HORRIBLE RUDE SERVICE FROM THE MOMENT WE ARRIVED!! Check in is 4pm and we arrived at 417 pm , there was quite a long line at the front desk with only 2 people working the desk. The 30 minute wait was a bit excessive I felt for a place that should be not only use to a high volume of people but also well staffed to handle the customers in a relatively quick manner. I did not complain nor make an issue of this as I was among many people feeling very agitated as well & could see the frustration on their faces & the employees faces..I waited patiently without complaint & understood that "THINGS HAPPEN" when I finally got to the desk (approximately 450 pm) I paid, showed ID, signed all paperwork and was THEN told there are no rooms available but they'll text me when there is one..AFTER TAKING MY PAYMENT FOR THE ENTIRE 3 NIGHT STAY! ( maybe I would have preferred to pay a cancelation fee & took my business elsewhere..?) This was now roughly 515...so I asked if I could be directed where to park to be closet to our room as I had 3 days worth of food that needed to be refrigerated and we just drove an hour in 50 degree temps with the food expecting to get in our room immediately after checking in. ( there's outside door assignments to make it easier for guests to be parked close enough to their room depending on where in the resort your room is located) The front desk attendant told me NO I DONT HAVE A ROOM NUMBER FOR YOU BECAUSE WE DONT KNOW WHERE WE'RE PUTTING EVERYONE..ITS FIRST COME FIRST SERVE( mind you i booked & prepaid a portion of my 1200.00$ stay a MONTH in advance) ....she was very dry & unapologetic about this. So I said ok thank you I'll figure something out, maybe turn the AC on in my van to keep my food cold...so moving forward I finally got my text that my room was ready & to come to the front desk for my room keys and room # assignment..so I went to the front desk , waited for her to be done w the guest that was already speaking w her...I said " JUST RECEIVED MY TEXT FOR MY ROOM & KEYS " her reply was very rude and almost DISPLINARY as she said YOU HAVE TO GET BACK IN LINE...so AGAIN I waited roughly another 20 minutes in that line...I had my 16 year old special needs son with me who was at this point getting antsy & I could tell was becoming overwhelmed so I asked him if he'd like to go to the arcade down on the next floor while I wait...he agreed & we made arrangements that he would stay at the arcade until I came for him or he was to come back to the lobby by me since we had no room assigned yet to meet at. I finally get to the front of the line..no apologies, no sympathy, no nothing other than instructions and " this is your room # how many keys do you need?" I asked where the luggage carts were for loading our things because theres none in the front foyer where theyve usuallybeen in all the years we've came..& she said" OH THERE SHOULD BE SOME OVER THERE". So I quickly got my van moved, searched for a luggage cart with no luck but was able to get one from another customer who was just finishing with theirs...it was after 6 by the time I got into my room to unpack, I put my cold foods in the fridge still bagged up just to keep them cold while I went to the arcade for my son...he was not there so I headed to the lobby where I told him to go back to if he left the arcade. When we reconnected he was very panicked & didn't want to leave my side because he thought he LOST ME & THE LADY DOWNSTAIRS JUST POINTED OUTSIDE & TOLD HIM THAT I WENT THAT WAY!!!!!!!!! he told her my FULL LEGAL NAME AND SHE SEEN HIM WITH ME BOTH TIMES I WAS AT THE FRONT DESK SO SHE KNEW WHO HE WAS but rather than give him our room # she pointed him in the direction of the parking lot & said SHE WENT THAT WAY...UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! now on to the waterpark...UNDERSTAFFED. NO TOWELS, NO TUBES NO TABLES..ALL DAY..FECES ON THE FLOOR!! .my complaints do not end here but I've ran out of character space. My next step is to contact...

I loved our suite. There was plenty of room for a family of 5+1 to feel like they aren't on top of each other. There was plenty of storage space for clothes, food, toiletries, etc... The fireplace made it feel very cozy. There were 2 full bathrooms, so that was obviously convenient. The suite was just gorgeous and gave a sense of luxury.

The gift shoppe is very cute and has some unique items. Some items are decently priced, others are priced for tourism, which is to be expected.

The arcade is amazing and quite addictive. They have much better quality prizes then you'd see at other arcade's and for less "tickets". On our last day we lost a few of our game cards while packing. I was freaking out because I had over $70 and 1,700 tickets on mine. They were able to use the numbers off the card we did have plus the last 4 digits of our credit card and pull up the different transactions. It only took about 10 minutes and she was able to reload our balances onto new cards. It was great customer service and I was very relieved.

The entire staff was very nice.

The water park has two slides. One that uses a raft and one that doesn't. Both are very fun. The water temperature is warm, so there isn't any need to slowly walk in and get used to the water. There are two hot tubs. One is for ages 6 and over. That one extends outside if you slip under some plastic flaps. At night they have a colorful strobe light on the outside area. The second hot tub is for adults 18+ only and is fenced in with a gate. You can still see through, but it gives a somewhat sense of not having kids running around the room like crazy. I like the showers in the locker rooms, but wish the locker rooms were connected to the water park rather than outside of it and across the hall. The bathrooms are in the locker rooms, which I also wish were inside the water park area rather than across the hall.

The jacuzzi tub in our room was broken. A few of the jets didn't shoot and when I tried adjusting them they fell apart. A few did work, but it would've been nice to have it fully functional. It took a minute to figure out the thermostats, but once you figure it out it's easy. May sound petty, but 8 thought the toilet paper was a bit cheap for the cost of the stay. Luckily I brought my own just in case. I do wish the water park was open later, until around 10:30 or 11. I also wish the arcade was open until midnight.

All in all it is a great place to visit for 1-2 nights. There isn't enough in the water park to keep your family entertained any longer than that. It will get boring. However, if you are doing things outside of the hotel you may get longer enjoyment from it. I'm from the area so we just stayed at the hotel the whole time (2...

I have mixed feelings about our stay.

I called the day of check in to see what time we’d be able to start swimming before our room was ready at what was supposed to be 4, and they said 1:30. I’m glad we didn’t get there that early. After waiting in line for 30 minutes just to check in, our room still wasn’t ready. I don’t understand how you have two employees at the front desk on the weekend. We were offered late check out for the inconvenience of our room not being ready, but when I checked my receipt at the end of our stay, I was charged for the late check out! Which I inconveniently had to call about. They ended up refunding the late check out fee, so that’s fine. Anyway, during our stay. My toddlers and I were woken up during their nap the second day to an employee and police officer knocking on our room door. They were there to check the tv damage. First of all, I didn’t even know of any tv damage until my fiance told me about it. So whatever tv damage there was, was from the previous guests. So why wasn’t that checked on before we checked in?? Had to go down to the front desk again (the phone rang and rang) just to make sure we weren’t going to be charged for it. I booked a room for 2 beds. We were given what was supposed to be a “two bed suite.” There was one bed and a pull out couch. It would have been nice to know that when we were checking in. The jetted tub was good size, but one of the jet covers flew off when the jets went on and the handle to turn the water on had a loose plate around it. The tub itself had chips in it and there were blue stains on the inside shower curtain. The arcade was WAY overpriced. 10-12 credits per game is absolutely insane. The locker room by the pool was so dirty. The cafe in the pool area was never fully stocked with hot items. I asked if they had any pepperoni pizza slices, the lady said yes and I proceeded to wait 20 minutes because she put a new one in the oven. I ended up telling them to forget it and took a sausage. Of course the pepperoni was ready when I was going to pay. The employees in the cafe move so slow, they truly do not care. I think he was a manager, but the man checking us out in the cafe was very very nice, so that was an upside to it. The pools were fun and the lazy river was nice. The inside pool with the basketball hoops could have used some cleaning by the rocks, there were wrappers and trash.

I guess for being Lake Geneva and the price of the stay I expected a lot better than what we got. Also, I’m not an out of towner. I live 5 mins from the hotel and was hoping to enjoy a local business but ended up disappointed.

Honestly, it’s a one and done type stay. I wouldn’t stay again. I’ll give 3 stars because the kids had...