Is The Opryland Hotel Worth The Price?
In Dec 2021, my son and I made a quick guys weekend getaway for the Opryland Hotel to check out the Christmas stuff and relax. Check out our experience!
CHECK IN/OUT
Check in was quick and easy using the Marriott app on my iPhone. I also got a digital key so there was no need to visit the front desk to check in or check out. I would recommend everyone use the app because it can potentially save you a lot of time waiting in line. Note the photo below I took around 6 AM when no one was around. Normally this area is pretty full of people.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT PARKING AT THE OPRYLAND HOTEL
There are 2 ways to park at the Opryland Hotel (1) On your own like you normally would at any hotel for $32/night or (2) Valet for $40/night. If you are there at Christmas time, even with the large parking lots, parking can be hard to find, and it will be far away from the hotel. For us, we did Park yourself once, and have done valet every other time. It is just so much more convenient and only a little bit more. When you valet you get a ticket with a phone number you text and if you do it when you’re about to leave your room, the car will be ready for you when you get to the bottom. Pretty nice, especially if it’s raining.
ABOUT THE HOTEL
From the hotel website - “Situated in the heart of Nashville, Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center welcomes guests to a stunning, one-of-a-kind resort experience. From SoundWaves, the city’s premier aquatic attraction, to an exciting lineup of family-friendly activities and entertainment, there’s something for the entire family to enjoy. Guests can explore 9 acres of airy, indoor garden atriums, a wide selection of award-winning restaurants & bars, the world-class Relâche Spa, and a state-of-the-art fitness center. For those planning or attending their next meeting or event, the resort features over 750,000 sq ft of flexible meeting space, 2,712 beautiful guest rooms, and 176 spectacular suites. The resort is located near Nashville Intl Airport, downtown, and attractions like the Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium for guests wishing to explore Music City. From seasonal events and entertainment to high-end amenities and stunning spaces, Gaylord Opryland welcomes you to enjoy more of everything you love.”
Sprawling is how I would describe this hotel. You can view the map below.
OPRYLAND HOTEL PROS AND CONS
Before i get into the pros and cons of visiting or staying at the Opryland Hotel, understand that this is obviously a luxury destination with the idea of basically having a captive audience style environment. Once you’re on site, leaving the hotel is somewhat inconvenient in that either your car is parked far away or the valet can take a while. Real quick, here’s my take on the pros and cons of visiting.
OPRYLAND HOTEL PROS
Lots of things to see
Diverse set of restaurants on site
Large mall with plenty of shopping within walking distance
Large hot tub and heated indoor pool.
Option to add on Soundwaves
Can be very romantic
OPRYLAND HOTEL CONS
Tons of things to see
Price/Value of on-site dining options
Packed at Christmas time
The biggest pro is all the things to see -mostly meaning the stunning architecture and cool things that can be found throughout the grounds. Just look at this amazing grand lobby area, fireplace, and floor level designs! We spent hours walking around looking in all the atriums and ballrooms for cool stuff like this. It’s everywhere!
WHO SHOULD VISIT THE OPRYLAND HOTEL?
There is an incredible amount of walking, lots of stairs and inclines, and minimal not easy to find elevators. If you have any kind of medical condition, trouble walking, or have a stroller and little kids etc, getting around the hotel will be difficult. Not that it can’t be done, but just be aware of the extra time and effort that will be required to traverse the atriums. The couple staying across the hall from us had 2 babies in a dual seat stroller and I cannot imagine trying to push that around the crowded areas and find elevators etc. My son and I enjoy going for a day or two every year for our “guys weekend” out of town and love playing games and walking around without any distractions.
GAMES
For this trip I had bought a travel cornhole set because we love that bean bag toss game. We also brought Uno, Bicycle cards, Mario Chess, and Mario Checkers. It is just really neat to be able to sit out on the balcony and enjoy a game while watching people and hearing all the sounds of the atrium. Looking for games for your travels? Check out the affiliate links below and get some fun family games! Note we also brought the Nintendo Switch too. It’s so portable it goes just about everywhere we go and also provides some fun entertainment!
ROOMS AT THE OPRYLAND HOTEL
The standard rooms at the Opryland Hotel are pretty much like any hotel I’ve ever been to. The main difference is to consider whether or not you want an inside Atrium view or outside view. Personally, I always opt to pay the extra money for the interior view because, that’s part of the experience for me. Being able to sit out on the balcony and relax and people watch or play games is always fun. As far as I can tell, there is nothing really to see expect the highway or mall from the exterior view rooms and that just seems boring.
I find the beds to be very comfortable and overall the rooms are fairly large. There really shouldn’t be much of an issue with up to 4 people in a single room. The bathroom is split up into the tub and toilet area and then there’s a separate sink outside the door to facilitate 2 folks getting ready at once. For the shower, body wash, shampoo, and conditioner are mounted to the shower wall in nice large dispenser cans for easy access and no hassle.
Standard Interior View Room
Our balcony view
People watching
The interior room views are amazing and worth the price!
POOLS AND HOT TUB
There are 2 pools and a large hot tub available to guests too. The indoor pool is heated so it can be used year round. These provide some water alternatives if you decide not to go for the Soundwaves option. We went swimming this time and there were only 2 other families there when we were there. Be sure and bring some pool toys like diving sticks to make it even more fun! It never gets more than about 4 feet deep so it’s great for poo games.
Unfortunately when we were there, the hot tub was down for maintenance for an unknown amount of time. That was a huge disappointment as we both love relaxing in the hot tub! Note there is no public steam room or sauna, but there is one upstairs in the hotel spa that you can access if you pay for it.
POOL GAMES
Don’t forget to get your pool games before you go using my affiliate links below!
FOOD AT THE OPRYLAND HOTEL
When it comes to food at the Opryland Hotel there are 20 restaurants on site plus room service. Over the years we’ve eaten at many of these and to be honest none of them are worth the price to us. If you must eat in, for breakfast the Cascades Cafe breakfast buffet is pretty good and has a lot of variety of hot and cold, items. You’ll pay about $25/person as of 2021. Also note that due to the virus, restaurant days/hours vary so be sure and check once you arrive.
The 20 on-site restaurants are:
Cocoa Bean - Coffee House
The Falls Bar & Lounge - American
Library Lounge at Old Hickory Steakhouse - American
Carvel - American
Solario Cantina - Mexican
Bravo Gelato
Auntie Anne’s
Cinnabon
Conservatory Wine Bar
American Craft Tavern
Cascades American Cafe - American
Fuse Sports Bar - American
Delta Marketplace - American
Conservatory Cafe - Continental
Jack Daniel's - Southern
Old Hickory Steakhouse - Steakhouse
Paisano's Pizzeria & Vino - Italian
Ravello - Italian
Stax - American
Wasabi's Sushi - Japanese
In order to save some money, we have found that eating at Cracker Barrel across the street or even at the restaurants in Opry Mills Mall tend to help out the pocket book. It’s a tad bit inconvenient, but both options do provide significant savings on dining on-site at the hotel generally speaking. Opry Mills has a Dave and Buster’s which also provides a fun excursion for something a little different.
$100 Room Service (Burger, Chicken Fingers, Sweet Tea)
$15 for 2 pizza slices from Palsanos
$25 Breakfast Buffet at Cascades
Save money by eating at Cracker Barrel across the street.
OPRYLAND HOTEL CHRISTMAS
Sure you can visit the Opryland Hotel at any time, but Christmas time is by far the most magical time of all! The Christmas décor is extremely well done and there is so much of it that I could post hundreds of photos and videos and you still wouldn’t get the full effect of seeing it in person. Enjoy some of the photos in the slideshow below from our Dec 2021 visit!
Note the atriums are kept at around 75 degrees it seems like year round. There was no need for a jacket, and i actually broke a sweat carrying my camera gear around. So dress appropriately! Don’t dress to warmly.
On top of all the decorations, they have Christmas themed events and attractions (for an additional cost) - Ice skating, Ice tubing, breakfast with Rudolph, Scavenger hunts, and more! (You can view the full list here.) In the past we’ve done the ICE! exhibit and it was always a blast. If that ever comes back, I definitely recommend doing that tour of all the ice sculptures. It’s really amazing.
CONCLUSION
So, is the Opryland Hotel worth the price? The Opryland Hotel provides a unique setting for an unforgettable getaway that you can talk about for decades. I would say that everyone who can make it out there should visit it at least one time, and really only at Christmas time. It is a neat place year around, but at Christmas time everything is taken up a notch. So for us, that is the best time to go.
The total cost for our 1-night stay was $560.17, and that was with a special discount price. The room itself was around $400, but with taxes, fees, and valet parking, that was the total. So be prepared to drop $1000 for a 2 night stay. At the time of this post, exterior view rooms were around $350.
If you have a real camera, and want to take photos, bring it. These new phones are great, but the low light presents a significant challenge for modern phones and I can’t tell you how many times I heard people all around me struggling to get any quality photos with their phones due to the difficult lighting conditions. Many people gave up because their phones wouldn’t focus or were taking blurry images. However, the real cameras had no issues. If you’re not sure about what kind of camera to get, you can use my Trip Gear section below to see what I brought on this trip and get yourself something cool and useful,
TRIP GEAR
If you’re wanting to go and do some photography at the hotel, here is the list of gear I used on this trip for 2021.
1995
In Christmas 1995, myself and 4 other friends piled into a tiny Ford Escort and drove 90 minutes to see the Opryland Hotel. I remember thinking how unbelievable the hotel was with all the decorations. Sprawling doesn’t even begin to describe the place. We ran around like crazy, and as a 20 year old college kid, I wondered if I’d ever afford to be able to stay there. Over the years, it became a friends tradition for us to visit every year. But every time, we just visited and left.
2018
Fast forward to Dec 2018 and the world of social media. One day on Instagram, I saw a sponsored post touting the new SoundWaves water attraction. Long story short, I entered the contest AND WON! I got a free 3 day 2 night hotel stay plus complimentary admission to the water park as part of that. Being recently divorced and unable to find anyone who could take advantage of the 4 free passes and free stay with us, just my son and I went. WE HAD A BLAST! This was my first time to ever stay at the hotel. It was so nice not having to trudge back to the car and drive back to Alabama at the end of the day!
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Kyle Root is a published and award winning photographer based out of Decatur Alabama. Working in the area since 1999 has helped him become one of the most recognized photographers and videographers in North Alabama. His work has been featured both locally and on the national stage. Honesty, Integrity, Quality Products, Amazing Customer Service, and just being a nice guy have helped propel him to the spotlight in the North Alabama area as a photographer. If you're looking for professional photography, you're in the right spot.
