RailRider Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 This past weekend as an early Christmas Celebration, I loaded up the family truckster and took my wife and daughter to the Oglebay Resort in Wheeling WV for the annual Festival of Lights Celebration. For anyone not familiar with Oglebay Resort or the Festival of Lights, heres a little background. Oglebay is a 1,000+ acre resort outside of Wheeling, they have a lodge, skiing, golf, numerous resturants and shops, a zoo, and planatarium just to name a few things. The Festival of Lights is one of the largest outdoor light displays in the country and you get to sit in the comfort of your car as you drive through it. Official Site We arrived at Oglebay early Saturday and checked in to our room, we had reserved a lodge room and the staff was nice enough to upgrade us to the same style room but located in one of the many Chalets on the grounds. The Chalet sat at the top of scenic hillside with great views from all windows, we really enjoyed having the seclusion compared to the lodge, seeing as how it was a no vacancy weekend at Oglebay. That night we had reservations at the Lodge dinning room for the Holiday Dinner buffet. The lodge dinning room has picturesque windows that overlook the resort hillsides and the lights, so we were able to see a good number of lights as they were turned on for the evening. Really a great way to get excited for the light show and excelent food around. Once done with dinner we headed to the car to take off through the lights, another benefit of staying at the lodge is that admission to see the lights is included. After navagating the 6 mile circuit of lights, theres not much I can say besides Wow. The different set pieces were amazing, the size and grandure is unlike anything I have seen before. If this cannot get you in the Christmas mood I dont know what can. After going through the lights we strolled through the gardens of light that had numerous lights and a handcrafted life size Nativity Set. We also wittnesed a young man propose to his future bride. So we were not the only having a magical moment. As we headed back to our room we were just taking in the surrounding lights and the joy in my daughters face. Truely a great evening. Sunday morning we got ready to leave and headed to the dinning room once again. As part of staying at the resort you also receive free Mountaineer Breakfast Buffet. It was excelent. After finishing breakfast we headed for home, making a quick detour to visit Cabelas since we were in Wheeling. Amazing store, much larger than Bass Pro and my daughter loved the animal displays. As I told my wife it honestly was like visiting a zoo, except all the animals were dead. All in all we had an amazing time and my daughter absolutely loved the lights. The Festival of Lights is an amazing holiday event. This may become annual tradition for our family now and especially with how amazing everything at Oglebay was. I would recomend everyone visit Oglebay during the Festival of Lights, for a truely amazing and festive time. Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas Pictures will follow shortly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Picard Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 I talked of this on here before years ago. I went there 12-15 years ago and went back last year and the only thing that was different was the donation and DVD. If you never been there before you should do it. When you are there you can go on across I70 about 4 more miles to Cabela drive and see where the Wild Escape Theme Park will never be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Nice family Christmas trip report RaiRider. I enjoyed the description of your trip and do look forward to seeing the pictures, especially after your description of the lights from the Inn's dinning room. Thanks again and merry Christmas to you and your family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tubaman Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 I talked of this on here before years ago. I went there 12-15 years ago and went back last year and the only thing that was different was the donation and DVD. If you never been there before you should do it. When you are there you can go on across I70 about 4 more miles to Cabela drive and see where the Wild Escape Theme Park will never be. Haha, Wild Escape...I remember that article in the Gazette. Any updates on that? And I'm glad to see you had a wonderful time at Ogleby. I'll have to go up there sometime myself, seeing as I have never been to Wheeling and lived in WV all my life. But then again, its a long drive. Instead, for a light display substitute my hometown has our own guy who goes all out on his lights. My cousin from Cincy describes it as looking like "A spider threw up christmas lights all over his trees." It's a pretty fair assessment, but all of the townfolk love the lights. I'll try and get a picture to show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Supposedly, the park is still awaiting the proper permits to be able to proceed with construction, and has already purchased rides, which are in storage. Nothing new for weeks now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 Numbers Good: http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewsto...p;storyid=48826 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coney Islander Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 I went there today. I love the lights. The only problem is it taking all day to drive there, go to some gift shops and the lights, and then go back home. Does anyone remember the sorta creepy clown lights? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailRider Posted January 2, 2009 Author Share Posted January 2, 2009 ^ Yes the clown lights with what looks like clown masks with spotlights for the face? Yes those were a little creepy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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