Kalahari Resort Vs. Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Ohio

In a moment of parental insanity, I promised both my kids last year that we would celebrate their birthdays at indoor water parks. Since we live in northwest Ohio, we are less than two hours from two of the biggest indoor water parks, The Great Wolf Lodge, and Kalahari Resort, both in Sandusky, Ohio.

We had a great time at both facilities, but one park emerged as a better option for our 3 year old son and 6 year old daughter.

Rooms

Both Kalahari Resort and The Great Wolf Lodge offer a variety of different styles and prices on their hotel rooms. For both stays, we opted for a basic double queen bed room, which was the least expensive, but big enough for our family of four.

The prices for comparable rooms were higher at Kalahari. This is a trend that continues. Room prices at both facilities include the cost of admission to the water parks themselves.

The rooms at both Kalahari and Great Wolf Lodge were very clean. The room at Kalahari rated slightly higher for me simply because it had a large bathroom. This may have been because we rented a handicapped accessible room (though we did not require one). Whatever the reason, the large bathroom was great for all four family members to dry bathing suits and get the pool water off.

The Water Park

Kalahari Resort is a larger water park with more overall attractions than the Great Wolf Lodge. Unfortunately, the majority of the attractions at Kalahari are for guests over 42 inches tall, which does not include either of my children.

Kalahari Resort does have three main play areas for children under 42 inches tall. The first area is geared towards young toddlers, with swings, two small slides and some water spouts. This area was too young for my children, and we spent little time there.

Great Wolf Lodge also has an area for very young children, called Soak and Oak. This area has water spouts, a slide, and a foam tree for climbing on. As with Kalahari, this area, geared towards very young toddlers, was simply too young for my 3 and 6 year old.

Kalahari's next play area is for older toddlers and young children, with a variety of foam slides, water spouts, and things to climb on. My kids enjoyed this area, but it rarely held their interest for more than ten to 15 minutes at a time. The slides were simply too small to be really thrilling for them.

Great Wolf Lodge's older toddler to young children's area, called Whooping Hollow, had four slides of progressive height. The area is set up so that parents can wait in the "catch pool" while the youngsters ride the slides down. This is coordinated by very attentive lifeguards, who make sure a parent is ready and waiting for the sliding kid. This is where we spent the majority of our time at Great Wolf Lodge. The slides were big enough to be fun, but lifeguard supervised in such a way that the kids could ride without a parent following them to the top for every ride down.

Both Kalahari Resort and Great Wolf Lodge have the standard water park play area that includes a huge bucket spilling water over a large play area with slides for older kids, water guns, and nets for climbing. Although at both resorts the slides were large for a 3 and 6 year old, both of my children were brave enough. At Great Wolf Lodge, we spent a great deal of time in the slides, nets, and being dumped on by the big bucket. The water was warm, and the lines leading up to the slides had protection from the huge dumping bucket, which was good, since it was a lot of water for my 3 and 6 year old to be under.

At Kalahari, the large bucket play area, called Leopard's Lair, was very similar to the play area at Great Wolf Lodge except for a few key things. The first difference was that the water temperature in the play area was uncomfortably cold. We couldn't spend much time in the area, because the water was simply too cold to tolerate for long periods of time. The second difference was that unlike Great Wolf Lodge, when the big bucket dumped, everyone in line for the slides was drenched. There was nowhere to hide. Since every turn on the slides was guaranteed to douse those waiting at least twice with cold water, it was not worth the wait for a turn on the slide.

Great Wolf Lodge has only two large slides, which riders use an inner tube, either a single or double tube, to ride down. Kalahari Resort has more than twice that many large ride attractions. Unfortunately, Kalahari Resort will not allow children under the height limit to ride, even with a parent on the same tube with the child. At Great Wolf Lodge, youngsters old enough to hold on to the tube are allowed to ride with an adult. This allowed the whole family to enjoy the big slides, even if there were only two of them.

Kalahari Resort, in addition to more larger slides, also has a wave pool. The wave pool was fun, but during the "wave time", it was necessary to watch the little ones carefully, as the bodies tended to pile up with each wave.

Non-Water Attractions

Kalahari Resort and Great Wolf Lodge both have arcades where parents can dump more money into games. Kalahari also has the Tree Top play area, an indoor dry playground, and a putt putt course.

Restaurants

Kalahari has hands down great food and a number of places to grab a good snack. The food is not cheap, but it is tasty, and saves the hassle of walking to the car.

My family did not eat at the restaurant at Great Wolf Lodge, so I cannot comment on the food. The prices were slightly higher than high end chain restaurants in the area, which is why for that trip, we did choose to eat elsewhere.

After spending one night at Kalahari Resort and one night at Great Wolf Lodge, our family discussed which water park was more family friendly and better for our 3 and 6 year old kids. Although Kalahari Resort boasts a wave pool and many large slides, the height requirements left most of the park off limits to the little ones. Further, the park at Kalahari is much larger, with more opportunities to lose the kids in the crowd. A third disturbing trend was that, during our visit, there were numerous individuals in the Kalahari Water Park that were overindulging in the available alcoholic drinks. Great Wolf Lodge also serves alcohol in the water park, but we did not see anyone that was inebriated, during that visit.

The overall feel of Great Wolf Lodge is more family friendly, and just feels safer than Kalahari Resort. For families with small children, Great Wolf Lodge will keep everyone busy without parents stressing about losing kids in the crowd and parents will get to do more than just catch the kids on the kiddies' slides.