The original hotel has been around for years, first as a Hilton. New owners came in, gutted the hotel part and added villas and an indoor waterpark. The hotel is now under the Holiday Inn name. The new hotel and waterpark officially opened on May 22, 2006. However, when we checked in on June 9, 2006, they were still doing some decorating. Everything smelled new.
There were 6 of us two adults and 4 kids ages 14, 13, 11 and 9. Three of us had been to the Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Ohio so that's what I have to compare this property to. We had reservations to for their basic family villa that had 2 queens and a pullout couch and came with 6 waterpark passes. When we got to our room, they had upgraded us to a villa with a loft so we gained an extra bed (king), full bath and TV in the upstairs loft part. All villas come with a dryer for drying bathing suits and towels, microwave, small fridge, living area with pull-out couch, flat-screen TV, double vanity outside of the bath area, hair dryer and full bath. I felt that the downstairs part of the room was bigger than the villa we had at the Great Wolf Lodge except this room didn't have a balcony or patio (drawback in my opinion). There were sample products of shampoo, soap and lotion from Bath & Body Works. A nice touch considering the company's headquarters is just up the road from the hotel. The kids loved the room and we had to prod them to leave to go to the waterpark area. I will say with 6 of us, we had plenty of room and this room would easily sleep 8. Pillows and bedding were great. I think because everything was new, we especially liked the room.
The room was incredibly clean and we may have been the first family to use it. The down side was that it was so new that the plastic was still on the mattress of the pullout couch and no bedding for it could be found. We had to leave a message with housekeeping.
It was obvious that the staff was new, but they all were trying. The line at the front desk at check-in and out was long because everyone was new and trying to please everyone. There were a lot of management around (could tell by the business suits as the rest of the staff were in frontier atire). There was also a lot of security which at first was a pain, but then later when people tried to come in that weren't staying at the hotel, it was great. There was also a group of people who tried to smuggle in alcoholic beverages to the swimming area in a back pack and they were escourted out. Alcohoic beverages can be purchased on the property though.
Waterpark was fun although smaller than Great Wolf Lodge. There were plenty of lifeguards and I never saw any of them shurking their duty (again probably because of newness). They were strict, which made me feel very secure. There were 3 slides that used inner tubes (single and double) and 4 slides that used mats. You have to climb 76 steps to use the slides with the tubes and mats so just be prepared. There's a lazy river area in which to use the tubes as well and every 15 minutes the river gets wavy like a wave pool which was neat. You can actually go down one of the slides on the tube and then stay on the tube to enter the lazy river. There's a small (I mean small) activity pool with basketball hoops and stuff to climb on. There's a big fort in the middle of the park with all kinds of things to climb on and more slides to go down. I liked this area because there were slides for kids of all sizes. There is a really nice area for little kids (my kids were too big) that had 3 slides just for little kids. The neatest thing were baby swings in the water. The toddlers really seemed to like that area. There is a good-sized whirpool for those 18 and older (didn't try it but looked nice). There's a snack bar in the area, lockerrooms, tables chairs and lounge chairs.
We ate dinner in the sitdown restaurant. We travel a lot with these kids and I will say I was very surprised at the quality of the food. We could have gone to eat an one of the many places outside the hotel, but we knew the kids would want to go to the arcade or back to the waterpark after dinner so we took a chance and ate in. They have everything from sandwiches to salads. Kids under 12 who eat off the kids' menu are free (Holiday Inn thing). Our servers were great. It wasn't crowded at all so we were served in an acceptable amount of time and were attended to nicely.
After dinner, kids went to arcade, adults to saloon. The saloon is open so you can see people coming and going. Also had several TVs. Bartender very personable.
There's also a coffee bar and snack shop by the saloon and a large gift shop. Sirus satelite radio from Nashville plays throughout the property.
The only way to use the waterpark is to get a room or have a birthday party (starts at $25 per kid with a 10 kid minimum). As long as they can keep the rif-raf out by keeping their security up, it will be a nice place. We're glad we went when it was new. Those who have been to a Great Wolf lodge before will be disappointed with the size of the waterpark, but the rooms are just as good, if not better. Also no outdoor pool but several outdoor patios. I believe the whole place is nonsmoking but I could be wrong about some of the rooms.
Kids had a great time and which made it easy on the parents!
hotel reviews