I recently stayed at the Radisson for a conference. Reading the reviews on this website, I was concerned and wasn't sure what to expect, but found many of them to be on the nose, both good and bad.
Yes, you can hear the trains, yes, the second floor rooms would be better - I did request one, but got put on the first floor. The noise of the air mattress (excuse me, sleep number bed) being blown up at 2am startled me a bit. It sounded like a giant vacuum cleaner right over my head. The rooms are reasonably quiet for the most part, but large noises like these, as well as a large band playing one night went right through. Earplugs are a must here. Once I had those in, all was well!:)
The rooms are old, but very nice, reasonably clean and very pleasant, with the king bed room and a nice desk and view of the lakeside. I would never buy a sleep number bed, but it was okay once I dialed it down a bit. Just strange. The pillows and sheets are awesome! They were very snuggly and comfortable.
Definately request a lakeside view room unless you're really trying to save money. The scary rooms some people refer to are further out. The lakeside view rooms are especially nice in that they have two doors - one facing the parking lot so you can have your car nearby and the other facing the lake (or pool) so that you can walk right out to your balcony or patio where you have a pair of chairs and a table to sit and enjoy the pleasant weather.
One bad thing about being on the first floor is that if you have your window open to see the nice view, everyone passing by can see you. :) Mirrored or tinted windows would be nice. There's also a hedge so that you can't see as good of a view from the first (ground) floor as you can from the balcony of the second floor. There are only two floors on all the room buildings facing the lake.
I did have room service and eat in the bar and the food was very good - prime rib, bread, brocolli and hamburger and fries. The garlic potatoes were not good. Lumpy, cold and I didn't taste any garlic, so the second night I asked for mushroom risotto and it was very good! Although...that night I got very ill as well.:( Since I had been there since Thursday night and only eaten hotel food, I can't really see how it could be anything but one of the dishes I ate or the ice from the ice machine or water from the bottle or tap. It was just diarhea, no other symptoms, but annoying from 2-4am and again when up at 8. I know, more than you wanted to know...
I preferred eating in my room as it was pleasant and a good HBO movie was on one night. The bar was the only thing open on Sunday at 3pm and I had checked out of my room, but their deck has a LOUD horrible noisy AC unit running constantly and the windows could stand to be washed. My third photo is from my table inside the bar.
The wildlife was cool. Many huge spiders, ducks all over and one night I saw little birds tucked away on a doorframe. I wish I had my camera with me but I was too tired to walk back down.
Overall, the hotel is very pleasant and ALL of the staff were friendly, from the night clerk when I arrived to the room service delivery guys to the bartender, and everyone else.
There were only two bad customer service moments:
The first was on Sat night. I guess they were overwhelmed at room service since the phone call rolled over to front desk, then they reconnected me and eventually someone answered. She didn't seem to know they had prime rib and when I asked if they could substitute the risotto for the potatoes, she said, I don't know and we just had silence for a moment. I finally said, well, I don't know, so can you ask someone else? She put me on hold for the longest time, but the gentleman who did come on was then back up to the excellent standard of knowing what was going on and very acommadating.
The second time leads me to a word of warning - if you need super shuttle, call them to find out when they will arrive. I asked the front desk at 3pm and they said they come at the top of the hour. I asked if they were sure that I didn't need to call them and they assured me I didn't, so I went out at 4:50 and waited until 5:20 with no shuttle. Calling them, they said the next one would be at 5:45. This was a bit tight, so I got an alternate ride, but this could have been a serious problem.
Oh, one third thing I just thought of - it isn't the personel but their online system. Apparently it oversold the lakeside rooms as they called and emailed me to ask if I would give mine up since they had sold too many. I said no and I'm glad I did! Then I checked in online and when I arrived, they really had no record of it. As I mentioned, I had asked for a second floor room and that was not noted (according to the night clerk) nor accomadated. Friday morning I received a USA today although I had asked for a WSJ in my online registration. Neither of these things was a big deal, but I don't like companies using technology if they're not going to follow through on it.
Overall, it was a very pleasant stay. I do think it's overpriced, even with conference discounts, but then I am an RV baby, so perhaps all hotels are this expensive. This was less than my stay in Philly, which was WAY more than I wanted to spend. My stay for three nights, with two nights of room service at $30 each was $500. That's with taxes, etc. I think the actual room night price was like $118, but there are a lot of taxes. That's another thing that's very different from RV parks, so even with the gas prices, I'll keep my home on wheels for a while! :)
In summary, this is a decent place to stay if it's convenient for you (not a destination hotel) or there is a conference you want to attend there and you like trains (I do). It is also very near the fairgrounds, about one mile, although I was too tired from the conference to go to the state fair even though it was running while I was there.
