Wintergreen Resort — Hotel in Stuarts Draft

We stayed here for a family member’s wedding. Specifically we stayed in the Lodge (just my boyfriend and I, one bed). We are from South Carolina so we were very excited to be here and hang out before and after the wedding. Upon arrival, we realize that our room was not what we thought it would be. It was a fairly nice room, but our bed was broken and our coffee maker had old coffee left in it and looked like it had not been cleaned in a while. They changed our rooms for us, and the room is VASTLY different than the other room. We went to other family members rooms and some of them were very spacious, nice, and modern, and some were outdated and cramped like ours was. Some didn’t even have a full kitchenette and then others had a whole kitchen. This wouldn’t bother me except every room costed the same and you pretty much play a roulette for which one you’ll get. Anyways, once we got settled into our second room, the lock on the door had an error and would no longer let us into our room. We had to be manually let in for a while (which the front desk/maintenance did what they could for that issue and were nice about it and promptly helped us). At this point we’re just tired and frustrated because 1- we’ve been traveling all day and just want to continue with our night and 2- we paid resort prices for this room and shouldn’t have had so many issues with stuff breaking right out of the gate. The views from the lodge are also underwhelming. We stayed at the end of September, which is off-season for a ski resort, but there are so many man-made blemishes around the property (slabs of concrete, parking lots, random buildings, etc) that there are no unobstructed views of the mountains anywhere near the lodge. You have to drive up the mountain to a lookout area, and even then the views can still be obstructed. There were only three restaurants open, two of which we actually dined at (Terrace Cafe and The Edge). The Edge was very overpriced for what it was ($20 for a burger and fries) and the dessert was also underwhelming. The Terrace Cafe sold Starbucks coffee and some breakfast items. We ate here mostly because there was no where else on the property to get breakfast besides “The Market Deli”, which turned out to just be a gas station that sold sandwiches (similar to a Spinx or Circle K or QT). I really expected for the price and “resort” factor of the place that there would be a free breakfast bar or at least some better breakfast options, because I’m pretty sure the Terrace Cafe serves microwaved Jimmy Dean sandwiches. My last issue is that there is not an elevator or luggage carts. We had several bags and luggages that we had to drag up several flights of stairs (both inside and outside). There was a lift, but you had to have a key and front desk permission to use it, and it was hidden in a back corner (it seemed to be there for ADA compliance reasons and not for regular customer use). We are a younger couple, but even so, who wants to carry 50-75lbs worth of luggage up several flights of stairs without a cart? Even Quality Inns have elevators, c’mon now.

Let me state that this is not a complaint about any customer service workers on the property - every front desk, shop, and restaurant employee we met here was very sweet and helpful. This is just a compilation of issues we had during our stay. Over $200 a night during off season for it to be such an underwhelming experience was upsetting. The wedding we had at The Lookout venue was very fun and I have no complaints about that! We were just excited to have a resort experience and we didn’t really get...

As with anything, there was plenty of good and plenty of mediocre here, but from the perspective of the 'resort,' we were pretty underwhelmed.

Overall Pros: The Laurelwood unit we reserved as 'walking distance to hub' was indeed very close to the central hub with easy access to rentals, restaurants, the market, etc. Huge pro, because parking around this area was completely full (with people making up their own parking spaces on the side of the road, even) all weekend, including the Thursday we arrived. Check-in was quick and easy, with great information and directions provided. Winter tubing was a blast. It was a lot more popular than I would have guessed, but the attendants were great at keeping things moving and were very friendly. Food, atmosphere, and wait staff at Devils Knob Grill was all-around fantastic. My daughter had a great time learning to ski in the little rippers program at the treehouse.

Overall Cons: No food delivery service to your unit of any kind. They advertise that Upper Crust delivers, but we were there at the height of the season and they did not. This is a pretty big con with a place this busy, as it can be difficult to get into a restaurant and there's virtually no uber eats/doordash type restaurants within a 30 minute drive. Weird thing for a 'resort' of this caliber to not offer. Disorganized and over-booked slopes and rental area. We have never skid before, and did not feel comfortable with the number of people on the easier slopes. Also, it took us about an hour to get our pre-reserved rentals and lift tickets, simply due to long lines. No pre-booking of group lessons. One of the most offensive cons for us. When I booked rentals and lift passes, I was told you could only book group lessons day-of or private in advance. I very mistakenly assumed that if they didn't book group lessons in advance, it must be because they're always available. Nope, lessons were 100% sold out for the entire day when we picked up our equipment and we had no idea what to do. They also told us our daughter wouldn't be allowed to participate in the same group as my wife and I if we decided to try again another day. If we ever do decide to try this again, we will definitely be purchasing private lessons on an off-day. Locker room at rental facility had nowhere close to enough lockers. All were taken with shoes and bags stacked on lockers and crammed under benches. Internet in the unit and throughout the resort is extremely unreliable. Constant disconnects, and ended up having to use my phones Hotspot the entire trip. Indoor pool in aquatics center has no meaningful food/beverage service (they do advertise deliver from upper crust, which was not actually available). There are a couple of places with chunks missing out of the floor, one of which my daughter scraped her foot on (and was then told by staff she couldn't keep swimming because she'd now bled within the last 24 hours). We swam anyway and they didn't bother us. Where we were sitting there was rusty condensation dripping on our table and chairs from the ceiling. There was quite a bit of dirt floating on the surface of the pool, particularly in the hot therapy pool. It was simply too crowded to have a good time, especially on the Saturday we had planned to do the most (in February). Very busy slopes, nowhere to sit around resort, nothing to do without tremendous wait, staff rushed and overwhelmed helping others, overall just not fun. If we come back maybe we'll shoot for a Wednesday...

This review is for a Summer trip though information for restaurants and amenities might be helpful to all. Started at Timbers#1 building. Room was facing slope side. The view was gorgeous. Great photos of clouds just touching the top of the mountains then the next day I got pictures of the clouds in the valley. Room was clean. King-sized bed. Firm mattress. Small kitchenette with all the pots, pans, utensils, glasses, etc. you would need to cook. Ice machine was in Timbers #2 which is right next store. Go out one door and then 10 steps to the other building and ice machine was right there. Bathroom was nice though brighter lights would have helped near mirror. Water pressure good. Shampoo and conditioner provided were not very good. Would recommend bringing your own shampoo and conditioner. Towels were clean and fluffy. Balcony was nice with metal chairs and table. Air conditioning worked well. Semi-loud unit though I sleep with a fan for noise so it didn't bother me. Had issue with internet in room but front desk had it fixed in 5 minutes. TV was a Smart TV and had all the usual TV apps. They were already logged into an account so we didn't bother loading ours. There are only 43 channels on cable with no guide. I was able to find a guide online to help find things to watch but very limited choices of things to watch.

Labor Day events provided were great. Beer and cider tastings/full drinks. Music all day. Lift rides. Axe throwing at no cost. They should probably add a few more kid friendly things to do but, otherwise, it was a great time.

Food choices are really limited to what the resort has on property. They were good but pricey. Everything we ate was good at The Edge, Coppermine, Devil's Grille and even the cafe inside the lodge. Didn't see any delivery places available nor did we see any places to eat unless you drove 20 minutes down the mountain. The Resort provides a free shuttle all over the Resort area. Other points of interest down the mountain are Bold Rock Cidery, Blue Toad Cidery and Devils Backbone brewery and distillery. They are all within 5-10 minutes of each other.

Fitness center was nice though finding how to get to it took some asking of someone coming out of the locker room to guide us. From the outside, you enter through the door that says Spa. You have to walk through the indoor pool area to get to the Fitness Center. It has many pieces of equipment and they are clean and up to date. The Fitness Center area has WiFi but it was a dead cellphone zone on our carrier. We saw but did not use the indoor or outdoor pools nor the indoor or outdoor hot tubs.

We did Shamokin Falls hike and it was well worth it. Multiple entrances but we entered near the Electric Substation at the end of the road. The walk back was KILLER. Up hill at a 15-20% incline. I believe the other two entrances to the trail/falls are a much easier hike as we saw many kids from 5+ doing the hike. So look for those entrances.

Lake Monocan, at the bottom of the mountain, is nice. We didn't get in the water but temperature seemed OK. See my review for Lake Monocan on...