Glacier Bay Lodge

Beautiful location right on the bay. We were lucky enough to get a room overlooking the bay. Beautiful views. Two very beautiful trails have been developed from the lodge, one by the bay and the other through the moss-laden woods. Our room was large and comfortable and had all the basics. It was a little dark. Since the hotel is isolated in the national park, there’s nothing but nature around and you need a bus or cab to go elsewhere, although there are only two other restaurants in town (with limited hours) and not very much else to do. The lodge has a restaurant on site. Food there was fine. A special part of the experience of being in the lodge is the native lodge and totem poles and the wood carver working on new totem poles nearby. Go when someone is in the lodge to explain and show you a film on some of the history of the park and its relation to the native population. Finally, we took a lovely glacier tour from the harbor at the Lodge. You don’t have to stay at the Lodge to take the tour, but it’s convenient from there.

**NPS-- please read this when considering contract performance of Aramark*** First the good: the bus transport from the airport is convenient and included, and the location is great right there in the park. The day boat tour of the glaciers was amazing and we saw all sorts of wildlife and the gorgeous glaciers. Staff on the boat were great too. Overall the boat tour was a 5-star experience. We had several issues at the lodge though. Our room did not have hot water and we had to complain 4 times over 3 days about this and we didn't particularly enjoy cold showers and having to expend time and energy dealing with the front desk about this problem. They were not able to fix it either. There was poor communication from the front desk to the maintenance crew and the front desk just told us that it was "due to too many people showering at once", which wasn't true since our parents 2 doors down had hot water at the same time. Nobody checked our room to see if the water was actually hot after they "fixed the boiler". To his credit, the manager did make it right in the end though with some money back. The room was old, musty and very poorly lit, with a mildewy shower curtain that was too long and pooled in the shower. The beds were comfortable though. As for the restaurant, the food was decent and fairly reasonably priced but the service was awful. They were completely understaffed and ran out of food early. You had to wait a long time for drinks or other things and hardly ever saw your server. Sometimes we would have to get up and find them to order something or hunt them down to tell them that there is hardly any food left on the breakfast buffet. Aramark needs to ensure that all of their staff stay until the last day the lodge is open as it isn't fair to the customers who pay a lot to stay and eat there. There is no other choice for dining so everyone is stuck using that restaurant. Staff need basic customer service training too.

I have had good luck with historical lodges within national parks until now. We booked a room at the Glacier Bay Lodge 8 months ago. 4 days prior to our stay the lodge called to cancel due to mechanical and safety issues. Flights and a cruise were already booked and we had to look for a new hotel 3 days prior to check in. Gustavus is very small with limited hotels/lodges that book up early in the summer time.

Unbelievably they cancelled our reservation at the last moment!! We arranged a trip of a lifetime to Glacier Bay National Park and made our reservations to stay at the lodge for two nights back in November. They just called, one week prior to our two night reservations, to cancel!!! Leaving us with no place to stay and making no attempt to rebook us at another place nearby other than giving us a few phone numbers. Good luck to us trying to find an opening in Gustavus or two nights in August!! They said it was a maintenance issue -- OK, but clearly they could "make it right"! They told us they were cancelling 34 reservations!!! DO NOT make reservations at this place. They do not understand how much time and money we have on the line as visitors, and how precious our vacations are. DO NOT STAY HERE!!!!!!

I rearranged our reservation last minute due to other plans being cancelled on us. We flew over early in the morning to do the boat tour and were flying back in the evening. We arrived at the Gustavus airport and it took 3 calls and over a half hour for them to arrive. Had to be taken right to the boat for our tour as no time for the check-in at lodge as instructed. We enjoyed the boat tour to the National Park. Returned and looked through the visitor's center upstairs and the gift shop as well as had a good meal in the restaurant. We boarded the van for transport back to the airport for our flight back to Juneau and there seemed to be a problem. Finally the driver said the office said we hadn't paid for our transport. I told her the amount of the charge I was instructed would be on my credit card from my last minute reservation phone call and she said "yep, that's what it would have been" so away we went. I would suggest if anyone makes reservations for this boat tour and transport from the airport like we did to call the night before to verify again so there is no delay!

Staying at Glacier Bay Lodge with a day out on the water was such a memorable experience. We loved the rustic nature of the Lodge nestled into the forest, the walking trails, the views, the people, the food, the readily available transportation, and the ambience of the whole environment. The boat trip included a Federal Ranger who was so knowledgeable and informed our many sightings of the marine and animal life we observed. We even had an orca swim under the boat! We will always remember this visit with a smile!