Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort & Water Park — Hotel in Gatlinburg

When travelling to the Smokey Mountains, I wanted the whole experience of the Smokey's. Westgate was the perfect place to get that experience and so much more. Booking was easy, especially when doing so through a vacation bundle third party company. Arriving at the resort on a Saturday at 4pm was a NIGHTMARE. The place is beautifully decorated with a lot of confusing signage. We looped around the check in area several times without being able to park or know where we were going. We finally drove around and a staff member at gate that leads to the mountain guided us and asked us to park somewhere else due to the lack of parking space. I finally made my way to customer service/check in area. It is located in a large room with many check in/customer service stations, also it seemed like a common room to hang out with a nice bar. Again, beautiful place, a bit overwhelming with all that was going on at once, which made it all so hard to listen in and focus on checking in. I waited in the line for approximately 10 to 15 minutes before I reached a customer service rep. I provided my information and while the staff member was having technical difficulties setting up our room keys, I overheard some of the details given to the couple that was checking in at the nearest station, none of which were shared with me by my staff member. Once the key cards were finally ready, I requested a map since one wasn't provided and was rushed to someone else on the other side of the room. She was a bit more helpful and provided more information about the resort, marked my map with the location of our cabin and gave a few tips about places we should check out and operation times of pools. I knew there was a water park in the resort and figured it was included with the reservations, my family was looking forward to using at least once during our stay. I asked if I needed anything other than our key cards to enter and found out that it comes with an extra charge that I could have added while checking in. She mentioned that she could make a deal with me and provide us with free tickets for one day if we agreed to have a "preview of the resort". I figured it wouldn't hurt, so agreed and scheduled it for the next morning, for scheduling purposes we had to provide a $40 deposit which were refundable after the breakfast meeting. Decided to cancel due to finding out it was a business meeting and we were not interested in becoming partners or buying any shares, etc. So be aware of these breakfast meetings and do your homework before signing up for things around here. Lol Finding our cabin was easy once we had a map. Our cabin was spacious and beautiful, one bedroom suite with king size bed and a hot tub located in the bedroom, 1.5 bathrooms, a large living room and dinning room area. The sofa converts into a queen size bed and a balcony with a beautiful view of the mountains. The kitchen was fully equipped with pots, pans, dishes, glasses, and utensils. As far as appliances; the kitchen was equipped with a full size refrigerator, microwave, oven/stove, toaster, coffee maker, blender, and a washer/dryer. We made use of most of the appliances during our stay and didn't have any problems. The only thing I was disappointed about was the hot tub in our room. We filled it up several times and so much dirt would washout after turning the jets on. Finally on our last night, we took the time to remove and clean each spout/breather and got it to work properly for a while. We dined in at the restaurant, Southern Comfort and were very pleased with the food and service. We also had a chance to visit their marketplace and found they carry almost everything you'll need during your stay (a little pricey but worth it). We also walked to the top of the hill and enjoyed their mini golf course and admired the pool, it was a little cold to actually get in the pool, in my opinion. Regardless, it was a nice size pool and seemed to be clean. There's also a bar near the pool at the mountain top. The resort also has free transportation with many stops...

Westgate’s NASCAR Experience –

The NASCAR Experience We had seats in the Jeff Gordon Terrace for the Xfinity Race and the Cup race as well as GA for the Craftsman Truck race. The view from the backstretch in the Jeff Gordon terrace was excellent, and the location gave us a perfect vantage point to enjoy the races. Definitely a highlight.

The motorcoach shuttle was available for transportation to and from the race, though it came with an additional fee. It was nice to have this option, especially since you could drink on the bus, which a lot of people clearly enjoyed. That said, the crowd on our bus was loud and obnoxious due to heavy drinking, but it seemed like they were having fun, even if it wasn’t our vibe.

The VIP Welcome Party was where we picked up our tickets. They had an open bar, a "buffet," and NASCAR bingo. We didn’t drink, but we did try to eat. The “buffet” was more of a very limited selection, consisting of pork, potato salad, and slaw, which wasn’t quite what we were expecting. We ended up leaving early to explore other activities off the resort.

Westgate Resort The resort itself was quite nice. Our condo was spacious, with a private balcony, a jacuzzi, and a well-equipped kitchen (though we didn’t cook). The bed was incredibly comfortable, and the washer and dryer in the unit were a convenient touch. Overall, the suite exceeded our expectations and felt like a relaxing place to retreat to after the races.

The Check-in Process Check-in was a bit chaotic, with everyone arriving at 4 p.m. This is where the cracks in Westgate’s organization really started to show. The times for our timeshare presentation and VIP party on the itinerary didn’t match what I had arranged with the person who booked our package over the phone. We managed to get the timeshare presentation changed, but not the VIP party, which required us to shuffle our plans around. Since the party was where we had to pick up our tickets, skipping it wasn’t an option.

Another frustration was that I was promised a ride-along with a NASCAR driver or a $100 gift card when I booked, but upon arrival, I found out that ride-alongs aren’t even offered at Bristol. We weren’t the only ones misled, and many guests ended up switching to the gift card option last minute.

The shuttle reservation process was also a mess. I was told to make shuttle arrangements upon arrival, but it turns out that should have been done in advance. Thankfully, Jennifer, who was running the NASCAR experience, worked tirelessly to fix the issue. She was a rock star the entire weekend, handling problems and last-minute changes with grace. Honestly, Jennifer deserves a raise for keeping things running smoothly despite all the disorganization.

The Timeshare Presentation This is where things took a major downturn for us. Based on our experience, we would never consider purchasing a timeshare from Westgate. The 90-minute presentation turned into a grueling 3-hour ordeal filled with high-pressure sales tactics.

The bad vibes started before the presentation even began. While waiting in line, one of the promotional staff members made a comment that was incredibly inappropriate. She touched my stomach and asked if I was pregnant. After I told her no, she proceeded to ask if I had just had a baby, which was particularly hurtful because I had suffered a miscarriage last month. This set a really negative tone for the whole experience with feelings of embarrassment as well as hurtfulness from someone that’s suppose to work in promotions.

We met with our salesman, CJ, who initially promised to keep things quick and pressure-free. That turned out to be far from the truth. After three long hours of saying “no” in every possible way, CJ’s attitude shifted. By the end, he was visibly upset and turned his chair away from us.

To top it all off, when we went to pick up our gift card, we weren’t even in the system. This led to more back-and-forth between the check-in desk and the gifting room, an issue that several other guests were dealing...

We were on vacation when we came across the westgate peddlers at an attraction. They promised a free meal and tickets to another attraction for 90 mins. We went through the presentation and thought it sounded good, but we couldn't afford it. They offered us a chance to try ownership out. So we paid for a vacation. When we came to experience ownership 2 years later, our concierge, Rob, was super awesome. We had a lot of problems from the fireplace not working to the beds being hard as a rock to fans not working. But he got every issue fixed quickly. We didn't like the room layout where they were 2 separate rooms that are connected with a small hallway. We have 2 small children under the age of 5. He showed us a true 2 bedroom floor plan and we loved it. We were able to purchase that floor plan for our time share. When we came back as true owners, they treat you like a second class citizen. They already got your money. We have been 2 years now and the 1st year we were in a cabin that was a true 2 bedroom but wasn't the floor plan we bought. We weren't too upset because it still had 2 bedrooms even though the master bed was upstairs. Our second year (we are currently here through July 5th) they said our floor plan wasn't available. They said we'd be "upgraded". So I was thinking 3 bedroom. I made sure to tell them at check in that i had two small children and we could not be in a lock off. They put us at the bottom of the hill in the 60 block cabins. These are the WORST cabins on the hill. We are in a lock off which is 2 separate rooms with a connecting hallway. These rooms don't have any bathtubs to wash my 2 and 4 year old where my floor plan has 2 jetted tubs. The connecting hallway has the outside door which is unable to be locked from the inside because of the 2 separate rooms. My children have left the cabin twice while I was trying to contact someone to try to get a different room. I know they are booked up so I requested just a room with a tub. The 2nd room also has a kitchenette with a stove top with knobs at the front. The room is virtually unusable having two small kids. Our floor plan has 2 real beds in the 2nd bedroom and this has 1 bed and a pull out couch. So I tried to contact our "concierge" who is no longer working here. So we are given some young kid who ghosts us. So we try talking to the help desk via text the next day. They say they can't help us and that we should contact our concierge...the one who wont answer me. When I told them that he wont answer, they said that I could try to go to the preview room. Everyone just gives you the runaround and they want you to spend 2-3 days of your vacation fighting for what you paid for, or just shut up and take it. If we ever thought that we would be in a lock off, we never would've bought or booked a vacation. They will try to gaslight you into thinking that your downgraded room is an upgrade. "OH we never downgrade. We always upgrade our owners." How is it an upgrade to be moved from higher up the mountain to lower down? How is it an upgrade to give up a real bed for a pull out couch? How is it an upgrade to go from 2 jetted tubs to only showers? 2 fireplaces to 1? A full table on the balcony to a small table for 2 cups of coffee? 2 balconies to 1? That sounds like a big "upgrade" alright. More of an Up-yours-grade.

As far as location, it's located right inbetween gatlinburg and pigeon forge. It has a "secret" back exit that is fairly close to a food city. Across from the resort is the gatlinburg welcome center where you can hop on a free trolley to gatlinburg which is great because parking there is $20 or more for parking in a parking lot. The facilities that we've experienced have been clean and stocked with towels, toilet paper, paper towels, basic shower soaps, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, and coffee/tea. Any issues we've had with things in the room, have been attended to quickly by the maintenance staff. Overall, we like the location and cleanliness but don't buy into their BS about...