AL. Ringling Mansion — Hotel in Baraboo

Came for wedding and wedding reception. The bride and groom had the first floor of mansion and gym booked. I guess it was accidentally booked over with a tea party. This caused the tea party to be held on the 2nd floor, and all the tea party to be funneled thru the wedding guests in the receiving line. It was really distracting and shouldn't have happened. Also, even though the wedding party had the venue booked there was a tour booked as well.

Not only did the tea party distract from the event, it was known prior that it was a problem and the best Joe (manager) could do to fix it was to move it to 2nd floor. It shouldn't have been double booked when the wedding was reserved 9 months in advance. Instead of fixing the issue, when the wedding party insisted the tea party be moved elsewhere, Joe took back some verbal freebies he offered prior to this. If you book, be sure any verbal commitments are written down, things like being able to setup day before, room for bridemaids to dress, etc.

Joe and his family were very present through the whole thing, they seemed like very nice people. They were helpful during the event and if the tea party didn't happen i would give them 5 stars. Unfortunately the overbooking of venue should never have happened, and it should have been resolved if it was in error.

Other than that, the mansion is cool and a great venue for pictures. The gym/hall is a nice big space for reception. Once they close the mansion entrance, guests need to enter thru the elks lodge door, which is not nearly as impressive to guests.

We did bring our own food and used a significant number of nesco roasters, it did cause some electrical issues due to some not yet updated electrical in hall. Venue is near downtown baraboo, parking may be an issue if there are other events going on downtown. There is a small lot for 20 or 30 cars, then the rest is street parking only. I want to add in - After posting this review to their facebook page, Joe (owner/manager) decided to reply and rated our wedding a 1 star out of 5. This shows his professionalism when receiving criticism, instead of apologizing or fixing the issue he insults and retracts offers...

There's a lot to like about the historic Ringling Mansion, but I cannot recommend the ghost tour. We expected something spooky, fun, informative and perhaps a bit silly. Instead, it was a rather long and uninteresting tour, and it ended up getting fairly uncomfortable and sad, even. The tour guides are very nice and committed to their guests, but that didn't stop our group from feeling we didn't have the experience we expected.

It all started well enough, but the "ghost" part of the tour relied heavily on the tour guides asking yes/no questions to ghosts and watching their two dowsing rods move. (Crossed meant "yes" and staying parallel meant "no.") The other "ghostly" part was an app on a mobile phone that supposedly picked up on things the spirits were talking about and would periodically spit out a random word. (I had no idea cell phones came with features for detecting spirits!) A little bit of that goes a long way, but an hour or more of it was pretty dull.

Where the tour took a detour into the sad and maudlin was when a local resident joined the tour. She lost her mother and sister, and the tour guides started communicating with her loved ones. OF COURSE, they were present! (Every dead loved one can be found in the Mansion, apparently.) By the time the hosts asked the "ghosts" if they missed and wanted to hug the woman, it felt cheap and exploitive. I trust the tour guides truly meant well, but it felt like this individual's trauma and loss was being exploited to entertain the people on the tour. I was extremely uncomfortable with what seemed a very personal, very tragic situation.

So, instead of a fun, spooky and silly tour, we spent 90 minutes in just four rooms watching sticks swivel and listening to one family's sorrowful story of illness and loss. We were glad to get out of the tour and recover some fun time with friends afterward.

The first floor of the mansion was lovely (but is still a work in progress with restoration.) If the tour guides had spent more time on history and telling stories of the Ringlings, it might've been a...

Phenomenal! Tour guide was AMAZING. LOVED HER. So lucky to have met the owner. That's an amazing story in itself. We were lucky to be the only ones touring at the time. Really got to go beyond the traditional tour. Great stories and history. Joe and his staff need to be given major props not just for keeping this house in tact, but for delivering the stories with such passion and commitment. This was a highlight of our visit to the Baraboo area. I recommend this to everyone. Whether you are interested in the circus or not doesn't matter. Al Ringling was a fascinating staple in the area. I would come back here every visit just to see the progress made on the building. This isn't about making money off a historic name, it's about passion for a person who impacted culture. 5 stars isn't enough. . . . Side note . . . When the movie is made I'm on deck to be an extra � No joke. Love you guys and what you have done with a landmark on the brink of demolition. I wish you nothing...