Our lakeview room was typical of a national park -- only essentials, nothing extra. At $208 it was the most expensive room of our trip and the most spartan. It was clean.

I called for dinner reservations in the morning before we left Medford. Only options were 5:15 and 7:30. My daughter had wild salmon with rice pilaf and asparagus. It was good. I had sirloin steak, sweet potato fries, and asparagus. Mine was good, too. The asparagus was excellent -- crisp, not soggy. There is no salad included in the meal. The bill for two was $59 (a tad expensive). The waitress was very pleasant as were all personnel we encountered.

The lobby with fireplace and the deck with rocking chairs were nice.

We had a perfect day of sunshine. The lake was deep blue, reflecting the sky, and the still water had reflections of the walls all the way around. The rim was open only to Discovery Point.
The sunset was unsurpassed with the sky a robin-egg blue with streaks of orange and gold. No sunrise the next morning as the lake was ensconced in fog.

Next morning, coffee and tea in lobby -- no cups and no regular coffee cream, only those awful flavored things. I told a woman at the desk and she brought out cups. I asked someone else near the dining room and he gave me a small glass container with regular cream.

As others have noted, this is the only hotel inside the park, and I do not regret staying here. The room was clean and we had a lake view that was spectacular. The Lodge is very attractive and casual. Staff were generally friendly, but, unfortunately some were incompetent. I think they are either underpaid or because the park is hours from anything they can't find experienced people. Examples:

1. I could not get iced tea because the "machine is broken." However, hot tea is available. Anyone ever tried pouring hot tea over ice? Ridiculous.

2. The menu is overpriced and the food is not that good. Order appetizers and salads in the Great Room instead. My halibut was dry and some sort of apple butter sauce on it was stone cold. The only bread available for toast, appetizers, whatever, is asiago cheese bread. Even at breakfast. The chef splatters bits of whatever you are eating all over the edge of the plate, apparently thinking this is innovative presentation. The only thing I can truly recommend is the wild mushroom bruschetta.

At breakfast, things are not as advertised. The oatmeal was supposed to have blueberries in it and instead it tasted like it was flavored with something artificial and there was no blueberry in sight. It was undercooked. I ordered granola on day 2 and the menu said it would come with hot milk. When the waiter brought me cold milk and I asked about it, he said, "99% of people want cold." Well the menu said hot and why didn't he ask me? On the plus side, very good coffee and wait staff very quick to give refills.

Another waiter, when he heard we were from San Francisco, immediately started talking about gay people as if they were zoo animals. This is not a sophisticated lot. And there is a language barrier with other staff.

3. The electricity went out our first night too. When I read the other posts on this site, I was appalled that this seems to be a regular occurrence and nothing has been done to ensure sustained power. This is not a cheap place. No one offered us anything to make up for our 11 hours without power.

4. The gas logs in the great room smell like some sort of chemical, and that smell permeates the room. I eventually got used to it but at first felt like my asthma was going to kick in.

5. There is a new CD about Crater Lake in the room right next to the radio, which has a CD function. No note, nothing indicating a price. I could easily have assumed it was included in the price of the room. When I checked out I took it with me and asked if it was included, and they said no, it costs $17. When I mentioned that other hotels TELL the guests this in advance, they said, "oh we used to put stickers on them." End of conversation.

6. The clerk automatically put an extra $1 per night on my bill for the park fund and when I asked about it she said "Oh, I was supposed to ask you first. I'm new." Very lame.

7. No hair dryers in rooms. I had to go down to the desk to get one. Again, this is not a cheap hotel, and I have not been in an expensive hotel in 10 years that didn't have hair dryers in the rooms.

8. No closet in room, just some hooks and hangers. Also no drawers for clothing.

All that being said, if you can avoid the food and are willing to question some of the staff's bizarre assumptions, this is a nice, quiet place; and of course the lake is the point and it is gorgeous. Just bring a flashlight.

This visit was a disaster. After looking forward to staying at the Crater Lake Lodge for years, I was very disappointed. Not by the Lodge but by the incompetency of the staff and the bad service. Let me amend that: the new Manager and our 2 bellmen were pleasant and tried hard to explain away the problems. First and worst, they charged me $31.00 more than quoted.and I'm still trying to straighten that out. Because the electricity was out for 5 hours - NOT a problem except for the way it was handled. Dinner was cold: that's OK, but to charge $5.50 for a luke warm 1/2 cup of canned soup in a cardboard cup and $9.95 for a dry bread ham & cheese sandwich was too much. When I suggested that it might be good PR to comp the meal. the dining room head laughed and said. "No one gets a comped meal but me." When the electricity came back ( and it was very cold the night of May 22), we asked if we could get a cup of hot coffee. We couldn't because it was past the time to make coffee - 9:30PM The next morning when we came down there was again no coffee available in the lobby. The very nice bellman tried to get us a cup from the kitchen and they wanted to charge HIM for the coffee. Breakfast was OK except that the tip was put on the wrong bill. Now I am not usually very critical but the attitude of the staff made all this quite unacceptable. The following night at Timberline Lodge was delightful. Pleasant staff, good food, and wonderful scenery. We spent 16 nights in Oregon and California and, except for this one night, had a wonderful time in a beautiful part of the country with very friendly people.

Loved the lodge for its historical significance, its atmosphere and, of course, its outstanding location at the rim of the lake. If you go, it is well worth the money to get a room on the lakeside. We had both a view of the lake from our bedroom and our bathroom on the third floor (Room 312).

Since it had been open only three days when we arrived, there were rough spots most notably the cooks in the dining room. The menu sounded wonderful but the medium rare meat was rare at best and the potatoes were a gloppy gluey concoction. All said, a complaint brought the dining room manager over who comped the offending entree - thank you for that.

Unfortunlately, hot water that was available that evening was unavailable on Memorail Day Monday morning and so the shower was a quick and miserable experience under cool water. Too many guests and too little heating capacity for water???