Family Land -- Wisconsin Dells

1/20/03

My wife and I decide to take a short vacation in the Dells. It's cold, and of course, all the water parks are closed. (in fact, most stuff is closed this time of year). We did, however, manage to take advantage of one of the indoor water parks that are starting to pop up all over the Dells. We went to the "Bay of Dreams" which is part of the Family Land resort, just down the road from Wisconsin Dells. $14.95 per person was a lot more affordable than the $35 per person to get into the Kalahari. Very cute place. Nicely themed with pirate ships and jungle/african themes. 4 waterslides, a lazy river, a couple of kiddie areas, 2 HUGE hot tubs, lilly pads, game room, snack bar (with GREAT burgers, by the way. $5.75 for a burger, fries and 16 oz coke, not too bad, but like I said, one of the best burgers I've had). 2 of the slides were body slides, and two were tube slides. We enjoyed our time there. Spent just over 3 hours, most rides had a 5 minute wait. One thing noticably lacking was lounge chairs. That would have been nice.

After eating dinner at the Ho-Chunk Casino, and playing 2 bucks in the nickel slots (we actually won 4), we dropped by the Kalahari hotel. The manager let us into the waterpark to look around. (It was about 8:45, and they closed at 9). The place was enormous. They had an INDOOR master blaster, one of those funnel thingies (I'm not sure what they were called), an indoor slide that went outside for a few turns, many indoor slides (maybe as many as 9), several kiddie areas, some basketball pools, an indoor wave pool, and tons of other stuff that we didn't see. We wished we would have known about this place, so we could have saved up and gone there instead. Very friendly people, excellent customer service (from what we saw). The waterpark wasn't themed as nicely, but it did have some nice touches.

So, next time, we'll get to the Kalahari!

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"Getting on Iron Wolf is kind of like going in a blender and pressing PUREE"

You may also want to check out Blackwolf Lodge across the street from Kalahari. While they dont have the indoor master blaster or the funnel, they do have about 10 slides, one of which goes outside for part of it's run (it is enclosed but you still get a bit of cold air in the winder). They also have a lazy river, a huge dump bucket that dumps every 5 minutes or so, and a huge water play area for the kids. This place is so huge that it takes up two seperate large rooms. Maybe someday soon I can get to the Kalahari and check theirs out. I always wanted to try out a master blaster :)

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Bob Hansen

Operation Wicked Twister
Goal: Lose enough weight (50lbs) to ride Wicked Twister in 2K3
Progress: 17 pounds since 1-1-2003

We have stayed at the Wilderness Lodge which is near by and found it to be very nice. They have several different swimming area's and play area's for the kids, a game room and several different food options on site and just opened a large non-water play area for kids. The rooms are good sized and would reccomend the resort!!!

The problem with Wilderness though is that you have to stay at the Wilderness to use their waterpark. I do not believe that is the case at the other indoor parks in the Dells. As a side note, for those of you in and around the Milwaukee area, there is a really nice indoor water park at the Hilton downtown. It only has three slides but two of them are quite fun and I believe the price is pretty inexpensive.

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Bob Hansen

Operation Wicked Twister
Goal: Lose enough weight (50lbs) to ride Wicked Twister in 2K3
Progress: 17 pounds since 1-1-2003

Kalahari is awesome, I went in september and the slides rule. It does get very crowded however so try to catch it on an off day. I live in milwaukee and the hilton's waterpark is pretty good, not as big as others but still pretty good.

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"I remember the first time I had sex - I kept the receipt."- Groucho Marx