My husband had a week of vacation over the July Fourth holiday. We knew we wanted to get a new roof put over our son's room, but we also knew we wanted to take part in some family adventures. We did both.

On June 17, I went to Six Flags' web site to find the name of the hotel across the road from the park. I found the name of the hotel but couldn't make online reservations there. So I came to epinions and went through travelcity.com and made our reservations in less than 4 minutes. I was amazed that there were vacancies and was surprised with several to choose from. I chose the room that suited our family, filled in our information and presto!

Cost
I should tell you up front that we got the cheapest room we could get. Kids stay free, so it was a room with 2 double beds for 2 adults, and we paid $125 without tax. Considering the location of the hotel, I found this to be reasonable. This is not the type of place you would drop in at the last minute trying to find a room for the night on your way through town. A much quieter and cost-effective room can be found nearby. For families or couples planning more than one day of fun at Six Flags or in the St. Louis area, it guarantees a good time even if it rains.

My husband called right before we started the 3 hour drive on July 3rd, and Ramada Inn Six Flags had our reservation. As we pulled into the drive, my kids got so excited. I told them it was right by the park...but they didn't realize they could see it. All week, Six Flags had a fireworks display at 8:40 P.M. that we could enjoy by standing in front of the hotel. My husband pulled under the awning and went in to get our rooms without any hassle.

From the outside, the monstrous building looks like a Chalet or a Castle of some sort. Over 200 hundred years ago, the property served as a sort of wayside for traveling Indians and settlers. The current Inn is built around the original barn. It is magnificent with its wood and stucco exterior and beautiful grounds and decor. I'm no expert on architecture, but it is one right out of the fairy tales. Set in a hilly area, there are trees spaced throughout the property for ample shade to enjoy the day in. During our walk, I never noticed an outside play or grilling area, however. There were several parking areas and the drive went completely around the property. A parking area next to the hotel property was big enough for Truck or Bus parking…though I’m not sure if it is allowed.

There was a bit of a walk and a brief elevator-ride to our upstairs room with no outside entrance. The price you pay for getting the cheapest room you can. When we entered the room we realized there was an outside door on our room...it had a balcony overlooking the Interstate (this is music to my truck-driving-husband's ears.) We shared the balcony with the room next to us, but we never did see who was in the room next to us.

The Room
Immediately inside the room was the standard open coat/clothes rack and luggage rack. My husband was a little discouraged by the fact that the rooms weren't equipped with safes. The bathroom was to the right of the entry and was your basic toilet, tub/shower, sink with long counter that also held the coffee maker. (I don't drink coffee, so I guess I don’t really care that it is in the bathroom...but if I did, I wouldn't like it. A hair dryer in the room was definitely a plus.)

The room had 2 double beds, a dresser, television cabinet, and a round table with 2 chairs. Pay Movies and Games were chargeable to the room from the television. I would have liked to watch HBO or Showtime, but those types of movie channels weren't available. We had a refrigerator brought to our room for an extra $5, but we didn't use it because we brought a cooler not knowing if we'd be able to get a refrigerator.

The beds were comfortable and dressed in standard flowered bedspread and white sheets. The furniture was in fine shape, with the room just being old and not updated. It had a faint musty smell to it, but was well-cleaned. I did notice that for the number of children running around this place, Ramada Inn Six Flags was very well kept, no litter or dirty floors.

Recreation in The Fun Dome
If my kids were older, I wouldn't have seen them awake at this hotel. For the kids there was a pizza/snack corner, games (with and without redeemable tickets), putting green, shuffle board, pool, kiddie pool, sauna, and small kids' merry-go-round (3-seater). There was also an exercise room, hot tub and sauna that require parental supervision. Next to the pools were piles of towels, and there were dirty towel bins scattered throughout. I love that you don’t have to use the same towel over and over! Tables and chairs are in all areas of the Fun Dome, allowing spectators from every angle for any size group.

Pools
I should add a note about the pools. The main pool was bean shaped and had 3, 4, 5 and 9 foot markings. There was a rope after the 5 foot. As far as I could see there were no jumping or diving restrictions. There were attendants on duty did keep a certain order about the place, but NO LIFEGUARDS. The kiddie pool was about 1 1/2 foot deep and was relatively large around. Several adults could sit in the pool, around the outer edge, still leave room for 6 or 7 toddlers to play. The hot tub was huge. 12-15 people could sit in it easily. Kids were swimming around in there.

Other Amenities & Views
After my kids went to sleep, hubby and I decided to take a walk around for a closer look. The front desk/entrance area is beautiful. As you walk in the doors, there are statues, trees, plants, a beautiful long staircase to the second floor. I would think they are going with a “knights at the round table” sort of theme, but it isn’t set in armor…so to speak. Pictures and writings on the walls show the history of the hotel and nearby areas. The sitting area in the center of the room is a fabulous place to sit and relax while enjoying the hard work that has gone into this beautiful area. We read a small bit about the history of the hotel on a wall on the way to the lounge. We stopped at the pool’s bar and were carrying beers, so couldn't go into the lounge. The conference area wasn't open at that late hour but we wandered in far enough to see that it was like being in an ancient castle in my imagination anyway.

There was a very small but nice gift shop between the front desk area and the fun dome. When we were ready to check out, our children redeemed their tickets from the games for prizes at this gift shop. They were thrilled with their souvenirs. In the gift shop was a large selection of various sizes of swim suits, towels and other travel needs that you might have forgotten. There were other gift-type items (beanie babies, spoons, magnets, St. Louis souvenirs, etc.) as well.

I’d like to say that I ate something from their Restaurant or Pizza corner, but I didn’t. We ate right before we got there, and brought every snack and breakfast bar we could so that we didn’t spend too much at Six Flags. Hopefully, my husband and I will enjoy their food soon, however. I will update if we do.

Nearby
Obviously Six Flags is right across the road, but there is more. Six Flags is on a frontage road, so a Wal-Mart, several restaurant chains, gas stations and such are located within a few miles. Adjacent to the hotel was a convenience/gas station and McDonalds. Mighty Convenient.

We checked out as easily as we checked in. If our children were older, we might have made use of Ramada Inn Six Flags' offerings. They have a connecting crosswalk and a shuttle bus to and from Six Flags. So a parking pass doesn't need to be purchased at Six Flags! The Shuttle bus begins transporting at 9:30 A.M. and picks up its last load from Six Flags at 9:45. They run every 15-30 minutes, all day long. Don't forget to tip the driver! Now that we have 2002 Six Flags season passes, Ramada Inn Six Flags is sure to get some business from our family this year!

All in all, we greatly enjoyed our stay at Ramada Inn Six Flags. So much that I made reservations for next weekend (adults only) before writing this review! This time we got a King/Business Class Room and will pay $149. Not as reasonable, but it is a much bigger bed...worth it to me.

7/21/02- My husband and I did make our second trip to Ramada Inn Six Flags. We arrived at the motel at about 9:30 A.M and were pleased to find out that they would allow us to Pre-Check into our room. This meant that we could leave our car in their parking lot and walk or ride the Shuttle to the theme park. We chose to walk. The walk is across a 6-8 lane road (including the entrance to Six Flags.) So I was greatful we didn't have the kids. It was a somewhat pleasurable walk, however. We also made use of the Shuttle a couple times that day. The driver was very amicable and enjoyed challenging his fares to trivia questions during the short drive.

Our Business Class King Room was great. As I thought, the room that I chose was a poolside room. Keyed entry to the room was in the hallway (requiring us to walk a good distance from parking to our room). But we were very pleased with the sliding glass pool-side door. Later in the night we found that this was actually a hinderance. Kids kept going by and knocking and tapping on the glass. Several times we would be almost asleep when this would occur. When we called the desk to have it stopped, a security guard did rectify the situation promptly.

The size of the room was about the same as the double room, but with one bed it did add more moveable space. There was also a couch in addition to the basic furniture that is in all the rooms. Other than that, there were no added amenities based on the type of room. Not that I expected any.

We considered room service (we were much too tired to dine in the restaurant), but decided against it when we saw the inflated prices of room service in addition to an 18% tip. My sister tells me this is standard. My problem with the "standard" tip for room service is that the only added service we are getting is the meal brought to our room. No waitress is going to come back in 10 minutes to see if we are enjoying our meal. Nor is she going to ask if we'd like dessert. So, after a short rest, we drove a few miles and ate at Ponderosa. It was much cheaper and their special for the night was all-you-can-eat Steak or Shrimp. We weren't thrilled with that place, but we didn't pay $50 for our meal, either.

If we decide to go back without kids, we will still stay here, but not in a King Room. We'd rather have the peace and quiet of the double rooms. I do think that is silly to put the business class rooms poolside. You'd think they would put the "family" rooms in the Fun Dome Area.

At any rate. These are my added thoughts from our second stay. Hope I've been helpful.

Recommended: Yes