Wisconsin Dells: Waterpark Capital of The World
Our family recently enjoyed a three-day getaway to the Wisconsin Dells. This is a perfect family getaway if you love waterparks, adventure, and fun. Wisconsin Dells, dubbed "The Waterpark Capital of America," is home to the largest indoor and outdoor waterparks in the United States with a wide variety of rides, slides, and adventures for all ages!
We stayed at the Wilderness Resort (511 E Adams St, Wisconsin Dells, WI) a perfect family getaway destination for the entire family. Wilderness Resort is home to four indoor waterparks, four outdoor waterparks (in season), multiple delicious restaurants, and indoor attractions (including go-karts, arcades, sky ropes course, 3D miniature golf, laser tag, tunnel play, and more). The resort offers so many attractions and is so complete, you can easily enjoy your entire vacation without leaving the resort.
The highlight of Wilderness Resort is the waterparks. You will truly find something for everyone. They offer play areas for little ones, splash pads, dump buckets, and slides for older children, lazy rivers, hot tubs, and a variety of rides and slides for the adventure enthusiast. My girls LOVED the rides and slides and the wave pool! They offer with slides for single riders, two riders, or even five. My favorite was the Dueling Mammoths, a family raft ride for up to 5 riders. The indoor resort is completely connected with hallways and skywalks so guests never have to go outside. Upon check-in, families are given a schedule of special activities including crafts, games, and the daily rubber duck race. Many of these extra activities are free, some require an additional fee for supplies (i.e. tie-dye t-shirts). There are numerous restaurants and gift shops at the resort and rooms come equipped with fridges and microwaves making it a one-stop vacation getaway.
First thing in the morning, the park hosts Rubber Duck Races for children. Each child selects a duck, they cheer for their duck pal to win, and the winners are awarded prizes. Each child gets to keep their duck racer as a souvenir.
The Klondike Kavern, indoor waterpark, is 65,000-square-feet of indoor fun. In addition to the girls' favorite ride, The Hurricane, it is also home to a 400-foot lazy river, water slides, Sulfur Springs, an indoor/outdoor hot spa (even in the cold of January we were able to enjoy the hot tub while outside) and Bonanza Bluff, a family-friendly play structure.
Bonanza Bluff is right in the center of the Klondike Cavern indoor waterpark. It includes 50 play and indoor spray features, a 750-gallon tipping bucket, a 14-foot body slide and two 4-foot side by side children’s slides.
I wasn't able to snap a sufficient picture for this amazing slide.... so follow our description. In Klondike Kavern, you will find two 500-foot slideboarding rides that incorporate a gaming experience into waterslides. This tube slide is lit with neon lights. You may ride in a tube as double-riders, or on a body board as a single rider. On the single rider version, you control buttons that you push each time you see a colored light in the tunnel. You score for correct matches, making this an interactive video-game slide. In addition to this tube ride, they also have two 180-foot body slides in Klondike Kavern.
This is the HIGHLIGHT of Klondike Kavern! This is The Hurricane - my girls' favorite tube ride. This is the tallest indoor 4-person raft ride in the Dells. Riders are shot through a tunnel ride at a 45-degree angle into a 58-foot drop where they enter a funnel at 20mph and splash into the water below.
The Great Wave is America's largest indoor wave pool.
This is America's largest indoor wave pool, The Great Wave. It measures 21,133-square-feet, and it creates waves up to 5 feet high. The pool runs in cycles with calm water, smaller waves, calm water, bigger waves so you may enjoy it in sessions according to your adventure-level. In this same indoor waterpark, The Wild Waterdome, little ones may play in a 2,200-square-foot zero depth play lagoon, adults enjoy Margarita’s Swim-Up Bar and the entire family enjoys Dueling Mammoths (my favorite) family raft ride for up to five riders, a high-energy family tube ride that allows families to race against each other through twisting and turning tunnels to see who is the fastest. One of the most unique features of 70,000-sq-ft Wild Waterdome indoor waterpark is the energy-efficient Foil Tec roof which actually allows guests to tan indoors so bring sunscreen. Even in the winter months, we enjoyed some sunshine while we played inside at this waterpark.
In addition to the fabulous waterparks, the resort also offers other fun family indoor attractions to be enjoyed including indoor go-karts, laser tag in the OK Corral Laser Arena (I was unable to capture photos inside laser tag but this was a terrific Wild West themed setting the entire family loved), laser maze, 3D mini-golf, and the Northern Lights Sky Ropes course. You may purchase a fun card to enjoy all of the attractions at a discounted rate, or you may pay for them a la carte.
The Northern Lights Sky Ropes course features 42 challenges, and my girls ranked it the very best indoor ropes course they've ever tried (and they have tried many).
The Wilderwoods Indoor Go-Kart trail was impressive! The girls loved racing on this multi-level indoor go-kart track.
3D Blacklight miniature golf doesn't result in the best photos but we did enjoy this 9-hole aquatic theme.
In addition to all the fun attractions, we also tried several of the restaurants in the resort. The deep fried Wisconsin cheese curds were the biggest hit. Wilderness Resort is perfect for a family getaway and we give it a hearty two thumbs up!
In addition to great resorts, the Dells also offers a variety of family attractions. In town, there are a variety of family-friendly dining options including Buffalo Phil’s, where trains deliver food table-side to your table, Moosejaw Pizza, where you may dine-in or have pizza delivered via a car decorated with a moose on top, or other great restaurants. Be sure to stop at one of the many cheese shops en route and try some of Wisconsin’s famous cheese curds.
Our family loves the fun of escape rooms and puzzle solving, so Wizard Quest (105 Broadway, Wisconsin Dells, WI) was an especially fun experience. Teams work together to solve a mystery pertaining to wizards or dragons (they offer different challenges for various ages or group sizes). You have an hour to explore the wizards’ realm where the castle ambiance and décor set the stage for a magical adventure using technology, puzzles, and physical elements. Teams are given a tablet with the puzzle's app installed. The app will ask questions and provide clues - as you explore the magical realm you'll work to solve the mystery uncovering clues and information along the way. The Quest is built with more than one puzzle, so some clues are "decoys" and others will be relevant to your puzzle making this a truly challenging and fun game to solve. My girls loved that the puzzle included slides, secret passages, ball pits, and an incredible magical setting. All four wish we had something like it in our hometown and all four want to try it again. This was a BIG HIT and we highly recommend Wizard Quest.
Ripley’s Believe It Or Not (115 Broadway, Wisconsin Dells, WI) is a museum for tweens, teens and up featuring exhibits showcasing bizarre and unbelievable attractions including a Duct Tape room, over 200 unusual artifacts including our favorite, an Egyptian temple where you make discoveries in an interactive exhibit. My girls enjoyed discovering the many secret passages, optical illusions, and surprises. Note: This attraction is especially for older children and teens. Some artifacts are a bit creepy, gross, or spooky.
Additional Attractions to enjoy in Wisconsin Dells:
- Mid Continent Railway Museum - An outdoor, living museum and operating railroad recreating the small town/short line way of life during the "Golden Age of Railroading," spanning the years 1880-1916, with operating trains, educational exhibits, and displays of restored rolling stock.
- House on the Rock A must-see attraction!
- Woodside Ranch Resort - Enjoy horseback riding on over 1400 acres of trails. From beginners to experts, Woodside offers something for everyone. A pony ring, covered wagon rides pulled by our Majestic Percherons, lessons for beginners, or choose that perfect horse for a trail ride.
- Wilderness Canyon Zip Line - Right at Wilderness Resort! Soar through the tree tops over Lost Canyon on a tour that spans 6 towers! Watch the canyon pass below your feet as you take the plunge over 60 feet in the air.
- Cascade Mountain - Skiing and snowboarding are another Wisconsin favorite! Kids ski free with a paying adult at this site.
in addition to the Dells, we explored a bit more of Wisconsin. The girls enjoyed driving through Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, the Troll Capital of America (Trollway.com). In this small town, local businesses embrace their Scandinavian heritage with trolls spotted throughout the town.
Or, stop in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin where you can take a free Jelly Belly tour. Visitors take a train ride through the Jelly Belly warehouse where they play videos telling the history of Jelly Belly candies and how they are made. Free samples are given to each visitor and you may purchase Jelly Bellies in the gift shop where you can create your own combination.
We just scratched the surface of the fun that awaits in Wisconsin - our whole family loved this getaway and happily recommends it for your family's next vacation!