First order of business: Post number 200! W00t!
We stayed at the Stevens Point Holiday Inn in Stevens Point, Wisconsin over the Labor Day weekend. We needed to go "up north" to have our boat serviced after over a year in storage. I have the scumbags at the Village of Rome Town Hall to thank for that, since they gave campers the bums rush last year. Oh well, we can take our vacation money elsewhere.
Anyway, the hotel was as close to perfect as I think I'll get. The check in was flawless, and I was given a "snack bag" on check-in that included and apple, a juice drink, and a cereal bar. The room was exactly as we expected (King Family Suite) with a King bed, and a bunk bed in a separate room for the kids. Everything worked and was well maintained.
The "waterpark" is barely that, but then it's certainly much more than a pool you might expect at a Holiday Inn. There's one medium sized waterslide and a small waterslide for the tots. The medium waterslide was fun for Aaron, our ten-year-old. They had two "pools", a zero-depth affair with the tot water slide, and an adjacent pool with built in water basketball courts. The Jacuzzi was at a comfortable temp and good working order. It's not a waterpark for older kids or fearless adults, but for young kids and going into it with the expectation of a "pool", it's not bad.
The restaurant, Rudy's Redeye Grill, was almost perfect and was the only disappointing experience that would have otherwise earned this hotel an MHD "Perfect" rating. The full text of our restaurant experience is after the jump.
Overall, I would still stay at this hotel again - well worth the money. I would be wary of the restaurant staff, and not let them get away with their obvious staff problems. We ended up eating one meal free because of the attrocious service. But I still rate this hotel very high, when you happen to find yourself in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Our first two dining experiences at Rudy's were fine, but breakfast on our last day was a complete disaster. First the hostess seated us but didn't tell the waiters that we had been seated. After waiting 15 minutes for someone to come by, I asked a nearby waiter to please send our waiter/waitress over. It took them 10 more minutes to figure out what was going on, and meanwhile they left us still sitting there with no contact. At one point, the manager came by and hurredly stated that she "was busy doing room service" but that someone would be by soon, and she would deduct 20% from our bill for our trouble. Huh, the manager and she couldn't bother to just say "Sorry for the delay, what's your order?" Well it got worse.
Finally they assigned the hostess who sat us there to take our order, and she clearly didn't have enough experience waiting tables. Didn't know what cereals they served and didn't warn us that, even though they cook your eggs any way you like, hard boiled egg requests are "to order" and take 45 minutes. Had we known this, we would have told her up front to bring the rest of our food, rather than waiting for one hard boiled egg before anyone else at our table could eat.
So after taking our order, she fumbled through the rest of the service. 25 minutes after sitting down, and after asking repeatedly for coffee and OJ, I still had not had any beverages - and neither had anyone else at our table. Finally after asking a third time, they brought me a cup (not a pot) of coffee - even though clearly everyone at other tables had pots. I had to ask again and again for refills, and finally asked her why she didn't just bring me a pot like everyone else had. Finally, she complied and things started getting back to normal.
Or so I thought. 45 minutes after we had arrived, and 20 minutes after we ordered, we still did not have our food. I flagged down the hostess and asked about our order. She went and checked on it. She came back and informed me that the cook "had just gotten to" our order, and it would be another 15-20 minutes. I became livid. I demanded to speak to the manager. I told her that I didn't think it was fair that our order was put *behind* everyone else who arrived after us, and that rush or no rush, she owed us better service due to the delay in taking our order. She was apologetic, but didn't offer much in return. I suggested that her 20% offer was inadequate.
Finally, I told her and the hostess that, regardless of the status of our one hard boiled egg, I wanted all the other food from our order on our table immediately. I think they finally got the idea, as they began paying much more attention to our table and bringing our food out.
The parting shot was that the manager came by just before we left, and actually had the gaul to say "I'll comp your bill, but please leave the server something, this wasn't her fault." Eh? The server, who seated us and didn't tell anyone, who put our order *behind* everyone else's after we waited 25 minutes for our order to be taken, who didn't bring out a coffee for 25 minutes and a measly bowl of cereal for our kids because our damned hard boiled egg that takes 45 minutes to cook was still in a boiling pot, was not at fault? BS. I felt bad leaving her five bucks, I would have preferred to stiff her. The manager should be ashamed of herself, shilling tips for a hostess/waitress who clearly needed remedial customer service training.
