Wilderness at the Smokies — Hotel in Sevierville

I stayed here with my family from the 26th - 30th of September and it was miserable… as soon as I showed up to the hotel it was all bad… the lady checking me in was taking forever to check me in while I had my 3 month old and 2 year old and boyfriend sitting in the car it definitely took 20-25 minutes not even kidding… I finally get checked in and go to get my family and make our way up to the room and it’s the incorrect room but at this point I’m tired! I just drove almost 4 hours through hurricane weather and I can’t be bothered. The rest of my family called as we were just getting our things in to say they were down at a restaurant in the resort ( the one right near the deli) and entrance to the outdoor waterpark. We get down there with the kids and all the tables are busy and bar is busy as well to the point where there is no seats. No big deal. We ordered our food to go and tipped and stood close by the rest of our family and talked and laughed. As my grandmother is sitting there minding her business this sloppy drunk guy comes up and starts babbling god knows what to her.. we all are disgusted but choose to just ignore him. Next thing I know the guy is fondling my grandma and slurring whatever nonsense so at this point I look around to see if anybody else who is an EMPLOYEE sees what I’m seeing and will take action on the issue because he was being super inappropriate! Me and the bartender make eye contact and I lean in to ask her if she doesn’t mind having him removed away from me and my family while we wait for our $70 worth of to go food to be given to us please! She calls her the resort manager MIKE who says it’s ok for the two drunk guys to stay and purchase some food but they can’t have anything else to drink and scurried off. She then announces to him and this other guy sitting on the other end of the bar I didn’t even notice that they’re so drunk she won’t be able to serve them any more alcohol and the guy touching my grandma was so sloppy drunk he wasn’t even really comprehending anything but the other 450 pound guy sitting on the other end gets pissed when the bartender says this and calls me out from across the room saying why can’t they be served more liquor and how it’s my fault if I never would’ve said anything then it would be no problem… then the guy proceeds to get up and come all the way from the corner end of the bar and pull a chair right up on me and is talking trash to the bartender because he’s upset he can’t get more liquor and then he reaches his arm out to point in my face and my boyfriend pushes his arm back and he’s doing all this to initiate something physical all while my boyfriend is standing right there…… now I’m asking for the manager to get here now because at this point I’m being berated by two disgusting drunks and they still are allowed to be seated around a bunch of children and their families sloppy drunk causing commotion… mind you I’m still waiting for my food it’s been like 40 minutes!!!now I’m extremely upset at this point rightfully so and Mike ( the head manager) decides it’s a good idea to be snarky and acts as if me being upset by having two big grown men in my face sloppy drunk is no big deal and that I’m being problematic somehow by voicing my concern for my safety and the rest of my family… I asked him why weren’t they removed the first time we complained and felt uncomfortable… the first time I said something they should have been excused but instead the situation was allowed to be escalated and mikes response was “what do you want me to do?” It took for the 450 pound dude to start talking to Mike crazy for him to say alright guys you can go ahead and leave because you all have had way to much to drink and your causing problems. My thing is I had just got there and had only been there an hour and this is how I start off my family vacation.. it caused me and my boyfriend to argue and it really did ruin my vacation and here I am still bothered by it 2 weeks later because I really didn’t deserve that! I paid to have an enjoyable...

This is going to be a long review, so buckle up.

Let's start with the booking experience. I tried to book online, but I found it much easier to just call and book. The people I spoke to were kind and helpful. So I fully recommend just calling to book your room, however I suggest looking at the types of rooms offered on their website before calling so you'll already have an idea of what you want.

Pros: -The resort is very large with plenty of family friendly things to do while also having adult things as well. -The new addition of the roof top bar and pool was very nice. You can see for miles and it's just beautiful. There was also live music while we were there. -The arcade was nice, although a little expensive so I fully recommend spending the extra money at booking to purchase the unlimited fun pass. -There are plenty of meal options on site so you won't have to go anywhere to eat outside of the resort. -There are two waterparks at the river lodge. The inside water park is through the arcade and has a wave pool, a kid's area, a lazy river, several food options, a baby area, slides, and a hot tub. The outside waterpark was nice as well and also easily accessed from the arcade. -The staff was kind for the most part. -When we needed a refresh of towels and linens the housekeeping team showed up rather quickly for how large this place is. -And lastly, probably my favorite thing: you get wristbands at check-in that allow you to unlock your room so you don't have to carry a key, you can use them as a way to pay (everything you purchase will be charged to your room so remember your room number), they're waterproof, and you can keep them at the end of your stay.

Cons: -the price of literally everything after you've already paid a lot just to stay there. The first place we ate out while there was the tacolicious taco truck located in the outdoor waterpark. For myself to get nachos and my daughter, son, and husband to get 2 tacos each and a bottled beverage each it was $75. Outrageous in my opinion. A single pizza for the 4 of us to share and 2 souvenir cups (you purchase these one time and can refill for $1.99 each time) was $60. We opted to just get an instacart order from Publix and the driver actually delivered to our room on the 4th floor which was very nice. -Every single towel and wash cloth was stained or just dirty. -There was an actual blood stain on the duvet of one of the beds. -We were in a deluxe suite so it had 2 "rooms." One room was a bunk bed, a queen bed, a pull out loveseat, a mini fridge, and a bathroom while the other side was a full kitchen with full sized appliances, a murphy bed, a pull out sofa, and a fireplace. Upon arrival we noticed that the bunk bed was broken, the upper bunk was pulling from the wall, and the railing was falling out. We talked to the front desk and they sent someone to "fix" it. When he got there he used small, thing screws to drill in to the drywall. It didn't hold. My daughter weighs 50 pounds and as soon as she climbed up on top of it again, it fell. So half of one of the rooms was completely unusable. -the ultimate fun pass I mentioned earlier does not come with actual arcade credits, it only allows you to do some of the extra stuff such as putt-putt golf and mini bowling. So you have to pay extra to actually play the games. They give you a piece of paper at check in if you do buy the passes that you have to redeem at the arcade so don't lose that paper! -make sure you know your child's weight. they will be weighed at every attraction. the one that was the worst part was one of the indoor water slides. they had a 45 minute wait to actually ride it. my husband took both kids to the top and only at the top did they actually weigh the kids and tell them that they couldn't ride together because the scale was at the top of the slide. So one of my kids had to walk all the way back down and wait on my husband to ride with my other kid then wait in line for another 45 minutes to ride again. I had our 4 month old so I...

My husband and I took our 3 children to Wilderness at the smokies. We met some other family members there as well. We called multiple times before booking to make sure everything would be open. Every time we were informed that yes everything would be open. Including soaky mountain and the outdoor waterpark located at Wilderness at the Smokies. This was not the case. The outdoor portion located at the hotel was never open and soaky mountain was only open for an hour after we arrived the first day. Mind you we drove 5 1/2 hours, we would not have done so if they weren't going to be open.

After checking into the hotel the only way to get a map of the grounds is to talk to a time share employee. So after a long day of traveling expect to be bombarded with someone trying to get you to set up an appointment time to hear all about the time shares they have available. We had to say no multiple times before they would give us a map. There is also a booth right before you get to the the arcade and indoor waterpark area. There is someone who will bombarded you again every time you walk past them.

They also advertise all of these restaurants you can eat at while there. How convenient it is you dont have to leave the premises to get food. That was also not the case. The only ones that were open were the ones located inside the indoor waterpark which was finger food and the Hidden treasure. All of the other ones were closed our whole stay (Sunday-Wednesday) we tried Hidden Treasure the first night. They only had one server working and took over an hour to get food. This was inconvenient as we had 2 one year olds in the group. Our entire group had to travel off site to get lunch and dinner everyday.

When booking we decided to go with the hotel room that had the full kitchen, murphy bed, and pullout couch as making breakfast in the room and having a full fridge for snacks would be convenient with 3 children. They don't offer a continental breakfast like most hotels. It was far from convenient. Most of the shelves in the door of fridge were broken. The range didn't work. It took 30 minutes to bake rolls that should have taken 14 minutes. Anything you tried to cook in the pans would stick. All of the pans and utensils in the kitchen seemed to be from the dollar store. They were all really cheap and well used. They also had 6 chairs around the 4 chair table. You couldn't move around the kitchen because of this. We moved 2 along the wall. This caused a problem when you opened the murphy bed and pulled the couch out into a bed. There was absolutely no room to walk around when both beds were open due to having so much furniture in the room.

Both beds were rock hard and every time you moved on the pull out couch there was an awful creaking sound. And that's with 2 children sleeping on it. A 4 and 5 year old. I can't imagine if my husband or I were to sleep on it.

Not to mention our last night there was an alarm going off in the hotel all night long. When mention to the front desk the worker was far from pleasant. I heard her tell one guest that there was no alarm going off last night. Then told me not even 10 minutes later that yes there was and no one knows why and not to worry about it. Meanwhile, this alarm was going off making it so no one could sleep including the babies.

A couple other things to mention the food at the indoor water park is ridiculously expensive. Also the arcade games are pretty expensive too. Its about $2.50 and $6.50 a game. They use tokens added onto cards. It's $5 for 13 and the cheapest games is 6 tokens. The more money you add you do get a discount but it's not much at all. The elevators are also very slow. You can walk up and down the stairs faster then riding the elevator. There are also a number of employees who are extremely rude.

It's safe to say I don't think our family will be returning. I would strongly recommend looking for an alternative waterpark. Especially if you are traveling a distance...