Wisp Resort — Hotel in Oakland

We stayed here 10/6-10/7. Upon arriving to the resort, everything looked great and well decorated for fall. The check in desk and lobby was nice. We did not have a reservation, asked for a room and the resort said they had one available with a king and two smaller beds. No worries just my wife and I.

Being a "3 bed" room it was a little costly but I'll figured if it was all they had it will have to do.

Make our way through the resort "extremely outdated" we finally get to our room. I could not believe what we saw, very very outdated rooms. The king bed was a Murphy bed in the wall from at least the 80s. My wife looked at the other beds and said NO WAY for the price.

Walked back down to the desk, kindly explained what we saw. They were kind of shocked when we said everything in that room was extremely old and outdated, heck we were scared to even sleep on the really old murphy bed. Not at all what we expected for the price and resort. Since we had been here before, previously we had a room with a fireplace. Kindly asked for one of those, it just needed to be checked before allowing us in.

We were told by the desk that these rooms are typically a little more than we paid for the other room, but for the troubles they would take care of us.

Once checked and given the key card we headed towards that way. All doors in the connecting hallways were closed and made you think you were going through doors you shouldn't be. Made it to the elevator to head to the room. No lights in the elevator, pitch black ride to our floor.

Once in the room we find it to be more of what we would expect for the price paid. But still VERY outdated, dead bugs in all the lights. Dead bugs even in the painting case on the wall. Leather couch peeling everywhere. Clothing tags behind the blinds on the window seal (obviously not cleaned). Duct tape holding the AC cord to the carpet and wall in the bedroom.

Whatever we had a room and we were exhausted. Dropped bags off to head down to their bar/restaurant to get some food. Wife ordered water (came out smelling horrible and tasting worst) Wife could not drink it. Bar tender came back over and said water smell bad? My wife said yes and then the bartender admitted it has been a issue! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

We ordered brussel sprouts wrapped in bacon and candied, all of it came out pretty much Raw and 0 candied on it. Bar tender looked and said on my yeah this isn't correct. Went back and sprinkled sugar on it, I feel put it in the microwave and then brought it back out. Wife could not eat it. We were done at that point.

Left to take a walk around the property. Mini gold fountains running but was not open to play. Maintenance building area which you have to walk through to get to the mini golf. My lord I have seen abandoned farm houses look in better shape than this building. After this we left to go visit the town, which we come every year.

Come back to go to sleep. Pull the covers back and find a large stain in the sheet.... At this point my wife slept in her clothes and we couldn't wait to leave in the morning.

Morning checkout I mentioned all the dead bugs to the desk, she just said oh what room? I will make sure we take a look. Got the feeling she could care less...

So we will never be staying here again sadly. We have stayed here before and not had any issue but it has slowly gotten worse and worse. Wisp I hope you all can figure out what is going on and get it turned around. Such a nice looking resort from the outside. Time to...

Went to Wisp for a weekend with my husband (snowboarder), and my son (age 6, first time skier). Our first day my son and I were signed up for a beginners group ski lesson. While the lesson proved useful for me, it was absolutely not appropriate for a beginner child. The instructor had zero patience for children, and ended up yelling at my son during the lesson. The instructor even said, “Is he in my group?! No way, I already have nine.” This was said directly to my child and husband after the instructor had just ten minutes prior out my child in his group! My son was so upset that he cried and didn’t learn to ski. It was a horrible experience for our family.

In hindsight, I wish I would’ve signed my son up for the Wisp Kids program - that seems to be geared specifically for children with patient instructors who are good with kids. Because my son didn’t learn to ski the first day and was so upset from being yelled at and excluded during the lesson, he didn’t have a positive experience for his first time skiing.

For the bunny hill (Sunset Blvd.), the magic carpets kept breaking/malfunctioning, which made getting up the hill challenging for beginners who were just trying to get some runs in before building up confidence to head to the ski lifts. It easily took 20-30 minutes to get up the three magic carpets due to long lines and malfunctioning magic carpets.

Additionally, the resort itself is extremely dated. The room we stayed in had a great view of the slopes, however, I noticed a lot of mold marks on the ceilings (gross!). The food at the resort is limited in terms of selection, it is mostly fried, with minimal healthy options. Also, the self-serve hot cocoa machine spewed hot water all over me and my son!

It is clear that this resort requires substantial renovations and upgrades to earn any additional stars.

I’m not so sure that I’d go back to this resort without renovations for the price they are asking for the hotel/lift tickets/lessons.

I would NOT recommend group lessons for first time skiers that are children. Just sign your kids up for Wisp Kids. Because of my son’s negative experience I am worried it will take a lot of convincing to get him to want to try skiing again.

I would give this resort 1.5 stars - 1 star for the view from our room (room 210), and 1/2 star because my husband was able to enjoy his time...

Went to Wisp with a big group of people 30-40yrs old for some snow tubing while in Deep Creek. Let's start with capacity... IDK what the magic number is, but it's sure not 500+ unless you're looking for absolute uncoordinated chaos and fights to break out. The lift to get up is like 2 very long treadmills that you stand in line on separated by plywood. These uphill "treadmills" stop and go randomly. I witnessed a woman and her young son fall onto their tube while going up the lift, take out a half dozen people, and fly at Mach speed down the center plywood ramp only to be stopped head first by a sign posted in the ground at the bottom of the lift. Children all around were screaming and crying in fear for their lives that this might happen to them. Once you reach the top there's no organization, instead there are a dozen lanes of which only half may be used, 3 staff members not old enough to enter a bar, and hundreds of people in a herd like cattle fighting to get in front of each other to get down one of the open lanes. It's so painfully slow and unorganized that you shouldn't expect to get up the lift, down the hill, and back up the lift in less than an hour. In fact I saw some teens, likely frustrated, attempt to go down a closed lane, only to be tackled by a staff member who then held the teens by their jackets until someone came to escort them away. Finally it was my turn and down the hill I went, feet up, I'm not slowing myself down, that's for wimps right? Wish I could upload the video I have of myself impacting with the wall at the bottom probably near 30mph. I may as well have been in a car accident, my body is wrecked with shoulder back and hip pain two days later. It shouldn't be possible to have an impact like that, but I guess that's why you sign a waiver right? Oh and one last thing... as we were all walking in the parking lot, a girl ahead of me stepped in one of the five million puddles, I swear she disappeared! It was at least knee deep... this place is not worth the price of admission, not a person in our group thought so and I'm typically the guy who has a great time no matter what and doesn't complain, but this deserves every bit of bad...