Wisconsin Dells

[golfgal]

Yep, I know it's not cheap.

I just looked at Kalahari for a couple of nights in July (18, 19). Qouting me 1999.90. I looked and looked again at my dates to make sure everything was correct. That can't be right, right? I'm ok with higher prices for summer but that's crazy.

Wilderness seems great. On the top of my list as possible places to stay.

$2000 for 2 nights--you must have priced out a suite or something. $400/night or so is to be expected but not $1000/night.

 

[golfgal]

Ok, I just looked and I wonder if they don't have all their rooms up for July yet-every date I pick only gives you the entertainment suite options. If you go back to June there are more options and the rooms are in the $350-500 range for the 2 nights combined.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

My family enjoys Kalahari the most. Wilderness is great, but it takes FOREVER to walk from one waterpark to the next. They literally have a shuttle service because it is so huge!

Kalahari has surfing which my kids think is a blast.

I enjoy the theming and just general layout of the entire place. They also have a great outdoor waterpark.

We usually end up paying $250 a night when we go in July each summer. We celebrate my daughter's birthday in the Dells.

 

[daughtersrus]

We have a lake house up in that area so we're in the Dells at least 6 times a year although we've never stayed at a resort. My family loves Mt Olympus. You can purchase a water only ticket or a ticket that includes the rides. Being the budget minded person that I try to be, we buy them ahead of time through a radio show in a suburb of Chicago for half price. They have many deals for the Dells. If you're interested, let me know and I'll send you a link to the station's website.

The only other thing that I'd add is if you want ice cream. Skip Dairy Queen and go to Culver's. It's a fast food chain that started in WI and has moved into the midwest. They make VERY good frozen custard and really it isn't much more money. We stumbled upon them by accident many years ago. They have chocolate and vanilla every day plus a "flavor of the day" selection. There's one in town as well as one near the outlet mall.

I've only eaten at the Mon's in town but I've heard that it's better than the one by Wilderness.

 

[susykt4]

We've stayed at Kalahari and loved it. We went in August with no reservations, hoping to stay at the Wilderness. It was booked, as was Kalahari. I sadly "settled" for Great Wolf Lodge. It turned out to be PERFECT for my grade school age kids! They had three huge rooms filled with slides, pools, giant wave pool, tons of kiddie and activity areas. They also had a huge arcade, a huge indoor playground and DD9 loved MagiQuest, an indoor scavenger hunt covering five floors that was amazingly fun. There was only one slide that had a height limit (48 inches.) The kids loved the daily breakfast buffet. There was a huge indoor amusement park within walking distance. It was around August 20th and was too cool to use the outdoor water parks the three days we were there. I would NOT recommend Great Wolf Lodge for older kids or adults only- the other big resorts have way more fun stuff for those age groups. It was perfect for my kids (9 and 7) though.

Oh, and we rode the Ducks for the first time and loved them. I was totally against blowing all that money on something I thought would be so stupid but we all really enjoyed the Ducks.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

We've stayed at Kalahari and loved it. We went in August with no reservations, hoping to stay at the Wilderness. It was booked, as was Kalahari. I sadly "settled" for Great Wolf Lodge. It turned out to be PERFECT for my grade school age kids! They had three huge rooms filled with slides, pools, giant wave pool, tons of kiddie and activity areas. They also had a huge arcade, a huge indoor playground and DD9 loved MagiQuest, an indoor scavenger hunt covering five floors that was amazingly fun. There was only one slide that had a height limit (48 inches.) The kids loved the daily breakfast buffet. There was a huge indoor amusement park within walking distance. It was around August 20th and was too cool to use the outdoor water parks the three days we were there. I would NOT recommend Great Wolf Lodge for older kids or adults only- the other big resorts have way more fun stuff for those age groups. It was perfect for my kids (9 and 7) though.

Oh, and we rode the Ducks for the first time and loved them. I was totally against blowing all that money on something I thought would be so stupid but we all really enjoyed the Ducks.

I totally agree about the GREAT WOLF. You WILL be disappointed if you have older-aged children. Also, they have one awesome ride, but you have to carry the tube up like 5-6 flights of stairs. I was so winded after that, I could hardly breathe!
Also, our family enjoys going horseback riding at the Canyon Creek Riding Stables. It is an hour "ride"....and SOOO worth the $$! We like the Duck ride too.
Finally, My hubby took our oldest on a jet boat ride and he said it was fast, fun and VERY WET!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Definitely go to Noah's Ark! Lots of stuff to do there. In middle school we always took a trip there at the end of the year if you had good grades.

As a family we've only gone to the Dells once and we stayed at the Polynesian. Go figure. But the Kalahari sounds nice!