Please don't go here. You will regret it and remember this review. I promise. We went for the third straight year around the same time - Christmas break.
2023 - very nice. Only issue was toilet was leaking a little water, but they fixed it. A little bit understaffed.
2024 - check-in was majorly delayed and close to half the games were broken in the arcade. Significantly understaffed. Park would open a little bit late, towels would not be available. The place ran out of toilet paper. A lot of deflated tubes for slides. We could laugh about this because they heavily discounted our stay and the kids still had fun.
2025 - No chance of going back. Check-in was late again. When they said one of our two rooms was ready, it was filthy. So back down to the lobby with two carts full of luggage we went. We finally got our rooms about two hours late. 1 of the 4 adults ended up waiting with luggage while the rest went to the waterpark. I asked the front desk how this inconvenience will be reflected on the final bill and got the runaround about talking to the financial guy. In other words, nothing. The rooms were mostly fine, but one blanket had a used bandage stuck to it and some of the towels had yellow stains. That night (Day 1) the hot tub was lukewarm but the waterpark was fine except they don't have enough tubes. They just don't care about blowing up the deflated ones. The waterpark used to close at 9; now it's 8. The next day the water was cold. They apparently have to document the water temps on a chalkboard. The only one I remember was the hot tub, which was 88. That's barely what a normal pool should be. The rest of the water was too cold. Everyone in the hotel was miserable. Staff didn't care. One of the teenagers told one of us it's cold because they turn the boilers off at night. That was plausible because the park seemed to warm up slightly throughout the day, but it was not tolerable at any point on day 2 or day 3. Day 3 the hot tub was documented at 84 degrees.
The bar was not open at any point. The restaurant on a balcony overlooking the waterpark was not open at any point.
At one point an exterior door to the waterpark was wide open letting 20-degree air in. The next day it was being worked on - I saw a man with a drill.
On day 2 we were awakened early by our room smoke detectors. A guest near the elevator told us he was having coffee downstairs and heard the alarms, grabbed an extinguisher, and put it out. He said it was in the kitchen - lots of smoke. The local FD showed up 15 minutes later. The staff never addressed this. The hotel smelled like burnt bacon all day, and the staff decided that what guests needed to know about this was absolutely nothing.
The smoke alarms were the final straw for a young mother and toddler. We overheard her interaction with the front desk asking to speak to management, etc. The front desk lady became agitated and yelled at her that she is not the one to mess with; it came across as a trashy threat - pathetic and completely out of line for guest services. She would not have kept her job working for me. This was, mind you, the same lady who initially told us our rooms were not ready. She didn't care at all. She was not apologetic or surprised. It's very clear that underperformance at this place is normal and expected. Most of the teen lifeguards were pretty pleasant, but they also didn't really seem all that qualified/trained.
The arcade was better than last year, with most games functioning. The only issue here was we actually won a 600-ticket jackpot, but most of those tickets suddenly disappeared. They were on my card, but a few games later the balance was 300-something. Tickets don't deplete; credits do. The prizes are all trash and it wasn't that many tickets in the grand scheme anyway, but still, this should not happen. I didn't bother to mention it because there's zero chance anyone would have cared.
On our last day, check-out is 11, and the waterpark opens at 9. We packed early to try to enjoy it if the water was magically warm. They weren't ready to open until 9:14. We came in and half the lights were still out and no towels. And the water was still cold with the hot tub at 84 degrees. For reference, it's somewhat common for waterparks to specifically advertise 84 degrees as the air and/or water temp, like Great Wolf Lodge and Blue Harbor in Sheboygan.
This place made me into a person I didn't want to be. Suddenly, out of visceral spite, I felt myself wanting to sabotage Three Bears. I wanted to trash the place, leave bathrooms dirty. I no longer cared about any of their rules, etc.
Most of these issues are tolerable in isolation, but they're not in isolation. And this time, with the water temps what they were, they ruined it for the kids too. They are sad our annual tradition is over, but even they know this place is trash. For that, I will beg anyone I know to go anywhere else. This place deserves to fail and absolutely does not deserve your money. read more