It’s becoming sort of a winter tradition for our family to do a weekend getaway, except we don’t exactly go too far. A “staycation” if you will. But this time, our staycation was only one night, so I’ve decided to label this one a “day out”. Nevertheless, this post will be a brief review of our stay at Kalahari Indoor Waterpark & Resorts located in the Poconos, about a two-hour drive from us.
Our kids who are now 2.5 years and almost 4 years, love to play in water. They like pools, water slides and just laying low and pretending they’re swimming, which is what they usually do in the bathtubs. So when planning our staycation, and recalling our visit to Sesame Place & Hershey Park last winter, in the below freezing temperatures, I thought staying indoors would be a safer option this time around.
Accomodations at Kalahari Resorts
The special rate on New Year’s day was the lowest price, which is why I booked a stay here in the first place. Normally a stay at one of these indoor waterparks such as Kalahari or Great Wolf Lodge can become pricey, especially since they charge a Resort fee daily. However, our stay on New year’s day and the following day was basically 50% off the regular price, taking advantage of a special 2-night stay rate they were having.
The rooms are a decent size, we did stay in the basic double Queen room. But they do have larger family-size suites available. Our room had a fridge and microwave. It wasn’t a very exciting room, but met our basic needs so we were satisfied.
The only drawback is that if you arrive early, which we did (we arrived way too early, as it was a holiday and we had nothing else going on), then you still have to wait till 4pm to check in. Lucky for us, the hotel was emptying out on New year’s due to schools reopening the following day. We were able to check in at 4pm, but reading the reviews I noticed that people waited way longer on high occupancy days.
Activities besides Water
On the day of our arrival, we got to the resort at around noon time and decided that we didn’t want to jump into the water if we didn’t have a room yet. Most people do visit the waterpark, while they are waiting for a room, but we decided against that. Kalahari has limited dry activities, but still at least they got something. We walked around the huge arcade, and then had lunch. Right next to the lunch place, they had a small Children’s activity room. There the girls got to color on some coloring pages and cookie decorating for free. They do offer more activities for a minimal fee.
Indoor Waterpark
If indoor waterparks are your family’s thing, then this place is probably right for you. The waterpark is huge. I mean it is really huge. There’s tons of space, rides for every age, they’ve got toddler swings, slides of every size, tubes, and even a lazy river. They keep the temperatures inside warm enough. There’s really nothing that they don’t have. Except for…sun maybe?
My family and I have just visited the Bahamas, and literally all we did there was hang out in water. I think after a vacation like that, perhaps visiting an indoor park wasn’t really the best option since in my head I was comparing the two, and that’s not really fair. My kids however loved it, they enjoyed all the fun children’s pool areas in the waterpark. And I think one day was plenty for them to soak up the fun.
Me on the other hand, personally I don’t think that I would go back just because I now know that I am not into indoor waterparks. I love being outside, I love feeling the warmth of the sun and the breeze, and for me that itself is more enjoyable than the water rides.
The Restaurants
We were only there a short period of time so I only got to try a handful restaurants, but I’m happy to share my opinion. We had pizza at the Pizza Pub located in the arcade, and it was decent. We also had dinner at Sortino’s which was a lovely sit-down italian restaurant. I loved the decor and the server was fantastic, however the food was plain and just okay. We had a meal at B Luxe Grill, and I really liked the atmosphere except there were too many TVs at the center of the place. This place is your burgers and milkshakes type of place. The food was not bad, but the veggie burger was too black for our liking and fries were mediocre. The girls enjoyed their pizza there. Milkshakes were pretty good too, but overpriced.
We had the breakfast buffet at the Great Karoo, and the best part was both kids ate for free. Not a bad price for adults either. The options are endless, but it’s just okay as well. And lastly we had ice cream at Bassett’s, which was wonderful. I would say the food is okay, not exciting but also not terrible.
Overall it was a good stay and I’m not complaining since I think for the money that we spent here, we had a good enough time and my kids did enjoy their stay. The indoor waterpark didn’t excite my husband and I, but that’s okay. Because I know a lot of people who enjoy that type of thing, and that’s great! So if your family enjoys the indoor waterpark scene, I think Kalahari is a great place to visit.
Have you ever been to an indoor waterpark? What did you think? Comment below 🙂
Sweet Dreamer 