Big Splash Adventure — Hotel in Paoli

Family Fun with Some Room for Improvement

We come here because it offers exactly what we’re looking for—basic rooms, affordable fun, and a place where our kids can make memories. The rooms are no-frills, but that’s fine by us. I wouldn’t pay beyond the regular double rate, though.

Waterpark & Hotel Updates It looks like the hotel and waterpark are getting a facelift, especially in the kids' area, which we thought was a great improvement. Hopefully, prices won’t skyrocket with these updates. That would be a real shame.

Dining Food continues to be mediocre. I’ll admit I’m a picky eater, but even so, the restaurant and tavern areas feel underutilized. Every time we visit, we barely see more than two other families dining. I can’t imagine they’re turning much profit. The Galley, on the other hand, is decently priced and more reliable. After another round of dry burgers and a lackluster server dealing with one family, we’ve decided to stick to The Galley or eat off-site—even though we try not to leave the property.

Service This year, the service was noticeably off. Several staff members seemed drained or uninterested—especially in the gift shop and restaurant. I understand people have bad days, but in hospitality, energy and friendliness really do matter. On a positive note, the gentleman at the front desk who checked us in was upbeat and welcoming. He set a great tone for the stay.

Adult Identification in Pool Area I’d really appreciate if adults had a separate wristband to show they’re 21+. It’s hard to carry an ID around in the pool, and I feel like they used to do this. If not, it’s a suggestion that would make things much smoother.

Lifeguards & Safety Concerns I was disappointed with the lifeguards this year. Two, in particular, weren’t paying close attention. One girl was assigned to watch an area but barely looked up, while another never used a whistle and didn’t patrol as expected. My husband had to step in twice to help kids stuck in the whirlpool with water coming over their heads—even with life jackets on. That should have been the lifeguard’s job.

Water Attractions

Slides – Only my husband uses them now. He avoids the bowl slide due to the awkward design (nothing against the park, just not his style).

Lazy River – Always a challenge. Teens often roughhouse while adults want to relax. I saw moms with infants being pushed aside. It ruins the experience for those trying to enjoy it peacefully.-Parenting issue, however I feel there could be some changes on parks behalf there.

Tips for Future Visitors If you’re staying at the hotel, take advantage of the early pool hours before it opens to the public. It’s calmer, cleaner, and far more enjoyable—less chaos, more available seating, and a better vibe overall.

Air Quality & Chlorine This year, the chlorine seemed more intense than usual. I got a chlorine "burn" just from sitting in the area. I was only in the water briefly to help my son. It may have been due to the hot and busy day, but ventilation felt poor. But just the feeling of tingling burning feeling on skin wasn't much fun this year. I get sensitive to Chlorine even just in the air. Why shocked this year it effected me for not even really touching the water.

Final Thoughts We’ll be back—as always. Despite the hiccups, the kids love it here. They’d choose this place over a Florida trip any day. It’s not fancy, but it’s affordable, it’s fun, and it makes memories. That’s what really matters. Kids want to play in water, if they are more extreme into Slides and Rides...a theme park may be a...

We stay there on a weekend there was a tornado warning. I totally understand they are not in charge of the weather. BUT the way the staff handled the entire weekend was the most unprofessional I have ever seen.

The rooms we gross, there were lady bugs all over our window, the beds felt like they were going to break at any moment, the bathtub had rust all over it and it was all around just a shitty room. When the tornado warning hit, the only reason we knew to take shelter was the warning from our phones through the national weather service. There was no alarm or staff telling people to take shelter. When we went downstairs they had the doors open during peak times so people could go outside to smoke. There was no announcement that it was safe or that the warning was cleared everyone was just got up and went back to their rooms because we were watching the local weather on our phones. The next morning there was still no power (I understand that is not the hotels fault) but with no power there was also no water. We were not able to go to the bathroom, take a shower, brush our teeth, or swim in the park (you know the main reason you go there). There was no compensation for this. We found out from other guests that they gave the people who checked in that day they were giving them Wilstem ranch tickets, so when we inquired about this they said it was only for people who checked in that day, not for the people who had to deal with the tornado last night! When we were finally able to use the pool, everything looked disgusting. The bathrooms looked like your average shitty public pool bathroom, with wet toilet paper and tampon strings everywhere. There were TONS of kids running around with no supervision. The lifeguards only cared if you didn’t have a tube in the tiny, 2ft deep lazy river. They did not care about the teenagers literally pushing and rough housing around. It got so bad we were there for only an hour because my daughter kept getting water in her face from all the splashing and pushing. When we left the water park we got in the elevator to go back to our room. Then the power went out! We were stuck in an elevator for 20 minutes with no staff to come check on us. We could hear the other elevator banging and calling for help and no one came. My daughter is now traumatized and will not get on an elevator at all. When we were finally set free we could not see a staff member around. A bunch of patrons were there to check on us but no staff. The food was ok but they wanted to charge us $87 for dinner for a micro “buffet”. We could not get our own drinks, when we wanted a refill we had to wait 40 minutes for our “server” to happen to walk by us and then an extra 10 to get the refill. We did not know there was free breakfast included with our stay. We just so happen to see people walking in and asked if it was included. They didn’t even want to tell us yes! Another patron had to tell us! When we finally checked out we asked to talk to a manager so we could discuss how bad of an experience we had (after trying to complain multiple times with no help) the manager was very rude. Only comped our dinner but that was after arguing back and forth. She just said I guess we can comp your dinner and that was that.

I will never be back here. This was the absolute worse hotel experience I have ever had. If you care at all about cleanliness and safety avoid this place...

If being cat-fished was a place, this would have been the "Automotive Marketing Distribution Executive" that was actually a used car salesman. I must give kudos to the company that made made the website and the professional photographer they hired. They did a phenomenal job.||||The staff there was nice and understanding when I asked for a refund, so I want to apologize if I was rude at the time. The waterpark was crowded and chaotic. I saw only 3 uniformed lifeguards in the waterpark that was packed with easily +500 people. I don't want to seem like this review is poor solely because of the staff, because the park goers were 80% made up of groups that you would see at an Insane Clown Posse /Travis Scott concert.||||I could not count the amount of times I had little goblins that smelled like wet pot smoke hop in line in front of my children. A kid's slide was down for 10 minutes because some kid who was way too big for water wings would not remove himself from the slide, so my wife had to go look for a life guard to get involved. I have had better experiences at public pools. Extremely poorly behaved adults would curse and talk about degenerate things to the point I just got out of line to go somewhere else only to have the same thing happen. It was like being at a trailer-park bar.||||So once 4:00pm rolled around I waited for a bit to check in since everyone else was checking in at the same time. Very kind and attentive staff did their best to get the line moving. I was already in a sour mood, so I had the family wait in the car as I checked in so they wouldn't have to wait in line with me. I got checked in without a hitch and went to go check the room before bringing the family in.||||I got the Captains Cabin with the shots package for a single night for $351, so I was expecting to get a nice, clean, well lit, and large room. After the time that we had at the park, we just wanted something to redeem the place, especially spending that much for a single night. I was mistaken. The moment I opened the door, the smell of mildew was overpowering. I took 2 steps in to find a light switch and stepped on part of a wrapper to some junk-food. After hitting the light switch, one of the lamps by the bed comes on, the other was a dead ballast after trying to turn it on. Then I noticed a red/brown stain that looked like an oxidized blood stain on the bunk beds where my kids would be sleeping, Then I notice that the there were crumbs, of what I was hoping of a brownie, all over the floor. Then I noticed how small the room was. Absolutely unacceptable. At that point I was livid to the point that I asked for a refund. Never in my life have I been made mad to the point I was willing to confront someone to ask for my money back. ||||The only reason I'm giving them a 2 out of 5 is because I feel sorry for the type people that staff have to deal with on a daily basis and that they were understanding why I wanted my money back. If you are experiencing a higher standard, I do not recommend going here. Sorry for the poor review guys, but between the people there and our room, our experience there was...