Paul Bunyan Water Park - The Lodge at Brainerd Lakes, Baxter-Brainerd

Be sure to call ahead of time if you're not staying at the hotel. To make sure that they are not passed their limits of how many people can be in the pool. When we when it was perfect timing the pool was amazing the water slides were great but the thing I enjoyed the most was the indoor outdoor hot tub.

Long wait times for everything food, rooms, towels. Both my kids ended up with rashes from the pool the level of chlorine was horrible and other kids in our group were coughing and getting sick. They closed the slide because I guess some kids weren’t putting the tubes back nice enough so the already small water park was even less fun. This was my second stay the first time was just as bad but I wanted to give them a second chance because they seemed short staffed the first time but definitely regret it now. I understand finding good help is hard but they might want to consider not booking all there rooms if the staff can’t handle it.

Nearly everything at this waterpark is on the brink of falling apart. The stairs up to the water sides are literally crumbling apart in rusted pieces. The floor is littered with Band-Aids, food, hair and remnants of people from probably years ago. The water in the lazy river and the pool portion of the water park is absolutely freezing. The hot tub was warm, but not necessarily hot. Nearly all the tile in the hot tub is crumbling apart or has fallen off. There are sharp edges everywhere. As we were packing up to leave after attempting to make the best of it with our three boys, our youngest got bitten/stung by a wasp that was on the floor. Mind you this is in the middle of November not in the summer, so no way it could’ve come in from outside. This place use to be a really fun spot about 6 years ago. Now it’s just a waste of money.

I wish I would have taken pictures of not only the room but of the so called "waterpark" as well. Everything and everywhere was absolutely filthy. The bathroom floor and shower in our room was COVERED in hair. Not just strands of hair either, there were clumps of hair with debris/food crumbs stuck together throughout the entire bathroom. The floor of the room had clearly not been vacuumed either, and it was obvious it hadn't been cleaned/vacuumed in quite some time; Food, wrappers/garbage strewn about, the coffee pot had coffee left sitting in the pot that it had even molded!! In addition, there were partially opened straw and sugar packets. There was no soap in either of the shampoo or body wash bottles, no toilet paper on the roll, missing towels as well. Sticky surfaces, hair on EVERY surface - whether it was the bedside table or the TV stand, furniture, there was hair/debris. As for the waterpark/pool area, stomach turning disgusting! What is truly upsetting to me too is that this was my families first indoor waterpark venture, it was for my daughter's birthday. If this wasn't something that we had planned for and made reservations MONTHS in advance, I would have opted to stay somewhere else. We had talked the waterpark up so much, our daughter had been counting the days! We were left to suffer in silence and make the best out of a highly disappointing/disturbing situation so our daughter could have the best birthday. Do not put your family through the hell - just stay somewhere else! Especially considering the photos they have on their website are completely misleading and were clearly taken a long time ago! I would also like to add, that there was a toy left behind after we checked out, didn't realize it until later on that night after returning home; it was a flashlight that is really only useful when used with the book it came with. I called 4 times, left messages for the head of housekeeping and NEVER got one call back. Even when very kindly explaining to the customer service representative at the front desk the situation, they were all very short and rude with their response, displaying zero recognition or empathy, and would quickly send me directly to the "head of housekeeping" voicemail AGAIN. I could not have been more let down overall with our stay. Even more, is that I could go on with a heck of a lot more horrors that we experienced, but hopefully this is suffice enough for people to get the picture. What I do know, we will never stay again! Waste of hard earned money and more importantly, priceless family memories that will be forever tainted. STAY SOMEWHERE ELSE!!

Slides were super fun for our kids 4-14 and the zero entry was fun for our toddler. The place is getting a little rundown though and the staff was NOT GREAT. The life guards sat at the concession stand the whole time and and didn’t do their jobs at all. The cashier was mostly annoyed with our presence. I would go again because we really did have a good time, but do not expect to have any help monitoring your kids safety.