Kalahari Waterparks Reviews

I'm not a waterpark person, but my husband and kids are. The slides and rides all seemed great. The hotel itself, which you have to walk through, is an eyesore. It's a combo of hideous industrial hotel architecture blended with potentially offensive African design. The food is sickening!!!!!!! We had heard this and ate a big breakfast, but my kids were starving after the rides, and we bought them sandwiches at the most edible looking place. so gross. they have signs all over the place telling people they can't bring in their own food, but everyone did and now I understand why.
It was pricey, but I get it. Bring your own towel.Don't stay in hotel.

My family and I decided to try Kalahari for a little getaway and so glad we did! It was very enjoyable and fun for all of us. My girls are not close in age (13 and 4) and they both had a great time! The little kid areas were perfect for my little one, although she preferred the wave pool and indoor/outdoor hot tub over anything. They also had quite a few “big” slides she could do, which she enjoyed! Everything was pretty clean and the hotel rooms were great! We did not go to the waterpark the day we checked out (Saturday) as it seemed SUPER crowded so we checked out and played in the arcade instead. $50 did not last too long so after it was gone we went home. Don’t forget necessities you may need like Tylenol or feminine products unless you want to make a trip to Walmart. They charge 3x the regular cost in their little convenience store. Some tips: don’t go on a Saturday!, bring breakfast and lunch to eat in your hotel room and splurge for dinner (Ivory Coast was great) or a 45oz pina colada (yum), bring a waterproof bag for your cell phone/$ so you don’t have to worry about getting a locker at the park. Bring your own towels...the ones they provide in the park are super small and okay for drying off not keeping warm. Bring water socks! (We did not but a few times I wish we had for sanitary reasons).

The only descent thing about this place is the park.. everything else needs to be addressed... So many rides for all ages...

Lots of things to do for the kids including the water park, ropes, outdoor water park and arcade. As part of their policy, it helps to bring a uscg approved life vest for the children. They have limited supply on hand.

Great water park with bar in pool. AWESOME!
Great heated pool and good drinks. Plenty of things to do for children and parents.

I am here on business. I am paying for one of the most expensive rooms for a week and have over 50 families that we brought with us. Room service skipped our room for whatever reason. We called twice, still no one came. Had to walk down to the registration desk at 10pm to finally get some assistance. (Aside from the fact that two of the families that are with us had bugs in their room, another family found clothes under the couch from the previous people, and the food place in the arcade charged one of my students $20 for ONE salad).

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the first time I went down to the registration desk. I was there FIVE times in one day. Actually totaling about 12 times since the start of my stay (and still have 4 more days here!!), every time explaining my wristbands did not work. We thought of every situation in which we may have deactivated them accidentally, the door itself was broke, etc..nope. Every time I spoke to someone, I had to wait approximately 10-15 minutes in line, to be told something completely different from the time before.

It seems that none of the staff is on the same page. At one point, they made me bring every one in my room (6 people - 2 of which are under the age of 5) downstairs to reissue new braclets. After waiting (again) on line, the person said “ I don’t know who told you that but that’s wrong. Needless to say, it didn’t matter because they still did not work! It’s still an ongoing saga.

Here is the worst part...every time I went downstairs, I would say my name and room number, multiple times. After the 4th or 5th time, the guy told me I was saying the wrong room number....nope, I’ve been in that room for 4 days now. They had me down as a different room in the computer than the one they originally told us and gave us. The guy was actually arguing with me saying that I was wrong and would give me a wristband for the room they have on file!

We also thought it was really strange when we came back to our room one day and our door wasn’t fully shut! Welp, it makes sense, they must’ve given someone our room to check in to since their computer was saying it was available. Again, having two young children in the room and our valuables, god forbid something was stolen. When I mentioned this, it was brushed off as if it was nothing!!!

I am mortified and completely disappointed. We have been to the Kalahari in Ohio and never had this many issues.

Sadly, we along with the 50+ families will not be returning next year and will be sure to notify others of this hotels inconsistencies, unsafe environment and inability to solve simple situations.

There are plenty of areas for small children, the teens will get bored quickly though. Smelled clean (lots of chlorine and bathrooms were clean

My kids enjoyed the lazy river, the basketball hoops in the pool, the outdoor poor, and a majority of the rides. We enjoyed the swim up bar and a majority of the rides. The arcade was fun for us all.

Room was great I love the free food and trash left In my bed phone was stolen and when I told the people they told me that I don’t have a phone but I was mobile Angelica I love how were so rude cause I took over five seconds to tell you what I want for food

Just got off the phone with "Mike" from reservations who tells me I cannot check into the 5 bed room suite that I reserved this week because it was booked using my wife's credit card. This rediculous policy wouldn't be an issue except that i get there at noon and my wife wont be there till after work at 7pm (we are driving from Rochester NY)!! We have a 2 yr old who needs her nap and it would be nice to use the room I am paying well over $1,000 for. As mentioned, not starting out good at all and more reviews to come if it continues this way.

My daughter and I came to Kalahari for a cheer competition and we are leaving extremely offended. While my daughter, who is adopted from Korea, was in the lazy river, a male employee stopped her float and said, “Hello my little Chinese friend!” I don’t know if he stopped her because he was trying to alleviate a log-jam, but the point is that she was stuck there. She told him that she’s Korean and he asked her to say “hello” in Korean. She doesn’t know Korean and she’s just starting to be self-conscious about being adopted. She was so upset and embarrassed when she told me. I brought it to the attention of the waterpark and resort management and nothing was done. I paid a LOT of money at this resort for my daughter to be upset and for me to be irate. I wasn’t loud, rude, or disruptive in any way, but I am furious at the lack of sensitivity shown to a ten-year old.

I recently visited this waterpark and was very impressed! There are water rides for all ages. I thoroughly enjoyed the family raft rides, lazy river, and wave pool. I’m thankful to have made some great memories with my cousins! I look forward to coming back soon!

Wonderful place my teenagers loved it clean lots to do it is a little pricey but worth it this was r first visit and it was worth it

I was able to check in and go to my room when I arrived Friday afternoon, around 3:30. I was so distracted with 3 kids bursting with excitement, I forgot the birthday cake on the counter. The gentleman who checked me in realized what I had done, and he ran down the hallway after me. He didn't run with the cake to catch me, because he didn't want to mess it up. That was very thoughtful!
The hospitality suite was perfect for my family of 2 adults, and 3 girls, 7-9yo. 13 other people came in to celebrate my daughter's birthday with us. We had enough space in the room for everyone to sing happy birthday and eat dinner and cake. I brought in my own food to help save money. The room was very comfortable. There were 2 places that housekeeping missed. But it wasn't enough to spoil the trip. It took me less than a minute to fix it, and move on.
The Waterpark is nice. All the kids 2yo-19yo had a great time! Great variety. I purchased mermaid tails for my daughter and 2 nieces to swim. The girls weren't able to use them in the pools. We were very disappointed, but I understood. I was given the offer of being able to use the mermaid tails, for $35 per child for one hour, before or after the pool is closed for the day. NO THANKS!
We visited b-lux for lunch and the food was great and reasonably-priced. We also ate at the breakfast buffet. The food was tasty. For $19/adults and $12/child, I do wish there were more of a variety.
Friday night, I called the front desk, requesting house keeping service for over 3 hours . The birthday girl wasn't feeling well, and was sick in the bed. 2 phone calls, and a visit to the front desk, and still no help. On my second trip to the front desk, I requested a set of sheets, and I'll change the bed myself. I still had to wait for the clean sheets. I sat the spoiled sheets outside the door, like I was told, and they were gone the next morning. Saturday morning, when housekeeping came for their normal activities, the lovely lady, fixed the job that I did the night before, and made up the other 2 beds for the kids. I didn't need the room cleaned, just extra towels.
Check out was smooth. All of the employees at the resort are very helpful and cheerful.
We stayed in the Waterpark and arcade, for a few hours, after check out Sunday morning. There are changing stalls, and open showers to rinse the chlorine off your hair and swimsuits, in the bathroom. I was able to store a bag with a change of clothes for everyone at guest services. This was very convenient when we were ready to leave the Waterpark and go home.
There are 2 swim up bars for the adults. One indoor and one outdoor. The drinks were really good! The bartenders were generous with their pours.
I would definitely visit again!

Visited Kalahari in May. Great experience, good for friends but small kids would find a lot to do too.
Fake surfing is dope.

This was wayyy to expensive for what you get. Went yesterday (tuesday) and spent one night. Waterpark closes at 8 and doesn't reopen until 10am the following day when check in isn't until 4 and check out is at 11. This doesn't leave much time to enjoy the water park unless you take your belongings in with you to the park while you wait to check in. They keep the water and the common areas much too cold for a water park. My daughter (almost 6) went in one time for roughly 5 minutes and refused to go in again because she was too cold. Her lips were legit purple. So my entire trip that costs me over 300$ was waisted. Can't do much when you can't get your child to get wet because it's freezing. Overall. We had a terrible trip. Beds were hard food and beverages are very pricey as well. Feel like we got very ripped off overall.

There are rides here for all ages from tiny tots, to kids of all ages to adults. You can relax in the lazy rivers or thrill ride on any of the many, many tube rides. You and your family will keep busy from early morning to closing time.

took about 45 min to check in (only 3 people ahead of me), had someone cut in line and was told "he was here before, I dont want a conflict". Got to the room and it was disgusting. there was food or something all over the blankets, no toilet paper or tissues in the room. The batteries were dead in the remote, there were streamers for a previous party still taped to the ceiling. My son dropped a toy behind the sleeper sofa. Do yourself a favor and dont look behind there because the cleaning staff obviously doesnt look either.

If you go for the night, DO NOT eat on site. The food was not very good and expensive. The wait staff was very rude as well. I wasnt expecting a 5* meal, but maybe something as good as a chili's style chain would be ok. Instead the food here made chilis seem like a high end restaurant. just bring your own food or go eat offsite, save yourself the headache.

our family has been here twice and plan on revisiting again this year! Worth the money and the suites are the best. we go out for dinner as the food choice is a bit under stated. We did have an issue with food but the manager took care of it and we were taken care of.

The game room can be a nice diversion for both old and young alike. It is a little pricier than you might expect and the cost of the water park is as well. All in all it is an enjoyable experience but not something if you are on a tight budget.

We went with our 8, 10 & 12 yo sons and stayed at the resort. Overall, we had a great time. The kids LOVED it and we enjoyed the fact that they did not bother us. Chairs can be limited when it's packed. The over 21 heated swim up bar is nice but make sure you tell them don't skimp on the alcohol, especially for the price. Restaurants are overpriced but after a Disney trip, it's expected. We enjoyed the buffet restaurant for breakfast...great variety. We tended to eat dinner at the snack bar. The mini snack bar within the waterpark is SOOO understaffed, long, long lines. Same if you get food next to the arcade. I was impressed with size of rooms & spacious tubs. Decor too dark for me. The tables, chairs & floors should at least be cleaned of dust in all corners with each new guest and resort should get toilet seats that can snap/slide off easy for a thorough cleaning prior to next occupancy. The main bathroom had this mild urine odor. I'm a germaphobe and try to avoid viruses, so I brought Clorox wipes and did a better job than the cleaning staff. I wiped everything from doorknobs, light switch, faucet handles, tables, chairs, etc. Was surprised by how much dust I removed. If you pay a lot of money to stay at a resort or in a hotel, the room should be as clean as if you were the first guest to use it. Aside from my pet peeves, it's a fun but expensive place for a family vacay.

I am currently staying here with my two children ages 6 and 4. We had a nice time at the water park until we started noticing piles of poop all over the park. I reported three turds and was suspicious about a fourth in the hot tub. My kids were looking forward to spending tomorrow in the water park but now all I can think of is all the feces I didn't notice or that was cleaned up throughout the day. Like my son said. "Kalahari is cool until someone poops in the pool". And apparently that's all day long.

We went midweek in March for an overnight with our family. The two room suite was great for our family. Clean and spacious. The Waterpark was also large and clean. It was nice to forget it was snowing outside. The restaurants were nice and the prices were reasonable. Definitely recommend.

My family and I stayed at Kalahari Safari from 28 May 2018 through 20 May 2018. Being away from the military for a year I missed my daughter and niece’s birthdays. To make up for lost time, I decided to celebrate by taking them to the indoor water park. My initial impression was “WOW.” It was Memorial Day, so the line was very long. The woman at the front desk was speedy and very professional. We bound our credit cards to our wristbands for convince. We weren’t able to check into our rooms, we immediately checked out bags, got changed, and darted to the water park.
Halfway through the kids got hungry, we decided to visit the cafeteria-style grab and go directly to the left of the water park entrance. For some reason, the bracelet wouldn’t make the transaction for my sister. The manager came over to fix the problem but the problem wasn’t resolved, and they had to find me in the water park to pay for the food. By the time I got there, the manager was frustrated and very unprofessional. My wrist band was able to pay for our lunch. She didn’t look happy or apologize for the inconvenience. She just told us we needed two bracelets and walked away.
We had to get new bracelets, so all 6 of us got changed and went back upstairs to do so. The line took 45 minutes before getting customer assistance. They said the person who set up the credit card information made an error. That error cost us inconvenience, frustration, and time out of the water park. By that time our room was ready, we went to baggage to retrieve our stuff. I waited for 20 minutes until I asked for a status update on my bags. The other employees went to look for my stuff or the person retrieving my stuff for another 15 minutes and had no idea where our stuff was. They brought three other families belongings until I got a phone call telling me my stuff was in my room. The employee never told me she was going to drop our stuff off from our room. One of the workers apologized said she is brand new and has a language barrier. We wasted almost an hour to get our bags. A problem easily resolved by communication. Unacceptable.
Tired of the pool we decided to do some of the actives. Specifically, the paint your pillow case. We asked three employees and was giving wrong locations and information twice before someone pointed us in the right direction. Not only did employees not know the location. They didn’t know ANYTHING about it. Then when we got there, the area was closed off, and they opened late. Everything that could go wrong on day one did. The kids were enjoying themselves but infuriating waste so much time in one day because of employee error and lack of information.
The next day we wasted a fresh start and had wanted new expectations. Everyone has a bad day. We woke up early and was the first ones down to the water park. For some reason, only one person was working two of the family slides. He didn’t look happy; he was moving incredibly slow with resulted in long ride times. He didn’t smile once. He looked overworked, exhausted, but maybe he was just hung over. I tried joking with him but didn’t get a reaction. We decided to avoid those two rides for the remainder of his shift.
Which bring us to the Tanzanian Twister. My girlfriend is a decent swimmer, when she went on the ride falling into the water she fell upside down swallowed some water. Treading in the middle of the water falling from the ride she didn’t know which way to swim and began to panic. I was at the top of the stairs with a clear view of her struggling to make it to the stairs. She lifeguard on duty did the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM to help her. She didn’t even jump in to help her; she just extended her arm which came nowhere close to my girlfriend. I came down immediately to check on her, and this incident was reported to a manager. I don’t even know if the employee was verbally counseled as she continued her shift. Shaken up by this incident she took a timeout to compose herself.
Our rest, relaxation, and family time was almost non-existent. It was one bad experience after another. The outdoor play area was supposed to be open, nope. They blocked it off for undisclosed reasons. The kids couldn’t even enjoy the outdoor slides. We asked the lifeguard when the outdoor bar will be open; he said 10 minutes. We sat and waited for twenty before asking another employee who informed us that it was closed for the day. More time wasted.
On the very last day, the park was empty, and we were able to enjoy the slides. We decided to give the grab-and-go another chance. We got our food went to the table to have cold fries and a cold burger. The fries must have been sitting under the heat lamp for an extended period. They were borderline inedible. We went back to report this to the manager to get the most unprofessional service I have ever seen in my life. She immediately took offense to us asking for fresher food. With a defensive attitude, she refused to give us new burgers and told us we had to wait for fries. Once the French fries were done, she put them on trays and walked away. We had to ask her for the fries, she avoided eye contact, handed them to us, and walked away.
On every employee’s name tag states, “…the Kalahari Promise.” I asked a few employees what it meant. They had no idea. On pare for information, we received about the resort during our stay. Our trip to Kalahari Resort in Pocono Mtns, Pa. is the worst family vacation we have ever gone on. Every day the resort a chance only to be disappointed. Moving forward I will never recommend this resort to anyone. At no point during our stay was our terrible experience compensated. If you are staying at Kalahari, then be ready to be disrespected by employees, being given wrong information, and a terrible experience. If visiting the Pocono Mountains I highly recommend Camelback Mountain Resort is miles away and when we stayed, we had a great trip.

The Kalahari Indoor Waterpark at the Kalahari Resort is undoubtedly a must visit attraction for everyone traveling to the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania.

In September of 2021, I brought and treated my wife and myself for a visit at the Kalahari Indoor Waterpark and we found our time at the park to be an absolute thrilling adventure!!!

Both my wife and I had fun swimming, splashing and diving in Kalahari’s wave pool, and highly enjoyed our journey on the meandering lazy river.

I personally enjoyed taking part in the multiple jaw dropping water slides at the park, especially the Screaming Hyena & Anaconda Roller Coaster. These rides provide you with immense exhilaration and definitely put you on the edge of your seat!!!

Both my wife and I highly enjoyed our time at the Kalahari Indoor Waterpark and we definitely recommend this attraction as a top place to visit and explore when vacationing in the Poconos!!!

Well that depends exclusively on how much you are in need of seating for a small group. On a Sunday, it is $420 (inclusive of tax). Do not expect anything else...
While I understand the Park was rather busy, service at the cabana was pretty much inexistant, despite our many many attempts.
This is simply a feedback. Take it as you wish. For us ( few kids and few adults), not having to hunt for seating was worth the $400.
Not sure if it truly is a representation of Kalahari’s vision and business model.

Enjoyed watching the Lifeguard training on Monday morning July 2 at the outside pool. You would see just how good the training and the professionalism of the staff is from this training alone. Everyone had A+ customer service skills. Towels were sometimes hard to come by if you we came out around 1-2pm.

It's insanely large but very fun, the kids (5 and 8) had a blast on the slides and lazy river. It's confusing to get around? But by the second day we had a good understanding of where to go. Definitely an experience. We couldn't spend more than a couple of hours in the park at a time, I don't know how others spend all day there. The food options within the park are awful.

They really had a great time. We spent 1.5 days in the waterpark. That was enough for my 9, 13 & 14 yr olds. But they left having had a lot of fun and wanting to come back for another trip. There was more than enough for our entire extended family to be amused for the whole time. Slides to accommodate ages 3-14!!

We brought our own lunch, which I would recommend. High prices, fried food and long lines were nice to avoid. And the kids didn’t want to stop for long to eat anyway. Bring water...it is hot in there!

We went in December 2017 when it was frigid cold outside. We didn't stay in the resort and did one day water park.The kids enjoyed the notion of taking water slides indoor while it was snowing outside. There were many water rides that can be done in a day. No need to bring towels since the water park provides them. There is also a shower\changing facility.

I understand that by and large this is an indoor waterpark that attracts kids and their parents. I went there because it's entirely too hot outside to do water things and because despite my 30's I enjoy slides and waterparks like most people.

The slides that have inner tubes were great! I can't remember the names, but the striped ones on the left wall with the cloverleaf tubes. So great. The ones without tubes were painful for my slight frame as they bumped a bit too much on my back.

The entirety of my trip went quickly downhill after at the elephant trunk (?) slide attendant asked my girlfriend if she was a boy or a girl, and then decided he'd make a face that displayed his disgust at that revelation. There are signs around the park that say that there should be no bullying and implying inclusivity. This person is supposed to set the stage and be a representative of this park. What sort of message is that sending people? I was highly dismayed with this interaction and stopped the first security official I saw and let him know, though I doubt anything was done.

We had an amazing time at Kalahari. Went on a Weds night- no crowds then or all day Thursday (we left by 4pm, when it started to get crowded). There are a bunch of really fun water rides for all ages (we have mostly teenagers, and all of them had a blast). Great areas for little kids too. Staff was friendly and attentive. Place was very clean, including the bathrooms. Great price for Weds night rooms as well. Oh and the Virtual Reality experience was a blast! Highly recommend you do this, especially if you have teens with you. We did the Zombie one and everyone thought it was awesome. The escape room is too easy and too short. Would skip that.

We went on a non busy day and loved it. Lines were very short for the rides and my kids enjoyed the wave pool.
This is the first water park that actually had little kids in mind too.
There are two areas for toddles and the rest of the Park is for older kids .
Really loved it
Will come back

Update- have left multiple emails and voicemails and no one has returned my call. Called for the fifth time and was promised a call back the next day. Never happened. Customer service is awful.

Went for a day trip to the waterpark with our toddlers. THE WATER WAS FREEZING. Lazy river water and basketball pool were bearable. Kiddy pool areas (where we hoped to spend our time) were FRIGID and we couldn’t stay in. It was torture for my children and I am not being dramatic. Both of my kids’ lips were purple and they were shaking the whole time. My 3 yr old refused to go in the gorilla splash area because it was too cold. My 2 year old was crying that she wanted to go home. Spent a lot of money to see a neat space that they couldn’t enjoy at all. So disappointed.

Really never saw such an enormous place where my little ones enjoyed all the way. We spent the whole day there and the kids loved it.
One issue would be the number of people inside, which made the place a little bit loud and crowded. And so, the restrooms to get a shower were not in good condition, at the end of the afternoon.
Other complaint would be the food inside the park, there’s lack of healthier options, just expensive and bad quality junk food and it took long time to get it.
But you absolutely should take your kids there.

This is a classic water park with the latest trends such as wave pool and rfid tags that allow you to enter the room without the key. Try to do each ride about 5 times and spend some in the lazy rivers, plunge pools and a good day can be spent at Kalahari. If you have money, then there are special huts which can be reserved.

Waterpark is very good. Get there first thing in the morning and you will miss the crowds. Definitely bring your own towel, Kalahari towels are super cheap and small.

Horrible experience. My family and I booked a 3 bedroom suite in July. The slew of bad things immediately became apparent. First, we got to the room, our wristbands were not working, we were unable to open the door. Thank God there was a housekeeper who was kind enough to let us in after she's verified that it was our room, otherwise, we'd have to walk all the way back to the counter with 3 kids and an elderly parent. Next, the remote had no batteries. Not sure where they went, we didn't even bother. Then went to the park, overcrowded, surely it's a hotspot for covid delta variant. The staff look like teenagers who don't give a crap about their jobs or what they do. Went back to our room after waterpark, showered, and the bathtub clogged, wouldn't drain after 20 mins. Had to call someone to fix it. At least he managed to get it unclogged. After that, went to arcade. Do not waste your money here. Half of machines don't work. You swipe and nothing happens or you play and win but don't get the tickets. We tried the 7d game. The girl at the counter overcharged us by two people. She charged our card despite me telling her that we paid for the ticket separately through the guy that was right next to him. They both don't give a crap. We called for manager, he didn't give us refund for overcharge, said he can't do anything. I said forget about it after arguing with the manager for over 30 minutes. The arcade was a huge waste of money and time. If I can give this place 0 star I would.

The waterpark itself was ok. Alcoholic drinks at bar in waterpark was like$39, then for refill, $29. Everything is overpriced, nothing in this park makes sense. Don't waste your money. Might as well go to Kartrite, a bit more expensive but clean, new, and staff are friendly.

Took a midweek getaway with our 3 year old son and 6 month old daughter. We highly recommend going midweek if you can. We heard it gets really crowded on the weekends. We had no issues on a Wednesday and Thursday. Our son had a blast. No crowds and he was able to ride all of the little slides as many times as he wanted to. The Park was nice and clean and our room was clean. We were lucky to have a room pretty close to the elevators. The hallways are really long and it would be a long walk if your room was down towards the end. Overall we had a good time at Kalahari. We would definitely go back.

Needs more staff on weekdays -some rides were closed and wait times were long on some because of staff shortage

Entirely too expensive. EVERYTHING was an additional charge. We paid so much money we should have been treated like royalty. Instead we felt used for our money and treated very poorly. We spent 2 nights and got nothing special for staying there. We had to wait in lines at the water park like everyone else. When the weekend hit this became a big problem because the waterpark was over booked and over crowded. We still had to pay for the lockers, we still had to pay for the cabanas, we still had to pay for ALL our meals and snacks. If you go, be prepared to spend half your life savings!
In addition, the staff was too young and very unfriendly. Nobody seemed happy to be doing their job. They all walked around like they were half asleep. Nobody wanted to help when we asked them a question. We actually had a girl laugh at us when we went to her with a concern. Another didn't say anything and barley shook his head "yes" when we asked him the direction of a hot tub.
It's an amazing place to look at, but to actually go there is a whole different story.

My brother and nephew stayed at Kalahari Resorts in the Poconos and saw a what looked like a bed bug crawling on the bed. He took a pic and showed it to the front desk. The front desk told them to leave the room for an hour and they would inspect it and had some test to detect bed bugs. They came back and told them there were no signs of bed bugs. Not sure why but my brother stayed in that room because he trusted their inspection. After I posted the picture of the bug to FAcebook the resort called my brother and told him they had the room re-inspected and it was a bedbug they found. They indicated they found one bed bug with no nesting but according to pest control where there is one there is more than likely more, way more. Please stay away from Kalhari in the Poconos this happened May 11, 2018 he stayed in room 5441. This is appalling to say the least. The resort did apologize and refunded his money after the allowed him to stay in a room with bed bugs because they failed to identify them when he brought it to their attention. Too little, too late. Unacceptable.

Me and the kids had fun! The only disadvantage is that life vests aren’t provided for infants . However needless to say the life guards where very attentive and made me feel secure about my children being in the pool .

This visit was much better than my last trip. I received my room by 4pm as advertised so I was happy about that. Room was spotless. Kids had a great time at the water park. One of the slides and the conveyor between the two lazy rivers was not working. This place is a great place for families of all ages. Will be back again soon.

So much fun. Have a 7 year old who loved every minute, and a husband who enjoyed the swim up bars. The only downfall, the bathrooms in the waterpark were not the best. Less busy on Friday than saturday.

We had a great time here. Be prepared to wait long to check in or to check your bags if you are staying for the day and want them to hold your luggage.

If you have kids 5 and under this is the water park I would recommend. I have been to the other waterparks in the area and this one has the most options for young children and they allow you to go down some slides with the kids which is nice. The only issue is that they close sections during the week so you do not know what will be open. Depending on what you look for in a water park will make your decision easy. Kalahari has more of a Disney world feel. Huge and they try to get you money everywhere they can. The one with the ski slope attached has a more quaint feel and isn't as chaotic. Both are worth visiting. I would go to whatever one is having a better sale.

Overcrowded and unsafe when you have to be shoulder to shoulder with other guests throughout the entire resort. The waterpark has ZERO social distancing and people were pushing and shoving everywhere. Staff has little knowledge of the facility or training on customer service. In fact, toucan hardly find any staff around for any help. The game arcade was a joke. None of the main attractions were working during our stay—-7D theater, Escape Room, Laser tag were all experiencing “technical difficulties.” Get this, we were told AFTER we purchased our tickets that they were not working one after another as we went from one game area to the other. That showed us the lack of knowledge of the staff on the job and the absence of operations management of the arcades.
We travel the world and this was probably the most unforgettably negative experience we’ve ever had on a “resort.”

Went over Thanksgiving weekend. Check in was easy on Thanksgiving. Polite staff, received wristbands at 9:15 a.m. and the waterpark opened at 9:30. Room was not ready but they have places to store your luggage and changing rooms available.
Waterpark:
very clean, towels are thin but in ample supply. If you go when waterpark opens you will get on rides with very little wait. Flowrider gets VERY crowded! Only one person at a time. Suggestion-they get a divider so two people can go at one time and would make line move faster. They changed the lazy river. It used to be almost the length of the waterpark and you took a conveyer belt up to go in--very nice experience. Well, gone is the conveyor belt and they lazy river is split between two parts of waterpark making the river very crowded with tubes and much shorter on both sides. The thrill rides are still better than GWL and Camelback. Staff is wonderful. Shout outs to Blanca, Leon and Princess! Many single and double rides. Young kids splash section and two basketball pools. Two adult hot tubs--bar service is great! Both hot tubs lead to the outside and very nice experience being in a warm hot tub and still feeling the 15 degree cold outside. Recommend the Kalahari Sunrise and Bomb Pop. Family hot tub was great to relax with kids but does get crowded.
Room:
Stayed in Royal Hospitality. HUGE room, plenty of space. Two full bathrooms. Murphy beds for kids and a large table to fit 8 persons. Three tv's in room. Oddly, no tissue boxes in room. Need to call front desk. Not a big deal, just odd.
Restaurants: Grill in waterpark--best deal-$14 for pizza. Downside--no free refills. At $13 for the cute kids cups--at least one drink refill should be included. Adult pools souvenir cup $25 no refills or buy the bigger cup for $32 with $24 refills. BIG RIP OFF! Get a $12 plastic cup for 16oz. Return to your room, bring food from home to eat and save the money to use at the spa or arcade. No outside food or drinks are allowed inside the waterpark.
Sortinos Italian Restaurant--we were a party of 15 and made reservations in advance. Kids meals came out first, followed ten minutes later with adults food and were missing two adult entrees. It took another 20 minutes to get those. Had to speak with management about this. Only had one waiter--should have had two servers with a party this big. Manager did take off the bill those two late entrees and tried to make up for it by giving our party 10 cannolis. Overall food is fair but this service was terrible and we had to pay 18% gratuity due to our large party.
Thanksgiving Buffet--DISAPPOINTING! Limited selection in chafing dishes. They did have typical carving stations of turkey and ham. Stuffing tasted like it came from a box. NO pasta station or even pasta in a chafing dish. Never saw a kid friendly buffet not have plain pasta (mac and cheese was only option) Service was poor--waitress did not bring drinks until we were almost done eating. Kids ordered milk--came in small bottles. One was frozen, another was expired! Desserts--seemed like they came from a frozen box and were defrosted. Small, petite desserts. No actual slices of pumpkin or apple pie. Long line for chocolate fountain--should have had two attendants. This needs improvement.
Arcade: big hit! Plenty of games and attendants around. Kalahari themed prizes to exchange tickets for. Just outside waterpark so great location too. Shout out to Shane who was a helpful attendant!
Decor: African themed so lots of picture taking opportunities.
Bake shop and Starbucks in main lobby. Great selection! Recommend the Tiramisu cup--delicious!! Ice cream is great too!
Despite the cons stated, our party had a fair time. Kids ranged in age from 10-16. Would likely return.

Overcrowded and please be aware that the water park staff will take your towels and then try to charge you for them. Absolutely not worth it.

The place is huge! if you've been to the Great Wolf Lodge this it on Steroids. A Dave and Busters sized game room where the kids can spend hours in when not swimming. Excellent restaurants, spa Mini Golf and many many other things to do. Check out their website, if you have children I would say it's a must see and do! nothing like it in the north east.

Rides for all ages and fun guaranteed if you like playing in water. Chill at one of the cabanas rather than the rooms and enjoy the park!

I have to be honest. I read all of the recent reviews and completely regretted booking this trip for my daughter‘s 13th birthday, with five of her friends. Especially because I was going at it alone with the girls, and super aware of restrictions. With that being said, I saw very few people without masks, everyone was respectful of each other (except for a few instances the girls told me about in the water park, and one combative lady attempting to squeeze into our elevator as we checked in with all of our luggage and a rolling cart). I booked a two bedroom suite, which was perfect, and incredibly clean. The service I got from everyone was impeccable. This evening I did happy hour on my own down at the steakhouse, and my server in the bar area was amazing, the bartender with curly hair in the lobby bar was great (I wish I had gotten both the server and bartender’s names), but even above that, our server at B Lux tonight, Angela, for the official birthday celebration dinner, went above and beyond. She was fantastic!! I texted my husband leaving the restaurant this evening, in tears, because it was so perfect. Don’t take all of the negative reviews to heart. Come knowing things aren’t going to be perfect, regarding Covid, but know that many people at this resort are willing to make it worth it!!

I don’t even know where to begin. We arrived Friday at 3pm to stay all weekend and ended up leaving Friday at 10pm after finding cockroaches in our room. We went to the arcade and came back to the room where my husband flicked the lights on and there went three cockroaches crawling on the countertop. My son saw one on the bathroom floor. We immediately took it to the front desk and they offered us to move rooms. Sorry, no way! We wanted a refund considering we hadn’t even been there a full day/night. The front desk manager Ashley, said maintenance would have to look over the room. So we waiting in the lobby and she told us there were “findings” but wouldn’t say of what. Mind you- my husband had the dead cockroaches in his hand in a paper towel. We pulled the fridge out and found dead cockroaches and live ones! Needless to say we got home around 2am and we will NEVER be back there! Our 4 children were so devastated, but I will not sleep or stay in a place that has cockroaches. I did let anyone I seen or came in contact with about what we found in our hotel room!

Great family stay of all ages . The waterpark is fun and designed to appeal to all ages. I had a great weekend stay with my family. There are a few places to eat within the resort. But I think that they were under staffed in the restaurants because the food would take forever to be served.
Other than waiting way too long for food .. the family had a great time .

Stayed one night at the resort based on other family friend’s experiences. They were absolutely correct. One night/ 1.5 days is more than enough time to experience the entire waterpark.

Our party consisted of 4 adults and 3 kids (6 yr, and two 4yr olds). The kids LOVED IT! Lots of options for the small kids which is great.

The arcade was fun. A lot of games there but all the claw pickup games are all rigged.

Food sucked. Pizza and nachos were the only decent food there. Breakfast buffet was not bad either; Kathleen was a great server. She was very friendly and attentive.

Most of the waterpark workers in the water didn’t seem as friendly. I actually witnessed one of them yelling/speaking very sternly to a couple of small kids (kids were maybe 5) to get in a straight line. Didn’t seem to warrant a formal complaint but could’ve been handled better. I would be pissed if those were my kids getting yelled at though.

Extremely crowded and the water in all the pools are no doubt totally gross. I don’t want to know what the test results say.. chlorinated water tasted super salty.... 🤢

The shower area in the restroom located within the waterpark is gross. This is unfortunate because it is likely the last stop and experience for guests before leaving Kalahari since check-out time is 11:00AM. Management should really look into making the bathroom and shower area cleaner.

Hotel rooms were clean as far as the eye could see.

Slides are awesome but you either have to go during the week or run to the popular ones when the part first opens. The lines are incredibly slow and the staffers on top are not efficient. The park is generally well maintained and clean which I greatly appreciated over a place like Great Wolf where garbage was everywhere and the chlorine levels were irritatingly high. Tips: Get to the park right wen it opens or you'll never get a table. Grab enough towels early because they run out and are slow to replenish. Buy a pizza at the arcade grill and bring it in or you'l be waiting an hour during lunch time at one of the grills inside the park.

Pretty good value for the money. The water park is huge. Lots of climbing to get to the beginning of each water ride. Plenty of lifeguards. Seemed very clean in the water itself. Rooms are nice,comfortable with a small coffee maker,microwave and fridge. I think the food was very good. You rent a locker and keep it all day. You can open and close it a hundred times if you want. The game room had a nice assortment of games. My daughter and her 2 friends had a blast. Would definitely recommend this place and will be going back

Water park was fun rooms are nice food is disgusting and expensive. Bring your own food or go outside of the resort.

COVID super-spreader event kind of place. No mask control, just a crowded mess. Elavators and floors and halls all gross, no mask or social distance control. People just bumping into you. Weed smelling at the entrance. Room service or cleaners or staff in no masks. Gross place.

We went with 3 kids (8 months, 5, 8). The water park had something for everyone. There were a lot of chairs available throughout the park. There were plenty of life jackets. The kids had a great time.

we are locals and went for dinner. We each had a burger and a drink and our bull came to over $75! Never again!

Checkin for us was a miracle. Arrived around 11 on a Tuesday and there was a short line - maybe 5-10 minutes. And our room was ready already! I had three kids ages 13-11. We all enjoyed the water park. It is overwhelming when you first enter. I would suggest getting there as early as you can. Based on others reviews we avoided the food and found a great hole in the wall sushi place about 10 mins away. After an early dinner we returned to the water park as most were leaving to get dinner. There were almost no lines then and the hot tub wasn’t too crowded. I would follow that plan again.

The hotel room was very comfortable but we had paid up for the African suite and there were only 4 of us, so we had plenty of room. The suite has two full baths with one of the sinks is out in the entry area. This was convenient for the person sleeping on the pullout but felt strange to the kids using that bathroom that there was no sink in the shower/toilet area. There was a “kitchen sink”, microwave, full coffee maker, and decent sized refrigerator. They don’t provide tea, so bring your own if you prefer. The WiFi was good and the kids were able to stream Netflix on their devices at night. There are no DVD players but there are 3 tv’s with limited channels. The mattresses were just ok, the pillows were foam, not high quality. But the curtains were effective at blacking out daylight. There was no window in the second bedroom. My son slept on the pullout and said it was comfortable.

Plan on spending at least $35/kid at the arcade if your kids are into arcade games. Avoid the laser frenzy it wasn’t worth it by any account - mine and the kids. The 7D experience was like the Disney ride - toy story - where you shoot lasers at targets - without the ride. The seats move a bit. It was ok to do once but probably wouldn’t do again. But my kids did enjoy spending time at the arcade.

The last day we got sucked into getting a snack at the Mirage cafe behind the arcade. It appeared to have no line, compared to the food concession in the water park. But the real “mirage” was that the wait (standing in a crowd of people also waiting for their food) was at least 20 -30 mins around the back of the food prep area. This was just to get some fries! Probably would have been faster to wait on line and get the food when you order it than getting trapped by the mirage of no line. Would have been faster to leave the resort, get fries etc, drive back, park, and walk in with food. I mean really!

They seem to struggle with crowds and busy times. I can’t imagine how much worse it will be when they finish the expansion. If you can work around the busy times, the water rides themselves are pretty fun and we felt safe.

So I take away a star for lesser quality beds and the apparently ongoing issue with food service, which you should be able to have without standing around wasting so much time if you are within a higher quality resort.

Many attractions for all ages (restaurants, pools, games, exhibitions). The lohjnhas are diverse and interesting articles for any age.

The water park is 3.5 stars, some nice water spots for young children, some nice spots for 5 year olds, the problem is to many adults with the children , very crowded. They need more space, they close attractions because they don't have enough help. A day pass is 125 dollars, food is expensive, drinks are expensive. They have a few slides for adults, not many, they try to keep it clean. They have tables and chairs all around the park. We didn't get to the outside area.

The waterpark in this place is huge. You can go on the Lazy Ricet, to 2 peraon tubes, to 4 person tubes, wave pool to basketball on the pool and a luxurious water park sort to say. The kids sode is almost identical to the bigger kid size in the sense that they jave their own lazy river and baby basketball and baby water slides. Its very spacious and a good time for an all day affair. Definitely recommend on a long weekend or just for the day.

Honestly, I am a trip Advisor junkie. I read “too many” reviews before this visit. I was prepared for long check in lines, “terrible service”, mediocre food etc.
Check in was fabulous, we arrived a little early (planned on noon) but were able to access our room about 11am. I had packed our water park bag just Incase and I would recommend that! Stella at check in was courteous and welcoming!
Rooms are plenty large enough, family of 5 staying in a standard 2queen. Beds, sheets are decent. Not “Disney” standards but overall good. The bathtub is huge and great for soaking at the end of the day.
The park is great. Peak time at the park appeared to be 12-4. Lines and crowds cleared out after 4. By 5:30 there were few lines and from 7:30 -9:30pm you were able to ride any slide without a line. Tip- do the park early or later to skip the crowds, if crowds aren’t your thing.
Food is average, it’s a waterpark not a culinary destination. Tip- there is a cafe in the arcade. If you must eat while at the park go get the food from there. The wait is a fraction of the time but the exact same food.
We ordered dinner to go to go to the room, from the Ivory Coast. Good food, reasonably priced. Also, the burgers were $2-3 more than in the park and worth the difference.
The lifeguards were proactive and reactive. They were all engaged and responsive. Most were friendly with young children but some maintained a level of professionalism.
Overall, great family weekend. Could have stayed 2 nights and had plenty to do.

Last trip for kiddos before school starts.We stayed for 3 nights 2BD/2BA/LR Suite Thursday-Sunday. Well what a big mistake! Checkin was a disaster. I even pre registered to no advantage. I checked in at kiosk and swiped my card for the remaining balance and the hold. After that was processed it asked some additional questions and then it said to see a desk assistant. I waited in line patiently for 30 mins to speak with someone. Once it was finally my turn I explained what happened at the kiosk and Jay who was very nice assisted me with the checkin process. He mentioned that he didn't see anything in his system showing that I paid the balance or the hold. Eventhough I could see it clearly being processed with my bank. I even showed him proof, so he continued with $1 that they run through your account and checked me in. He mentioned that if they don't see the payment they will give me a call the next day. Well I never received a call or text the next day. Then I noticed they changed the amount of the balance and the hold. I went to the desk the night before we were leaving to makesure everything will be adjusted. There was a nice young gentleman there (I think his name was Alex he just only been working there a month) that had to get assistance as he wasn't sure what was going on as he noticed something was off. I was reassured by the nice lady (the only one I noticed that wore mask) at the desk it will be taking care of and I will be billed the correct amount after checkout. She apologized (of course) and said she would speak with their billing team. Well guess what they billed me twice for the room!! I reached out to them and was told to speak to the Billing department. I spoke to a lady (9am EST Tuesday) who say to give her an hour to look into it further as she only see one charge in her system. She never called me back. I gave her some time and call her back (2pm EST Tuesday) and operator/receptionist said Billing department isn't here today...Hmmm then who did I speak with earlier so I was transferred to their Billing department voicemail and I left a message. After I left a message I called my bank to file a fraud claim as there is something fraudlent really going on here that's not be acknowledged. My bank can see all of the charges along with Kalahari's transaction IDs. It is a shame that it had to come to this and Kalahari Poconos aren't trying to investigate the situation. No call back or anything as of now. I will also be reaching out to corporate headquarters. Otherwise the the food (Cafe Mirage) was expensive ($42 large mushrooms, sausage and bacon pizza) and didn't taste good. Now I don't mind paying for food that tastes good, but it is a resort so be ready to pay. There are other options in the area if you want to drive. The best thing they had was the refillable cups that my kids could fill up with icee, soda or lemonade. Running an operation at this size you will never satisfy everyone. Waterpark was so so nothing to write home about. My family and I will not be back. Will give an update here or on my social media pages on how the extra charges are handled.. if they ever respond to me..

Stay: 2 nights / 3 adults, 3 children
Room: Desert Room

Check In Process
We arrived at 3:30. Check-in starts at 4pm and we were in the room by 4:30. Not bad at all.

Rating: 4/5

Room:

Room was basic and clean and suited our needs. However, things did not stay that way.

Room Service was not adequate in the slightest. The towels we left on the floor (standard, to indicate that we required fresh towels) were folded up and put back.

The trash can was not emptied, coffee and cups not restocked.

Worst of all, my nephew had a nose bleed on the comforter, so we left it visible so it could be changed and the bed was just re-made. I found this issue to be most appalling of all.

I called housekeeping, no answer. I called the front desk, no answer, so I had to go down personally to discuss the situation. The front desk gave me coffee and advised that housekeeping would address the situation.

They duly arrived and changed the bedding and emptied the trash but would be back with towels and cups. They never came back. This was particularly shoddy in my mind, especially since this was from a complaint.

Rating: 1/5

Dining:

Sortinos:

Fresh and clean look, good menu and good food. No complaints here.

Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5

Rating: 4/5

B-lux:

Decor was nice and the food was good. However, it took 45 minutes to get our food. After 30 minutes, I questioned the server as to why it was taking so long to get the appetizers (cup on Chilli and a cheese flatbread) and was told that it was assumed we wanted all the food together. Who eats appetizers and entrees at the same time?

Not impressed with the service here.

Food: 4/5
Service: 1/5

Rating: 2.5/5

Water park:

We entered the park at 9:30 (as it opens). We managed to secure a table and we stayed there until 5pm.

The kids (and adults) had a blast. So much for all to do. Cannot question the variety of attractions.

There were lifeguards everywhere, which also makes you feel very reassured.

Variety: 5/5
Safety: 5/5

Rating 5/5

In summary, it is such a shame that we had a couple of bad experiences. Overall the resort does a great job, but I’m sorry, the whole room service thing grinds me very badly. This was just simply a horrid aspect of our trip.

Would I go again? Probably, as I hope this was just a one off, but it will always be something I will look out for again.

Kalahari Overall Rating: 3/5

Christmas surprise for my niece and nephew. After a 16 hour drive from Atlanta we arrive to be told we have to wait for our room. Ok. How long? Not sure 2 hours waiting in an OVERCROWED lobby. I get a text to go to the room get there the wristbands don’t work! Go downtown to front desk and complain that ONE we were to get a handicap room and TWO wristbands don’t work.......Sorry we will
Put you on a list for a room not 30 rooms from the elevator. Go back up WRISTBANDS DONT WORK! Ask a three cleaning persons they don’t have that room. Go back down. Wristbands will work. Go back up ROOM
NOT CLEANED. Go back down sorry we are over booked. Give us 10 minutes. Go back up 45 minutes later. Then waited and called for another 67 minutes to get our luggage.

Toilet bowl is broken and they will send someone. That was YESTERDAY. Day two we go down at 9:00am to the buffet wait on a long line pay $55.00 and ALL the food is COLD! You opened at 8:00am and the food is cold at 9:00am?????????

After we don’t eat much of anything the children go to the arcade and the cards that have $50.00=220 tickets will not work. But there is ONLY one young lady selling new cards as well as dealing with card issues!?!?! REALLY at $13.50 an hour you can’t have more then one person in the arcade on your most popular three days?

It’s a 10-15minute to get an elevator and the vending machines on three floors are EMPTY!

Why is the sink not in the bathroom. The bathroom door handle is LOADED with germs. Not to mention waking everyone in the room when you wash your hands or brush your teeth!

Look....I get it. It’s the holiday hotel totally booked but when your charging $1500-$3000 for two nights you need to invest in your investment. STOP COUNTING DOLLARS and think of the hardworking MIDDLECLASS who’s money help line your pockets! At Disney the kids get a little gift in the room and a character breakfast for those prices!

$3.25 for a bottle of WATER? $11.99 for a pocketbook size of Advil? $5.50 for a side of fries? We are trying our best to give our kids a great new experience but the owners of Kalahari need to respect us and STEP UP THEIR GAME!

Shame on you guys
SO Disappointed😩🤬😤

I went to Kalahari PA few times. First time I went with my husband. We didn’t stay overnight. I had only one drink in the bar and was throwing up for a few hours after that. Next time I took my son there and booked a room. At check out we forgot in the room two coats and ski pants. We left the park at 6 pm and figured that we forgot our stuff in the room. I filled out a form on reception the same evening and called there few days later. I didn’t get any response except that my stuff might be somewhere in the hotel and they will let me know as soon as they find it. I keep calling but no one answers me any more. What should I do to get my clothes back???

My kids had a fun time at the waterpark but it was very expensive. We did a day pass which is nice because you do not have to stay on the property to use the waterpark, but when we purchased the tickets online it did not give us the option of purchasing a spectator pass for a parent who would not be going in the water. Once we got to the facility we saw the option. I wish I had known because it would have saved us almost $100. Also, the park itself was a bit of a mess. I realize that we went during Easter break for some schools, but there were wet towels and life jackets left all over the place abandoned and it did not seem like anyone was in charge of straightening up or picking up. There were a few garbage cans overflowing.

Also, as compared to the outdoor Park at Camelback it seemed like there were less rules and restrictions safety-wise. It seemed like kids all ages were running around without parents and nobody from the resort was asking kids to be with parents.

Our kids had a ball, but not sure we would go again.

Very nice and cozy establishment. An enjoyable getaway. Love,love, love the decor and the friendliness of the staff. The paid amenities, snacks and hotel accommodations are a bit pricy for a family with children.

We went the day before Memorial Day. Very busy. But everything is busy on a holiday weekend! HA!
We purchased tickets a month before to make sure it wasn't sold out when we got there. I strongly suggest doing so if you are not staying at the resort. We were camping locally nearby.
Parents of kids!!! Be forewarned - you need to go downstairs from the main lobby and through an arcade to get to the water park.
There are a lot of different things to do in the park with options for all age groups. There are food places and bars. There is an outdoor section with heated water and slides. They had PLENTY of lifeguards on hand too! Very clean considering the place was packed! I would recommend this place and would totally go back again!

Buyer beware. There is a 30 day cancellation policy. I had been to Kalihari once before and liked the indoor waterpark for my child. However, when I booked the second time, I needed to cancel my visit only to learn that my almost two week notice was not long enough and that I would lose $500+ in my deposit. I needed to cancel 30 DAYS IN ADVANCE of my reservation in order to get my depost back.

My experience with most hotels, airplanes and other reservations is that you need to give them 24-48 hour. notice of cancellation. I gave them 10 day notice to rebook my room.

This was during the rise of the new Omnicron virus, something that did not exist when I first booked my reservation at Kalihari. This cancellation policy is not written clearly on their website (it states to contact the individual hotel. But they neglect to inform you that it is virtually impossible to reach a human being when you call). Their policy is posted in small print at the way end of the online booking. My issue is not where the cancellation policy is posted. My issue is that there is a 30 day cancellation policy.

I requested, respectfully, a reconsideration of this 30 day cancellation policy in writing but there was no reply to either my email and letter. No deposit back; But they did send me a promotional email to book another stay! No thank you. Buyer beware.

I wouldn't book with Kalahari ever again! I am at the Ohio one with family in a different room. We received this message, this morning.

"Hi Derek: You're in luck! We have an add-a-night special starting at $21 per person per night + taxes & fees (3 person minimum), based on room style and availability.Can't join us for an extra night? Starting at just $50, based on room style and availability, you can add a 2PM late checkout.Interested in either? Just let us know before midnight tonight, and we will get that set up for you. Thank you!"

They other party we came with booked for the extra day and we planned to when we got back from my daughters birthday dinner 30 minutes away. Now, they tell us it is not available. Just after 3pm. It is very misleading to say I have until midnight to make a decision even though, they let me know it is based upon availability. We are very frustrated and feel they could have offered us or someone else an upgraded room to make this work. This is our first time here and I am not a person that makes waves. If we go to a restaurant and our order is wrong, we just eat it. We always try to help others. I do not feel this is right. I feel it is misleading and the people we came with feel the same. Just sucks. Terrible customer service!

The facility has everything you could dream of. Way better and bigger than great wolf lodge. However, it has been my experience now that they have far too little staff. Terrible customer service and the management doesn't care but puts forth as little effort to make it look like they do once you write a bad review. We have yet to have a housekeeper come in and clean and we have been here since Monday. We called 3 times in 45 minutes to get tp. There is one person on the floor for the whole arcade if you have an issue. We have been standing in the prize ticket line for 30 minutes and still are not to the front. The pool has hundereds of people without masks onto of each other, which I don't mind, but then they want to enforce masks 10 feet away and will not serve you without one. They have not gone the extra mile to please us when we feel we qere wronged by them. My family and the people we came with are NEVER coming here again. I have never said that about a resort.

Kalahari is the best of the other indoor water parks in PA by far. Both the actual water park and the hotel complex are much bigger than the others. That means more rides, more seating in the water park, more restaurants and dining options, a much bigger arcade, and less crowding everywhere.
The water park is kept very clean. Two slides weren’t working our first day, but one reopened the second day, and ride closures are to be expected. The park is open 365 days a year and they need to keep up with maintenance.
Some highlights of this trip/park:
I didn’t have to wait in line to check in bc a staff member in the lobby gave me temporary bracelets to access water park while we waited for our room to be ready.
I booked a standard room and was upgraded to a beautiful suite at check in because it was empty. That made my daughter and her friends’ trip extra awesome. They had their own bedroom and bathroom. We were on the top floor, and it was quiet at night. The beds are comfy and the rooms are clean. Water pressure in shower is low, but that’s the only thing that wasn’t great on our trip.
The grab and go food choices at the store in the lobby were fantastic for breakfast: Fruit, cheese, yogurt, bagels, cereal, hot oatmeal, and more. They also have microwaveable gluten free entrees and mac & cheese cups, which were a life saver when my daughter who has celiac wanted a quick, hot snack during the day. You can microwave them in the store.
The indoor/outdoor hot tub was so much fun in the cold weather. We swam outside and watched the sun set with mist rising off the water. So pretty and relaxing.
Several of the restaurants take reservations, which none of the restaurants at the other PA water parks do, so we didn’t have to waste the hour we used to waiting for a table at the other places. They also have gluten free menu options, although the individual servers’ knowledge varies.
The souvenir elephant drink cups were a good choice. Refills of smoothies and soda were very reasonably priced, with several bartenders giving us soda for free.
For ease of purchases, link your wrist band to your credit card at check in and you can swipe it to buy things.
All of the staff in the stores and restaurants are lovely.
We stayed one night but enjoyed the park and the rest of the facilities from noon on Friday til 10pm on Saturday. They will store your luggage in a room off the lobby if you wish, but we put our bags in the car and just kept a backpack with us.
A surprisingly lovely and memorable trip. We’ll be back!

We drove about 2 hours to visit Kalahari, I wanted to bring my family here who came from out of town. This was our first time here, also our first time at an indoor waterpark and didn't know what to expect. There were 6 of us, 4 adults and 2 children, the basic room was plenty of space for all of us. Upon arrival (10am), we checked in at the front desk and grabbed our waterpark wristbands, which works as your room key as well. We walked down to the arcade and made our way to the waterpark. Just an FYI - we brought a cooler and had items in there that would perish, so we asked the guard if we can keep our bag there instead of leaving it in the car, and hew as fine with it. The waterpark in door was great, if you've never been to an indoor waterpark, it is a bit stuffy in there since there aren't a lot of circulation. FOR ADULTS, go to the swim up bar next to the exit to the outdoor pool, wait time is much shorter than the outdoor swim up bar. Get there a tad bit early if you want the chairs in the water. It was nice to be able to lounge, drink and have the kids swim nearby. Outdoor area has about 8 slides for the little ones, we spent most of our time there. The pools are spacious and has a lot to do. Plenty of restaurants and food to choose from. I loved it here and cannot wait to book another trip!

I've been to only one other waterpark and this one certainly is superior. There were many, many options for everyone from toddlers to older adults. There are 3 bars, 2 of them inside of pools which was a nice and unique feature. I was impressed in that some of the slides requiring rafts had a raft lift meaning that you didn't have to schlep a raft up 4 flights of stairs!

Park makes it seem like they have an indoor and outdoor but really it’s just an indoor park with an outdoor pool. Wave pool is small boring quick. They did have a few cool slides but most are small. They constantly make announcement on the loudspeaker and it’s so loud it gives you a splitting headache and you can’t understand what they’re saying. Lazy river is crowded and that is during the 50% COVID nonsense. I could not imagine this place at 100% capacity. 1/2 day water park if you ask me.

We enjoyed our stay here. My husband and I and 8 year old came here in April, 2018. We bought our tickets a few days ahead of time, knowing we were coming here during Spring Break, and if they reach their maximum capacity, they will no longer sell tickets at the entrance. Tickets were pricey, $109 each, but once you get in the water park, you can see why because they do have amazing facilities.

There are so many areas for kids and adolescents and adults, for all ages. They also have some bars for adults to get a drink, as well as an adult only, 21 and up small pool area. It was still cold outdoors when we went here for the day, so all of their outdoor areas were closed, as well as some of their slides.

But, there was still plenty for us to do. There were so many other slides that we went on together as a family and as individuals, a great wave pool, lots of play areas, water basketball pool area, surf board learning area, hot tub that also connected to an outdoor area, which was my favorite! The nice hot tub pool outdoor area was like being in a hot springs in the winter. What a fantastic and relaxing feeling!

I also thought for the amount of people that were there, the staff did a great job keeping the bathrooms and public areas pretty clean.

The only negative experience we had was when we had our lunch. We ate at the Zulu Grille, which is right next to the wave pool. When I went in, they had 4-5 people on the registers, but only 1 person getting all the orders together. The kitchen was amply staffed, so the food was coming out pretty quickly, but since there was only one person assembling all the orders, there were about 50-60 people who were waiting for our food for an hour! Now, they have 2 Windows where food was coming out: 1 where the pizzas and salads came out, and the other window where all the sandwiches and fries and onion rings were coming out. The food sat in these Windows after they were done cooking for almost an hour because as I said, they only had one person assembling all the orders. Some of us complained to the manager in duty, and tried to nicely say to her, she needs to pull people off register to help her assemble the food orders. She did not listen and was clearly overwhelmed. Now, I'm not upset at her, because she was clearly very young and did not know what she was doing. I am upset at Kalahari for clearly not training their staff properly. We even spoke to one of the people on the register to go and help her. He left his register, but clearly did not know what to do or how to help her, as the manager failed to give him any guidance. So he went back on the registers. The manager was not even assembling our food orders in any numerical order and was clearly not organized. 30 minutes into our waiting for our food, she went over to the registers and pulled all the receipts of the food orders that needed to be assembled, and each paper tape was about 5 feet long! All the customers were tempted to just jump the counter because all the food was sitting in the windows, but since there was only 1 person assembling the orders, our food sat in the windows for an hour! This could have easily been remedied had the manager listened to all 50-60 customers waiting, if she had just pulled 1 or 2 people off the registers to help assemble the food orders. McDonald's and Burger King do this during the lunch and dinner rushes. Each person on the cash register should have 1 staff member that is their runner who is responsible for assembling the food orders and getting it to the customers. Now, I paid almost $60 for my family's meal, so to get it 1 hour after it had been sitting in the window, it did not taste good at all. As more customers entered, we told them to leave because we were all having such a horrible experience. After I finally got my food 1 hour later after 1 paid for it and it had been made, I was relieved to finally sit down and eat. We paid a lot of money for entrance to this water park, so it is really very disappointing that this restaurant inside the park was not run more efficiently.

So great park, but terrible food service! I suggest leaving the park and eating at any of the other vendors that are just outside the park, but still inside the resort area. This will not only save you time, but also aggravation from your vacation experience.

Vacuum the carpet and clean up the white stains on the carpet and covers YUCK! Gross mold behind sink...@$700 night no way!

Place is dirty. Kids that work there pay very little attention. A bunch have waterproof cases to sneak look at their iPhones and other phones The place is huge. Just be prepared to watch your kids as if know body is there watching. There are a ton of people watching. Just not paying attention .! Avoid the actual hotel area at all cost. The manager megan is really bad

Took my 2 kids 17,13, and 12 for 4 days and 3 nights. Mon thru thurs. Weekdays are less expensive. Got a Groupon for 800 which included a 100 Arcade card per day. So we actually only paid 400. Lines were short. Especially after 5 pm. Kids could get on slides back to back. Karoo breakfast Buffet was awesome. Took my kids during Spring Break last year just for the weekend and it was 1600. I definitely suggest week days before Memorial day weekend when the season really hits. Staff was friendly and curteous. We had a ball. Sad to leave today. But we'll be back soon.

I was waiting at the bar and I was the only person waiting to be served. Than a large group of people came around the bar and I was forgotten. I Expressed to the bartender that I've been there before all the other people and she stated in an unprofessional manner "I'm by myself, and I've been working 15 hrs, they were here before you". We got into it after I told her to ask the people who she was attending to and they admitted that we were there first. After I expressed my concern, she took care of other customers so that I can wait longer. Very nasty (Nicole was her name) person. I don't mind paying high prices, but the service must match prices. Disappointed.

Good place. Outdoor section was closed. Enough to do inside. First time in a water park. Lots of lifeguards. Enjoyed wave pool, lazy river and hot tub area

Where do I even start?

1. The waterpark was extremely hot and humid, I had to step outside several times because I could barely stand the heat and humidity in the indoor park. I observed many others complaining about the head and humidity when I was outside the water park.

2. The hotel room I reserved was supposed to come with a balcony. The actual balcony we received with our room was so small that I barely fit outside the balcony and it certainly wasn’t comfortable. There were no chairs to sit on and a table to put a drink or food. What a waste of $850. The balcony should have been at least the length of the room including the window and out a couple of more feet so that an average family of 4 can fit comfortably into the space.

3. The room had a sink outside the bathroom. I thought that is against code. Sinks should always be in the bathroom so that people can wash their hands before touching the bathroom door handle.

4. I paid over $450 per day for a Cabana, and it was one of the worst experiences ever. The server was slow to get to us, non-attentive when we called, very slow to get us our drinks when we ordered, delivered us a pizza that was dry, tasteless and with the cheese discolored and she even messed up our drink orders a couple of times. Never getting a cabana there again.

5. In being honest about the headcount that I reserved when I booked the room, I did book 1 adult and 2 children. My wife originally couldn’t join due to a prior engagement, but it did get unexpectedly canceled, so she decided to join us the following day. When we asked for her to receive a waterpark pass, the hotel charged us for it. They refused to give it us for free. Excellent customer service!!! Really great!!

6. If you are going there for the wave pool to enjoy high waves, don’t bother the waves at this water park are barely 3-4 feet and if you are at the end of wave pool the minute you are 5 feet from the rope you will get whistled. If you are looking for a good wave pool, go to the outdoor wave pool at Camelbeach that was very fun in the 5 to 6 feet zone.

Every day we were there, we spent more time sorting through problems than enjoying the attractions. We understand the park can't control the weather or COVID related shortages. But at no point in our stay was the park fully operational. Between 30% and 80% of the attractions were closed at any given time. This included all or most of the rides my daughter would enjoy. She doesn't like big thrill rides. We found out from some random kid that there was storm damage. We should have been given the heads up at check in, or better yet, BEFORE we arrived, to give us the opportunity to reschedule. It was about the money, though, not about customer satisfaction.

The cabana situation was worse. We were traveling with family, grandparents included, and we paid good money for some privacy and space. AFTER we arrived and realized the rides weren't all open, we found out that the cabana we reserved for the next day had a broken hot tub. We were disappointed, but tried to see the bright side. We were moved to one with air conditioning. We hoped to have a cabana with a hot tub for the second day, but that was a firm "no" from management. The one we wanted wouldn't be fixed in time. No one was even working on it. And they wouldn't inconvenience another family with a working hot tub for one day so we could have one day to get what we came for.

While in the cabana we were moved to, the power went out. There was no word on what was wrong or when it might be fixed. Everyone in the park was pushed into a small area (during COVID) with long lines and people on top of each other. We seemed to have generator power in the cabana, so we were just going to wait it out, but we were KICKED out. We should have been given a full refund, but my husband had to argue for half a refund. They thought by handing us arcade cards, probably the equivalent of a couple handfuls of candy, that it was going to make up for hundreds of lost dollars. By this point, we were fed up, not having a good time, and we just wanted to go home early. We asked them to cancel and refund the final day of the cabana and our hotel reservation as well. It was "against policy," but under the circumstances, they made an exception.

On our new final day, the kids were looking forward to one last uninterrupted opportunity to visit with their extended family in the waterpark, who were leaving that day anyway. When we checked out, though, they told us we had to be out, not at 3:00 like everyone else, but by 11:00 because we "violated policy" and had to be penalized for it. This was NOT brought to our attention the day prior when we cancelled our reservations. It wasn't worth getting changed and wet again, or spending the morning arguing about it, so we just left.

During these times, we expect a few hassles when traveling, but we would also expect some flexibility, transparency, and common curtesy. If money is spent for services not rendered, there should be a refund, no questions asked, regardless of the circumstances, controllable or not. We shouldn't have to fight for every nickel and dime while we should be relaxing and enjoying time with our families. That's what the money was for, and that is NOT what we received.

The convention center area is beautifully decorated and there are plenty of food options. The hotel itself was pricey and we were not able to reserve rooms without getting tickets to the water park.

BED BUG INFESTATION BEWARE!!! We stayed at this resort on 3/24/18. I found a bed bug in the bed next to my daughter. I collected the specimen and went downstairs to report it to hotel management. The first response to the situation was absolutely horrid and was completely haphazard with words being thrown around such as; "It's the Poconos, it's to be expected!". Yeah. That actually happened. We spent most of the day waiting for them to confirm that our room had an infestation. IT DID! We had our clothing and some belongings "treated" before returning home- But I'm still treating ALL of our belongings since we could carry home eggs (so gross). While the waterpark itself is fantastic, it is clear that the structure in place to run the hotel (and honestly the waterpark too) are completely dysfunctional at best. They clearly do not have competent staff and management to accurately handle the large volume of consumers that visit the resort. That being said, the restaurant service was a nice experience at Double Cut. Honestly, it's not worth possibly bringing home bed bugs and dealing with the awful staff. Which makes me sad because our children really enjoyed themselves. We will be looking elsewhere for water fun.

We visited the water park just after the fourth. It was crowded (and expensive) but still enjoyable. I give kudos to the life guarding and security staff. Of all the pools and water parks I have ever visited, I don't think I have ever seen such vigilant and observant guards. They were great! Also I noticed one security guard helping a boy who had been separated from his parents. The boy was extremely upset. The guard was professional, caring, and provided top notch care, walking calmly with him and holding his hand until the parents were found. She remained very calm and professional even when the mom and grandmother seemed extremely anxious and angry. So the staff is excellent. Even the two cleaners in the women's locker room were working extremely hard and were very pleasant and helpful. Also, there were a lot of attractions, and many ways to enjoy the water.

I have a 4 and a 5 1/2 year old and was worried there wasn't much for them to do at the waterpark but there was so much to do that we even did a late checkout the last day. We stayed Sunday thru Tuesday and it was not crowded. Bathrooms, waterpark and rooms were clean. Staff was friendly too. Lots of food options too. We just had a little issue with our bands not working opening room with our late checkout but other than that it was a great stay and I highly recommend it.

This Waterpark definitely gets very crowded later in the day, so I would strongly suggest going right when it opens. It seemed pretty empty from 9-11am during our stay.

Once it gets crowded, it definitely becomes dirty and gross very quickly. Don't expect parents to watch even very young children closely. And most of the lifeguards are teens who don't do very well attempting to police the larger crowds.

They do have a lot of activities for children of all ages and it's quite large.

Room was passable but so-so clean.Closed rides towels go fast. Staff nice, but understaffed. Expensive food and watered down drinks for just OK quality. Room key stopped 2 times same day. If the waterpark's two biggest rides were open I would at least feel like I somewhat got what I paid for. A hotel with some issues I can live with, It's still having fun and not working, but this place does not have it's act together. Management dosen't appear to be responding to reviews either.

I went online to purchase tickets for the water park. I was buying for my entire family of 17 people. I had the tickets in the cart and checked out but it kept saying my address didn't match. I called my credit card company and they said Kalahari was crediting the purchase. My info was all correct and it was going through. So I went back on to purchase and they had increased the price of the tickets by 20/ticket. Just be aware that there system must do this when it shows you want a lot of tickets. We won't be going because this is a lot of extra money @17 people.

More day activities. This place is WAY OVER PRICED. We tried 3 food places the food was under cooked or cold when it we received it. Three of the major water slides were closed. There was no house keeping. The patrons in line for the rides were extremely rude. Cutting in line and being rude to everyone else in the line. One out of three game machines did not work or dispense tickets. Several machines took your cash. Definitely would NOT RECOMMEND this place. Great Wolfe Lodge puts this place to shame.I am sorry I gave them my money.

It is possible to visit Kalahari on a shoestring budget, watch for sales/coupons on groupon or on their own site, bring your own food and eat off site.

The park is huge, check in might be expedited a bit faster,but overall, the staff is friendly and place is clean.

We did not stay at the hotel, but had day passes we had purchased for a significant discount through a fundraiser. My kids, ages 6 and 7 had a great time and could do most of the attractions. I am still not sure if I would recommend it for a day trip, especially if paying full day pass price. My kids were done in about 3 hours. If you are staying at the hotel, that would be the perfect opportunity for a break in the room. It wasn't too crowded, especially in the morning. The water park was extremely clean and staff were super helpful and friendly. I even lost a hat when we arrived and later asked security if they had a lost and found, which they did and he went out of his way to find my hat for me!

We went to the resort with our extended family and reserved to African Queen room. The resort is good with many activities that you do not need to go out at all. The park is fun and we really enjoyed the activities we did. There is something for everyone.
Having said this, the resort does not operate seamlessly. There are glitches. Our room did not have extra blankets for the pull out sofa and when we requested it, the operator was rude and we did not get it until 1:30 a.m.
Our keys did not work at the building entry gates and it came be a long hike to the reception to get them activated.
However because of the company and the activities at the resort we ended up having a great time.

You can rent cabanas. They have life jackets and lockers. All age groups will have fun...Lazy river, hot tubs, toddler slides, adult twister slides. You can stay here all day

We stay there for two days and had everything cleaned. They charged us $100 for excessive cleAning for leaving some water bottles behind and few popped balloons not to mention they have already charged me for cleaning fee. The $100 is an additional charge for leaving some water bottles behind. This is ridiculous. We threw out the trash everyday and cleaned the kitchen everyday. When we called them there answer was sorry we can’t do anything. I have stayed other cabin and never had to deal with extra charges. I recommend not to stay at Kalahari Resort cabin in Wisconsin Dells. They didn’t return my phone call for weeks to update me. They return my phone call after three weeks and they said I’m sorry we can’t do anything. I recommend not stay there by far one of the worse customer services and place I have stayed at. I have stayed at many other cabins and never charged us extra fee. There was no demand to the cabin and we left most of the stuff clean and in best condition. Not to mention we also cleaned the kitchen everyday.

Check in for the extremely expensive cabana was horrific....20 minutes while the extremely unhelpful and unprofessional unhappy attempted to check another person. When I asked if I could see a manager, the poor excuse of a manager attempted to explain away the wait as “the resort is full’...again, only one person in front of me. THIS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE STAY!!!!!!!
The management of this property could care less if you enjoy your stay,let alone if you will ever return.
MY ADVICE IS STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!
The front door of room 1255 does not close unless slammed.

One of the most fantastic waterparks I have ever been to (indoors or out), there are many high thrill rides, as well as smaller rides for the little ones. I went during high peak time, so everything was crowded. Management wasn't the best. The place is very clean, and I felt very safe here to let my kid roam around. It can take hours to do everything here. Go during the offseason, and come out super happy.

The food court down bye the water park is very convenient if you have young kids.The quality of food is good and you don't have to change or drive to get your food.

This waterpark is huge. Even with its size, on the weekend be prepared to stand in line. Next time I will get a cabana just so there is somewhere to escape to. Water slides are fun for all age groups.

Took our 7 year old daughter here as a Christmas present. There were a few things she was still too short to do, but she had a blast any way. Our room was clean and comfortable.

It's nice that even though check in isn't until 4pm, you can register as early as noon in order to use the water park. Registration took longer than I was anticipating, probably about half an hour (which was nothing compared to the line we saw when we left). We were pleasantly surprised that when we DID register, our room was ready so we were able to get in right away.

Liked that our room key was actually our wrist bands for the water park, and that we could also link a credit card to the wristband so no need to carry around a room key and wallet.

Be prepared for pricey food and drinks if you plan on eating/drinking at any of the establishments there. That is a large part of the reason this place only gets a 3 star from me...as many people as are in and out of there, there is no need to charge what they do for food, i'm sure they could make even more money if people like us didn't look at the prices and go "yeah right, we'll go someplace else to eat."

We will probably try on of the other water parks next time, but I wouldn't rule out going back here...

We took a day trip here as we live about 45 min from here. We purchased the water park day passes online which were a hefty price of $69 each. (they do inflate their passes depending on the season). It was just my 16yr old and me going for the day. Once you arrive at the water park, you will also have to pay for a locker too so be prepared. They have a nice variety of slides, a large lazy river, swim up bar, wave pool etc in addition to outside pools weather permitting. You can buy food, drinks and a cabana but all of which are extremely pricey. It is the nicest indoor water park Ive been too but be prepared to dish out cash.

We spent 2 days here with our granddaughters ages 14, 12 and 10. The water park is amazing. They claim to be the largest in the country and I believe it. There is something for everyone. The girl's spent most of the time on their own and I felt totally secure. We had a two bedroom suite on the first floor which made it very convenient to the arcade and the water park. My only complaint was that some of the carpet in our room was wet and the room had a bad odor. If it weren't for that, I would have given the resort an excellent rating. The room no. was 1223 uf the hotel cares.

Fully indoor waterpark with luxurious look and maze everywhere. You can stay at the hotel for 2-3 days to fully experience all waterpark rides to the fullest. Apart from waterpark there is a gaming zone for kids and adults. Then there are restaurants and pizza joints as well. Overall worth the time and money. Best experience can be derived if you plan in group of 4 or more. I loved their chocolates and ice creams sold at the store near the check-in counter. For pleasing your kids this is 100% perfect as I am sure no kid will dislike this place.

This park was very clean and well staffed. A wide variety of rides and play areas to accommodate all ages. Small children's splash park with small slides, pools with basketball hoops inside them, large hot tubs that stretched from inside to outside (very enjoyable in cooler weather) and massive water slides. Food options, lockers, rentable private cabanas and a massive adjacent arcade round out the amenities.

Great experience-- from the super clean water park to the variety of activities available (for all ages) and multiple options for food and drinks.... I have zero complaints.
Just a few tips-- skip the escape rooms if you are hoping for a challenge-- they are kid friendly for the younger set. The Pearl game in the Arcade is a good payout for lots of tickets. Social distancing is your own personal responsibility-- so don't expect that the hotel staff is going to keep crowds and groups at bay. They do enforce masks outside of the water park but they are kind about it. Some of the slides and water bars are closed but there is SO much to do and places to eat that it didn't matter.

I visited Kalahari with my daughter Girl Scout group on June 8, 2019 and checked out the following day. The African theme décor of the resort was really impressive and my daughter absolutely loved the water park. However, after leaving the water park on June 9th I realized I left my iWatch in my room. I went to the front desk and they happily escorted me to the room to retrieve my belongings. Unfortunately, once I got into my room my iWatch was gone and I was completely taken back. The security division had me complete a report and said they would start an investigation. As of today, June 19, 2019 I was told to call the local police station because it was nothing they could do. Really? I've tried calling the Director of Guest Services but have been given the run around. Its such an unfortunate situation because my iWatch did not just walk of the room.

Wow! What a place! We booked extremely last minute, like the day of. This was a spontaneous family trip from NY. The valet attendant right from the beginning was great. I wish I remembered his name (my husband kept calling him Bruno Mars, because he kinda looked like him). Our boys (10/11) loves the bunk room, whenever we were in our room we never saw them, and they raved about the blankets and said they slept better there than at home. Now for the main part of the room, it’s very spacious, the bed was comfy as well as the pillow. The leather couch (pullout) was nice also. The bathroom had the biggest and nicest bathtub I have ever seen in a standard hotel room. The waterpark itself is amazing and exceeded our expectations, short lines. Very clean, plenty to do for kids of all ages. We were also traveling w/ 10 week old twins and the area was very comfortable temperature wise and they even sat in the water in our lap a little because the water temp was perfect. Now for the food..... the menu in our room was completely different than what was offered at pizza pub and cafe Mirage so when we went to order a variety of different items they didn’t exist and everyone was upset because as most of you know kids want what they wants. So instead we ended up getting food to go from Ivory Coast. The food was good except the chicken in the Alfredo was like steamed rubbery chicken. We also ordered a pizza from pizza pub another night and it was so delicious! One of the best pizzas we have had in years. If you are of legal drinking age the Bomb Pop is amazing!!!!! If I could I would drink them all day, they take you back to childhood memories. Now other than the small hiccup with the food we had an issue w housekeeping. We were upset to find when we returned that our garbage (mainly takeout containers from restaurants downstairs) were not removed as well as disposable cups on the night tables, they wouldn’t all fit in the garbage cans, as well as the coffee maker not reset. However not enough to deter us from wanting to come back again! We are already talking about it because there is so much to do that we want to stay longer and do more. We only stayed 2 nights and went to the park for only 1 day.

Wow! We were so excited to have a mini family getaway during teachers convention..stayed for 2 nights 3 days. I try to keep it in perspective considering being in the hospitality industry and having 2 small children-family weekend trips can be hard to find around the NJ area. We have visited Great Wolf several times which my young children love so we tried Kalahari. The place was clean and had amenities plentiful but overall the lack of proper staffing and customer service (aside from the front desk) left much to be desired! We were left waiting in line for the majority of our trip- from picking up our luggage, water park lines, to the disastrous gaffe of a quick service lunch area (Zulu Grill) where security had to be called because people practically rioted after waiting an upwards of an hour for 2 orders of chicken fingers (my husband included) it is safe to say that although I wanted to LOVE this place the service was less than desirable to the point we won’t be back! From the water park staff, the BLux staff, the Sortino’s staff, the majority of employees were either rude, despondent, overwhelmed or not properly trained. On paper, the place is a 10, due to poor execution and lack of proper service, I would give this place a 3. If you have small children, although Great Wolf is smaller, it has a personal feel that unfortunately we did not find at Kalahari.

Fantastic family get together! Everyone had a great time in the park. Water activities for all ages. Indoor and outdoor pool. Nice room with fridge and microwave. Check in and out a little crazy because of all the people. That being said lines move fast and things are organized.

Love how open it is. No matter where you sit you are able to keep an eye on your kids to make sure they are safe and having fun!

It was an awesome experience for my 4 year old. He loved every minute of it, from the slides to the wave pool. It was not a bad drive from NYC. Would definitely visit again. The staff at Safari Grill is not the friendliest. I wish there are more options on food and the line isn't so long around lunch time.

Stayed on a Sunday night in January. Got there around 1 pm, the line to check in was hour long. Manager was there handing out wristbands so we didn't have to wait in line and waste time checking into a room that wasn't going to be ready anyway. Nice job for that. I would say the park was average-busy, and I think all slides were open. As I was sitting in a chair in the waterpark around 6pm, I took a look around. It was disgusting. Food all over the tables and the floor. Wet towels everywhere. Napkins, plates, etc left on tables and on floor. But I don't blame Kalahari. So many instances the customers act like pigs. Kalahari can't hire enough people to clean up after all these pigs. So many parents sit at the waterpark bar while kids run off and raise hell. As we were headed to waterpark next morning, we glanced inside a few of the rooms that maids had started to clean. I felt sorry for them. And it's tough to begin with...you have families with kids that are super hyped, and many are eating meals in room. But if we as customers would just try to pick up our garbage, place our wet towels in the proper bin, etc...the employees would be able to concentrate on more important things.
Kalahari has best selection of water slides, and do have a good arcade. We had 2 room suite, which we were happy with. Sure I could of scoured the room and snapped a pic of something maids missed, but overall we were satisfied.
On down side, many of the employees working in the waterpark do not seem happy. Maybe its being in hot atmosphere with kids screaming. On Sunday there seemed to be cold drafts in waterpark, and thought water seemed colder than previous visits. And the Zulu Grille....wow does that need help. I will overlook many aspects of my experience there, but that restaurant has awful food and awful service. If I could find that restaurant on here, Id love to review it with a zero score

The place is huge and there's plenty of water rides for everyone. Lifeguards everywhere so it felt safe. The room was big and had everything needed. The food at the take out place was ok. $25 valet parking per day for a place charging over $400 a night seems overkill.

We spent 2 nights at the Kalahari resort. We had such a great time at the indoor water park. The food was tasty and the place was clean. My 7 year old son absolutely loved the wave pool. It was a little expensive but we had a nice time and made great memories. The only thing I thought was not great were the stiff, noisy sheets. I felt like I was sleeping on and under a giant napkin.

Although it is getting more & more crowded, the expansion is keeping up. There were lots of new features since we were last here in the inside water park, the outside pool & the grounds of the hotel.

The outdoor pool area has plenty of seating now & lots more to do but the main pool is wall to wall people. The new kiddie ‘bug’ section was also crammed.

Inside is still loud with music blaring & announcements that you can’t understand so be sure you have a meeting spot in case someone in your group is lost. The food & drinks are an expensive trap. And most of the new space is dedicated to money making private rental cabanas.

The lifeguards are attentive and kind. The trash & towels are emptied/refreshed regularly although we bring our own beach towels for size and to avoid the lines. The bathrooms were pretty clean given the amount of traffic in them.

Getting to the water park by navigating the arcade is ridiculous.

The key here is to find a great overnight room price & plan to eat dinner in your room early & then hit the Indoor park right at dinner time until closing at 10pm when the lines are non existant.

We came here for one night to celebrate a birthday. Kids loved the waterpark and all the food options.

nice water park, clean with so many rides. so many variety both for kids and adults as well. there are 2 over 21 year old jacuzzi with bar. and so many activities for kids

My kids are 10 and 11, and this was their third stay at Kalihari, but my first time for business using the convention center.
Kalihari is newer so it does a great job at maintaining its cleanliness. The convention area was no objection. My meeting was shorter on a Friday and my kids wanted to be in the water park.
Some attractions were shut down within the last two hours, I assume as lifeguards went home.
Saturday we had the buffet for breakfast. It’s not always open but for 2 adults/ 2 kids $75.00 we got our monies worth. I asked for something not on the buffet and the chef went to find it for me (shredded coconut- not that hard but it needed her efforts).
Check out is 11 am so we put most of our stuff in the car and headed to the water park. It was crowded. I have never seen it so crowded. And after 5 hours we were done. Had enough. Showered in the locker rooms and headed to dinner before going home.
All in all the pools are clean, staff friendly, and it’s a nice family adventure. I think they need to work on efficiency of the flow in the dual lazy river, and they need to work better timing for their slides.
Oh, and the arcade can be expensive. $50.00 gets you 220 tickets and each game is about 8 tickets. For two kids that lasted 10 minutes.
Go, experience it for yourself, take a water proof camera, and make lots of memories!

Rides: the slides are crazy. Awesome twists and turns. Long lines on a Spring break Monday.

Pools: saturated with chlorine, perhaps to aid the inevitable almost hourly clearing of the pool caused by a kid who missed his swim diaper.

Food: VILE. Pizza (didnt think it possible, but greasier than in NYC), burgers, and iceberg lettuce on salads. The chicken wings came out as deep fried chicken nuggets, covered with barbeque sauce. My kdis actually asked for fruit, and I went searching. Three places, no fruit in sight. I had to leave the waterpark, and beg a server to scoop out some pineapple out of the mixed fruit vat used for salads. She was more than happy to oblige, but there is an almost deliberate dearth of any fruits or vegetables available. AND they do not allow own food inside waterpark.

crowds: the cabanas are so overpriced that there is a mad rush for tables/spots. we sat next to a large family who would blatantly take chairs , with our belongings still on them and proceed to sit on them. They also left their area thrashed and shoved other children in the lazy river. The bathrooms were disgusting, and showers were covered with towels, feminine hygiene products, hair, and quite possibly feces. While the guest behavior is not something the staff at the resort can control, the clientele is definitely interesting.

arcade: you have to go through this to go into waterpark. be warned.

Overall: not worth 124 pp. get a hotel room and a bunch of people, then its included in stay..... or a groupon.

Overall there is a lack of staffing and evident throughout the resort. Basics not maintained such as cleaning and towels. The food and rooms are okay. Wrist bands don’t work properly. Lines for food are long. Alcoholic beverages are watered down. And worst of all seating areas are limited and management does not make patrons respect the non-smoking area. The assigned smoking area should be away from pool, arcade where families are seated. Why not pick an exit door by the bar maybe with no through traffic of patrons walking. The smoking area is only few feet away from no smoking area. Patrons light up near area in the no smoking area. The breeze would still carry the cigarette smoke from the patrons that respected the area. Assigned smoking area door is outside arcade, bathroom, spa area. That makes no sense. Several patrons complained to management that did nothing to remedy the problem.

We have been enjoying Kalahari for a few years now. The waterpark is very fun for adults and kids. Things really step up when you hit 48 inches. During the weekdays, some of the rides can run slow based on the amount of staff they have in the park but it's not terrible, just annoying. But overall, we haven't run into any horrible waits. We usually go on a Sunday to Monday.
Prices for Food - $20 for a "medium" sized pizza. We spent $24 on chicken fingers and a burger and then $30 on a turkey BLT and pastrami sandwich. So, you pay the higher prices. Drinks - $6-8 for a beer and $12 for a pina colada.
Overall, we had a great time.
We did run into some not-so-great service at the pool bar - Cracked Coconut - SLOW bartending. My husband went to get a drink and I walked all the way to the other side of the park and back and he still hadn't ordered. It wasn't a busy day. So, it's not going to keep us from coming back, but it was discouraging.

Travelled with 4 kids who had a blast! The customer service/check in team could use some training We found the indoor park to be more fun for kids. There's something for toddlers too, which was nice. However, the indoor park also had too strong a chlorine smell -- which gave us sinus headaches. Adults may enjoy exploring the conference center, arcade and spa areas, and the outdoor spaces. It's a nice getaway. The family enjoyed the time away. Good 2 day trip. You can see and do everything in that time. Just bee prepared to pay for everything...It gets expensive to eat, shop, etc...

I’ve seen many bad review about This waterpark bit when I went it was greatly managed. We went right before covid and it was cool the adults and kids had fun. We had our small family of 4 go (2 adults,1 teen,1 kid). We had zero problems or issues,but I understand with covid it could be harder to mange.The kids had fun not only in the waterpark but the escape room and other activities such as golf and the laser maze. We planed to go there around 12/5/20 for the 2nd time but it was closed fast because it was to crowed.They shut it down and we understood it was for safety reasons, so we weren’t mad. Being a giant water park during Covid is what I would assume to be one of the hardest company’s out there especially ones that haven’t been open for a long time. Company’s weren’t prepared for Covid and many weren’t sure what to do.We were very understanding of their situation and went to the mini waterpark in our hotel. We were staying in another hotel in the Poconos, and just wanted to go to Kalahari for a small day trip.
(Also for the many people saying nobody was wearing mask in the waterpark, thats a safety hazard. I’d assume you to be smarter than that)

This park had many different areas that made it great for all ages, there were also lifevest available for children that need them. There were children areas and crazy waterslides for all ages.

We were looking for a fun place to go for spring break, and we found Kalahari! Located in the beautiful Poconos in Pennsylvania, it was only 3 Hour drive from our home in Connecticut. First off, we got a great deal with their two overnights day package – – that included hotel room for three people and full waterpark access for three people for approximately $255 a night. The fully enclosed indoor waterpark is pretty spectacular with lots of
Great slides, lazy river, the wave pool, and lots of attractions for the little ones. Plenty of seating and free towels to use.
The unavoidable not so spectacular part is that everything else costs money – – decent food but at premium cost, special classes at the waterpark, the huge arcade with extras including an escape room and a 3-D interactive room, etc. It had a pretty decent ropes course on property with zip lining on the side, again extra cost. The staff was extremely helpful and pleasant, not to mention attentive.
Our accommodations were clean and fairly spacious for the little time that we spent in the room. The property is loaded with amusement park type decorations but tastefully done and attractive.
Overall, we really did have a lot of fun and made some wonderful memories. Unloaded a fair chunk of change, but less than it would’ve cost us to go on a cruise to the Bahamas

My favorite thing is how there r many things to do when you are bored and I think kalahari is excellent but I do not like how the lifeguards do not do anything when someone is pushing someone else’s head underwater and not let them breath.😠😠😊😊😇

Never ever visit this place. This place is full of scammers!!!
This place is COVID super-spreader!!!

Our family of four (two boys 9 and 11) spent most of the day in the waterpark on Aug. 22. We arrived about 12:30 and left about 7:30. We were able to get a discounted rate but I could see how the full rate would be a turn off to many people. We were worried about it being crowded but I'm sure we didn't wait more than 20 minutes for any ride. Be prepared to climb some stairs for some of the better attractions. For that reason, and the relative humidity in there, take time to drink some water! You won't have to go far for food and there are some healthy options. The prices are about what you'd expect to pay in a resort. Some of the rides are quite a thrill and unlike any water park rides we'd been on. I've read a fair amount in the reviews about the staff being rude or what have you. We didn't experience it but they seem less than enthusiastic. Who can blame them though. Most of them seem to be in their late teens and they're dealing constantly with people day in and day out. It takes some conditioning and maturity to handle crowds and people like that. They're young. Give them a break. As the staff suggested, the crowds seemed to taper off a bit after about 4:30. At 5:00 they have a discounted rate. I'd suggest spending the extra $20 for the full day access, get an early start and pace yourself. Grab something to eat, spend some time in the arcade and go back to the water park. We had a great time and my kids were ready to leave by 7:30. Good luck.

The waterpark was able to keep my teen and little one entertained for hours. We will for sure return.

We currently stayed at your Pocono resort April 30th till yesterday the 3rd. Our 2bedroom room with living room was not that clean, hair in the bathroom shower, uneaten donut under the sofa my husband spotted when we pulled out the sleeper sofa, boogers on the wall, dirt on the floor, stains on rugs & a broken ceiling fan in one of the rooms. The lines were very low and the rides were very fun. Some staff was not helpful in helping guiding us in how we needed to experience some rides example (the free fall slides: Sahara sidewinder). The Tanzanian twister was our youngest & my husbands favorite. Some staff in the gaming room were very unpleasant and felt like we were more of an inconvenience instead of a paying guest!

The main reason why I am writing to you is because we needed to let you know about 2 of your employees. These 2 were outstanding & need to be recognized!! The 1st one was at B-Lux Grill & his name was Deepack. His service was amazing, super friendly with a great attitude. The second one was from Cafe Mirage & his name was Christian.. Christian, he was super sweet, friendly, social & very professional. An outstanding employee that has the potential in going far & really needs to be recognized. These 2 gentlemen made our experience great & We Thank them both !!!!

Some harsh reviews on here had my husband and I a bit nervous to move forward with our plans, but we kept telling each other maybe those travelers are a little particular with their accommodations.Luckily, we didn't run into many concerns. Definitely none that would steer us away from another visit!! My family consists of my husband and myself and two girls ages 12 & 13. Check-in LOOKED overwhelming when I first walked in. I text my husband in the car I was 15th in line, but I was in line maybe 10 minutes and was greeted & helped by friendly faces. One steering the line to each register and then the actual person checking me in. ALL the staff the entire time was friendly & helpful. We saw a worker with a baggage cart and asked her where we could find one of our own, she said "please take this one". The servers at the restaurants were all great also! I didn't have much interaction with the lifeguards ( a good thing), but they all seemed alert and tentative with the other guests I would observe getting off the slides while waiting for my kids. Lines for rides were never crazy long. Cleanliness of the water park was above average. Our room could have used a vacuum and we noticed a stain on the pillow the second night, but we couldn't confirm if it was from one of us or was already there and we just didn't notice. Everything else was clean and stocked. And the cleaning staff always said hello, have a nice stay, hope you're enjoying yourselves when we saw them in the hallways. We ate at The Ivory Coast, The Buffet and the ice cream shop. I think they were priced fairly and only my one daughter had a complaint one meal. It was the fish tacos. It looked like a fish stick was just slapped in there with a crap ton of coleslaw. We brought it to their attention (my daughter isn't a complainer, typically) and they rectified it with a free dessert since she already ate the fries and one taco. The manager said they're working on improving some menu items and the fish tacos is one of them. We found that fair and acceptable and the fried ice cream totally redeemed the whole meal for my 12 year old. The arcade was pretty neat. We stayed a few hours after buying each child $50 worth of tokens. And then they even had some more left to visit the next day. Prizes were typical, but no again no complaints from my kids. We saw families with kids of all ages, including adult children. I'm happy we found a place we can continue to visit for years to come!!

The water park was the best of Kalahari and great for familes it had a lazy river,a hot tub and a place to play basketball and just fun in one word

This is the 5th year we have taken a January family trip to Kalahari. We are never disappointed. Fun for all ages, our group ranged from 3 to 50 years old and a great time was had by all.

Overall we like Kalahari, but their cancellation policy around the conronavirus is downright predatory. They are still enforcing a cancellation fee during a global pandemic, they are offering a gift card withouth the fee, but thats just locking customers in and doesn't seem to be in good faith.

We stayed at Kalahari in the Poconos for two nights over new years eve. We stayed in their royal hospitality suite which I highly recommend. My parents had the master bedroom and bathroom which is close to the front door entrance and very private. Then in the main living room there were two pull down queen beds and a queen sleeping sofa. The room has a huge tv, fireplace, and dining table and mini kitchen. We were only alittle disappointed in the fact that there were no plates or bowls or utensils and when I called to have some set up, they said they couldn't do that. I would expect those things in a suite of that size.
The waterpark is fabulous. Lots of fun for kids and adults. I also liked the fact that my kids could go off and play by themselves (as long as they are over 48 inches). Some indoor water parks you have to be with them the whole time.
The one thing about the water park is that it gets crowded very quick. This is why I highly recommend renting a private cabana. You get it for the whole day and it comes with waiter service, a tv, comfortable seating, bottled water, and fresh towels. This made the day at the water park very enjoyable. I don't think we would have spent the whole day inside the water park if we didn't have the cabana.
Overall, a great experience at Kalahari.

We loved the waterpark with all the new slides. We had kids age 6 to 15. Parents and kids had a great time.

For a slice of pizza $5.00 Park is over priced and over crowded not enough staff. Some areas in the water parks were closed. I asked if it will be opened today they just no and you cannot get partial credit either. I had one year old with me which would enjoy that area that they just closed. Arcades also over priced.

Go to lone 7 for the main story
I WISH I POSTED THIS SOONER😠! Read til the end. You won’t regret. I went to Kalahari some 3 years ago. It was the 3rd time I went there and I learned to love every thing about the place (except some of the cost for the tasty treats on the main floor). But then one day when I went to the water park, I went to the water slide were you step in and the bottom opens so you fall down the water slide. There were 2 life guards when they decide to try to scare me. When I stepped in, the life guard was keep restarting the counting lock making it seem like it was broken. Then I yelled STOP! Because I just wanted to go already. But then she decided it would be funny for her and her friend if she would instead of resetting the clock she would bang on the window as I was just about to drop. I was furious. I regret so much for not reporting her and her friend because they could have been fired 🔥 for this. I just hope better lifeguards could work there instead of some careless ‘19 or 20?’ Year olds.

Definitely go in the middle of the week. Not Crowded but still get the best of what the park has to offer. Go towards the back for the Caves or the outdoor Hot TUB a definite must

A very fun waterpark! My older kids loved the big slides and my younger son enjoyed the wave pool and the lazy river. He thought it was cool that the lazy river has a conveyor belt! We were there Jan 2nd and 3rd. It wasn't busy at all which was great for the kids. No line ups!!

There are tons of reviews on this forum focusing on the bad or being really picky that kept our expectations low but I would rate this as "Totally Worth it".

I will try to address some of the criticism later but here is a beginner tip - if you have a family (with kids) go for Family Safari - you will find it very reasonable (despite busiest season of the year - we went during Spring Break Weekend). It includes extras that makes it worth much more than itemized cost of included extras.

Some of the major critics rant about below and here is my solution (I am no expert to this place but on reading a ton of reviews I created my own work around and it helped us - mayit help you too:)

1. Parking & Checkin Troubles - Dont go at 9 AM that time no one checks out so you cant Parking close to entrance. Go at around 10:30 AM - The check out crowd would thin out and you can get parking & reasonable crowd at check in. Leave main luggage in car so you dont have to stand in second queue for luggage storage

2. Room Readiness - Dont bother about room being ready - just pack your "water park Gear" and enjoy till late noon - my room was ready at 3 PM but I still didnt bother till 5 PM. It bothers only if you let it bother - enjoy the water park as if you came there for a day trip

3. Cleanliness & Hygiene - It gets only as clean as patrons are but I did see them shut down the rides for slightest of "Yuckiness". Restrooms were surprisingly good - yes people do leave straws, wet towels on floor - again if you find something, use next restroom or if you cant tolerate, alert the janitor..

3. Food - The Fast food place by the entrance of waterpark (main park) gets super crowded during lunch time so either go early or go to Wavepool area food place

4. Rides are crowded - :) ok - look up on stairs if you see crowd, go to one that has fewer or go early / late

5. Last but not least, Make sure to enjoy superb collection of Artwork and displays in the evening - totally worth having a nice walk in the corridors

Hope this long review helps you enjoy the resort in the best possible .. Enjoy!

this place in the recent visits have change for the worst, the employees do not enforce the rules and there are intoxicated adults walking around cursing around the children's area. on the last visit you have to pay to sit down in most areas which is a big change they added. lastly the concierge was not interested in helping me, she just dismissed my concerns and told me there is nothing she can do. i will not go here again especially since there are other waterparks in the area eager for your business with a better attitude.

It is obnoxious how long you have to wait online to check in.
It’s rude and disrespectful based on price you pay here.

My family visit to Kalahari was very exceptional and staff were helpful and friendly. I enjoyed the feature and authenticity of the place. As African,it brought me closer to my home country.

There were several fun rides and an alright lazy river. Drinks were decent inside the park. It was a but cold at times (partially from walking from the room to the waterpark through the cold air in the hotel). The wave pool was odd. There were life guards on duty and appeared to be on, but nothing ever happened. The wave rider (a separate part) was super fun.

There were lockers for rental if you needed it inside the waterpark. There were also towels but if the park was busy, they might run out. There was an outdoor part for the pool bar area. That part cooled down later in the night probably due to the colder weather.

The water park is a great place for family fun in the winter. I️ appreciated that there are activities for all ages, ranging from the toddler splashing area and slides to crazy wild rides for adults. We loved the hot tub that allows you to swim outside. FYI, the cabana rental really does not seem worth it. The resort itself is just ok, in my opinion. You feel kind of stuck there, and varied food options are limited. (I️ missed vegetables after this trip!)

The spa was great, I felt that some staff did not get along with each other. When I got to my room it was not clean. Garbage was on top of the shower. Fingerprints left along the fireplace. I complained and I was told housekeeping would clean the room better and my room was switched to a less nicer room. I was given a voucher for a pizza and four drinks. It looked like a pizza I would see at Chucky cheese. I walked down the hall from my room and smelled weed. Because of civic, the room did not come with a coffe pot, ice bucked, and an alarm clock. Children We're unattended. Constantly observed running throughout the hallways and kids screaming at each other. I never made it to the water park. No social distancing, I would not choose this location to relax. You might want to choose this location to set your kids free all day to run throughout the hotel so you can smoke weed. If you are looking for a job I am sure they don't drug test you.

Other than a pretty significant event that occurred with one staff member, which was addressed by the front desk manager, we had a really great time and most certainly will be back.

We arrived shortly before 1pm on a Sunday and registration took longer than expected, but the front desk staff was super helpful and friendly. After registration, we headed straight to the water park and changed into our swim wear. We then headed back upstairs to drop off our bags, as the room wasn’t ready. It was rainy and cold so we were not dressed for the weather outside and didn’t arrive ready for day in a 84 degree water park.

We kept only our shoes and a few other bare necessities with us and stored them in a locker for $20. The least expensive locker was $20. It held our shoes, wallet, purse and a few other items but not much more. Flip flops, water shoes or water socks are must, in my opinion! You’ll need them when you’re not in the water or when you take a bathroom or snack/food break.

The water park is clean and spacious. There’s ample space to spread out and numerous chairs, loungers and tables available. There were plenty of life guards on duty. The lines for the slides weren’t long, but I’m sure this is due to our off peak visit.

I really enjoyed the arcade, probably more or as much as my kids! I think I spent just as much time playing games as my kids. Probably the best arcade I’ve ever visited!

I thought the food was good and reasonably priced, considering you don’t have to leave the resort for anything. We tried the barbecue pizza, among other menu items, and it was really good.

The rooms were also very spacious and not your typical cramped hotel room. We had the dessert room with a terrace, which had a microwave and mini fridge. We were facing the outdoor water park, which was still closed for the season. All in all, a nice clean room with view and spacious accommodations.

We made use of the facilities after checking out at 11am. We spent a few hours in the water park, arcade and eating before traveling home.

The Resort was Beautiful the setting reminds me of Animal Kingdom, Disney, FL , For what I paid there a couple more $ would had travel instead to FL. The water park doesn’t have no dress code , ppl supposed to dress bathing suits to be able and get in the water and they don’t, they let ppl go in the wave pool with their clothing that’s unsanitary. Me personally won’t go there again.

We are return guests and we had a really good time as in previous visits. Overall the room was clean, conveniently located by the elevators and the beds were comfortable.

My son has Celiac Disease and the restaurants were able to accommodate him. Shout out to Rebecca at Sortino's, Kim at Zulu Grille and Ryan, Ron and Chris at First Aid who provided excellent service.

All of the staff that we encountered in the restaurants, at check in and inside the water park were very friendly.

One thing I'd like to point out is there should be much lighter balls in the basketball pool. A lot of people (me included) were getting hit in the head.

Thanks for a relaxing stay. We will definitely be back.

As Indoor Waterparks go this place has it all for young and old and mild to wild. It was clean, well maintained and even with large crowds lines moved quickly. Because it's a huge open space it can get very noisy and if at capacity there a lot of bodies running around. For those that intend to spend the day at the park they offer food and beverages and you can rent cabanas if you choose.

The room are very old. Carpets are dark and doesn't give you that hotel clean feeling. The bathroom was clogging too!

First time here check in was seemless staff very friendly and help full. Loved the swim up bars. Great place

Kalahari Sandusky has the worst managers i have encountered. They refused to cancel my reservation since all their slides are closed due to an airduct falling on people. My kids are scared going there so we canceled and slides are closed. They said they are going to charge me for cancelling! Do not go there! It is expensive and the management is terrible! Shame on you Nelson family for handling this situation wrong!

Great place to take your kids of all ages. I don’t recommend holiday weekends as it gets overwhelmingly busy!

This is just an amazing resort. Everything that a family with children needs is located on site. Yes, the food tends to be expensive. However, they welcome you to bring your own, so just bring coolers and tons of drinks and snacks and togo cups, and you're be fine. Otherwise, you can still make it somewhat reasonable. If you're going to head down to the Italian restaurant or the steak house, be prepared to drop some coin. I would skip the steak house, personally, but the Italian joint is great. The employees here are THE BEST. Treat them nicely. Be prepared for some lines when you check in/ check out, and at some of the water park rides. I recommend going with at least one other family so that you can share a three bedroom suite and then share the expense of a cabana at the park. A cabana is really nice to have especially on busy days. Go to bed early, because there is SO much to do. The only negative thing I have to say is about the "Waterfall hike," with the kids club or whatever they call it. I'm just going to be very brief and say skip it unless you have never really been on a walk through any type of woods in your life before. Otherwise, I can't think of one bad thing to say about Kalahari. The place rocks!

We really enjoyed our stay at Kalahari.
The con (so I can end on a positive note):
Arrived just before check in time-4pm, long line which was expected but once we got through and checked in right about 4, we were told our room was not ready and we’d have to wait til they paged us. They could not tell us how long. Turned out to be about an hour.
The pros:
Exceptional water park with swim up bar and swim to outside. The day we did this it was snowing lightly so being outside in the water while it was snowing was a really cool experience!
Our kids are older so they tended to want to do their own thing which was fine by us! :) We got to enjoy the MANY water slides mostly on our own which was a lot of fun, especially with a couple of drinks in us as they have at least two bars inside the water park.
We went to dinner at the burger bar (can’t recall the name) but the one in the main lobby. They told us it would be at least an hour wait which annoyed us somewhat because we were told we did not need a reservation. While we waited, we went next door to the bar to have a drink. 15 min later our pager went off so that was a pleasant surprise! Dinner there was great!!
We ate breakfast and dinner at the buffet restaurant. Both were very good. Not exceptional but very good. The variety was excellent.
Overall four stars-our room was great and if you get a chance to stroll through the convention center, you won’t be disappointed as the African themed art work will have you in awe. We were also very lucky as we heard violin music that was of concert quality. We thought it was coming through speakers but then realized there was someone practicing in one of the conference rooms in the dark! He was incredible!! It was quite a treat!

This is for the water park, there workers are not on the same page at all. Most of the rides/slides you needed to be 48inchs. Brought my step son that was 46 inchs. We get into the basketball area first thing the morning no issues no life vest nothing for him. Come back 2 hours later different life gaurd and she stops us and was rude this is my pool he has to have a life vest on and im like why he's under the height requirements. Im like well then you guys all need to be on the same page because we were just in here. Went to a couple different slides went down them no issues then they switch there life guards rotating them. Go back up with him and there sorry he cant be on this ride. I say we we're literally just up here and he went down this is our 10th time coming down it. Talked to Patrick one of the guys in charge he said im going to talk to my leads and talk to our guards and make sure they know. Not even 30 mins later we go up to one of the ones Patrick told us to go to because of his height. Get up there and theirs two little kids that are about 28inchs tall and they didnt measure them or anything and them go down no questions asked for anything remind you on there board you need to be 42 inches tall to ride it. This was our first time here and probably not come back. Make sure your staff is on the same page every day, have posting before you walk in saying this is the height for all the rides and have the little kids stand by it and if there not the height put a wrist band on saying there to little to be on all these rides for the life gaurds to know. Simple really is.

The best water park ever,& the help is very helpful. It is always busy but big enough not to make you feel overwhelmed. We were over charged twice on food so check your receipts. But highly recommend Kalahari for a fun two days of fun!

We love this park, lots of rides for kids, lots for adults, and a few good family rides! My 5 year old has a blast every time! They have an outdoors jacuzzi which is fantastic! Food was good we will definitely be back!

Severe lack of customer service. Waited for an hour to check in. Room keys did not work. Asked for assistance and the hotel responded that they don’t have the personnel to assist even for people with mobility issues. Just ai text responses.

Also very bad place for food allergies. As a celiac, they said they are not invested in providing safe food because there is not enough demand for it.

The lack of personalization makes this hotel experience a 1/10. Skip it if you can.

This water park has something for all age groups from baby to adult. There's a designated towel station, a few food stations, and a couple bars. Seating availability is first come first serve but if you are like us, you won't do a lot of sitting so take advantage of the lockers and enjoy all the park has to offer. We stay in a room and get two all day passes out of it and the ability to dine on the resort (the italian place is amazing). It's a nice little getaway to have a ton of fun.

Our group of 4 adults and 5 kids had a great time. The slides were lots of fun, with multiple choices for younger kids as well as older kids and adults. The restaurant staff and the cleaning people were very friendly.

Given the prices that are charged, service should be better. In several of the slides, the light was “green” but the tubes were still coming up the lift. Given the large crowds on both Saturday and Sunday, there should have been more of an effort to speed things along. Also, I waited in one bar for 10 minutes, got no service, went to another bar and listened to another guest complain about not getting service, then I waited with him for another 5 minutes, and got no service. And the main food place was an absolute zoo. The people from Philadelphia, NY, and NJ who flock to this place pay the high price but expect to be served quickly and professionally. Management needs to step it up in this area. I’d give a lower rating if it weren’t for the fun we had.

Very bad service I've been waiting about 3 weeks for them to return the money that they held after paying them in full they took an extra $200 off me wish that's fine I just want it back I called about it pretty much they don't care I'm out my money thanks for robbing me because I can't afford a lawyer to get a lousy couple dollars back but add that up Kalahari does that to a million people that's millions of dollars they just gained sad I work hard for my money took my two kids I guess I have to tell them they have to find a new spot to go all over a couple dollars that they won't give back and then I said okay if I didn't see it on my end can you show me proof they can't so I take it as I never got paid because I'd never seen my return from Kalahari or any other return on my credit card hopefully after letting everybody know what they're doing they'll get back to me and let me know something about my money I don't care how much it is it's the point it's my money I want it back but there's no sense of arguing and getting myself upset so I'm just out my money I hope it was worth it because I'll never go there again over a lousy couple dollars to get back to her customer I already paid it full I'm entitled to that hold the hole does not to be kept but whatever have a good night just everyone else be careful please I don't want to see them get your money too

So much fun! My 12 year old boys had such a blast. It was super crowded, as expected for a holiday break, but still very enjoyable. We are already planning to go back during the summer so we can enjoy their outdoor activities. The room was very comfortable and they really have everything you need right there. We thought we’d end up spending tons of money in the arcade, but the boys never wanted to leave the water park.

I chose Kalahari over Great Wolf Lodge because of the Flow Rider and a friend recommended it. It wasn't cheap but about on par with GWL. The main complaint was that the water park was cold. The water was cold and then they blow air on you from the ceiling. Just uncomfortable the whole time. And if I knew the flow rider was not working, I would not have gone there. When I tried to get some resolution from customer service, they said there was no issue. The temp was fine in their records and they were really sorry about the flow rider. End of conversation.

So we thought we'd return to Kalahari Poconos for another visit. We drove out to the Poconos for a 4 hour trek from the DC area. Family fun on the horizon....at least thats what we thought

THE BAIT:

Upon arrival we waited in line and our attendant Wilson indicated that for $300 more we could upgrade our room to the 3 bedroom penthouse. So he charge my credit card $300 for the room and another $500 for the penthouse security deposit...(still less than the $1000 I paid for thr the big 5 last time)

THE SWITCH:

So Wilson gives me my keys/wristbands and then says...hold on I need those back. He then says I assigned you thr wrong room.

THE FAIL:

Well Turns out Ole Wilson assigned and sold us a room that wasn't available. He then goes and gets Madison the manager...and she says..."sorry the room isn't available bit youb should recieve a refund in about 2 to 3 days." So I'm out of $800 before I even get in my room. I asked her is that all she could do..she replies with "Yes I will speak with Wilson afterwards " End of conversation.

Please Kalahari management, help me to understand how you put a hold on $800 for a family's vacation and can be so insensitive. There was never an apology...just "THE room isn't avaialble" They then gave me my new wristbands and didn't even tell me where the room was located. Maybe a wave..or a get tbr he'll outta here would've been more suitable..I digress

Next time I'm traveling here, I won't pass the Perryville exit in Maryland for the new Great Wolf lodge...because surely ANYTHING would have been better than this....Happy Memorial Day..I'm sure if your reading this it has to be better than ours so far!

I am 42 and was in the video arcade with my son and his friends and their mom. An adult male started yelling at us about tickets he thought his kid won, which he didn’t. . He then punched my 12 year old son. Then he punched me and we fought. He was arrested and I was told to leave because i was involved due to company policy. So i had to sleep in another hotel. Then was not allowed to use the park the next day. This was the worst experience I have ever had anywhere. Your policy’s are foolish and meaningless. I have already contacted my attorneys and this situation is far from over. I’m an adult male with my family. Not a 18 year old out to start trouble. But I was treated accordingly.

Horrible First Aid and Management
My son banged his head hard on the first ride. After I found a Lead Lifeguard, they jumped to it. Got EMT to check for concussion. Great response. All good.
Then, 2 hours later they both scraped their feet badly. Bleeding and leaving a trail. No one cared. It took five lifeguardS. FIVE! Until I food FINALLY get a bandaid. We needed eight bandaids it was that bad. Spoke w a manager she didn’t ask how they were or if we needed anything. Just defensive.
No first aid equipment on 4 of 5 lifeguards.
Two of five couldn’t understand English and couldn’t help.
NO communication devices between any of them.
I am very surprised at Kalahari. I’m assuming this is bc they had to staff up quickly with little training for staff and Mgt. Not at all what I’ve come to expect from Kalahari.

After a stressful experience with Kalahari back in May 2019, I wrote a review of my experience. I was almost immediately contacted by a person in charge of reservations, Rick. He was wonderful in listening to my issues with that stay. Rick offered us a free night stay at Kalahari again & some additional perks! We just got back from this stay on January 9th & are MORE than pleased with the service this time. Everything from check in, to the upgraded room, to the free breakfast & arcade passes, to the time in the waterpark went smoothly. My kids were so happy & had a wonderful time. Thank you Kalahari for listening to your customers & making things right! We will definitely be back again!

We stayed nearby at he Carriage House. Staff suggested We go here for a day. We were a bit reluctant because of our age (60, 60+). Glad we went! Picked a whole day pass, and we stayed all day! Something for everyone to enjoy here. Be prepared to spend, but it IS worth it!

Brought my Son and a few friends for his Birthday. The Suite was on lower leval and accommodating. Beds are comfy and room has all you need. The problem was the Parent room has no AC flowing if you shut the door and it was very hot and musty. There is a ceiling fan of little help. It smelt like dirty feet! We kept the door open to other side as much as possible but very inconvenient with loud boys playing on the other side. The patio was so nice with a full size table and chairs. The check in process...OMG!! A Zoo!! People just everywhere! Going early to enjoy the water park is worth it though this place is so crowded and they don't have enough people manning the big slides so wait time was long!! I have been to several indoor and outdoor waterparks and Khalahari by far is the best!!! We just came back from Universals Volcano Bay which is a new one. Khalahari has almost all that park has and you don't have to walk miles to enjoy!! This place will be great in Summer too!! They have so much property that I am sure they will expand the exterior amenities soon. There is a huge pool for Summer Months with lots of lounge chairs. If they open the roof when it's warmer it will be awesome. It is very warm now and stagnet air so for asthma sufferers bring your inhalers! Bring lots of money! Many places to eat if you can afford it!! Very beautiful!! There is a convention center with a cheer competition. Nooooo parking! Thank Goodness they really don't have no parking zones so you could find a parking spot with patience. We went Sunday in to Monday and it was a mad house. Saturday into Sunday must be overwhelming! The water rides are all awesome for 42-48 inches or taller. There is lockers and lots of tables. Some loungers on one side. Wave pool is pretty big! Lazy river is cool. Kiddie sections are nice very the little ones. The bars and hot tub was good too. The Cabanas are ok. Way over priced for a wicker cube with couches and a TV. It's so hot inside the park it must be like a sauna in there but if you plan on hanging around I guess you can rent one for more personal space if your room is not enough. Lot's of games in game room with cheezy rip off prizes. Zipline outside and ropes was open in the woods pretty cool. Place is Awesome for lots of cash! The daily rate is pricey. Pay the extra a get a room. The best time to go on the rides is 7-9 p.m. and 9-11 a.m. The housekeepers knock on your door before 11 whichbi think is wrong especially because I went and loaded up the car at 1020 a.m. and came back to the housekeeper breaking down my room. I left stuff on the counter so she had to know I was coming back but it didn't matter she already threw my bottle of Diet Pepsi away and told me "Oh you left your towels." No, I have the room until 11a.m. I felt like saying... so that annoyed me. Great place otherwise. They do take pride in keeping rooms clean.

I've been to theme parks and outdoor waterparks...so i wasn't sure what to expect. We have a 3 year old and met up with family who had 3 kids all 8 and under. The waterpark itself was massive. There were many slides and features that catered to young children so it was easy to keep them occupied. It wasn't too busy since we were there on a weekday. But there was still quite a few people there. It had everything from a free fall slide, to family rides, a water coaster, wave pool, wave rider, a hot tub that has an indoor and outdoor section, and several play areas. You can't bring food in unless it was purchased within the resort. Surprisingly though, the food was not overpriced and actually good. There's even a short order grill that you can access from inside (see pics of menu). I'll review the hotel and restaurants separately. Overall, I was impressed and the kids were happy!

Great stay - wonderful atmosphere - loved every moment! Everything was great from waterpark - restaurants - spa have no complaints at all!

We stayed at the resort over night. Per the pricing it came out about the same price to stay the night as it was to get a day pass, but staying the night you could enjoy 2 days worth of fun. They park was clean and everything was run well. For people with children, there are lifeguards everywhere. Everyone in the park were attentive and very friendly. There are attractions for every age group. There is food and drinks available and the whole resort is "easy to use". There are mini golf, zipline, shops, food, treats, escape rooms, arcades , and many other things to all for price of course. Hope we can make it back again.

It was an awesome vacation you can do lots i personally liked the water slides the most though because they are the best part of any water park.

I got a promotion from Groupon and used it before thanksgiving. It’s a great water park. All of us think it’s better than Gr**tW**f🤪😅. I like “hot tub” with bar there best🤪. I have planned next trip there👏👏

Best Waterpark I have ever been to. Waterslides are amazing and there are things to do for all ages. Everything was amazing!

Enjoyable family vacation. The outdoor waterpark, however, is just a pool and small child water play area. We enjoyed the Waterpark aspect of camelback more, but the activities of Kalahari better. The scavenger hunt and family game night was more organized and the prizes were better than camelback.

Loved the swim up bar and attractions. Drinks very pricey but definitely worth it. Lots to do. Would love to go back. Very crowded hard to find place to sit. Weekdays better.

After reading several reviews, I was definitely concerned about some things going into our visit. Let me start with the positives. Several previous reviewers noted a rude staff. We did not encounter any rude staff members. In fact, everyone we asked questions of answered in a friendly, helpful manner. The check in process was not as painful as we expected it to be. Yes, you’ll spend some time waiting. But that’s to be expected. We did receive a text when it room was ready. Now for the negative, which is only one thing but it’s a HUGE thing to me. Several other reviewers noted the lack of cleanliness in the rooms/bedding. The resort seems to have lost all of their vacuums. Carpets in the hallways and room need cleaned. Rooms/furniture are starting to show wear. Duvet covers were filthy which we removed off the beds. Overall the room was clean, minus needing vacuumed and clean duvets. The common areas were needing cleaned as well. The resort management should take note of just how many people are saying things aren’t clean. Overall it was a very average stay that could’ve been better

There is a ton to do in this waterpark. We spent two days here and could have easily spent a third. We will be back.

I have never seen an indoor water park that was so huge. It has everything that an outdoor water park would have, plus some

Very nice indoor park. Do not go during a weekend. This place is incredibly crowded on the weekends.

We had the worst time trying to get a few simple questions answered. After making it threw the annoying computer phone system. We was given false information from two workers. Two workers had good information Two worker hung up phone after they talked without listening to one word.. Three times I tried to talk to a supervisor with no luck. If your child is 18 they can stay with friends. You will need the room booked in your child's name with child's credit card or a prepaid credit card.
My son had a good time with his friends. He said it was better than Great Wolf. Kalahari is cleaner with more to do. Food is price like it is Disney world.

Summary: This was a triple combo trip: birthday trip, pre-back to school trip, and pre-back to teaching trip. I will go through the experience sequence as best I remember...

We arrived at 5pm on a Thursday, check-in was timely.
WaterPark was visually underwhelming. We knew it was large, and it was. No "theme" really stood out. Felt a little industrial. Some water ride steps were near the perimeter, hard to locate - like "Tetris" fitting in the blocks into overall the space. The "beach" entrance to wave pool was nice. The warm-water "Bar" was fun. The outdoor slides were fun for kids. We liked getting our feet wet on the edge of the outdoor pool in beach chairs.
No Movie Night for Kids - big letdown. (This place is not too Kid friendly).
Good eating choices, but you can save a little money driving 15 minutes to eat.
Overall, we MIGHT go back if there is a discount rate - we'll see.

I am not exaggerating, I wish I were. The locker rooms' showers only have freezing water, nothing else. Perhaps management thinks that guests should rinse with cold water including their little children, but it is December guys, and we are not in Mexico. And I will tell you why it is important to rinse after using their pools: because it looks like they are not watching the chlorine level properly. Two of our family developed red itchy rash which is a contact dermatitis caused by an irritant.
I understand that chlorine is necessary to keep germs at bay.
But at least give us an option to rinse it off after checkout.
Specially for the management I stress it again: icy cold water is not an option. You want a good review from me, then you give me warm water. If asking for hot is too costly.

It was my birthday trip.My kids loved Aquatopia and Great Wolf when they were younger so I had figured this was an upgrade.We went here last year after Aquatopia just for the arcade and VR. Big mistake.Though the rooms were c lean and spacious,the service here was poor.Rides being closed on a week when all of New Jersey is off from school is embarrassing.I told my wife and kids we will not be coming back here again.I will go back to Aquatopia.Very sad that this place was so poorly staffed.The lines were long because 1/2 the rides were closed at different times.

Recently, I had a very confusing time trying to book rooms online for a family birthday party at Kalahari Poconos for a granddaughter. Since I'm no genius on a computer, I make mistakes. Kalaha was very forgiving regarding refunds for the errors that I made. I'm very appreciative of their kindness, compassion and understanding that they showed to me. I look forward to many more family gatherings at Kalahari Poconos in the future. Thank you Kalahari.

FYI - I just finished and scrolled up and I have to say that this is a long review.

Here it is:
Nice but PLEASE CHECK their website to see what conventions they have booked!

This is my first time here so I took my family. My wife, 13-yr old son and 10-yr old daughter.
Let’s start at our arrival...we drive up their circular driveway but there is a HUGE line of vehicles waiting to drop off. The valet line is backed up too. We finally pull up but there is no-one there to greet you and/or help direct you where to go.
When we park and walk in, we see more than A LOT of teenagers to young adults all dressed up in different outfits. Apparently today is the last day of a Japanese Anime Comicon, and countless people are dressed up as Hello Kitty, Harajuku’s, Sailor Moon outfits, some Dragonball Z costumes and other Japanese anime characters. Several teenage girls, probably around the 14-16 yr old age range were dressed up in lingerie that didn’t leave much to the imagination. My 13-yr old Son’s eyes were popping out of his head! Even though this place is use to people walking around in bathing suits and towels, Security had to tell several girls to go back to their rooms and put more clothes on! So far after seeing this, not quite the family friendly place I was expecting.
When we checked in at the front desk, the receptionist tells us that our room will be done before 4pm. We had about 45 mins and my wife and I didn’t want to dig through our suitcases looking for bathing suits to use the Waterpark, so we decided to just wait. By 4:15pm, I go up to talk to a different receptionist, she tells me that they only start calling the rooms at 4, and it can go as late as 7 maybe 8pm before rooms are ready! She continues to say that they don’t have enough housekeepers working and most of the rooms are a mess from the convention guests.
Now, we travel A LOT and I’ve never had to wait that long for a room. I threaten to cancel my reservation and have my credit card fight the bill, and that we will drive 10 mins to Great Wolf or Camelback’s Aquatopia since they have available rooms. This receptionist walks into the back room and talks to a manager and within minutes they upgraded our room to a balcony room and they reprogram our wristbands as the new keys.
In the room...it is clean and it is big enough for 4, it has 2 Queen beds and a sofa bed. The balcony is small but it overlooks their outdoor Waterpark (which is closed since its September and it was cold and raining this day). We hang out for a little bit and then get ready to go to the indoor Waterpark.
The indoor Waterpark...it is GIGANTIC! By far the largest we’ve been too (we’ve been to Great Escape Lodge in Lake George, Great Wolf and Coco Key in Mt. Laurel, NJ ...FYI - Coco Key is Terrible, see my review of that and Hotel ML)
The only entrance to the indoor Waterpark is through the Arcade. Very Smart from a business standpoint. The Arcade is on the first floor (or basement). They have security checking bags before you enter the Waterpark but half the time they weren’t there and people just walked right in carrying whatever they wanted. Since it is relatively new, the indoor Waterpark is clean. They have a nice kiddie area for the infants and toddlers.
They have a waterworks area, a Lazy River, a few places to eat, and a nice big bar, the Cracked Coconut, in the middle of the Waterpark. They also have 2 swim up bars (21 and over only areas), the sleeping Turtle and the Grotto. My kids loved the several water slides and their water coaster. They really liked the super large heated indoor/outdoor hot tubs. Since it was cold and it was a Light mist-type rain outside, it made the outdoor hot tub even more fun and enjoyable. You enter the hot tub indoors and you can pass through a small canal/tunnel to go outside. Very cool.
They use every empty space that the other indoor waterparks do not use, they made them into cabanas. Upscale, and nice but very expensive.
They have TV’s, a few couches and wicker chairs. Some had Hot tubs and others were super large for multiple families and/or parties.
Their places to eat within the Waterpark were ok. Food was basic stuff, burgers, chicken fingers, hot dogs but it was expensive. Not worth the price.
Their eateries outside the Waterpark but within their building, we’re better. Ivory Coast is ok (usually no wait there, which is good), B-LUX is better but a wait. We did not go to their Italian Restaurant b/c it never seemed to be open, same with their buffet and other specialty restaurants.
They do have a Starbucks by the front entrance.
They have 2 ice cream shops, one right across from Starbucks and the other in the arcade.
The Arcade has a lot of stuff, along with a ton of games they have an Escape Room, glow-in-the-dark mini golf, a laser net room, a VR room and a Swimwear shop. A nice selection of different things to do, just ridiculously expensive. Indigo, their swimwear shop, was priced decent but most of the clothes sizes were XS or XXXL. Most of the Arcade is designed to get you tickets (similar to Dave and Busters and/or Chuck E. Cheese), but their exchange rate on their items is horrible. You have to get at least 3000 tickets to get something halfway decent. Just to give you an example, we bought my daughter the $25 package which is 106 credits. Most games cost 4 credits, some cost 8 and the expensive ones cost 12. She won several ticketed games and a jackpot on one, and still had less than 400 tickets. Most of the small ticket items are candy.
This place has so much potential to be even better, I’m not sure if it’s the way management runs it, or if it’s laidback mid level supervision or just not having enough employees, but it was missing something... it was missing that X-Factor.
I gave it 3 stars because of that, my kids agreed. They like Great Wolf Better.

I did not meet one happy employee on our two day visit. A lot of attractions closed because there were not enough workers. The workers who were there were very slow and needed to add a little pep in their steps. Our kids (ages 5-9) all really enjoyed our trip. Towels need to be softer and a bit larger. Bartenders at pool area are slow and unhappy too. Bummer.

Took my son here for his birthday. Staff was very friendly. The water park was very clean and life guards very attentive. The hotel itself was clean for the most part except for guests leaving their empty pizza boxes on the floors in the hallways. I don’t fault the hotel for that- I fault the guests. They could easily walk down the hallway and throw the box in the garbage pails. The only complaint I have is that check in was very disorganized and not managed well. The lines were very long and people were standing blocking the pathway to walk. I felt the hotel should know that check in becomes very crowded and they should have someone monitoring the line when it gets long so that there is a clear path for people to walk through the lobby. Other than that we had a very nice time.

Friday evening was not fully open, but the crowds were minimal.

The folds were not folders, assuming they were clean.

Instructors at the surfing area were very helpful.

Facility was clean and not as humid as we remember Great Wolf Lodge being.

Saturday by 11:00 the park was PACKED. They kids asked to leave. One night was plenty of time.

Locker room was clean for the most part. The showers were COLD, but apparently my one son thinks he discovered the trick to making it a warm shower. The kids were not comfortable with a man showering naked there, but my husband explained that is how men showered at gyms when he was growing up. Maybe a sign would make people be more comfortable in their day and age.

We stayed overnight and spent a total of 7 hours over 2 days inside the waterpark. The place is enormous, so we were pretty disturbed that in the short amount of time we were there we saw 3 separate adult fights break out. It is insanely crowded. And yes, most people are doing their best to not be frustrated with the overcrowding, but there was enough rudeness and riff-raff behavior by several adults that we walked out much earlier than planned. Yes sometimes people will take the chairs you have your things on, and while annoying it is perhaps understandable. But the fights (and copious alcohol availability) was enough to not want my baby and toddler and spouse there anymore. The final straw was the classless couple pounding on the family bathroom door and yelling the whole 5 minutes we were using it; they felt too entitled to wait I suppose, to the point we were honestly worried for our safety as we exited the restroom. Given the unacceptably high numbers they let in, there will inevitably be enough people there with zero manners and aggressive tendencies to ruin your day. I didn’t mind spending the $600 for the night stay and entrance if we felt it were a safe place for a family with very young ones; however it certainly is not unless they use more capacity controls. It was bad enough that we would really prefer no promos or discounted rates in order to limit the crowds. If management reads this, I would rather pay $1000 for a good experience than $600 for a frustrating and potentially menacing one. It’s unfortunate because the attractions are good!

Spring break - place was extremely crowded. When you see how immense the place is with full capacity - it is shocking. If you have a child with some issues you may want to consider a smaller water park. It may be over the top and not a good environment for a kid with attention issues. The arcade was swarming with people. However - the place was clean and they manage the waterpark quite well. Although the water park was crowded if you leave during lunchtime and come back after 6 - it starts to empty out nicely. We left for lunch and dinner and found some very nice places to eat within 15 minutes away that were much better and cheaper than anything in the resort. There is a great hibachi place very close by. It felt like leaving a Disney park just to have a relaxing meal. The arcade is insanely priced - each ticket game costs $2 each minimum. Yes - the games where the kid hits the button and gets tickets in a few seconds - each one costs $2 minimum. Of course you are loading the cards with “credits” so it doesn’t seem to cost that much. But a $25 card only gives the kid 8-10 games - which equates to around 15 minutes?
Great experience for kids in the water park, they loved it. But won’t be heading back anytime soon. It’s just too large and overly crowded.

My wife and I took our 3 grandkids 7,9 and 12 midweek. The first day was nice because the lines were short-the second day was a Thursday and NJ schools were closed so the lines were longer. Place was tastefully decorated and well thought out. We were able to upgrade at check in to a 2 room suite for $100 and was given $50 arcade cards. We ate outside the hotel so can not comment on food-except it was expensive!!!!! Overall we had a great stay!

Great place! It wasn’t too crowded. We went a bit late in the day with a baby and a toddler. What a great time! Seriously great place for all ages. Adult cocktails are way overpriced and not worth it.

Very big waterpark, lots to do for everyone. May have to look for seating but there's availability, just have to look. Says on website that life jackets are required for kids under 48". We know that now. However, we weren't aware of that, there's no sign before you enter the waterpark, and my kid had been playing in the kids' areas for two days before the lifeguards said they needed a lifejacket.

Pro tip: Enter the waterpark though the cafe rather than the main entrance. It's faster.

Adjacent arcade has decent prizes and games and "experiences" such as escape rooms, laser tag, mini golf and a "7-D" movie theater. Saw quite a few people win stuff out of the crane machines.

It was a family trip. I took my 5 year old son there and he had a blast at the water park. Its a new building and was very clean and family friendly. Rooms are comfortable the new wrist band keys were cool and convenient. However I was extremely disappointed because there was no games room. No pool table or table tennis. I assumed that was standard so I brought my rackets. Please be aware that the prices are on the high side. An adult beverage at the water park is $24. We bought three beers at the bar for $24. Didn't use the restaurants because we brought food. The rooms have a microwave and a small refrigerator. One thing I did notice was the pressure in the shower was very low compared to other hotels.

This water park is HUGE. There is plenty to do for kids of all ages. One drawback was the place was understaffed and had to close the lazy river one evening. Another was the food, which was really sub-par Sysco type fair. I was hoping for some fresh fruit and veggies, but fresh was not how I describe the slimy carrots that came with our veggie cup. The design of the cafe within the water park was so poor it led to considerable confusion among patrons, frustration for staff, and a far less than satisfying, overpriced lunch. The highlight of our overnight stay was the smile on my kids face as she enjoyed the waterslides which were plentiful, seeminly safe, diverse, and fun! The lines moved quickly for the most part and the lifeguard staff was helpful and responsive to requests. Overall, I am glad we went, but this is a one and done kind of place for me.

The water park is amazing. There are numerous numbers of slides and a nice size wave pool. The staff keeps the park clean. I highly recommend this water park.

We are always here yearly. Its like our families get away. We stayed here 2/9 and we wanted to stay for 3 days but we had to leave because while our kids are enjoying their time at this kids pool we were ask to leave cause there were poop in the pool. 😔 we ended up going back to our room then just play at the arcade until its time for our check out.

Terrible experience from the time I entered till now fighting bill. Amazed how many comp cards given.

We took out two daughters to Kalahari for a winter break. We did not stay at the hotel, but opted to rent a cabin in the woods instead. I don't really have a lot to say about rides themselves. There's a ton of them and if you visit waterparks with any regularity, there's nothing that will surprise you here. However, I have some observations as an adult visitor that might help others get a feel for what their visit will be like - apart from whether or not their kids will have a great time.

Because we weren't staying on property, we had to purchase day passes online. My first observation was that the prices seemed a little high, so we opted for evening passes. That might be unfair, since we usually purchase season passes at our local parks, but that was my gut reaction.

The facility itself (hotel included) is huge. The parking lot is massive. And as you might expect, it's very busy and packed with people once you're indoors. The checkin process is straightforward, but you'll probably need a locker for all your stuff.

The sheer volume of visitors and the compact nature of the indoor waterpark was what surprised me. There's very little sense of "space" or elbow room and I didn't really see any obvious places to go to get away from the rush of people. The restaurants that are inside the park, closed before the park did, so we actually had to go back out into the lobby to find snacks...it will remind you of a Chuck E Cheese. So the wife and I just tried to find the quietest corner we could and let the kids go off until the park closed.

So the main point is, there are may be a ton of people in there when you visit. It's rather chaotic. And if you like a more quiet/relaxed theme park experience, you may not find it here as compared to other outdoor parks. Obviously, it is what it is, so this shouldn't be taken as a criticism, but rather a heads up.

Took a quick overnight trip with the family to Kalahari and have to say that this was the worst experience I have ever had at a resort. I'll start with the only somewhat good thing - the water park is pretty good, except for the waits / lines but that was to be expected. Everything else was just a trainwreck - I wouldn't recommend this resort to anyone, ever. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and the resort could not handle the amount of people. No one to greet upon arrival, no one to ask a question to on where to go / what to do, no one to assist with luggage. Check in process was disaster that I won't even expand on (took over an hour), we had to leave luggage while at waterpark and when we went to pickup luggage seemed to only have 2 people working (waited another 20 minutes). After picking up luggage, headed to our room only to find two elevators near the busiest area in at least a 500 room building working. The elevator situation the entire stay was a debacle - at least a 10 minute process every time. Got to room and was underwhelmed - felt like I traveled back to a motel in the 1970's, dark brown particle board furniture, cheap looking and not to mention a musty smell. We went to Italian restaurant for dinner and that was okay, however resort restaurants were also disappointing, service was bad, food was bad, and looked dirty (beat up tables, silverware / stained napkins, etc.). One restaurant actually had photo copied paper menus. I could honestly go on longer, which is amazing, given we were only at the resort less than 24 hours. This is the first time I have ever reviewed anything online, but I was so amazed at how bad this resort was I just had to share to help future guests avoid a similar experience. If I was able, my review would be zero, but I believe you need to at least give a 1 on TripAdvisor

This is a water park that has a bit of everything! It's perfect for families because it has tot areas to huge slides that all members can enjoy

Because I read some really terrible reviews before my recent visit, I was a little scared of what our experience would be like, especially because I can have fairly high standards. I almost never write reviews, but because my recent Kalahari experience was different from what others have posted, I thought I'd share and put some others with reservations at ease.

We visited a couple weeks ago and arrived on a Thursday at 3:30. There were plenty of self check-in kiosks available and three employees were stationed at the front desk. Self check-in was easy and even though check-in isn't until 4, our room was ready. Our only issue here was figuring out which direction our room was in and where the elevators were. Better signage in the lobby would help since there is no "greeter" to ask for assistance.

Our room was clean and my request for extra blankets was quickly taken care of by housekeeping. The wristbands are comfortable - no sharp edges and you can put them on yourselves for optimal comfort. The waterpark and its bathrooms were clean but the bathroom floors are extra slippery (as are the bath tubs!) because there are no fans to dry them. Waterpark towels are a nice size and there really is a lot to do for most age groups.

As for food, yes, it is expensive. $4.50 for a coffee and $6.50 for a toast-it-yourself bagel is pricey (and the room charge option wasn't working; thankfully, I'd thought to bring a credit card just in case something like this happened). Vending machine sodas are $3.75. Food and service at B-Lux were great and prices were fair. Room service is okay (we ordered breakfast once and dinner once); our food arrived on the lukewarm side and was missing the included condiments (creamer, syrup, marinara, etc.) both times. Still, it's nice to have this option. The best deal around and something I wish we'd done sooner is buying our kids (10 and 13) the refillable elephant and/or coconut cups ($15-18 dollars). They were able to get their own refills of soda and slushies throughout the water park and in the restaurants.

I agree with another reviewer's suggestion of increasing the temperature in the water park and surrounding hallways a degree or two. I think the temperature of the water park varies with how much sun it gets. Other reviews mention issues with water pressure and temperature in the rooms. When we went in early March, the pressure was low but the water was hot.

Overall, our family had a great time for the two nights we stayed here. We found Kalahari to be very comparable in many ways to Great Wolf Lodge and The Kartrite (with Kalahari's water park being superior and their offerings of free activities inferior). When discussing which water park we'd like to revisit, the unanimous choice was Kalahari. One major factor in this decision is that every single Kalahari employee we we interacted with was super, super nice. That goes a long way.

My husband and grandson (4 1/2 years old at the time) and I stayed here for three days in July. The waterpark is great-lots of rides and play areas, and well attended. My old knees didn't deal too well with the higher slides (too much climbing), but anyone without such issues should be fine. There's a video game room for when you're waterlogged, which is almost unbearably loud, and will eat through money quickly. But for a vacation trip, and for the kids, it's all good.

We went for one day with our seven year old. She had a blast, but she was still a little young for most of the rides. The park was amazing and midweek had plenty of seating. Staff was not friendly, unlike the Six Flags water park in upstate NY. All the bars were great but everything was SO expensive. The indoor/outdoor hot tubs were also good. I can't say I highly recommend it. I certainly would not spend the $$ to stay at the resort. We stayed at a Hampton Inn 7 miles away that was brand new and really nice.

I went to Kalahari with my three kids over Christmas. While there, I noticed some VERY unsanitary practices in the restaurants (such as restaurant staff touching doors, papers, etc. and then touching food that they serve their guests). I reported this. Then all three of my kids got sick and were throwing up and this ruined our trip as well as the days that followed. Kalahari has been very dismissive of what happened to my family and takes no accountability for their gross practices. The director of the lobby restaurants offered me some lame 30% discount for my next stay which does not even come close to making up for what we suffered due to their disgusting and unsanitary practices. The place has nice water slides for kids but it is unsanitary, the food is sub-par, and the customer service is beyond lacking. I am a VERY unhappy customer.

This was our first trip to Kalahari. We have heard nothing but great reviews from our friends that have visited with their children, slightly older than our 22 month old daughter.

We arrived Monday morning at 10am and our room was ready! We took advantage of the Kalahari Salutes program for military and first responders. We were thanked for our service by reception during check in which is greatly appreciated! No room keys here; your bracelet to the water park is also your room key! It also doubled as access to make room charges, which is very convenient. NO need to carry a wallet, cash or room key anywhere, a very liberating feeling.

The analogy I keep using for Kalahari is like a Vegas hotel for kids. The arcade you walk through to get to the water park has tons of games for everyone. All the games look brand new and operational. Multiple restaurants and shops within the hotel, so you don't even have to leave the property. Everything is exceptionally clean from the common areas, to the room, to the water park. Staff was very polite and helpful.

When we arrived downstairs in the water park my usually brave daughter was in awe with the sheer size of the water park. This was the first water park she has ever been to. It took a little while for her to warm up to her surroundings before using the slides in the toddler areas. I'm the kids area, most of the slide adults can accompany their children on so they don't have to go alone. The water park is so immense there were no lines for any slides worth mentioning. Once it got to the early afternoon we ventured outside to the outdoor water park. AWESOME! Pools were very warm like inside, DJ playing great music and a swim up bar. I really felt like I was in a resort in Florida.

We went off property for dinner, however had desert at the ice cream shop and it was delicious and reasonably priced.

The following morning we ate at the breakfast buffet on the main floor and it was fantastic. Again, extremely clean, service was perfect and the food selection was abundant and top notch.

Checkout was smooth and doesn't not require a trip or call to the front desk. Plenty of carts available to help you get your luggage down to the car.

We will without a doubt be returning to Kalahari in the Poconos and hope to bring some friends with us as well. My wife and I can't say enough about Kalahari and it far exceeded our expectations.

I did a longer review of the resort and I’ll say it again. The parks rides, size, and look was great. My poor review was based on the staff attitude and lack of help. The cafeteria style restaurant had spilled food all over the floor, the staff spent their time arguing and joking with each other and had their backs to the long line moving slow. I think they had 2-3 registers and only one was used. Because no one was asking to help. The cashier got every question so she had to keep leaving the register and this slowed the pace even more. I get this place gets a lot of foot traffic but the park and restaurants floor was a little gross. Not recommended for the germaphobes.

This was our first time here and we probably will not be returning. We paid a lot of money for the holiday weekend and expect to get what we paid for. Check in was very chaotic. I approached the customer service rep to check in and she thought I was checking in with the person next to me and decided to wave the next guest down. When I told her we wanted to check in and was not checking in with the guests next to us she simple said oh sorry, can you wait since I waved the next guest to come out already.Really?! I did not appreciate that she simply overlooked us! We were not just next in line, we were right in front her counter and was brushed aside! We then waited 2 hours after checked in before our room was ready. (This I can somewhat understand since check in is posted not till 4pm or so). We went to our room and couldn’t get in, had to go back downstairs to reactive our wristband and was told there was a system error and we were connected to wrong room??!! (Security radar went up) That night my husband’s wristband again did not work and he had to go to reactive and this time was told his band was connected to yet another room?! How can this be when the 4 of us check in together and had to reactive it together? And his band is connected to another room. For a family place, there is just no security. We do not feel safe here. The side doors are left open and anyone can come in and roam around, to say the least. No security at front door. So call security at pool is horrible. Seems like their main concern is checking for outside food - and not really for safety measures; all times we walked in, no one even noticed us because they were too busy digging out water or snacks from other guests.
Need to clean! Elevators had tissues and other garbage in there all day long... from time we went to pool 10-3! I don’t even want to think about how rooms are cleaned if elevators can’t simply be maintained for cleanliness. My kids enjoyed the water park and that made the $ worth it in that sense but can’t say I am willing to spend 1/2 the $ we spent this time here again with the lack of security, highly questionable cleanliness and extreme chaos.

Was very disappointed on my second visit here my first visit was in 2017. I went to the large three bedroom suite and it has gone downhill it is worn and it is dirty. The staff seems clueless sometimes I had reserved a cabana and they had no record of it even though I had paid for in advance. The restaurants are good but the portions are very small. I would not return there.Cost me over $5000 for four day vacation it was not worth it.....BEWARE

I would love to rave about all the great things Kalahari offers as it was a really great place but I am furious with their inaccurate charges on my bill and the way they handle customer service. I will say the water park is amazing and the hotel is clean but they have zero customer service. Very long story short I ordered two items from Cafe Mirage in the water park, the next day I noticed that the charge was 10.00 over what I signed for on the credit card statement. I did not think anything initially and went to the front desk to request a refund. The front desk told me they couldn’t do anything about it and sent me to the cafe. I went to the cafe and was told they would look into it and to come back later in the day. Still I didn’t think much of it more than an annoyance. I went back later in the day requesting to speak to the staff and was told by a different staff member that the staff I spoke to earlier couldn’t do anything and to “google Kalahari’s guest services number and call there.” Guest services went back and forth with me and my husband and eventually billing handled the matter and issued a refund. At this point it is not about the money or the refund, when looking at the receipt I was sent I can clearly see that the staff added to the tip I left. The total was still the total I signed for but the staff added money to the tip and submitted an amount that was $10.00 over what I signed for. I explained to billing that this is about more then just the money it is about the fact that this staff is potentially handling money and receipts on a daily basis and is stealing from families and I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. I was then told this matter would be handled internally. I wanted to share my experience here as I do not want anyone else to go through this. Not once did anyone apologize, the matter was handled as a “mistake by the server” when you can clearly see the added tip. I understand that I can not be told about how they are handling this matter as it is now a personal matter with their staff but I am left feeling unheard and taken advantage of and I do not want this to happen to anyone else. Please make sure if you are visiting here you get receipts for everything and please make sure to check your daily portfolio for charges that you can cross reference with your receipts. This was a horrible experience with horrible customer service and I hope that this review can at least save a few people the hassle
I have been through.

My kids, aged 12 and 13, myself and my husband had a great time. The indoor water park is full of thrilling slides, wave pool, play structure and more. Plenty to keep you busy for several days! Outdoor is a pool with basketball hoops and a play area for younger kids, as well as a shallow large pool. There are bars throughout the area so mom and dad can relax while the kids are playing!

Before you book your trip to Kalahari, make sure your kids are AT least 50" tall. Even though the height requirement is 48", and if your kids ARE 48" tall, they will lie to you and tell you they are not tall enough. The measuring sticks at this place are WAY TOO CONSERVATIVE. My daughter is 48" tall on the nose. They had her at about 46". WASTE OF MY MONEY! My daughter was not able to go on a MAJORITY OF THE RIDES! $400+ a night for my 7 year old to splash around in a kiddy pool.

Also, know that check-in is AROUND 4:00. They don't tell you when you book this that there is a 2 hour grace period in which the room might not be ready. This is standard procedure here. Don't rush to get there at 4:00.

Service all around at this place SUCKS. The employees are practically catatonic and give standard, scripted answers to everything. The only nice and cheery person there was Matt the bell service guy. Kudos to Matt! He should find a job somewhere that would make better use of his good customer service skills.

Bring towels! The ones they give you are the size of a hand towel. Then they run out anyway.

I am not going back. This place blows.

Best indoor waterpark in Pennsylvania. Only comment: keep the Flowrider line moving and stick to the maximum one minute per rider

Great for kids...literally kids are everywhere!! Very fun arcade, waterslides and pools. Lots to do included in the hotel rate. Great in the summer with the outdoor summer attractions.

Layout of the three bedroom, three bath was great. Was very disappointed that there was no maid service and had to call for clean towels and washcloths, had to call for a coffee maker and they brought this one cup coffee maker for seven people and ask for a toaster and they didn't have any. Things were over priced. But the kids had a great time and that is all that matters.

They have activities for all ages very fun and lots to do. The staff is very helpful with the kids and they instruct them properly for their safety. They’re a many out of water activities as well that the entire family can take part in and enjoy. I will definitely be coming back here as my time was very short spent.

Spend a few days at the Kalahari with the extended family. The simply kids loved the place. Lots of attractions and the slides vary by the level of 'extremeness' so there was more than one for every taste. A well equipped gym was a nice feature too. Having said all that, staying for 3 days seemed a bit of a stretch. An overnight while arriving early and leaving late (the pars lets you enjoy the facilities before you get your room and after you check out) would have been enough.

Don’t go unless you’re a millionaire 😅 prices are crazy and the jacuzzi bars are CLOSED! Wish I would’ve known before reserving! There’s only one bar opened in the water park and you have to wait like 40 minutes so they can take your order.

We visited Kalahari Friday 2/4/22 and Saturday 2/5/22. This was our first time to the resort. We were very impressed when we got there. There was so much to do and so many different places to eat.

The first night we checked in which was an easy process. The room key is in your wrist band and you can also have the wrist band be able to do room charges. We did that so we would not have to worry about bringing cash or our card around. The room was basic but clean. We went to the burger restaurant after we got our room set. The service and the food was excellent. We got burgers and they were huge and very good. After dinner we walked around a bit then hit the arcade. The arcade is very big with games for everyone. It was a good time.

Saturday we got coffee and some breakfast items from the market by the lobby. There is a Starbucks but the line was really long. At the market they had Starbucks Coffee you poured yourself. There was not a line to get coffee and food items there. After breakfast we hit the waterpark when it opened. We reserved a table at the waterpark. That way we had a table and did not have to take the chance of not having somewhere to put our stuff. There was a server assigned to us she assisted in getting all off our drinks and food which was nice. The only bad thing that happened (and I swear this happens at any public pools pretty ofter) Our table was higher up in the water park and you could see down in the lazy river and I could see the basketball pool. Well someone pooped in the basketball pool. So I was done swimming for the day and I was just hanging at the table. They emptied the pool BUT they did not get the poop out of the pool. I thought well okay so are they waiting until the water park closes then they will remove it and treat it? (my dad worked at a public pool as a pool maintenance person so I know what should be done and how long it takes. So the life guard was not letting anyone in the pool. Then after a bit they let people back in the pool and the pieces were still in the pool. My husband was at the table with me. I said they didn't get it out right? He said no and now its all moved around. So is this big yes - it made me question everything about the place.

Besides that - everything else was great. Everyone we interacted with that worked there was very nice. Food was very good. Waterpark was cleaner that most walking around. The poop incident not good made me wonder if the water everywhere else was safe.

What I'm frustrated about is the price and lack of a family discount and the crazy price of $65 for a 3 year old. We drove 2 hours and spent $215 to sit in a pool. Really, it's my fault for not researching. I definitely won't be back with a small child.

We checked in Sunday night with no lines. We stayed 2 nights and did the waterpark Monday and Tuesday. We basically had the place to ourselves. No lines for any slides. We enjoyed the lazy river, indoor/outdoor hot tubs, wave pool, and flow rider. Employees were friendly and helpful and the park was super clean. It says no outside food or drink but no one checked and prices are expensive. I would recommend not eating in the park and either eat in the arcade that has a better selection or other eateries in the lobby. They provide towels. The changing room was nice and clean with a swimsuit dryer and hair dryer. We ate at Sortino's the Italian restaurant in the resort which was good. There is a nice arcade and mini golf and bowling and other activities. We really enjoyed our stay but if it was crowded might not have.

We went on a family trip to Kalahari, after visiting Great Wolf we wanted something new. Overall it is much bigger than Great Wolf and the waterpark, in my opinion is better. It has more options for kids that are too big for the toddler slides but not quite ready for the big slides. We expected it to be crowded and busy as it was Memorial day weekend, but even that could not prepare us for exactly how OVERCROWDED it was. The resort allows day passes which in my opinion just adds to overcrowdedness and Rowdiness. We expected a family atmosphere but instead had to deal with drunk people at the bar, people being kicked out, not being able to get towels on 2 seperate occasions (as they ran out and we were told to come back shortly) and so many people squeezed into a hot tub the very idea of entering was stomach turning. We paid ALOT of money to go and just had higher expectations. I would assume if you went midweek it might be a better experience but I would NOT reccomend going on a busy weekend.

I have only been here for a short period of time, and I already want to leave. Nobody has masks, and there are lots of little kids here, who I know for a fact are ineligible to be vaccinated. Kalahari needs to do better as Delta Cases rise and their most likely customers, kids under 12, are ineligible to be vaccinated. They should additionally add social distancing, because that is extremely poor. People here are acting as if covid has magically disappeared, putting other people at risk, like the other kids who want to be kids, who cannot be vaccinated. Kalahari has gotten poor reviews during the peak of the pandemic, and now during the fizzling out as well. If you want to go to Kalahari, I highly suggest rethinking it, or waiting until September or October, when covid cases hopefully start to dissipate, and less people are here. Very disappointed.

Just like the other water parks except the staff is not very welcoming compared to the other water parks.
It’s obvious these people hate their jobs or something is wrong because they left their smiles at home and just to do basic transactions they don’t know how to do it nor are they very happy to help you .
Camel Beach and Aquatopia are far better in the atmosphere is much more welcoming.
It seems like safety is also more of a priority at Camel Beach and great wolf compared to this place .
Have no desire to revisit

It was simply awesome. See full review on the hotel itself. We had a great time!!!! We got on 3 major rides and then took in the lazy river the remainder of the day. It was oh so good. If you have any type of heart condition, the rides are not for you. They are not for the faint of heart. Bring your own towels although towels are provided, they are really small.

Check in fast
Room awesome
Price reasonable for the amazing nature of the water park
Food in Italian place awesome

Wanted steak but way to expensive.

Lobby restaurants seem to all serve sand stuff just in 3 settings.

Dessert place awesome

Junk food place in arcade and in water park is the only thing missing. Employees, although eventually polite are so slow and non-responsive/outgoing, it’s absolutely painful.

Watched an employee take at least 4 minutes to pour 4oz of marinara sauce in a to go cup. Partially filled it, got less than a drop on her, walked 20’ to get a towel, analyzed the sauce, wiped it, walked back
Over finished the pour, literally 4oz, took another brief break to find lid, took 30-45 seconds to fit the lid....

This was like watching someone who hates their job, and it was only 11:15 AM the day had just begun.

This trend continues in the other junk food places..

A quick “hi, may we help you” Versus 5-10 minutes of standing there in no line watching 6 employees wonder back and forth not doing anything...

🤯

The rest of resort is absolute opposite, diligent, polite, fast, happy, and amazing.

If you’ve been to Hershey park or Dutch wonderland you know what I’m referring too with food service

That being said the rest of resort is so nice I look past the pizza/fun food issues and enjoy.

Bars are awesome, drinks are perfect,

Last thought/
The room is so dark and so quiet I’ll be setting up a night light tonight as I’d sleep all day!

Our first time at an indoor water park hotel so expectations were high, especially with the price that we paid for a Sunday night. With that being said, we had a good time in the waterpark. The slides are awesome and our 1 year old enjoyed the toddler area. On Sunday night there was next to no one in the waterpark and we went on everything with no lines.
Our room was ready at 3:00 and it was clean. Check in was very simple. Had some issues with getting valet parking charged to me and had to text twice to get it removed since we never wanted it. $35 is a bit expensive considering the parking lot was empty too!
The restaurant B-lux was worth every penny. Great service food and atmosphere. Highly recommend.
Downsides- everything is expensive. A $27 alcoholic drink in the waterpark is CRAZY. I expected $18-20ish but come on. The arcade is stupid expensive too. Spent $50 and half the games just ate our tokens. That was a mistake.

Overall, our 8 year old and 1 year old had the time of their life so that’s what matters- even if our pockets hurt today!

We've been to all the other waterparks (Great Wolf, Camelback Aquatopia) but Kalahari is the biggest and the best (this was our 2nd visit in a year) ! However, where it lacks is in being more kid-friendly than the others. Besides one has to pay extra for almost everything else and the prices are high as well. We also observed that when we were there for our stay, two of their main rides - Anaconda and Screaming Hyena were not working for 3 days in a row ! Also, they are clearly understaffed and the service is very average (e.g. there were a lack of enough tubes for certain rides, etc.). If this continues, this will no longer be the best which is sad because Kalahari is really the biggest waterpark ! Hope you improve and we will be back again !

Unless you stay at their resort and have free admission, it is pretty expensive. They have plenty of water slides, a wave pool, and pools for little kids. No lap swimming, though.

This was our first family trip that included everyone!!! we checked in on March 12 for an overnight stay. We had the Big 5 room, which was outstandingly beautiful, clean and very top of the line.
The process of singing in and the billing is HORRIBLE!!!! First, they gave us the wrong wristbands so we couldn't use them to pay for things. Spent over an hour trying to get that fixed. All charges/billing just went down hill from there! I have been double charged for MANY things!!! We spent thousands of dollars and they just keep billing things on my charge card! I am exhausted trying to keep up with them.
One example, we received 10 towel at the water park and RETURNED all 10, I made sure of that and did it myself. They charged me $254 for not returning my towels!!! Then they issued a credit, then today, they re-charged me even after looking at the video tape and seeing I returned them!!! They agreed they were returned but keep adding things to my bill! Double charging for food when it was already paid.
We loved the park, the kids had such a great time. I am still battling getting well over $2000 in extra, unwarranted charges. Wish me luck!

I expected more from this resort. It's very unorganized. The kids needed to wear life jackets, good luck trying to find one that fits. Here is an idea, have a booth to allow parents to go check one out for the day. Wet towels thrown everywhere. Poor customer service at the bars. Would like to see some more adult only areas.
Seems like there should be a system in place for child accountability, have matching wrist bands with parent or something. Too many unattended children, not enough staffing, and not many concerned parents(sadly). It was a nice overnight trip but not worth the cost or hassles involved.

We have stayed at Great Wolf lodge in Williamsburg, VA before.

Kalahari Waterpark does have more slides and activities than Great Wolf, but with more square footage, they could have designed the layout better. The lines were too slow because there is one attendant taking care of both sides of the tubing rides. Three of the tubing/rafting rides weren't open. The wave pool was my kids favorite part, but that was small and the waves took too long between waves. They should have a timer visible to everyone to know when the next one is coming like Water Country USA has.

Even with the park not being crowded, I felt crowded because each section is small. The hot tub that leads outside was packed they should have designed that bigger and there is too many little toddler areas.

Also, the staff that were there mostly seemed bored and didn't want to work there.

You aren't allowed to bring in food or drink which would be ok if they had a decent place to eat. They don't! It's a maddening line of hungry, anxious, irritable people because there is no order or sense whatsoever.

While staying for the weekend I enjoyed a great massage at the spa. The spa was very relaxing and everyone very friendly. My therapist was Steven. He was very professional and knew how to give great relaxing massage. I recommend a visit to the spa when you are there! Ask for Steven.

The water park was very good we had three children with my two daughters had a great time the kids did not want to leave they loved all the water rides and slides the restaurants were good but were way over priced the rooms were nice and big and very clean I would go back the grown

We came to Kalahari as a bachelor bachelorette party organized by our family for my fiancé and I and we had a blast with them as there is of course a children’s section but a very nice option for adults as well from the bar inside the hot tub and also all the attractions and big slides we had a blast and I would recommend this park!

We come every year for a gymnastics meet. The staff are very friendly and helpful, but the hotel rooms are so dated. The lights work only when a master switch is on (which lights up the entire entryway), so you can’t have lower lighting. The rooms are dated—cheap decor, peeling leather, and scraped up furniture. We had garbage in our room when we first entered. The rooms are extremely expensive, as is everything else in the resort. Way overpriced for what you get.

We only went for one night but next time I would want to do at least 2 nights to take advantage of all amenities. Staff was friendly. Place was big and clean. Booked the desert room and was fine for 2 adults and 3 kids. Kids enjoyed the rides, hubby and I snuck away to the grotto bar and enjoyed a few drinks at the swim up bar. Got to enjoy the outdoor hot tub. Looked like it had a great toddler area ( my kids are bigger). Yes it’s crowded yes the food at the park is not cheap but we had a great time

While giving a one circle rating is warranted, it would not be credible simple due to the amazing slides, swim up bars (awesome one in back called Grotto,) and the vastness of the property and the amenities. Unfortunately, that's where it ends now and the decline begins.

There is no customer "experience" left at Kalahari in the Poconos and probably never had one. To me, Kalahari is built by some developer that was more interested in the vastness of the property and less interested in the brand development and creating amazing guest experiences. In a "world" of so many options, brand loyalty is fleeting and from my perspective the end of the line in a "rapid decline" and the specifics why based on our last visit:

1) Too crowed to maintain with current staff. Look, I know it's important for the resort to sell all the rooms, but at what cost? Honestly, selling rooms at a large discount to gain bookings is a strategy that has consequences (won't detail in this review, but you may understand based on the following points.)

2) Employees do not seem happy and very inexperienced to handle guest issues. With the exception of the cleaning crew on the third floor during our stay (sorry no names to provided due to the chaos of 7 cleaning carts lined up in the hallways.)

3) Food: Other than snack bars food, the restaurants are pretty pricey, but the quality of the food and drinks average at best. We ordered flat bread pizza (sent back due to under cooked,) ordered a "Old Fashion" cocktail, very small, tasted like fruit for $13. Bar tender asked, "did I like it," when I hinted it wasn't very good, that's the end.. Lol.. O'well (experience I guess!) Switched to the $7 draft beer to be safe. Wings we ordered extra crispy since the our last visit they came out underdone as well. Soft pretzel and pasta was fine, nothing special other than presentation of the very expensive pretzel. Found long hair in my son's pizza, we didn't even bother bringing to the waitresses attention as we just wanted to leave at this point.

4) Well, with the crowding and culture of littering from some of the guests was sad! I walked to my car and was absolutely disgusted with amount of trash littering the parking lots. Unfortunately, the picture below is just a sample beside my car and does not nearly convey the pathetic vast scene which was still left from prior day as well. I wasn't able to capture in a picture since I was leaving for a work trip and was running late, but it clearly conveyed two additional issues:
a) this is a guest behavioral problem. I guess certain "areas/people" find it acceptable and normal to just throw bags of trash on the ground, leave or go into the hotel. From my experience, that's what you'll find sharing space and referenced in bullet #1.
b) Kalahari clearly needs to conveniently place trash receptacles throughout the parking area to help mitigate the problem and pick up each evening.

5) The rooms are starting to show extreme W&T. Our toilet was "floating" back and forth and barely attached to the floor.

6) Evening, the park thins out and so does the staff. To the extent the more popular rides have skeleton crews causing longer lines than during the peak crowds during the day. Your ability to get through only a few slides from 8pm-10pm is either inept management and what I would suspect as profit only leadership style. While this may deliver short-term profitability, it will eventually end up long term losses.

7) Lack of management engagement to recognize situations and adapt appropriately, led me to have to make a call from the top of the family slide requesting help after the employee left her station. At this point, our family did the "unthinkable," yep, we "dispatched ourselves." I know as unconscionable as it seems, we did it and were met at the bottom by staff that informed us we would be asked to leave if we ever did it again! I simply stated, no problem, just ensure you have staffing to deliver the service and we won't need to "dispatch" ourselves. .

8) Cleanliness, uggh! Hair, hair, hair, and more hair, filth and dirt all over the pool. I would not want to test that water..

If only we stayed 2 nights like usual, I would have had to probably had a part "a" and "b" to this review. Hope this helps Kalahari find greatness and stop the decline!

We visit Kalahari at the Poconos location every year for the past 5 years. We always come on 12/27. This year was a huge dissapointment. The staff was very friendly and they were working non stop. I felt bad for them. The place was filthy. The bathrooms and lockerrooms were horrendous. There was crushed candy on the steps for the three days we were there and it was never cleaned. For the most part our room was clean.

It seems that maybe they shouldn't sell daypasses and should limit the use of the water park from the 4 p.m. check in time to the 11 a.m. check out time. This would help alleviate the overcrowding at the waterpark. They also clearly need to hire more staff.

Whoever does awards for best indoor water parks has to give the first place finish to this place! They have activities for all ages of the family. We can't wait to return.

Pros: waterpark is clean, waterpark water is warm, staff is friendly

Cons: Expensive, several slides closed, ridiculously low water pressure in the shower, bedsheets made out of sandpaper, not much to do besides waterpark and arcade

Checked in for an overnight stay with family and friends. Very crowded, only at 75%capacity due to covid. Masks not enforced for visitors. Most had on masks. The rooms were clean and roomy. The waterpark was very clean. I have an autistic child who they gave a special bracelet to
So staff knew he was non verbal. Great idea. The place was great. Very expensive they give no deals that’s probably the only downfall. Make sure to bring a lot of money.

Stay away on any holiday, or weekend. It was like it was a surprise to them they were going to get a huge rush. I’ve overheard at least 30 people they will never again. If you want to reduce the pain of rooms not ready, have you & your kids have their swimsuits under their clothes so you can at least go to the water park while the 1 housekeeper gets to all the rooms. Not the staffs fault, it’s unprepaird management. They should google “hospitality”

Someone could not pay me to come back to this place! Much rather stay at Great Wolf…. There was moldy food in our refrigerator, the tv sound would not work and all they kept telling us was to turn it off and back on…. Any and ALL staff I had to deal with was cocky and rude! Take your money and go somewhere you and your family will enjoy….. this isn’t the place for that!

The water park and hotel was by far one the best water parks I’ve ever seen. I was recommended Buy a close family and friend that we also happen to go with. There were 10 of us in total. When we did call we did expressed concerns about the capacity of the hotel and what Covid protocols would be in place. As we already went on vacation one time this year to the NJ shore and it wasn’t too crazy. By all means New Jersey shore you figured no one will be listening but quite frankly it was completely The opposite people.
We were reassured by the staff when checking in that Covid protocols were in place and that you’ll be safe and fine. Now I understand it’s a risk doing anything but by far this water park eventually lead up to a Covid outbreak an the hospitalizations of many people.. Again do not give me wrong I understand the complete risk of going on vacation during a pandemic when many locations are people been vaccinated already. However kalaharri has to do something better to ensure the safety of the people that will be keeping them in business.

Between the arcades being overcrowded, no Staff from what I seen was wiping anything down or doing anything proactive to make customers feel reassured by their advertising that there staff they’re doing everything possible to make people feel safe.

It’s not about the money it’s not about anything because honestly if you take the pandemic away and realistically would’ve been the best place ever been to in the US .

We only stayed one night it wasn’t worth staying any longer or extending the trip because things were so out of control . I was so conflicted that after the waterpark I stayed in the room because I was like this is just too much for me to handle. I’ll provide an update in a few days after I get a Covid test I’ll let you know if I made it out are safe.

Again I really never write these things but it’s necessary to for any family that are going online or calling and asking questions regarding COVID Protocol toonly find out everything has been stated that they’re doing is actually not occurring..

August 2021

No matter what age you are you will be amazed in this waterpark.
Lockers are $20.00 once you walk into the 84 degree waterpark.
Food is pricy but was allowed to bring my own food & beverages which was great being we were there to celebrate a 5yr old Bd.so we had five 5yr olds..
The rooms are spacy 2 queen size beds and a pull out sofabed.
Also microwave & mini refrigerator which came in handy for snacks and milk for the kids.
Also adult drinks are available we paid $45.00 for 4 drinks.and they were yummy. All in all had a fabulous time with the family.and my grandson had a blast.

Spent two nights at Kalahari to finish off the Christmas break with our kids 6 and 8. We booked the standard room with two queen beds and a pull out couch and it was perfect for our family of 4. There’s a mini fridge which was nice and the room was plenty big. Hands down the waterpark is the main attraction. It’s fantastic and there’s so much to do. I found the lines moved quickly and the cabana rental was great. We ordered food and drinks from the cabana and they were delivered quick and it was great to have a private/quieter space. The restaurants on property aren’t that great. The food at the Italian and the burger place was just ok. Our friends who came with us tried the buffet for dinner and preferred it to the a la carts restaurants. The pizza from Cafe Mirage by the arcade is sooooo yummy and we hound the food in the waterpark really good as well. Drink prices were great and we didn’t find that any of the food was really overpriced. They have a huge arcade that was TONES of fun and I found that the games do give out lots of tickets. My kids loved collecting tickets and then collecting their prizes. Overall we had a great experience and will be back. If you go with realistic expectation (it’s busy, there’s a lot of added costs) then you will have a blast and make some great memories!!!

This was my first visit to Kalahari. I traveled with my boyfriend and my son (age 8). My son and I visited Great Wolf Lodge 2 years ago and I wanted to give Kalahari a try. We stayed Monday - Thursday.

Check-In: Very quick and easy.

Room: It was fine. I don't know if it's worth what they charge per night. The pillows were so bad that we drove down the street to Walmart and bought cheap pillows for us to use while we stayed. The bed sheets might actually be made out of paper napkins. I couldn't believe how terrible the bedding was. I also hated that we couldn't keep our air conditioner running on "fan" mode to drown out the noise from the hallways that never seemed to stop. The bathroom was very clean, the tub is big. Water pressure was okay. I appreciated that the sink is outside of the bathroom, that way I could be using the sink/counter while my son or boyfriend showered.

Indoor waterpark: It was great. I don't feel it was empty but it also wasn't overly packed. All of the swim-up bars were closed because of COVID-19 which is in no way any fault of Kalahari's. My boyfriend and I aren't big drinkers anyway. We had rented a cabana for our last day - it was okay. I feel it's VERY overpriced ($299 plus tax). Maybe the price isn't so bad when you're splitting it among a large group. Since we had the cabana, we ordered food for lunch which was delivered to us 2 times incorrectly, it was removed from our bill but after so many attempts to get it right, we waited about an hour and a half for lunch. My son loved everything in the waterpark, and so did we. The staff was all extremely friendly and helpful. The smell of chlorine is intense, but to be expected.

Outdoor waterpark: This is misleading. I wouldn't say there's an "outdoor waterpark". But there is a pool and some slides. We have a pool at home so we didn't spend too much time here, but we did swim and I enjoyed that they have chairs in the pool so I could sit and relax while my son swam.

Food: We had dinner at Sortino's the first night, Double Cut the second night, and B-Lux the last night. Sortino's and Double Cut were expensive but AMAZING. Both of these places may have been the highlight of our trip. B-Lux was okay, I wouldn't eat there again. Service was slow, the burgers weren't great. We ordered food inside the waterpark for lunch every day from Cafe Mirage. It was good, nothing special but nothing terrible either. I picked up breakfast and coffee at Java Manjaro every morning. The coffee was great, the breakfast was also pretty good.

Arcade: Super fun. My son had a blast even though we had to wear masks and he's still trying to adjust to that.

Shopping: There were a few really nice stores to pick things up at. We got souvenirs, toys, and when my boyfriend got a headache, we were able to pick-up some medicine at the "market".

Hotel Stay: I'm not sure what it was, but the crowd at this resort was unlike any crowd I've been around and we travel pretty often. We barely slept any night we stayed. The second night, a group of people started setting off fireworks in the parking lot around 1am, our room faced the parking lot. Every night people were running up and down the hallways, screaming, throwing things, laughing, racing until at least 4am. This is why I wished we could have ran our air conditioner on fan mode to drown out the sounds. It was almost impossible to sleep each night, and after being so exhausted from a long day at the waterpark, this almost ruined our trip. I felt sorry for anyone traveling with a baby or small children. Maybe Kalahari needs to invest in more security that patrols during the night to keep these things to a minimum. Also, this rowdy behavior was happening with bars being CLOSED. I can't imagine what it's like there when the bars are open. If it weren't for all the noise at night, I would have given this a 5 star rating.

Price: Listen. This place is EXPENSIVE. Expect to dip deep into your pockets. We cancelled our other vacation earlier this year due to COVID so the price was a little easier to swallow but I may still be in sticker shock. If I could do it again, I would pack breakfast and quick lunch foods to save some money.

Staff: Everyone we encountered all throughout the hotel was very nice, friendly and welcoming. We didn't experience one staff member that was rude or overwhelmed. We did have a situation with our cabana inside the waterpark, someone was using our reserved table so when it was time for lunch, we didn't have a designated area to sit (I paid $299 for a cabana, I want to sit at a table and eat lunch). Staff took care of the problem quickly and cleaned the table for us.

Overall: Great indoor waterpark, mediocre hotel, mostly delicious food.

First timer to kalahari indoor waterpark. We booked a resort and it was good .. rooms were spacious and very comfortable . Cost of the water park is a little more than all other parks . May be worth just once . Good and other things are very expensive inside ..

Waterpark wise , it was good. We loved the wave pool 🌊 all the rides were good . Kids loved it . Lazy river was good and the splash zone was kids favorite . Again, I thought it was expensive /.. wish it was cheaper . Lots of parking outside and located in the heart of poconos . Loved it overall if not the the price …

I stayed at kalahari resort in the poconos, I had a death in the family and left right away so they charged some one for the  room that I had already purchased. Called them serval times just for them to be super rude to me and hung up on. They just cared about making money and don't care about the customers that stays there. I didn't want the money back so One of there manager said they would give me a free night stay after loosing out on the one I paid for and would call me back. But they lied  to me after they gave me there word after I just had a major death in the family, after calling over 30 times just to find out why they lied, The female manager Corey was so rude and insensitive and don't care at all about people pretty much that they could care less about customers after they already got there money. They give the worst customer service. Every one should know what to expect if you go there and I will keep posting it on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Google, yelp, every day so people know how cold hearted they are. This is the worst family place to ever go too with the manager corey who would be super happy to hear that some one just passed away and they can now charge the room you were staying to someone else to get double the profit and would just hang up on you purposely when you call to find out why you were lied too. Hopefully every can see this place for what it is and will go to do something else with there family as this place and corey hates familys!!!!!

We've taken extended-family getaways to the Poconos for almost a decade now, since the grandchildren were toddlers. We started out at Great Wolf Lodge, which was always fun. After a while, the quality of everything started to go downhill: the food wasn't as great, the water park temperatures started to fall, it was always a little less clean than the previous visit, and mechanical things (animatronics) were left unfixed. On the plus side, we always felt safe, and the staff were always polite.

When we started going to Kalahari about two years ago, we were at first totally "wowed" by all of the higher-class amenities. It was less crowded than GWL, cleaner, and had the feel of a cruise ship on land. It STILL has that feel, only now I feel that rather than being on a Royal Caribbean, I'm on a spring break Carnival cruise ship that's just on the brink of getting unruly. That feeling...all day.

We went - again - as an extended family and stayed in the five bedroom penthouse. It was Easter break, so perhaps more crowded than at other times of the year.

Nevertheless, there were some clear quality-control issues. Our room was supposed to be ready at 4:00. It was ready at least half an hour later, and the lines for check-in were at least that long a wait.

The main concern, we felt, was two-fold. One, the water park itself was very cold. I don't want to guess what the temperature was, but it was so chilly that we definitely didn't have as good a time as we'd had in the past. All the people in our party mentioned this, and our ages rage from two years to 68.

Secondly, it was not clean. The restrooms, thankfully, were, but often we came across napkins on the floor (wet napkins - yuck!). On the stairs, waiting for the Anaconda ride, we noticed towels and hairbands piled up on window sills and ceiling platforms. Some of the towels had turned the color of paper lunch bags, so who knows for how long they've been up there.

It's the (one assumes) cost-cutting measures of the low waterpark temperatures (air and water) and under-staffing with which we took the most umbrage. We don't expect it to be Disney-clean, but for the cost and what Kalahari clearly wants to be (a destination water-park for the upper part of the middle-middle class), we were hoping it would stay nice.

This review is written on my vist to the sandusky location. First we drove 3 hrs to get here. I immediately wanted to leave it was so busy and disorganized there were no clear lines for the water park. Check in waS easy. FIRST we stand in line for about an hr because there arent enough tubes for the amount of people also it is advertised as 4 person rafts when it is only 2 person rafts. THEN to top it off there is a giant scale that they make you stand on to tell you if you are too fat to ride the rides your weight is displayed for everyone to see. ANd that means that 2 adults of normal weight cant even ride together so we had to ride an entirety different ride than what we stood in line for. WE decided to leave after that and go home. THE highlight was travis he was wonderful and made sure we got reimbursed all of our money for 4 people . Shout out to travis!! The MVP of my day.

We did not go to the Water Park but to the other attractions ... 7D Theater and Virtual Reality. Its a huge complex and can get a little confusing but staff are helpful. We tried to eat at the Buffet but it was "closed for the day" on a Sunday (Odd considering Hotel must hold over 1000 people). The Escape Room also was closed ... so call before you go to ensure the attractions you want see are running. These closures are what make my review only "Average". BUT ... place is lovely; plenty of eateries; Game room is huge and the 2 attractions we did were AMAZING ... total fun. Would recommend if you are in the area and will be going back myself in the future.

My 4 yr old was very sad when he wasn’t tall enough to do any of the rides, 42” with adult for most rides, others are 48”. We had fun but the kid loves his rides

I love going to Kalahari. Its usually clean (guest rooms are always in fabulous shape but in the water park some people don't clean up after themselves), and other than when school is out the crowds are manageable. But we tried going a couple of times a year and now my 12 and 13 year old prefer sitting in the hot tub and relaxing, or going to the spa, not the water park itself. After 5 visits, we now go to the arcade and to dinner on rainy days, and the water park on the 4th of July (Love their fireworks from our room).
Go, have fun, make memories, the kids will love it. Just don't go too often if they are tweens/teens, they get bored easily.

The Kalahari Water Park Resort in the Poconos is very similar, if not indentical, to the Kalahari in Sandusky. The rooms are very nice and decently clean. I did have to wipe some tooth paste off of the wall near our sink, and a few other minor cleaning issues were noticed. The hotel staff was excellent, and I was going to comment on the lack friendliness of the water park staff, until I read a sign where they were not permitted to interact with guests in too friendly ways. I do understand the reasons behind this, and then respected their lack of interactions. I do feel a major improvement could be made with the visible presence of security. I personally noticed more than one individual with gang and prison tattoos. This in itself made me somewhat uneasy. Some may disagree with this stance and statement, and to that I say I do not care. I felt the way I felt and I stand by the statement. I also witnessed several interactions that were on the verge of getting out of control, they did not, but were close, and security would have definitely been needed. Ladies in swim suits, boyfriends, husbands, and others can easily equate to problems, Security seemed very lacking.

Ewww I can never go after this review it’s so nasty.
After all it’s such a nice hotel but it’s nasty.

The kids wanted a break from Great Wolf so we came to Kalahari. We we happy with the bigger variety of more adventurous rides and the indoor/outdoor hot tubs. We stayed Friday to Sunday and although it got crowded on Saturday afternoon it was still a good experience.

Right before going I read some bad reviews and was worried that it would be terrible but we had almost no issues.

Tip 1 - if you have an issue do not try to talk to staff. Use text.
Tip 2 - Even though check in is 3PM you can show up as early as 10AM for free. The up sell is only if you want the room ready early.

In case someone else is freaking about bad reviews here is a breakdown.

Cost - this is what it is. You are not special because you just burned $1000. Everyone else staying here did too. We all made that choice.
Rude staff - the staff you see is powerless. Even the people who seem like managers at check in are low on the food chain. There is another manager in the back. Use text for issues and they have a special word to text if a problem isn't being resolved.

Cabanas - Even on Saturday afternoon I was able to find a table and chairs in the open area. Didn't feel I needed one.

COVID - no one visiting or working here cares. If this is still a concern for you stay in the City.

Closed rides - only one ride was closed and everything else seemed to be well staffed. Based on other reviews I am guessing they were short staffed because of the Omicron wave but by the time of my visit in late January were back to normal.

Bad guests - Not much the resort can do, it is a big place with hundreds of rooms. Maybe the higher weekend rates weed out some of the trouble but it could just be random.

Dirty rooms - my room was clean. There is a waterproof cover under the sheets so little chance of bedbugs. We had one mechanical issue in the room and they fixed it right away. The room was dated but not falling apart. They had a picture at check in of a room in a newer decor which was more modern. Hopefully they renovate to that updated look.

Food - You should expect overpriced carnival food. Either bring your own food and microwave it or drive to town. The Italian restaurant looked nice but the food was meh. Despite the decor, the open kitchen and the well dressed waiters, you are ultimately getting glorified cafeteria food. Buon appetito.

Kids activities - We did Laser Tag at one point for a break from swimming. The quest at GWL is a good diversion that keeps them busier and is better than burning cash at the arcade. The waterpark was open fairly late though if you had the energy to go back after an early dinner.

I stayed at your PA location this past Saturday night. My group had a total of 24 people which included 6 guest rooms and the hot tub kabana. This was a horrible trip.

When we first arrived we had to wait over an hour on the registration line to check into our 6 rooms. We were told specifically the rooms were DIRECTLY ADJACENT to each other except 1 room would be 2 doors down. Come to find out 2 rooms were across from eachother and the others were floors apart or on the complete opposite side of the resort. This would have been fine if we were not misled.

Second, this was a huge complication, we had an older women with MS and handicapped who was on the 6th floor no where near the elevator. She had to walk down this extremely long hallway multiple times before she was able to change her room 4 hours later. More than 4 people called to confirm there was a note in the reservation explaining her condition and needed to be very close to an elevator near the lobby.

Third, when we received a text our room was ready (3220) I went up there to find out my wristband did not work. Luckily a housekeeping supervisor was near me and let me in. Just to clarify she did call down to the desk to confirm it was my room before I entered. She explained after put all my stuff in my room to go downstairs and reset my wristbands so I did. At the concierge, she had me confirm the room number, name of reservation, phone number, and home address and then reset my wristbands. Several hours later I went back to the room to allow my friend to drop off his stuff and as we were leaving he tested his wristband which was not working. I then tried mine and it then stopped working as well. We went back to the concierge who now has switched shifts to someone new and I again told her the room number and she told me we were in the wrong room. She explained we were in 3230 and I told her she was wrong because I’ve been in there for several hours and I confirmed it before. She had to get 2 others just to find out they put ANOTHER FAMILY in our room when all of our belongings and money was in there. After 30 minutes of standing they finally moved us back to 3220 in the system. Then we asked to link our credit card to the wristband and she said no because it HAD TO BE the same one paying for the room. I know that is a complete lie because every other room in our party switch their credit cards for the wristbands and debit cards for the rooms. She was completely rude and put a sour spot in our trip. We then had to carry around our wallets at a water park when she knew she could’ve prevented that.

Fourth, after further discussion with my Group, we found out by the front desk NONE of our wristbands were active. Every single person had to come down and get new wristbands.

Finally, I have something pleasant to say. Every single bartender, waitstaff, life guard, or anyone who worked in the water park who my party encountered was AMAZING!!!! We absolutely LOVED Gabe who was with us in our Kabana. He was extremely professional, polite, well dressed, attentive, and always had a smile on his face. He deserves to be noticed and if anyone asks for a recommendation for a kabana waitstaff, he should be the top pick.

I love this place it had lots to do, from food to the water park to the huge arcade to the sweets. This is a great place to hang for the weekend. The rooms are nicely set up, the registration process quick and easy. Plenty of choices food wise.

We chose Kalahari to be the final visit to a waterpark over Kartrite, Great Wolf, and Aquatopia.

I have to say it was not the best visit or the worse. I was disappointed several slides were closed. One of the stand ups and Anaconda slides were closed. The clover tube slides had more restrictions this time. It is either 2 or 4 person. You cannot do 3. I waited on line with my 2 sons for about 30 min. Once we got to the top I was told only 2 or 4 only for the slide. I wasted my time waiting on line not knowing the restrictions. Fortunately there were 3 other people behind who invited me to join them.

Also, the buffet restaurant there was closed with no given reason. My family and I were were disappointed about that.

The breakfast items there was overpriced. Sausage egg and cheese sandwich cost $7 which is outrageous

So it has been fun visiting here and definitely the last

We stayed 2 nights and 3 days which I feel was a good amount of time for my teenagers to see and do all of the things they wanted to do. The water park is huge and very fun, there’s something for all ages to do. Everything in the park was well maintained and clean. Our room was nice and clean but my complaint with that was it was never cleaned for us on our 2nd day there and we didn’t get any fresh towels. We even went down to the front desk to tell them and they said they’d send someone up to our room and they never showed up. Needless to say I wasn’t happy about that, then we had to go down again and ask for clean towels to shower after we were done in the water park for the day. Be prepared for highly overpriced food & drinks throughout the entire resort. I’d suggest taking your own case of water and keep in the fridge in your room. I love the fact that they have multiple swim up bars but you can’t afford to keep getting drinks at them $8/beer $12/mixed drink and they’re monster drinks were $32. I got the same can of beer for $2 in my area that they charge $8 for. There’s no need to price gouge people, you can’t have good time spending that much money on drinks. The food is the same way, I think it was $33 for a 20 in pizza if I’m not mistaken. The arcade was also very expensive, we blew through $50 on our card in no time at all and barely got any tickets to show for it. I loved our trip and the memories we made I just wish it was more affordable.

My family of 5 just spent 3 days there and it was wonderful! We traveled with 3 kids 9,8 and 6 one of my children have autism and we felt relaxed and safe the entire time! The blux was delicious and the wait staff was great! The rooms were clean the hotel was clean and the staff was beyond nice! Starbucks on property was perfect! The water park had so much to do I was sad to leave! I’ve never had a better family vacation and we go to Disney yearly but this place just had it all! What a great place for a family! We will definitely be returning!

We stayed at Kalahari for a week for a dance competition and it was great. Staff were so nice and helpful. I would text Kalahari with questions during out stay and they would text me right back. Waterpark was clean. We went during the week so we found seats easily outside at the pool and inside at the waterpark. The Taco Truck outside by the pool had delicious tacos. The best thing we did is buy the ELEPHANT water bottle that included free refills all week with soda and slushies. There were a few restaurants and they were crowed at dinner time. The rooms were typical but included shampoo, conditioner and body wash in shower. Kalahari is huge so be prepared to walk. Our room was the furthest from everything so sometimes we would walk outside to get to places since it was easier than walking through the hallways. Once we left our room, we didn't go back till the night LOL

This water park is huge and had lots to offer. The doors open exactly at 930am and the line is crazy. If you know you are spending the whole day do yourself a favor and book a cabana. It saves you aggravation to try top be the first one in there. You have seats, a table, refrigerator, and a safe and can take your time getting to the water park. It is so hot in there to drink lots of water or bring Gatorade with you. It says no outside food or drinks but the staff doesn't bother you. The water park is fun for all ages. From little kids to family rides. Good for a one day event.

My wife & I took our 3 boys, ages 4-13, last month. There was enough variety of water rides for all 3 boys to love (us too!). Significantly more to do than Sahara Sam's in NJ, which we've got to in the past.
One thing that stuck out to us, significantly, was how friendly and helpful the staff were. Consistently. Everyone we interacted with went out of their way to make sure we had a great time, from the ride operators (I remember one wrapping up our 4 year old in a towel at the end of a ride, because he was a little chilly) to the restaurant staff (they helped us move to a new booth so my kids could get a better view of the TV's). Had a great time, will definitely be back!

We usually go to the Great Wolf Lodge, but decided to come here. It was spring break so take that into consideration. Nice place. The staff was friendly and helpful. The place was clean. The water park is almost the same as the GWL. The prices are high but in line with similar places. We had the dinner buffet which was good and $20 for adults. Overall a nice place, no complaints.

I have to admit very clean, it can get crowded during the day but they do keep the lines moving. You are not allowed any outside food or drinks. There are some very cool bars for the adults. The life guards are very attentive.

My family of four enjoyed both the indoor & outdoor w as waterpark. We especially appreciated the abundance of chairs on the pool deck.

What a great place for kids. It is absolutely awesome. There is so much to see and so much to do. There is an extensive indoor wares park, a great arcade, restaurants, snack places, shops and so much more. We are so glad we went. Our special needs daughter can't wait to go back. And, we can't wait to take her.

Even though we’re "up in years " we laughed ourselves silly after trying a waterslide, wave pool and lazy river. Thete was lots to do for the young folks, but even the older folks can enjoy it.

We stayed at Kalahari in the Poconos Tuesday & Wednesday of this week; we left quite disappointed..... sadly, because we were REALLY looking forward to this family vacation. First, there were cigarette butts all over our patio, I stepped on a bud light aluminum beer cap in our room, there was a used hello kitty bandage stuck to our refrigerator and there was what looked like yogurt spilled on the comforter. The staff was pretty unpleasant and did not have answers to almost any question we had. The kids club staff (coloring contest and cookie decorating) did not say a single word to the children except "MOVE DOWN"; as if their job description was to be grumpy and NOT to smile. I ordered take-out food from the lobby restaurant and when I got it back to the room, it was missing half of the items and utensils. The lifeguards allowed, and encouraged, my 4 year old son to ride the slides even though he was approx. 1" under the 42" mark..... There were two employees (out of the 50+ we encountered) that did their job well; one slide attendant (anaconda) and the guy who lead "Deal or No Deal", unfortunately, everyone else was pretty disgruntled. We had looked forward to this trip for a very long time, but decided to stay at Camel-back for our final night.

Buyer beware. read all small print and watch closely when booking a cabana. If you select 2 or more days you get one less than you select. I selected 2 days on the calendar for a cabana. i hit check out and paid about $1000. When I checked into the cabana the second day I was told I do not have a cabana reservation for that day. I was forced to pay an additional $1000 for the second day. Funny thing was the person in the next line over from me had the same issue. BEWARE the scam!!!

They advertise as being family/toddler friendly, so I was really disappointed to find that the only things we could do WITH our 2.5 year old were the lazy river and wave pool. There were no slides or rides we could go on with her, and she was too nervous to go on them by herself. It was really expensive to come for the day, thankfully we went with other people who were willing to watch our child for a little while so we could go on a few slides. The food is gross and wayyyy overpriced (same kinds of foods you’d expect at like a community pool but for the price of a nice sit down restaurant). I was hoping with it being a resort they would have better food options. They only have two family changing rooms and two family shower rooms, and the showers were cold - no warmth to the water at all. This would be a much better option with older kids who are confident enough to do slides alone or tall enough to do the rides (42” plus required to go with a parent).

We visited the water park as a day trip so I don't know what it is like to stay there. We had a great time. The water park is very large with plenty to do and plenty for little ones too. The only downside to it is it's very expensive. We paid $60 for burgers and chicken tenders for five people. Pizzas were $30. Also the men's locker room was flooded with an inch of water in it. We were told it was backed up. But our three kids had a great time and it was nice to do in the winter time.

Kalahari has built some fantastic water slides and attractions. But despite signs everywhere proclaiming safety is the top priority, we found that not to be the case. First, a lifeguard sent my nephew down a slide by himself even though the ride requires two or four riders. Because the raft was unbalanced, he fell out and banged his head. And then when he came out the bottom -- not in the raft -- the lifeguard at that location didn't say a word.

Later, my daughter was on a different multi-person slide. Part way down, her raft collided with another, empty, raft. It turns out the group in front of her fell out of their raft and swam to the bottom without their raft. And the lifeguards allowed the next group to go despite a raft still be stuck mid-slide.

Lifeguards never said a word. The person working at the first aid station said only they would talk to the lifeguards, but some of them don't speak English and therefore would not be expected to speak to the kids. Unacceptable.

When my family raised the issue with a front-desk manager, he was apologetic and provided some waterpark passes and arcade gift cards. That was nice. But I expect better care in the waterpark when that is your business.

I came here to spend Christmas with my family. I booked 2 nights, but half way through my first day I realized there was nothing special for children. Nothing! I tried to pretend I was happy but my 10 year old said we should have gone to Great Wolf Lodge. It's expensive. I'm here spending a lot of money and it's 4:30 PM and my room has not been serviced yet. I asked them to let me know when I can come back to the room, and I got a thank you for your patience and nothing else, which I found disrespectful. We also had the worst pizza ever. I am not a complainer and I am all about supporting businesses and the economy, but I will not spend the night here again. The room is standard. Nothing special. The pros is that the Waterpark is nice and the temperature in the park is good. The shops have a lot of options in case you forgot to bring something
and there is Starbucks coffee. Staff is friendly. I must say I felt uncomfortable every time I use my credit card and I have to select whether I want to leave a tip. Giving 3 stars because the experience was average and everything inside the hotel is way overpriced.

Poorly managed is not even putting this experience into perspective. There are signs and social distancing floor labels but 100% of the guests are not wearing masks. We were shoulder to shoulder in lines and within the resort and water park while no one has a mask on.
It’s so loud, over stimulating and crowded that we had to leave. This place is like a water park built inside a Walmart. The clientele is trash the dregs of America. It’s depressing as hell.

Room was gorgeous, waterpark was meh, longer lines than normal, the people at the front desk are very friendly and helpful.

Stayed April 4-6. The check in process was easy, the rooms were clean but we stayed two nights and they did not come clean our room. All food and drinks overpriced.
The water park is so crowded, lines super long. My teens had to wait over 30 min for each slide. I would not return.

It was a very cold day so it was cool in the park which was a bit disappointing. Rental lockers are expensive and spread out in different areas. Make sure to rent one near entrance. Rides are fun, bars are great. Towels were hard to find.

We have been faithful Aquatopia costumers but were told to come here. What a WASTE! Dirty towels left in our room at a 5:00 check in. Got a free drink. Wow! Utter chaos! No towels in indoor waterpark. Over an hour and a half wait for food at food truck outside. Came inside and placed closed bc employee got injured. Overpriced. Will never return. And we were not the only ones complaining! Don’t waste your money. Was offered a late check out but cannot wait to pack up and leave! They do not know how to handle crowds or deal with customers. Such a shame.

We were served food that they didn't cook, the meat was pink inside. I hadn't noticed until eating the sandwich unfortunately.

Indoor water park is great during winter season. Didn’t enjoy dinner at Double Cut Restaurant due to bad tasting food. You expect good tasting food to be served if it is very expensive but it was other wise.

All parks have their problems, but this one may have more problems than others. The whistle never stops in the water park. In the wave pool you are not allowed to do anything, but walk around. In all of the restaurants something was forgotten and the worst one was the Double Cut which surprised us. As all vacation destinations they are out there to suck your wallet Dry, but this one may be even more aggressive than the others

So many waterslides to choose from. There were a lot of people in the park but it was so busy you wouldn't know it. For me personally the best part was the indoor outdoor hot tub. It was so cold when we were there that your hair would freeze as soon as you went outside. The only negative was the temp of the water. I have been to several that have been much warmer. I don't know if it was because it was so cold outside or if that is normally the temp of the water but it could stand to be warmer. All the slides were open and there were lifeguards every few feet.

this waterpark has variety of pool/play areas for all ages! my 2 year old boy had like 5 different options to go play. As per my 10 month old, had two options. My older one did not like the area with the water splashing and showering from above but he def loved the coral area and the kids' lazy river area. Make sure to request for your credit card to be connected to your bracelet if you want to buy snacks and charge it directly to your room. This is what i mean by staff are not well trained to inform us with these stuff. We thought it would automatically do that but you gotta tell them at the front desk...sigh...but my kids loved it