Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Sagamore (NY) - New Year Holiday

Just returned from a 3 night stay at the Sagamore in Bolton Landing, NY. We stayed over the New Year Holiday - family of four with two kids ages 9 & 11. We stayed in the main hotel building in a premier suite (room 205). The lobby was decorated nicely for the holidays including a giant gingerbread house. Checked in around 6:30pm - painless and we were in our room within 10 minutes. The suite layout was a little disappointing - king bed and pull out sofa bed were close together providing no privacy between sleeping areas. The layout of the room did not make the best use of space. Huge closet area and bathroom with very compact living space. The bathroom was nice and seemed to have undergone a recent renovation, the room was clean. The next morning I got to see our view in daylight and it was spectacular! We had a very nice balcony overlooking Lake George.

First morning there was New Year's Eve and I went down to grab some coffee. They had complimentary coffee in the lobby bar I even scored a cappuccino for my husband. While there I spoke with a hostess from La Bella Vita and mentioned that we had 7pm reservations that night. She warned me at that time that they would be running late (she knew this 12 hours ahead of schedule, red flag). Pondering that thought later in the morning I decided to confirm our reservation and surprise no record of it....having been told that it would be a disaster anyway I decided to find out what our other dinner options would be and was encouraged to try Mr. Brown's Pub in the lower level. I also inquired about tickets to the New Year's Eve Party which I also reserved prior to our arrival - I was told we would get wristbands at dinner that evening (wasn't convinced).

My husband and son spent a chunk of the day at Gore Mountain about 40 minutes away trying to snowboard in lackluster conditions. Back at the Sagamore my daughter and I spent time at the Rec Center which we found enjoyable - miniature golf, a rock climbing wall, basketball, baseball, video game stations, ping pong, etc all indoors which was a life saver.

Later that night we had dinner in the pub which was deserted but apparently it was the best deal in town having read scathing tripadvisor reports on how horrible things were at La Bella Vita on New Year's Eve (thank you universe for sparring us). The pub was OK - great waitress - Great Wolf Lodge style decor and decent food - just thankful we weren't suffering upstairs with a herd of justifiably angry guests who had to wait hours for their meals regardless of reservation status. We inquired about the wristbands and the waitress was unaware of that so she got the manager who gave us the wristbands for the New Year's Eve Party. The party had a great band and an arcade room set up for the kids - we enjoyed ourselves.

New Year's Day we had a new reservation at La Bella Vita and it was disappointing at best. The food was just OK, there was a screaming infant in close proximity and the waiter was more like a used car salesman. We were really hoping for at least one good meal over our break. We also had a bathroom issue in our room which housekeeping failed to address and it did get resolved while were at dinner just shouldn't happen in this level of property. Housekeeping also neglected to refill any of the room condiments. You should not have to ask to have Keurig cups replenished when you are paying this much for a room, shouldn't happen.

The property and setting were beautiful. I just don't think they can handle off season crowds for large events. The resort was very busy with a lot of families. They really need to find a way to get qualified staff and management on premises for the big crowds.