Clarion Inn Amana Colonies & Wasserbahn Waterpark, Williamsburg

This place is disgusting. Dirty, dirty, dirty. I was with a party where several of our friends are now ill, along with my husband. Unfortunately for my husband, he has lung injuries from being deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan and his illness went straight to his lungs. I went into the hot tub for only 15 minutes before I questioned my friend about the smell of the water. It smelled like pure URINE. I am just disgusted and hope they contact some folks to refund us our monies!

A group large group went to this hotel/waterpark and almost all of us became EXTREMLY ill just hours after returning home. Over 20 people got sick, which is why we contacted the health dept.right away! Two days later we had mutiple positive cases of norovirus. The cases came from mutiple families that the only thing they had in common were staying at this hotel and swimming in the pool area on the same dates. Many adults and children, including my own were and are very sick. The health dept came in and found the pool levels to be completely out of compliance for the days we were in the pool and many previous to that as well. I am absolutely furious about the complete lack of public safety. And the amount of neglect of something so simple. Not to mention the pool area was so GROSS and dirty! The smell in the pool area was so bad that I had to keep a towel under my nose to keep from gagging. I wish more than anything now that I would have trusted my gut feeling and never let my family and friends swim in that pool and turn away and leave as soon as I walked in the door. But, I mistakenly put my trust in those responsible for their customers safety that they were doing the right thing. PLEASE do NOT stay here....I only wish I would have read these reviews before going here.

I'd give it a "0" if I could. The water park water was FREEZING--I'm not joking. They closed the water slides early because there were ICE CRYSTALS inside the slide...The sauna was broken (worked after the 2nd or 3rd reset). The hot tub was so cold, our lips turned blue. The vortex pool was broken. The children's area was ice cold. The staff was rude and unsympathetic--and when the manager was contacted? Rude. Dismissed our complaint for over a month, dodging us at every turn. When I finally DID get in touch with her, she was rude and dismissive at first. I contacted Choice Hotels customer support and they assured me the problem would be addressed and an apology was forthcoming. The letter of apology, along with the promised replacement water park passes NEVER CAME. The hotel/Clarion/Choice Hotels/the staff don't care about customer satisfaction--they just want your money and want you to leave. It was one thing to have a bad experience once, but to have a second one on what should be their reconciliation effort--not ever going back there again. They disappointed my family 2 times too many. Don't bother wasting your money there. Oh, and Choice Hotels customer support? When I called them back to let them know the water park passes and letter of apology never came, they were rude and dismissive as well. I guess they don't think it's their problem if their customers are unhappy. It's going to be a problem for them, however, when their hotel can't keep customers booked and their water park is empty day after day. Customers ARE their business. Hopefully they remember that before it's too late.

Restaurant, Lodging, and Waterpark were severly understaffed...according to an employee of the Country Store that is across the street, the new owner cut staffing by approximately 50 employees...this was very obvious in comparison to our previous stay Restaurant is overpriced for the service and ambiance...an omelet started at $8...that is for an egg...in order to get cheese or any additional toppings on the omelet it is 50 cents per additional ingredient and the service at breakfast was the worst I have experienced...ever After finally being seated we sat for 15 minutes with no menus, water, or even speaking to a waitress. I finally went and grabbed menus. A family at supper was forced to set in 2 separate booths because they didn't want to dirty the area of the restaurant with larger tables. Pool was dirty, cold, understaffed, children are not allowed in hot tub even with adult, water slides were closed over half of the 3 hours we were there because there wasn't a lifeguard available to operate them. The only pool for older children has 2 basketball hoops which make it near impossible to swim in the area. Our 3 children ages 8, 10 and 11 were less than impressed with the water park. Were very bored when the slides were shut down. We took them to a nice hotel with a regular pool a few weeks ago. They had a lot more fun there. We had 2 extra adults that were not going to swim, but wanted to go in to watch the kids...fully clothed. We were charged $20 in order to step foot in the park...fully clothed. There were no seats left for those not swimming and no towels to use...as a result the halls in the hotel were soaked. The pool was so dirty that the boys had a hard time seeing underwater with goggles on...ick! They charge your credit card/debit card a $50 fee that is refunded if there is no damage to the room. Maybe this is standard practice, but I have never heard this before this stay. We took good care of the room so shouldn't be a problem, but I was surprised to hear this. I could go on and on about our subpar experience, but I will just leave it at this...our money could have been spent much better this weekend and we will not be returning to Waserbahn On a positive note...our evening meal was good, but overpriced. The country store is adorable and very fun with great customer service. Would highly recommend that you stop there.

Motel was fine. Now for the bad news. We paid $169/night and got a very small indoor waterpark with cold air and cold water. I called the front desk and asked if something was wrong with the pool heater and they said the pool is always that way. We stayed at Grand Harbor Resort in Dubuque a month ago. Although G.H. Is far from amazing, it is way better than Wasserbahn. Wasserbahn is about 1/4 the size I would guess. It is probably ok for 0-3 yr olds as far as size of the attraction IF your kids. An stand freezing water. I have a few other complaints that I won't go into. Basically we paid good money to go to a waterpark that my kids did not enjoy and were left with an average hotel. I will never come back.

My children and I drove to the water park when Des Moines was having there Spring Break. We resevered the room in advance. Got to the room and there were lady bugs and other bugs in our rooms window. I understand that bugs will come in but they were also coming in another window in the hall way, They should have been spray. The housekeeping staff said they just vaccumed the hallway window a hour ago. Again, bugs do come in. My kids were so excited to go to the pool. When we got down there, they weren't so excited. My 5 year old couldn't go down the waterslide because he was to short by a 1/2 inch. They won't let him go down with me. At the end of the waterslide, there isn't a pool but canoue looking things. The deepest pool was 3.9 ft. It's REALLY SMALL. Plus you can also shot baskets. Ok, if the pool is not very big, then why would you put in a basket ball hoop?? The kiddie area was cute for little, little one. IF YOUR KIDS ARE OLDER. (Mine are 8 and 5) THIS IS NOT THE WATER PARK TO TAKE THEM TO!!! While we were there, I did speak to a few people that I knew. One said that she booked for 2 nights at the hotel. She canceled the next night stay because her children were board. No lillte kids are aloud in the pool at all. So if the water is cold in the other pool, (at it was) to bad. The beds were ok. There is a 10% discount that is given for your overall bill in the resterant. Yah. Whatever. We we to the Wal-mart in Iowa City to get donuts, much cheaper. Like I said if you have older children, I WOULD NOT GO HERE!!! Very expensive for what you get. NOTHING!!!

I recently drove 45 miles to Wasserbahn Waterpark with my three sons and their friends. You can imagine how excited they were about this trip. We arrived and found out that the day passes were sold out. I had tried to buy tickets in advance but the waterpark does not sell advanced tickets, so basically, it's first come, first served. How does that help people plan a trip in advance, especially those traveling from other towns? I asked to speak to the manager, but the lady informed me that she was the day manager. There were six very disappointed children but the manager did not seem sympathetic at all. What really made me angery was that the live video footage of the waterpark, that a person can view from the lobby, showed that the park was nearly empty!! Unbelieveable! As a family we have decided that Wasserbahn will no longer get our business. Tomorrow we are going to the Dubuque Harbor Waterpark. I called and they were sypathetic to what happened at Wasserbahn and they assured us that they will not turn us away tomorrow. Apparently, Wasserbahn feels pretty secure in this economy to be able to turn away paying customers.

This was one of the worst hotel experiences we have ever had. We planned a family get-together of about 30 people at the hotel. We should have realized that it was going to be a bad experience right from the beginning. We first worked with a "planner" because we wanted to have a couple family meals together. After working with her for about a week, she realized we were JUST under the number to be able to have a special meal, so we had to work with the restaurant. Then, that went back and forth about twenty times. First they were going to have a special menu for us, then they sent us the usual menu. Then they didn't have any place were we could all sit together, then they changed their mind. Despite repeated attempts to get a children's menu, we still had not received one by the time we arrived. Even getting reservations on our block of rooms was a pain. Half the time they couldn't find our block!!! Some family members had to call 10+ times!!!! When we arrived at the hotel....the rooms were fine. Clean, beds are comfortable. But that is the best that I can say about the place. There is a sign in the room that shows you what you will be charged if ANYTHING is missing from the room. And considering this is a waterpark...and there are no towels available in the waterpark...(see below) I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, what if you take a towel down and someone takes it? Then you will be charged $40!!! The water in the SMALL waterpark is FREEZING - especially in the children's area. The sauna did not work. The hot tub did NOT get hot. There were NO towels (strangely enough, there was a sign hanging by where the towels are supposed to be that said TOWELS ARE FOR HOTEL GUESTS ONLY. I found this appalling. First, it costs like $18 to get in if you aren't a guest at the hotel...why not give those people a freakin towel for that price!!!!). And worst of all, there was ONE lifeguard on duty. ONE - with like 1000 little kids running around. I helped one kid that almost drown in the deeper pool and I saw about four kids get helped by other people. Warning to parents - if you are going to go there - WATCH YOUR KIDS!!! Because the lifeguards are not going to - they are so understaffed. Then we went to dinner. It was some of the WORST food we've ever had. The service was bad - they were completely under staffed - and the food was EXPENSIVE and bad. We were supposed to go there for breakfast the next morning - we called the Maid Rite across the parking lot and met there for an early lunch instead. The people at the Maid Rite told us this happens all the time. All in all, it was one of the worst hotel experiences we've ever had. I would never go back.. The water park in Dubuque is worth the extra drive!!!

I went there last year and remembered having an "OK" time but this year was completely different. (fyi.. the "waterpark" is very small compared to the pictures). My in-laws were traveling from Des Moines to Iowa City for a meeting. So the wife and I decided to have them drop us and our 2 kids off at Wasserbahn on the way. After we pay $18 per person, we go into the changing room which has no benches so your clothes end up lying on the ground. Then out of 30 lockers only 1 or 2 were unlocked to use. So now that we're dressed for the water we go over to the slides and noticed they were blocked off. We asked the lifegaurd why they are blocked off and he informed me that they don't have another staff person to sit at the top of the slides so they won’t be opened. The slides were the main reason we came there. After the bad news we went to the reception desk to see if we could get any refunds/ coupons to come back. Even after talking to the manager they still refused to do anything for us. They said if you’re in the water area you need to have a wrist band on. Since we were stuck there we didn't have much choice. Then an hour or so later I got a little hungry and went to get a snack. Again they failed! Even though they had the snacks right there, and the cash register was there, and an employee was working the snack bar, and I had cash, they wouldn't serve me because they were doing yearly cleaning. Needless to say we won’t be back.

The staff at this hotel is very nice and friendly, and the water park is fun for the kids, but when it comes to a good room...well it smelled funny and wasn't very clean or updated. It was overall OK.