Lake Crescent Lodge — Hotel in Port Angeles

Let’s start with the positives… the lake is breathtakingly gorgeous. The bartender was friendly. The chowder was delicious.

Now for the not so positives. Hang on, this is going to take a minute. The check in: I was handed two keys and was told the room number was on them. That was it. Red flag number one.

The cabin: We stayed in a two bedroom Roosevelt cabin. I knew at booking that this cabin was going to be “rustic”, but I was NOT expecting cobwebs, a dead spider in the bathroom, mold on the ceiling in the shower, dirty grout, itchy sheets, stained shower curtain and a smell so musty that our allergies kicked in within minutes of being inside kind of rustic. Oh and good luck opening the windows. I had to prop one open with rolled up washcloths.

The food: Port Angeles is the nearest town (20 miles away) so unless you are microwaving your meals, there is no way to cook your own food unless you BYOG ( bring your own grill). So you are relegated to ordering from the lodge. In order to eat in the dining room for dinner, you must have a reservation. Everything else is take out. Prepare to stand (and wait and wait and wait) in a long line while the ONE bartender orders your food, makes your drinks, takes your money, and at the same time is restocking the bar and making drinks for the restaurant/ lobby guests.

The price: ridiculously overpriced. Almost $600 a night (w/ taxes) for a Roosevelt cabin. You are paying for the view. That’s it. Although the main window in our cabin(#36) for looking at that view wasn’t clean and an overgrown bush that smelled like cat pee was blocking part of it.

The grounds: Speaking of overgrown bushes, I don’t think they have trimmed a bush or watered the grass/potted flowers since FDR’s visit. With all sarcasm aside, the grounds could be so beautiful. The pictures on the website compared to real life are vastly different.

Kayak rentals: We were traveling with our disabled teen son so one of the main reasons we chose the Lake Crescent Lodge was for the kayak rentals. This is something our son loves to do and it’s one of the few things he was going to be able to do on this trip. I called a few days before arrival to make sure we could rent kayaks. I was assured we could. At check in, I asked about the kayak rentals and was told “we only book on Saturdays.” When we inquired on Saturday we were told the staff person in charge of renting kayaks called in sick but we were “welcome to drive around the lake to the Log Cabin Resort to rent.” With that being our only choice, we packed up our disabled son and drove to the other side of the lake only to find out the kayaks were the type you sit on top of. This is a really unsafe option for our epileptic son who has multiple seizures every day. Not their fault, but unfortunately their kayaks were not like the kayaks back at the lodge.

I’ve never written a poor review for any type of service. But I feel like our experience should be taken seriously. It’s extremely hard to go on vacation with our son so when we do leave our house (which isn’t very often) we are very intentional with where we choose to stay. There has to be something in it for him. It was just so disappointing to find out we couldn’t rent the kayaks. We did take him for a short walk on the spruce railroad trail and that was lovely but we really wanted to take him out on the lake. The lake is the whole reason you stay here. Sadly, we won’t be staying at the Lake Crescent...

Staying here was a mixed bag for me. I want to shower the lodge with nothing but love, but I have to be honest in my review. I've been stopping by the Lake Crescent Lodge for years, and when I saw they were offering a BOGO promotion, I immediately reserved two nights in one of their Roosevelt cabins. The stay started off great. Michelle welcomed us warmly and checked us in quickly and efficiently while answering any questions. The main lodge was decorated for Christmas with a gorgeous tree and festive touches all around. We were given Roosevelt cabin 38, the last cabin furthest from the lodge, but we were able to park directly behind our cabin which was handy for unloading our luggage. Upon entering the cabin I instantly fell in love! It was so cute and charming, with incredible views from each window. Huge trees and a peek-a-boo view of the river from the side and back windows, with a stunning lake view out of the front. Perfection. Being there off season meant very few people around. The only sounds were of the lake gently lapping against the shore, the rain softly falling and the river quietly flowing nearby. It was a peace I haven't experienced in a long time. Unfortunately, as we began to investigate the cabin a bit more, I noticed a few issues. The linens on the beds smelled clean but had multiple stains. The chairs in the cabin were stained and one of them had two holes in the upholstery. One of the decorative fireplace sconces had several cracks. There was a white grainy substance all over one of the chairs and on the table which appeared to be either salt or sugar. The walls in the bathroom were dirty, the shower curtain was in desperate need of replacing and the shower needs a deep cleaning. There was a small amount of water behind the toilet, although I couldn't figure out where it was coming from because it did not appear the toilet nor the shower was leaking. But there was also dirt and hair mixed in as if it hadn't been cleaned in a while. Overall, it felt as though the cabin needs some TLC. The chairs need to be reupholstered. The bathroom just needs a good deep cleaning. A few minor updates and repairs here and there would make a big difference. We were there as part of the BOGO promotion and got a great deal on the cabin. I want to make it clear we were very happy with our stay despite these issues. The staff, the lodge, the decorations, the lake, the overall setting is incredible. However, I feel it's important to mention these issues in my review because in summer this same cabin goes for over $460 a night. If I was paying that amount of money, I would expect these issues to be fixed and the cleanliness to be improved. After all, rustic is one thing but you can be rustic and still be clean. After reading some of the other reviews, I see I am not the first to mention these issues, so hopefully they will be addressed. Overall, we loved our stay! The wood burning fireplace made the cabin feel warm and cozy. We were given four large, dry bundles of wood to use delivered directly to our cabin which was very appreciated. I would definitely stay here again and highly recommend this place to anyone looking to stay in a...

The food is awesome as is the staff when we have dined here on many occasions. The view and sunsets are lovely. We typically have a good experience but sadly had a horrible experience our last visit (thus 4 vs 5 stars), honestly this last visit was pushing a two-star visit.

I am going to share out last experience because it probably should have impacted the rating more . . .

Our daughter, son-in-law and three granddaughters came to the Olympic Peninsula from Utah to spend Christmas, so we booked well in advance for a table for Christmas Eve dinner and were so excited to share the place with them.

The person we booked with suggested we arrive an hour early to try to get us in earlier than the later time we originally booked, (maybe we should have asked for him?) . . . When we arrived at 6 pm, people had been already waiting for long periods of time and some quite frustrated. We checked in and seated ourselves in the lobby by the fireplace and the girls and family enjoyed playing some board games while we waited. We were all very hungry.

We waiting the hour and our reservation time came and passed, we checked in with them twice by now and continued to wait and continued to check in with them We patiently waited over three hours for a table! We were seated and right away given appetizers which we were not charged for.

We placed our orders and shortly thereafter, the waitress came back and informed us the Prime Rib had run out and asked if the two who ordered it would like to order something else or have it pan-fried, they didn't know better and ordered pan-fried, BIG MISTAKE! Additionally, the person who ordered the chicken did not eat his meal as the chicken was dry as it could be. The Salmon was amazing, as always . . . We also received INSTANT mashed potatoes, we said something and they apologized that they had run out of potatoes. So the food experience was quite poor for most of the party.

We did our best to enjoy it as you can see from the photos but I could see the disappointment in both our daughter and son-in-law whom we'd been so excited to share one of our favorite places with. We received a discount but the meal was still just under $300 for 5 adults and 2 children who had a very bad experience and had such a long wait.

Suggestion to them not to overbook for the holidays, maybe have the holiday option available for 3 days vs 1 and give your guests an excellent experience and maybe not so crazy-busy and with so many problems and certainly less stress for the staff too, we'd love to come try...