The drive was almost exactly 100 miles for us and we arrived a few minutes after 1:00 pm. We didn't hear a peep after 10pm and slept soundly. We have patronized several of these places, if not all and the kids highly recommend them! Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your recent visit. That makes it easy for families traveling with toddlers (and their little legs!). WEBSTER, Texas Texas is set to add another Great Wolf Lodge location to its ranks. Located in America's Historic Triangle of Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, it was Great Wolf Resorts' first East Coast location. Great Wolf Lodge, Kalahari & Camelbacks Aquatopia resort are all located in the Poconos and are VERY close to each other! In November 2020, a competitor to GWL opened in Texas. [2] In addition to a water park, each resort features restaurants, arcades, spas, and children's activities. There are quite a few activities to engage in @ Kalahari. That was almost inedible. We also enjoyed the Lazy River and the wave pool. really? Have you been to both Great Wolf Lodge and Kalahari Resort? The Kalahari Resort is well appointed, nicely decorated, and the facilities are well maintained. It is in the middle in terms of the size of its indoor water park and in number of rooms at the resort. Hence our balcony seemed to be under ground and we were looking at a high retaining wall for a view. Copyright 2022 by KSAT - All rights reserved. Thankfully, we didnt have a 2+ hour line to check-in. Although I am admittedly not a big fan of buffets, we figured it would be easy for everyone to find something they liked. Lately we have been hitting the snack bar (Pizza Pub) down in the arcade for the burritos and then the store (Marrakesh Market) right at the edge of the lobby for some of the soups. When you leave make sure to return the towels and swipe the wrist band again or you will be charged for the towels. Note that it may be quite a walk from your room to the water park, or any other destination on the Kalahari Resort campus. The rides for the kids are great, it is an entired water playground for toddlers with amazing water slides! The place is ENORMOUS and although it's extremely busy and pretty crowded most of the time, there is plenty of seating in the waterpark. Towel check-out is something new since our last visit. It had a large walk-in area that had a sink and kitchenette. Both are reasonable attempts at having a meal on the healthier side. We liked the luggage rack near the door and the shelf over the microwave. Other than the water park & arcade our family hasnt really tried out any other ones. As the kids went ahead, employee Jeremy helped to take bags upstairs. The photos were nature themed and glossy. We recently took a little trip to the Poconos and stayed one night @ Great Wolf Lodge immediately followed by a one-night stay @ Kalahari. We went to all three water parks in the Poconos (Great Wolf Lodge, Kalahari & Aquatopia) to find out which one is the BEST water park. That is with just 2 adults and 4 kids. Both resorts have also utilized Groupon for deals. Life jackets are not required but are available as well as puddle jumpers. Kalahari Resort, positioned in Spherical Rock, Texas, is analogous in some ways to Nice Wolf Lodge. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review. Welcome to Kalahari Resorts & Conventions - Round Rock 223,000 square feet, filled with wet, wild, fun. There were a total of 3 TVs one in the Family Room where the pull out bed / couch was, one in the master suite and one in the second bedroom with the two queen sized beds. She has reported on several high-profile stories during her career at KSAT and specializes in trending news and things to do around Texas and San Antonio. Please email me directly at PAConnect@kalahariresorts.com. Various restaurants, childrens amenities and retail establishments will also be included in the new development. Thank you for your support! Confusingly enough she was allowed to go on the small kids slides that were inside the waterpark. We ordered a pizza and had it delivered to the room from the in-house Pizza Pubit was quite good and we felt reasonably priced! It felt like you were rubbing shoulders with other people all the time. Shooting Range (tourist favorite) is closer to Great Wolf. All three resorts are located very close to each other in the Poconos. We usually just order a pizza and eat it in our room with maybe a salad. We had no real negatives about Great Wolf but in all honesty, Kalahari Resort surpasses them on almost all levels, but to no fault of Great Wolf. The kids really enjoyed the cabin themed suite which was adorned with a lot of cute character images. In the center right past the check-in area there is a large animatronic display where the nightly bedtime story (The Forest Friends Show) takes place. Kids are going to want to explore all areas of this place and we find it frustrating reading reviews about those complaining about how expensive everything is. Welcome to Great Wolf Lodge! Apparently they were experiencing people taking the towels as souvenirs?? All six Pocono ski resorts have snowtubing hills. We really liked the 2 water falls that were present on the lazy river. 2) With COVID still hanging around and the holidays right around the corner it seemed to be prudent. We have been to both resorts in the past but thought it would be fun to do a back-to-back comparison. The water park @ Aquatopia was nice. Both resorts have huge water parks that include a wave pool, lazy river, splash areas and of course water slides. Its Manageable Size Is Perfect for Younger Kids The Kartrite Resort & Indoor Waterpark It's true: Kalahari is the biggest indoor water park in the country and Camelback has almost 50,000 square feet on Kartrite. We figured that we'd have a good dinner to make up for it.After another 90 minutes or so, we decided to check out the room. There is one primary restaurant on the main level on the left side of the lobby / front entrance. The place is ENORMOUS and although it's extremely busy and pretty crowded most of the time, there is plenty of seating in the waterpark. Robert, Kalahari was the cheapest on Friday evening - but the most expensive during the week & the second most expensive on Saturday evening. Virtual reality, tons of games, golf, bowling - this place though of everything. There was a microwave and mini-fridge in the room, which came in handy. 2 of themone outside by the immense outdoor pool and one heated one inside. The top 10 winners in the category Best Indoor Water Park are as follows: Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark - Tannersville, Pennsylvania. Old Windmill Farm is located at 262 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pennsylvania. If you need help with the Public File, call 210-351-1241. Top Educational & Inspirational YouTube Channels for Families 2022, Waterpark Comparison Chart: Kalahari, Aquatopia & Great Wolf Lodge. Let me start by saying that we have visited the Great Wolf Lodge location in Fitchburg, MA on 2 separate occasions and had enjoyable visits each time. The smell permeated EVERYTHING to the point of needing to open the door to air it out. Otherwise, it far exceeded our expectations and we will definitely be choosing Kalahari over Great Wolf for many years to come. We stayed from Tuesday through Thursday during July.Let me start by saying that we have visited the Great Wolf Lodge location in Fitchburg, MA on 2 separate occasions and had enjoyable visits each time. Get those lifeguards a little more focused and offer more options at the bars! The resort's mammoth 80,000-square-foot indoor waterpark has nine waterslides, six pools, and a four-story treehouse waterfort and utilizes nearly 380,000 gallons of water.Beyond the massive indoor waterpark, Great Wolf Lodge offers families daily activities and amenities on the dry side. Kalahari Resort in Round Rock, TX is like Great Wolf Lodge on steroids. He was open to questions about the place and even offered a few suggestions. Use Great Wolf Lodge for what it is really good at and skip the rest! They also enjoyed the Wiley & Friends video stories that you can find on one of the dedicated TV channels. At times Kalahari actually felt a littletoo bigfor us. So the water park is what we usually focus on. Heres a comparison guide for all three of these resorts. Im guessing the youngest of your children voted for GWL? Each wing of the resort is 8 floors high and it has 977 rooms in total. As I mentioned above, we can engage in many of the other activities closer to our home. Across from that there is a small decent sized souvenir shop / store and a small dessert kiosk. So I guess you just dont need it that much. This was our 3rd visit to Kalahari, the 2 previous times we stayed was before March 2017 when the resort was only half way completed. We inquired about an potential upgrade and they granted us a special price to upgrade to an African Queen Suite which had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms - perfect to provide privacy with 2 girls! Mind you definitely not Disney level theming or branding but a good job. Then to get to the lower level you have to take the stairs. Kalahari was definitely newer and nicer but also more expensive. Our suite @ Kalahari was HUGE! Great Wolf seems to have more of a variety of theming for these bunk bed suites. Were going in January. There was a large selection, with an emphasis on Italian cuisine. The front desk staff was extremely professional, friendly and helpful. Klahari is themed and decorated as an African resort. This past visit however was somewhat disappointing. My husband was brave enough to continue exploring as I sat out on the ground level patio. I'm going to breakdown each part of the resort that we visited and give you the key points:CHECK IN/ROOM - We checked in with Kassi at 12 noon and were happy to hear our room was ready. There were 2 bathrooms one off the walk-in area and the second one in the master suite. We did not have a car on the premises so driving was not an option, and walking was not very appealing since we tend to patronize the indoor water parks during the colder months and it was late November when we were at Aquatopia. CHECK IN/ROOM - We checked in with Kassi at We visited Kalahari in the Pocono Mountains for a last minute trip with our two girls, ages 8 and 9. Kalaharis water park does the same, except with a jungle theme. I love the theming of GWL and my kids are obsessed with Magi Quest, but the adults only things at Kalahari cant be beat! The suite had an interesting layout, but who could enjoy it when you were struggling not to vomit. The food was not good at all. Sopleaseclick on a link or two if you wish tosupport us& and our endeavors here. Adventure Update # 020: 10 Years and 1/2 an Inch! There are currently 4 locations for the chain with the Poconos location being its largest facility. It features the Howlin' Tornado raft ride, Coyote Cannon water tubes (with a 40-foot drop), and a tree house fort that has a 1,000-gallon tipping bucket! We simply love everything about it! This was terrific we will likely do all three spaced out over a few years, but this absolutely helped us figure out what order to go in. Adventure Update # 018: My Tricycle is Very Very Fast! Kalahari has one indoor and one outdoor area - both are huge (Kalahari's is one of the largest indoors in the US). Only 2 of our bracelets worked, but we were able to get around that on more than one occasion. I found the photos pleasing to look at and relaxing! Hours: Depending on the day, the indoor water park is open from 9am to 9pm or 10am to 8pm. They did a fabulous job with the design of this place. TripAdvisor review of Great Wolf Lodge Poconos, TripAdvisor review of Kalahari Resort Poconos, Booking.com review of Great Wolf Lodge Poconos, MommyNearest Great Wolf Lodge vs Kalahari vs Camelback. Inspired parents sharing the joys & adventures of the parenthood journey! Although our room was not yet ready (official check-in is at 4:00), we received our bracelets to use the waterpark downstairs and we were advised that we could store our luggage in an adjacent locked storage area. Yes it is HUGE but it is also laid out well and serves as a destination itself within the resort. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. We had no real negatives about Great Wolf but in all honesty, Kalahari Resort surpasses them on almost all levels, but to no fault of Great Wolf. Two of the biggest and best (and among the industry's early pioneers) are in the water park capital of the world, Wisconsin Dells: Kalahari at 125,000 square feet and Chula Vista at 110,000 square feet . Great Wolf Lodge boasts tons of activities sure to put a smile on your children's faces. Here is a quick breakdown of the outdoor activities offered at each resort: Kalahari: Monkey climb ropes course, zip lines and mini golf. My sister, who was also staying at this resort had the African Queen suite and there was PLENTY of room for all of us if they would have moved us. At that point, it was unmistakably the smell of cat urine. An unpleasant smell hit us as soon as we opened the door, although I couldn't quite place it, at least not until we stepped further into the suite. Ronks is southeast of Lancaster. Can I ask how the service levels compared at the two as well as the food? We stayed from Tuesday through Thursday during July. I hope you have a wonderful time with your family! We are a family of 6 with four kids ranging in ages from 5 12 years old. This is another thing that I think Kalahari does well and it makes it a little easier to satisfy everyone and their differing tastes with so many food choices. We usually ordered and brought the food to our room. We recently made a trip to the Poconos in Pennsylvania to visit a water park resort but didnt know which resort we should go to so we went to all 3 of them! Great Wolf Lodge is known for their MagiQuest game. It can be more expensive but it's a better place to relax and see your kids enjoying without having to worry too much. This was one of the few exceptions! To the credit of one observant & kind employee he noticed the exceedingly poor service my wife had received and apologized to her later in the day when he saw her. There is also a cafe (Cafe & Bar) and a restaurant (Horizons) located right off the main lobby. Both seemed to make a small room work a little better and not feel as small as it actually was. Review tags are currently only available for English language reviews. This post was incredibly helpful!!! Choosing which resort to bring your family to can be daunting as both resorts offer very similar attractions and amenities. One of the other simple theming aspects we enjoyed were the 2 Great Wolf Lodge video book stories playing on the resort TV channel. Great Wolf Lodge has more charm and we enjoyed the lodge theme & the characters. Unfortunately, the kids loaded up on an assortment of dessert and we went back to the room to change back into our swimwear for a last hurrah in the water.Off the lobby there are also a sweets shop, bakery, and ice cream shop, with what appears to be a nice selection of goodies.The next morning, the kids wanted to get in a few hours at the waterpark before our 11:00 checkout. Right away we were looking for and expecting a wonderful customer service experience, and Kalahari did not disappoint. GWL has excellent sales. Just about everything seemed to be swimming in butter or oil, including the overcooked/overheated vegetables. It was a nice touch to have the lodge theme and a couple of characters at the front of the wave pool which is one of our favorite attractions. We were told that the elevator was on the convention center side, which was not really convenient for her. Kids under the age of 6 were coming in and out with no parental supervision. You can also see the water park from the windows on this side and from the Cafe & Bar. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Life-size animal statues adorn the outside. It seems that there are parts of the water park that are only staffed at peak attendance. Since our last visit to Great Wolf Lodge they have established a relationship with Dunkin Donuts and there is one located on the main floor just off the right of the lobby. Great Wolf Resorts told KPRC in a statement, Were always looking for opportunities to introduce the Great Wolf Lodge resort experience to new audiences, and we are excited about the prospect of bringing one of our family-friendly indoor water park resorts to southeastern Texas.. Sincerely, Chip. The wave pool was on par with that at Great Wolf Lodge. The balcony/patio was laughable. While the hallways of rooms may still be a bit long, its not as vast as Kalahari. Camelback is unique in that it has both an INDOOR water park (Aquatopia, which is open year-round) and a separate OUTDOOR water park (Camelbeach) that is only open for the summer season. Tiffany, Im so glad you found the post helpful. A microwave and refrigerator are also included. This old-school hot dog shack across from Penn Treaty Park mostly caters to truckers, hence its early-morning hours. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Tom Foolerys also has a mirror maze, escape rooms, indoor ropes course, laser tag, rock climbing wall, XD dark ride and bowling. How does the resort compare to Great Wolf Lodge? Also, Outdoor pool and some small outdoor water slides (all seasonal). For our Tuesday June 25th, 2019 stay @ Great Wolf Lodge the cost of our room was $209.99 with taxes & fees amounting to $51.59, bringing the total to $261.58. There is a very small / non-standard sized bowling alley, a miniature golf course, an arcade, MagiQuest, etc We have done some of the other activities in the past but only if they were included with our stay or one of the bundled package passes (Paw Pass, Pup Pass and Wolf Pass).

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