Going to the Dells in the winter is fun, even if you’re not going there to ski. We took the kids to the Dells in January. The “kids” consist of our 2 ½-year-old son, 18-month-old son and 12-year-old stepdaughter.
We stayed at the Atlantis resort. This is an affordable hotel with an indoor water park. The main “water park” area is on the 4th floor of the hotel. It’s decorated in an undersea fantasy theme, vaguely reminiscent of the “Little Mermaid” movie. The water park was smaller than I anticipated, but the boys had a blast, especially the 2-year-old. He cried whenever we had to leave the park and go back to our room. This water park is definitely designed for toddlers. My stepdaughter was somewhat bored, but there was a larger pool with a basketball net that she enjoyed. There’s also a hot tub and a snack bar, as well as an additional large pool in the lobby area. There’s a small gift shop in the lobby where I got a great deal on some cute flip flops, t-shirts and some unusual jewelry.
The rooms are basic, clean and comfortable. There are larger suites available with fireplaces and hot tubs. One has a mermaid theme and one has a Roman bath theme. There are pictures on the Atlantis web site. I got a peek at the mermaid-themed suite while the maids were cleaning it. Very cheesy, but cute. The word “whimsical” comes to mind.
We got a junior suite. This includes two queen beds and a pull-out couch. There is a fridge and a microwave in the room. They don’t have room service, but there are several pizza places that will deliver to your room. We ordered from the Pizza Pub, adequate pizza, although we’re perhaps spoiled being from Chicago.
We had a very enjoyable lunch at Marley’s, which is a few doors down from the Atlantis. This a Caribbean-themed restaurant. I recommend the alligator bites, the chicken and the spicy fries. They have a basic kids menu with chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, etc. It was family-friendly, but the sports bar area looked like it would be a fun nighttime hangout for adults. When we were there, there was smoking allowed in the bar area, but it didn’t waft over to where we were sitting in the dining room area.
Unfortunately, Paul Bunyan’s was closed for the season. This is a terrific breakfast place that’s been around since I was a kid. There was a Denny’s across the street, so we ate there.
In doing so, we broke one of our vacation rules: No Chicago stuff. We try to go local whenever we’re on vacation and try to avoid anything we could get or go to any day in Chicago.
Our check-out time at the Atlantis was 11 a.m., but we decided to hang around town for the rest of the day. We went to the Tanger outlet mall. This is an outdoor mall similar to the Oak Brook mall in the Chicago western suburbs. I found some fantastic deals at Banana Republic, Jones New York, Jockey, Children’s Place and the Gap. My stepdaughter bought some things at Claire’s, but the prices were not cheaper than Claire’s in downtown Chicago.
There are other resorts I would like to visit in the future. Mt. Olympus is massive – they have an indoor and outdoor water park, as well as indoor and outdoor theme parks. The Kalahari has a big indoor water park. These two parks appear to appeal to a wider range of ages. Noah’s Ark is an outdoor-only water park with big water slides. A place called Knuckleheads looked intriguing, they have bumper cars, bowling, all sorts of activities for the whole family.
We then went to the Ho-Chunk Casino. This is a casino with something for everyone in the family. They have a hotel, restaurants and activities for the kids. If parents would like a quiet dinner alone, or gamble in the casino for a while, the resort offers babysitting for $6.50 an hour per child. The child care center was run very professionally. My 18-month-old was in a separate room for babies, my 2-year-old was in an area that resembled Chuckie Cheese, ball pit and all. For older kids, they have free arcade games. There are Disney movies playing and for a small fee, the kids can have drinks and snacks. We only went to gamble for about an hour and a half. It was a typical casino, reminded me of the Empress in Joliet with a Native American theme. My only problem was that it was very smoky. When we came back, the kids were having a great time. My stepdaughter said, “Next time, we should stay at this hotel, this place is great!”
We got caught in a snowstorm on the way home and were chewed out by my stepdaughter’s mother for not bringing her home in time for her bedtime. Despite that one sour moment, we had a great weekend and discovered a place close to home where we can have a lovely winter weekend getaway!
No comments:
Post a Comment