Our trip to Wisconsin Dells

After being stuck home all winter, all covid, and all summer, we decided to take a little road trip to Wisconsin Dells. We chose the Dells because it is a family favorite, it’s relatively close, and because it’s still summer.

We have always stayed with our timeshare on previous trips, but this was last minute and there were no rooms available when I looked online. When staying with our timeshare in the past we always received entry into Mount Olympus Water and Theme parks. So we decided to lodge with them because, once again, it’s familiar.

From the start I was anxious. Okay, anyone who knows me, knows I am anxious a lot. So planning a trip no matter how familiar and how small obviously caused me to be more anxious. Top that off with going during a pandemic and not knowing exactly how that might change things only added fuel to the fire.

When I looked online for Mount Olympus, I was quite pleased to see that it said, “Our Parks are open and hotel guest exclusive!” This meant that it would automatically reduce the number of visitors and there wouldn’t be the chance that too many people would be in one place.

We chose the first week in August. We didn’t plan it out per-say, but I thought with most schools starting back up and the pandemic it would probably be nice and peaceful. What I did not count on when I made the reservation was that 1. It would only be a high of 70 degrees both days we were there, And 2. That they would have the indoor water park closed!

Two days before visiting I looked ahead at the weather and saw this daunting forecast. I brought it up to both my husband and son. They said, “ We can just go to the indoor part.” I thought that sounded great but wouldn’t everyone want to go to the indoor park then? And with Covid..... ? I messaged my sister with my worry and she said the same thing. “Just go to the indoor part.” So I decided to put my worries away and let it be.

When we got to the park and made it all the way across, over to the indoor park, it was closed! And it was only 68 degrees! What now? I’m much too large for rollercoasters and even if I wasn’t, I couldn’t imagine being all shook up like that and enjoying myself. I never really found them fun. My son and my husband rode a couple but my son really wanted to play in the water park.

So we suited up and got into the ice water. It was literally so cold that my fingers were turning blue after we got out and were making our way back to get our things from the lockers.

We decided that the next day that we would go to the theme park and then only go to the water park once it warmed up to at least 70.

Besides freezing it wasn’t too bad... until we went to go to our room. When we got to the Dells and checked in at the welcome center, I was told my room wasn’t ready yet but that we could go into the park. The man said they would text me with my room number once it was ready to go.

Now mind you, this was about one o’clock. Check in was supposed to be at four. We left the park around five. Still with no text on our room. There were no staff or courtesy desk in our actual building. I had to call the resort and get my room number and the person i spoke with was hard to understand. They had a thick accent and were not very clear with what they said.

After getting my room number and heading up, the room itself was quite bare. The tv was quite small. And it was pretty warm. The air conditioner didn’t seem to do a very good job. So we turned it off and tried opening the window but being so high up it still was extra warm.

Overall I wasn’t impressed with the room. When we used our rags and towels there was no way to get fresh ones. Or extra toiletries. The pillows were really flat and there were only 3 on each queen size bed.

I think the worst thing was that because the parks closed so early, 6pm (in the past they always closed at 10pm), and there was no one manning the hotel, people were literally letting their children run up and down the halls deep into the night.

I mean I kind of get it, these kids have nothing to do. The rooms are tiny and bare. They can’t go back til 10 am and they have all evening to kill. But it wasn’t very nice for us. We don’t like that much ruckus.

All in all, it wasn’t a horrible trip. We had fun as a family and spent some quality time together. I tried not to complain about these things that I didn’t like so that my son who was enjoying every moment of it could just be happy and not have a care in the world. And he did. So I guess in that aspect, it was a huge success. He won’t remember the park closing so early or the lack of hotel staff or toiletries. And he probably won’t even remember how cold it was.

So would I recommend going to Mount Olympus post covid? If you don’t care that everything is way overpriced (including the bare room) and that there is not much customer service, sure. It was still fun and we made some happy memories. It definitely beat sitting around at home and staring at the walls.