Edgewater Hotel and Waterpark — Restaurant in Duluth

ETA: I contacted Alexis through her direct email. She provided exceptional follow-up service and made things as right as possible. While I still cannot recommend this hotel to those with children, I am hoping that with some changes they will be able to overcome the issues we experienced and become a wonderful venue for families. If I could just review Alexis' customer service skills, she would get a full 5 stars! Our stay at the Edgewater Hotel & Waterpark on May 12-16. 2021 was the absolute worst experience I've ever had at a hotel. The room was extremely dirty and many of the things within the room were broken or non-functioning. The room smelled like cigarette smoke. which seemed to blow in though the ventilation/heating system. There were food scraps behind the nightstands, under the ledges of the bed and in the sinks, including popcorn, noodles and what appeared to be some kind of soup. The chain on the door to the balcony was broken. The curtains did not function properly to close, I had to use barrettes to pull them closed. The curtain rod in the shower was broken and the curtain slid down to the middle doing nothing to keep the water in the shower. One of the nightstand lights had a broken switch and was already unplugged which indicates the issue was known. The privacy lock on the room door was hanging on but definitely didn't look like it would keep anyone out. The fridge barely kept our drinks cool and the rotating plate in the microwave was not for that model microwave hence didn't spin. I had no idea what kind of clientele this facility would attract, it looked very family friendly from the website. The party of young people staying in the room next to us made the stay absolutely horrific. The first couple we encountered at around 4 pm were having a major fight on the balcony, the same balcony we shared. They settled down after my 7 yo peeked out the door to see what was happening. But later that night, it was a full on party. Many on the balcony which felt like they were right in our room. I tried to be patient but at 2 am they awoke the kids and I called the front desk. Not much changed throughout the night, we put the kids in the other room away from the balcony. Finally, I left to get coffee at 7:15 am only to see cops evicting one of the guys. Honestly the next night was barely better, I called the front desk at closer to 1 am this time to hopefully get things settled down. They were a bit quieter but radios on the balcony and the smoke pouring into our room left us sleepless again. The amount of residue around the ventilation/heating ducts is disturbing. They whole system needs to be cleaned and the smoking needs to stop if you want to attract those who care about their health at all. We got a pizza, the crust was not cut all the way and was chewy, not a great combo for a toddler trying to eat. Would never order that again. The staff in both the waterpark and the arcade where great, they should all get raising for dealing with the people in those areas. Also the arcade was much cleaner than our room. The all night party, fights and constant stream of smoke from the room and adjoining balcony next to us were ridiculous and no person should have to deal with that. I complained both nights, once at 2 am and once at 1 am. The cops came the first morning to evict one of the guys but the room full of partiers stayed for the second night. At the very least they should have been moved to another room to allow our children to sleep and not be afraid. No one followed up with us after the complaints. I would never recommend this hotel to anyone unless they were looking for a place to party. On May 16, 2021 I received an email to fill out a survey, which I did even though I doubt it will have any impact. Then on May 17, 2021 I receive a follow-up vm and email from Alexis, Director of Guest Services. I responded to the email, on May 18, 2021 after not getting a promised call back, with further information and awaited a reply. There was no further follow-up as of today,...

I’m writing this review to give future potential visitors an honest picture of what to expect, so you can decide for yourself if this place makes sense for you.

Focusing on the hotel facilities, you are absolutely paying more than you should for what you get… parking is inconvenient, the general area feels run-down, and the building is old and in need of repairs. The back door that supposedly requires a room key for entry does NOT require a key and was unlocked and/or propped open with a large rock most of the time. Overall, it felt like a cheap motel.

The room we rented was a two-bedroom/one-bathroom lakeview suite for $275.99 a night, and we were on the second floor. The rooms were spacious, and the beds were clean and freshly made. The carpet and walls were very stained, and the bathroom tile was in terrible condition. The tub/shower/sinks/counters looked clean enough, but the first night we noticed a strong sewer smell in the bathroom due to the toilet not being properly mounted.

Our balcony had a lake view but also overlooked a maintenance area that included the snowplow, a maintenance truck, and some random trash and supplies strewn about. The overhead soffit on the balcony’s outer edge was separated and hanging from the building. The balconies also are not private, you share the space separated by a railing with the room next to you (great if you know your room-neighbors, but a bit awkward if not). We didn’t mind these quirks and still enjoyed having the balcony regardless of the freeway noise (HWY 35 runs between the hotel and the lakeshore).

The beds and pillows were comfortable enough, the bedding was clean, and the two-room setup was ideal for our family’s needs. The TV has only 50 basic channels, no streaming or screen-casting options (don’t let the GuestCast widget on the back of the TV fool you), and the free WiFi was slow and not secure, so I’m glad I had my laptop and personal hotspot for some Netflix bingeing in the evenings.

The amenities and water park itself were disappointing. The continental breakfast was very minimal: cereal, yogurt from a machine, and a pancake machine that takes forever. Good thing Perkins is right there, but still disappointing if the point of staying here is to save money. On Saturday afternoon, my husband wanted to grab a burger and/or a beer but found all options in the hotel closed. Essentially, if the water park is closed, so is everything else, which leaves guests with nothing to do on site for a large portion of the day.

The water park was smaller than expected and quite crowded; having to pay the full price for wristbands while also overpaying for our room felt cheap. The Paradise Playground intended for little kids was closed due to poop in the water. I know this is not necessarily the water park’s fault, but this was the only area my kid could enjoy safely, so that was frustrating. The lifeguard told us they had to test the water and “depending on the kind of poop, it might re-open in an hour”.

We spent some time in the lazy river, but the water was cold, and my kid was shivering within 10 minutes, so we went out to the hot tub to warm up. That was pleasant and not too hot, but we learned from another family that the “swimming area” pool had been closed the day before due to poop in the pool, so it obviously happens regularly, and I would not expect a refund would be easy to get. A standard hotel pool would have been a better option for my family, and I would not waste the time or money visiting this water park again.

I do want to point out that we received wonderful customer service from everyone we encountered; check-in was smooth and quick and the woman who helped me was very pleasant. Luke at the front desk deserves a shoutout: he was being berated by a customer on the phone while the line of people just grew and grew… he maintained an impressively calm demeanor and did everything in his power to address the issue the customer had clearly created themselves. He deserves a huge bonus for handling that...

This hotel was absolutely disgusting and we would never stay here again. We drove 5 hours from Fargo to check in and they hassled us for 10 minutes drilling us with questions about our service animal, which was already okayed by another staff member twice before we arrived. They were trying to charge us for having her, asking us why we have her and other uncalled for, inappropriate questions. They finally agreed to waive the fee. We checked into our room only to find blood on both bed sheets as they were not changed and the room was about 80° because the heat/air conditioning unit was broken. We called down to the front desk and told him about the sheets, he brought new sheets, but no pillow cases and did not offer to remake the beds. I asked if we could get new pillow cases too and he said, “oh, did you need new pillow cases?” I said, “well, if the sheets are dirty I can only assume the pillows would be too as the sheets clearly were not changed.” Kind of left us dumbfounded, honestly. He came back with pillow cases and left. We asked to have someone come look at the thermostat as it was still extremely hot in there and he told us that there was no maintenance staff around and asked if we’d like to switch rooms. We had already unloaded 4 days worth of food and belongings and gotten everything set up and at this point it was already 1am so we told him we would think about it and get back to him. After about an hour the four of us couldn’t stand how hot it was in the room and decided we’d switch and move everything even though it was going to be a hassle. He said he would comp us $50 and it never showed up on either card the room was paid for with . The next room was dirty as well, but by the time we had moved everything over it was already 2am and we were exhausted and the A/C worked so we’d actually be able to sleep. However, the A/C unit was CAKED in dust inside and out, the filter and unit itself doesn’t appear to have been cleaned in at least 3 years. I have a video of this, but it would only let me post pictures. Every lamp in the 2nd room was also broken and I have videos of those as well. The housekeepers just propped them up against the wall, but if you actually have to turn them on the whole lamp tips over. We never received new towels or garbage bags, our key cards stopped working every day and we had to keep going down to the front desk which was on the opposite end of the hotel to keep having them reset the key cards. There was black mold all over in the entryway closest to our room and when one of the people who was staying with us went to the front desk to address the issue he was in the middle of talking to a manager and she picked picked up the hotel phone, and then was told by another employee the health dept was just there two days before and never mentioned anything. 5 minutes later they sent maintenance down and he just painted right over it. There are pictures of this as well, but they are on the other person’s phone who was in our group. This is a run-down trashy establishment and I’d be extremely embarrassed to be an employee, the GM,...