Wisconsin Dells

[cantwaitvaca09]

Going to the Dells for the first time in a few weeks
Any suggestions on where to eat or where to go.
Staying at a hotel with indoor waterpark

Thanks for any info

 

[epfootballcutie04]

I've been to the Dells a few times and actually just got back from there about 2 weeks ago. The last couple of times my family and I have stayed at the Wilderness and loved it.

You'll notice that it is their slow season so stuff doesn't stay open as much and of course, all the outside water parks will be closed.

Something I would DEFINITELY recommend is the "Rick (and Susan) Wilcox magic show. I'm not a big magic fan and the 1st time I saw this show I was in amazement. This last time, my boyfriend came with my family and his dad used to be a magician so he "knew how a lot of stuff was done" and didn't really care either way to go, but we got him a ticket and he LOVED it. Tickets are like 30-40 bucks but it's worth it!!!

Otherwise, they have the Ripley's Believe it or not stuff, Old Time Photo places, and just walking around the downtown dells area is fun because they have a lot of gift shops and that's right around where all the attractions are.

Check out this website:

http://www.wisdells.com/

It might give you some ideas on food and stuff to see Have fun!!

 

[sunlover13]

Monks has great burgers! There are two locations, one by the Wilderness and then one on the strip. We've been to both and they were very good.

If you get a Dells card, they had buy 1, get 1 free meal on there last year. I'm not sure if they still have it on there. It is Dells fun card.

Also, check to see if Culvers has the kids cards. There are a lot of deals on there. They didn't have them at the Culvers by me so I wrote an email and they mailed me one.

Hope that helps.......

Have fun!

 

[epfootballcutie04]

Monks has great burgers! There are two locations, one by the Wilderness and then one on the strip. We've been to both and they were very good.

Oh yeah! We ate a Monks this last time we were there b/c we got in late and they were literally the only restaurant open. Their food was sooooo good. The rest of the meals we had we just cooked ourselves since we had a full kitchen in our room.

 

[mskani]

Try Paul Bunyan's for breakfast. They have the best doughnuts!!

We went last summer (late June) and it was COLD!!!! My kids' (then 13 & 11) favorites were the Ducks and there was a bowling center that we went to that had starlight bowling and great food. I would definitely suggest picking up a guidebook. Have fun!!

 

[Minnie824]

I also was going to post Monks dinner and Paul Bunyan breakfast. Other than that, we ended up at culvers alot. haha. we did like the italian place near wilderness lodge. forgot the name, starts with an 's'. it was pretty good.

 

[cantwaitvaca09]

Thank you all for your posts

We are staying at the Wilderness (on the weekeday)
Thanks for the tips on where to eat and what to see!

 

[robinb]

I was just there last week. We ate at Culvers, The Cheese Factory (vegetarian food) and Famous Dave's BBQ. All three were near the Wilderness Resort.

 

[SiAmCrAzY]

I was just about to suggest Monk's- (best burger) and Paul Bunyan's (best donut's and cowboy style coffee). We like the pancakes at Mr Pancakes. Moosejaw is pretty good as well. April 17th is Riverfest in the Dells.

I would recomend Kalahari for the indoor waterpark.

www.kalahariresorts.com

Or if the budget allows I would recomend Chula Vista Resort and Spa

www.chulavistaresort.com

Another great place to go is Knukleheads bowling and Indoor Amusement Park. We love the bumper cars and the indoor go cart track.

Shopping in the Dells is allot of fun- There are some great deals atTanger Outlets

Downtown there is A Ripleys believe it or not that is worth seeing

My favorite attractions are the Natural ones WI Dells Boat tours run (April-Oct) and if you truly want to appreciate the beauty of the Dells you can't go wrong with the Upper and Lower Boat tours. If you are interested in the history and folklore surrounding the Dells you won't want to miss them.

www.dellsboats.com


There are free travel guides and coupons available at

www.dells.com

Have fun and enjoy the Dells!

 

[epfootballcutie04]

Ok if you are staying at the wilderness, they have a wilderness fun card that my sister and I and our boyfriends purchased for 17 bucks/person. It gave us 2 games of glow in the dark mini golf, 8 free arcade tokens, a bumper boats ride *which we did not use*, a game of lazer tag, and entrance into their haunted house plus $1.00 off some ice cream by the arcade. Not too bad of a deal and it was fun and kept us entertained. You can pick them up at the front desk.

 

[jme829]

Thank you all for your posts

We are staying at the Wilderness (on the weekeday)
Thanks for the tips on where to eat and what to see!

We were there 2 weeks go for Spring Break..be warned the food at the waterparks at the Wilderness are outrageously overpriced (think $6.99 for JUST mini corn dogs...fries and drinks cost extra). We ended up taking a break one day to go across the road to Culvers for lunch way more food for the price. We also went to the Superwalmart down the road and bought stuff to make sandwiches and breakfast in the room. (cereal, juice, fruit etc..)

Their buffet dinner is good, though a bit pricy ($20PP/KIDS FREE) and literally has everything. You can charge it to your room, in fact one nice thing is you can charge everything to your room .... food, gift shop ,snow cones,adult drinks at the waterpark etc... so you won't need to carry cash or credit cards to the water parks or around the hotel for that matter. Just give them your room #, they will add it to your final bill and charge whatever card you checked in with.

Have Fun...the wild waterdome is a blast..but if you get a tube or a beach chair..hang on to it...they are hard to get!
We like Marleys for dinner.

 

[cantwaitvaca09]

Thank you all so very much for the tips
I do have day passes for the Kalahari (sp?)

Thanks for the tip on the boats, I did not even thing of that!

Yes I do plan on bring snacks, I am glad to hear the buffet and the wilderness is good, I had read mixed reviews on tirpadvisor.

Thanks again DISers. You all are so helpfull!

 

[robinb]

A couple more hints about the Wilderness Resort. They have a "no carry in" policy which is clearly posted and not enforced AT ALL. We brought all kinds of snacks into the waterparks and ate them openly ... along with just about everyone else. People even brought in coolers. I would consider bringing a small collapsible cooler in the future but I would probably ... um ... uh ... hide it in another bag so it's not out in the open. Just in case anyone is wondering, Wilderness serves 16-oz plastic bottles of Miller products and those 16-oz steel bottle/cans of Bud Lite Lime . Beer is $5.50 per bottle. They *do* have a great beer called New Glarus Spotted Cow on tap in the wave pool park. New Glarus beer is only available in Wisconsin.

 

[erincon23]

My kids really like Wizard Quest. It's on the main drag. You get a list of questions that need to be answered -- you go through the place with displays, plaques with info, things to climb, lots of interactive exhibits, find the answers the questions ( can be really tricky) and enter them into a computer. You "win" (not that you really win anything) when you get all the answers. It's pricey, but you may find some coupons.

Erin

 

[cantwaitvaca09]

A couple more hints about the Wilderness Resort. They have a "no carry in" policy which is clearly posted and not enforced AT ALL. We brought all kinds of snacks into the waterparks and ate them openly ... along with just about everyone else. People even brought in coolers. I would consider bringing a small collapsible cooler in the future but I would probably ... um ... uh ... hide it in another bag so it's not out in the open. Just in case anyone is wondering, Wilderness serves 16-oz plastic bottles of Miller products and those 16-oz steel bottle/cans of Bud Lite Lime . Beer is $5.50 per bottle. They *do* have a great beer called New Glarus Spotted Cow on tap in the wave pool park. New Glarus beer is only available in Wisconsin.

Thanks for the tip on the beer, I was going to bring some for us in the room , but i did not think of getting plastic,
Thanks again

 

[cantwaitvaca09]

My kids really like Wizard Quest. It's on the main drag. You get a list of questions that need to be answered -- you go through the place with displays, plaques with info, things to climb, lots of interactive exhibits, find the answers the questions ( can be really tricky) and enter them into a computer. You "win" (not that you really win anything) when you get all the answers. It's pricey, but you may find some coupons.

Erin

Erin, thanks for the info. My kids are 2-5 would this be in their age group?
Thanks again for posting!

 

[MinMouse]

Looking into the Dells for a family trip this summer . . . 9 of us in all. Is five nights too long to stay? Would there be enough to do. We are looking at the Wilderness to stay. . . . any chance we could find a good deal?

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

The Wilderness has a great buffet, and I believe kids eat free. It has a wide variety of food choices for even the pickiest eater!

 

[robinb]

Looking into the Dells for a family trip this summer . . . 9 of us in all. Is five nights too long to stay? Would there be enough to do. We are looking at the Wilderness to stay. . . . any chance we could find a good deal?

We stayed in one of the 4-bedroom "Frontier Condos" a couple of years ago. There were 10 of us ... my family, my sister's family and our parents. It can be pricey but once we divided it on a per person basis it wasn't bad.

 

[MinMouse]

We stayed in one of the 4-bedroom "Frontier Condos" a couple of years ago. There were 10 of us ... my family, my sister's family and our parents. It can be pricey but once we divided it on a per person basis it wasn't bad.

Yes we're looking at Glacier Canyon Lodge. It's $515 per night for a 3 bedroom but there are 9 of us so I guess that's not too bad. Normally we would need three hotel rooms so it's comparable. We're thinking we'll go for four nights (Monday to Friday) . . . .does that sound long enough or too long or just right?