21.12.08

Oglebay Festival of Lights



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We visited Oglebay's Wilson Lodge this weekend. Oglebay advertises it's festival of lights every Christmas season. So, we finally made the trip. Accomodations at the Wilson Lodge were adequate and our room was equipped with a small coffee pot, flat panel TV with cable, small refridgerator, and a balcony.
Arriving early in the afternoon, we still had some daylight to kill before the lights would be glowing all over the grounds. We decided to visit the Mansion Museum and the Glass Museum. The glass museum features Crystal, carnival, colored and opalescent glassware made by the Ohio Valley glass manufacturer H. Northwood Company which is the focus of the new display of valuable glass. A glass blower/worker was present to show us how glass was melted and shaped.

By the time we had walked through the museums, the Holiday lights were shining. Noting that the traffic was already running slow, we decided against creeping along to view the lights from our vehicle and decided to go back to the lodge where our room overlooked many of the light decorations. There are trollies available, but just like the museums, the ride comes at a price and we were hungry. We couldn't get into the main restaurant that required reservations, so decided to order through room service. We were suprised when the staff told us that it would be around 20 minutes since the lodge was packed with people. After about 50 minutes, we decided to call down and find out if our order was on it's way. It arrived "in a jiffy", luke warm and without silverwear which we discovered were missing after the staff were gone who had delivered our meals.
Which reminds me, we enquired about where we might purchase beverages besides through room service since the pop machine on our floor was sold out. The staff told us to go to other floors and that if we ordered from her, it would cost around $2 per small cup for beverages.
This is the point where I really didn't think too much of Oglebay's as a good destination to stay over the Christmas Holiday. Our room cost just over $300 and there wasn't much included with that price. There weren't enough staff to really take care of the crowd and even one of the things that was supposed to be available, wireless, didn't work well.

Still, there is a very nice indoor pool and jacuzzi. The lodge was decorated nicely. The bathroom included a towel warmer and we did have a breakfast buffet and a free newspaper with our room. Oglebay's seems to be a pretty good place for families because there were a lot of kids there and Santa visited, but for us, it wasn't a value and the few little things; a hot meal, a filled pop machine, a working coffee pot, and silverwear seemed to rank as less important than people collecting money for this museum, that museum, a trolly ride or to view the light decorations.