24 Hours In Kalahari

This post has been sponsored by Kalahari Resorts. All content and opinions remain my own. #LoveKalahari #AmericasLargest

I know what you’re thinking. A 24 hour trip?! What could you possibly do in a day?! Well, at Kalahari Resorts, the answer is: a little bit of everything! We road tipped to the Sandusky, Ohio location for a little fun before school starts.

Below is a quick video of our trip, scroll down for a breakdown of what we did, where we ate, and ultimately, what we thought of our time spent at Kalahari Resorts!

 

The Hotel

First, let’s jump in with the accommodations. According to the Kalahari Resorts website, check-in time is at 4pm. You are invited to arrive as early as 12 noon, and check-in to enjoy the water park. We rolled the dice, and arrived at 1. Be prepared: the parking lot is HUGE, and the line of cars to check in was massive. We opted to jump the line and valet our car for $15. Worth every penny. Although the line to check-in to the hotel was long, we were pleasantly surprised by how quickly it moved. The woman who checked us in was beyond helpful. If you’re checking-in to the Ohio location, say hi to Renee for us! Our room was ready at 1, without requesting early check-in. We had packed a separate bag with swimsuits to change into, and had planned on leaving our other luggage at the desk while we waited for our room – which is an option if your room is not ready!

When you check-in, you are given a wristband. You can use this to scan at the gates to enter each water park. This wristband is also your room key! We loved that feature, since most of the time, we were in swimsuits without pockets. We also had the option to link our debit or credit card with the bracelet and use that to make purchases.

We were on the third floor, in a 2 bedroom suite, called the African Queen Suite. We were excited to see that we had a balcony which overlooked the big water slides and the zip line! It wasn’t loud, and once the outside park was closed, it was quite peaceful to sit on the balcony.

(the girls are wearing pajamas c/o Primary)

Our suite had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchenette, and a living area – complete with a fireplace! With 3 kids, we found the layout of the room to be perfect for what we needed. It also allowed Dave and I to relax, chat, and watch TV without disturbing the girls while they slept.

After check-out, Kalahari encourages guests to stay and enjoy the parks for the rest of the day!

The Waterpark

Kalahari is broken up into the Indoor Waterpark and the Outside Park. As a Kalahari Resorts hotel guest, you’re able to enjoy the indoor area a full 30 minutes before people with a day pass. We were down there right at 9:30. There were maybe 20 other people in the entire park, which was amazing. The day before, it was pretty packed, and we had a hard time finding a table to set our towels on.

Children under 48″ are required to wear life jackets. While we opted to bring our own, Kalahari does have racks of life jackets you may borrow throughout both the indoor and outdoor parks.

Inside, there are a few water slides, a massive wave pool, a kiddie area, a small obstacle course-type of area, and a “basketball court” pool. We found that the kiddie area, named Coral Cove was almost never busy. The girls had a blast there on the swings, and on the little water slide.

The outdoor park was our favorite. The weather was perfect both days. There was a large pool when you walk out, followed by a splash pad, a water slide area for bigger kids, a toddler-friendly space called Bugs Burrow (that was about 2′ deep with zero entry) complete with 9 kid-friendly water slides. Around the other side was a bar with a DJ, the safari area, the train, a rock climbing wall and the zipline, and then a cute little area with shuffle board and cornhole. If you kept walking around, you’d come to the massive waterslides. Since our girls are 2, 3, and 7, we didn’t venture to that side of the park.

The kiddie area outside was where we spent the majority of our time. London and Adaline sat and splashed around the zero-entry area. We loved the swings they had outside, and I think our girls could have spent all day there!

Where we ate

We had lunch before we arrived at the park Monday, so our first meal was dinner. After a full afternoon of playing in the water, we headed in around 5:30 to change and eat. I fully anticipated there being a massive wait for a table. I was wrong! We walked into the newer restaurant, B-Lux and were seated right away. Most of the restaurant was empty, but did start to fill by the time we left. We figured everyone ate at the buffet, as it was cheaper.

B-Lux

I knew I wanted to eat at B-Lux Grill & Bar after looking at the menu online on our way down. The menu was modern American pub-style food. We started with the Bang Bang Shrimp, and they were amazing. David got the B-Lux Burger (a double cheese burger) and I got the crispy chicken sandwich. The girls all had mac n cheese. I ordered a margarita with dinner, and it did not disappoint. For dessert, we opted to split one of their famous milkshakes between us!

Great Karoo Marketplace Buffet

To get to the Great Karoo breakfast buffet, you walk past the main lobby and through a store. I will say, breakfast was a bit more pricey than I anticipated, especially for a buffet, but was thrilled to see an extensive array of choices. We all went back for seconds – and maybe thirds 😉

Felix’s Bar

Ok, this isn’t officially food. But once the girls were in bed for the night, David headed down and ordered a few cocktails for us to enjoy on the patio. Felix’s Bar is located in the main lobby area, on your way to the elevator. Very convenient.

Candy Hut

The Candy Hut was conveniently placed right when you walk into the hotel, so there was no avoiding the girls seeing it. Everything looked so tasty, and we left with a bag of assorted salt water taffy, and sour gummies.

Other

The room service menu was mostly pizza and soda, with a limited wine/beer menu.

The bar outside was centrally located, and the bartender was friendly. We grabbed a drink in the shade, and listened to the DJ before checking out the cornhole boards.  (note: there is a gorgeous wall of white hydrangeas over there, which is the perfect photo background!)

What we did

After we had dinner Monday night, we debated changing back into swimsuits and enjoying the waterpark again, but settled on bowling! Downstairs, there is a whole game room and another restaurant. The Big Game Room is complete with black light mini golf, laser tag, a virtual reality area, traditional arcade games, and bowling.

The mini bowling area was so cute. It had only a few lanes, but we didn’t have to wait to play. The lanes were short, and the balls all weighed 5 pounds, so it was very kid-friendly. We also loved that we didn’t have to wear special shoes to bowl!

After a few rounds of bowling, we went to the Big Game Room, which was a huge arcade space. The girls did some ride on games, and David played his new favorite arcade game, the bean bag toss game (is that the official name?), and we won enough tickets for the girls to grab some prizes.

On our way back upstairs, we stopped to get Peyton’s hair wrapped. They also had a caricature artist, a jewelry stamping, and henna tattoos.

Our thoughts

There was clearly more than enough things to do at Kalahari Resorts, and if we had stayed longer, we probably would have done it all. I am a firm believer in leaving while you want more, so you have something to look forward to next time!