Kalahari Resorts & Conventions - Round Rock — Attraction in Round Rock

Keep in mind, my experience is bias to my opinion and vacation preference. Many people enjoy this type of corporate packaged up vacation, but it was really hard to stomach, literally. The indoor waterpark wreaked of bleach and chlorine misting in your face at all times, not great for the lungs or overall body health. It was poorly ventilated and chaotic at best. My young child under 2 needed help going down the slides, but at every turn, you are met with rules and regulations, many of which were not logical. The teenage lifeguards did not seem to understand that my child was not old enough to go on slides without assistance from myself or a sibling, so a normal waterpark experience that we are used to (Seaworld, etc.) where we can go on slides with our little one became a nightmare here at Kalahari. Without much ability to be with your children in the waterpark activities, little kids are limited to basically walking around in a foot of water with mom and dad. There are so many issues I have with this resort. Let's start with the cost. It was almost $2000 for two nights. We only wanted to stay one night, but the online reservation system only showed availability when booking two nights. When you call to talk to a customer service rep, they were completely clueless. They said they had no availability and did not know that there would be availability with two nights. They then referred me back to the website to book and said the most up to date is through the DIY reservation system. Why would I take the time to talk to a human if they are not more knowledgeable? Educate your staff on customer service, and offer them access to the full reservation system, please. If this were a three-star motel, I would understand the level of customer service received, but this is supposedly a top-rated experience, more than I would pay for most luxury hotels with Michelin-star restaurants. Alas, we booked online and got in. Then, when we got there, every experience was a POS kiosk system. There were lines at every turn. The AI/ML involvement at the facility actually caused delays due to user error and unlike airport kiosks, there was no one around to help when the system went down. Once we got through check-in, we attempted to find the waterpark. I cannot express how little signage there is at this park. We walked in circles trying to find the park, and like a Las Vegas casino, there is so much to look at, it is not obvious at first glance where to go. I finally found it after asking a bartender at the downstairs bar where the main attraction was and she admitted, yes, it is confusing. One of many employees I met that agreed with me on the lack of signage. The place seems to be run, poorly, too, by the machines and the humans, staff included, are just as clueless as the guests. We are all just hoping we find our way. Last point, since I am writing a novel, I cannot express how POOR the food quality is here. The nice restaurants which might serve marginal quality (think Carnival cruise lowest tier) food only open from 5-10 p.m. The other options you are left with is the machine-operated food court in the center of the waterpark (whose computers broke when I attempted using it freezing up the whole system--more lines, more delays), or the mac and cheese restaurant, which looks fancy, but my God help us. They are taking mac and cheese, which had no flavor (was it real cheese?), and cutting up chicken tender from the kids menu, spraying ranch and BBQ sauce on top with some pickled green peppers and calling that the hatch green chile mac. It was a health-conscious foodie's nightmare. There was not one place you could go to for hot food where you could just order protein. The salad parmesan in the cheese was hard as a board and the wings at the sports bar tasted like old chicken. The buffalo chicken sandwich was a paper thin filet of chicken with some sort of pancake soft batter substance around it that nearly doubled the size of the "filet" if you can call it that. Like a casino, you are encouraged to be indoors at all times. We tried seeing some sunlight on day 2 and going outside to eat breakfast after getting tacos from the indoor convenience store (the only place where you did not have an automated kiosk but could have used one) and they have cigarette areas immediately outside near the tables every outside the building. So much for fresh air! My kids had a great time with the slides, but overall, this place is outrageously priced, with no quality food options, herding people around like sheep, and offering customer service about the level of the machine at a gasoline pump. I will not be returning Kalahari, but as with everything, there is a Jack for every Jill. I am sure you will continue serving up folks as long as they will pay, but as for me and my family, I am dreaming of our next vacation, maybe an outdoor camping adventure or real resort quality customer service for our next trip options. Thank you for giving me perspective to realize what a vacation should not be. For now, I will take my stomachache and headache I have as a result of this place and not return. Cautionary tale for those who would like a nice experience when they pay $2k for a two night stay...

This is a water park. That's the first thing you need to know. The second thing you need to know is you are 100% on your own. This place is not here to serve you in any way. Perfect example: I received a text every single day reminding me that if I had to use one of their towels in the WATER PARK (as if I brought my own) and it was not returned by xx:xx I would be charged $30.||||If you are there for a conference, as I was, you will be quite surprised at the amount of charges you'll get on expense reports from your desperate people. There is no coffee to speak of - they have a janky little machine that puts out bad tea at best, there is no room service to speak of (zero for coffee/breakfast) and one cafe in the lobby which had a line every day a mile long for obvious reasons. If you aren't supplying coffee your people will be asleep.||||If you are not providing lunch for your people please know there are three options, two of which don't really have much space to sit. If you let hundreds of people go to lunch on their own, plan a long break, they won't be back for a while.||||Rooms: tragic. No one that has ever stayed in a hotel like this designed the place. The coffee service is... see above. You have to call down - no, text - to get an ice bucket and they will tell you they don't put them in the rooms because people don't like high touch things. Yet, they put the pumps of soap, etc. on the wall as if that's not disgusting. Further, they put the pumps in the shower in such a place that you will get your elbow every time you wash your face or rinse your hair. The days where all of us had to be somewhere at the same time the shower water was warm-ish. The days we staggered starts the water was piping hot. The bed would have been comfortable if they hadn't wrapped the mattress and pillows in plastic - very hot and noisy. There was a couch in my room which was completely useless since it was plastic as well so if you sat on it everything started sliding around. There is no table anywhere so you need to put your drink, work, laptop, etc on the floor or just hold it. At the end of the day, the very long day, you get back to your room to discover fresh towels and trash - that's it. Not even a made bed. The waterpark crowd is there for a night or two so they don't care. I was there for a week and had my mother's voice in the back of my head not to leave the room with an unmade bed. If you try to conserve water and hang your towels you will quickly realize that no one measured - your towels are either flowing into the sink or dangling all over the toilet. Has no one in management ever stayed in one of the rooms for a few days?||||Conference rooms: equally tragic. You will kill your weak ones. There is not a single space that is just comfortable. Every room is either freezing or like the surface of the sun - and they are right next to each other so there is no rhyme or reason to it. We joked we needed bathing suits and parkas for the day of breakouts. There is ample space for whatever you need and everything is spotless. But you will die of pneumonia soon after the conference. ||||You can't swing a cat without hitting a manager walking around the place but there are a shockingly few number of workers - anywhere. You pre-checkin on your phone then have no choice but to checkin at a kiosk when you get there. Remember, everything is for their convenience. Your room key is a bracelet for the waterpark. The kiosk spits out a receipt with your room number on it. OK. Now what? The place is massive and you only get a map if you were lucky enough to see them at the kiosk. This resort also does not place a hold on credit cards for incidentals - they actually charge the card. I am currently waiting for the refund so the jury is still out whether I'll get it or not. Half of the people at my conference were charged a resort fee though it was negotiated to be waived - then they blamed the way we checked in for the problem. Hmmm... maybe could have been avoided with a person checking people in?||||I have rarely stayed at a full service resort/hotel quite like this. It was more akin to a timeshare. The whole thing becomes more jarring when you turn on the TV and are met with the film documentary of the family that owns the place on safari in Tanzania. After being nickel and dimed all over their resort and seeing them on their ridiculously expensive safari and deep sea diving adventure we're met with kiosks all over the lobby begging for $50M to help them supply water to 1M people in Africa (a worthy...

This was our first visit to Kalahari while attending the Texas Chiropractic Association annual strategic and board meetings. The resort is huge and you most definitely need more than one day here to experience all the resort has to offer. We were here for 4 days which seemed a perfect amount. ROOM: We had a 2 queen sleeper with a couch that folded down into a bed. (5220) This perfectly accommodated our family of 4 traveling this trip. The room safe didnt work and we spent an hour waiting on replacement batteries and then had to coordinate maintenance to return to replace the whole thing. I noticed the fridge wasn't working and he noted it had over heated and the motor burned out. Crisis averted. Bonus: They brought a new one that was already cold, immediately! The walls are very thin and you can hear everything on either side of you. Keep this in mind if you bring toddlers or children who bounce basketballs at 7am 🙄 or want to scream or open and close the door a hundred times waiting to go. We also found putting the Do Not Disturb sign on the door invited Knock and Ditch at all hours of the day/night. The AC seems to cut off over night when there is no movement in the room so we kept waking up in the night hot and stifled air. The convenience items in the room are stupid expensive. Bring a case of water with you! They charge upwards of $7 for bottled waters. Theres plenty of room in the fridge for drinks and lunch stuff/snacks. They charge $25/day for a crib which should be complimentary in a family style resort. WATERPARK: can be accessed two ways. Thru the arcade or thru The outdoor Waterpark which has lots of activities for smaller kids and multiple pools outside including a 21+ area. My 13 year olds found the outside water area to be boring and spent 100% of their time at the inside park. Pro tip: arrive as soon as the park opens (10am) The kids were able to ride everything at least twice before the lines got crazy long. Go ahead and have the kids remove necklaces. It was hit/miss on which ride was going to refuse a rider with a necklace on. Be prepared to be weighed for certain rides both alone and as with a group. They are absolute in safety and we witnessed very disgruntled people who were over the weight capacity. The grotto was warm and a nice reprieve from the squeals and screams of the Waterpark and its 21+! The only thing I didnt like in the water park was the number of adult women walking around filming children and inside of people's cabanas. And, the collection of hair and eyelashes on steps to slides and in the lazy river 🤮 AMENITIES: Lots of restaurants and bars and moderately expensive. I was surprised at how inexpensive the Waterpark food was however. A burger, mozerella sticks, mini corn dogs, and loaded fries were $56 which is far less expensive than a day at Six Flags. This resort is cashless and you either must use a card or charge to your room via a wrist band that also doubles as a room key. Do yourself a favor and use self check in via kiosk and bring your own cart. They have plenty but at check in/out the elevators are so congested the line wraps down the hallways, especially on Fridays and Sundays and it was easier to carry things down the stairs. You have access to the Waterpark/arcade as early as noon on the day of check in and as late as closing on the day of check out. They also sell day pass access to the Waterpark and it gets very busy on Fridays and Saturdays. Thursday and Sundays were the best days. Pro tip: purchase arcade passes online ahead of time. It's cheaper and has more perks and lasts the entire stay! They have minimal gluten free options so come prepared if this affects you. It was a great experience overall and I would definitely come back! I also need to give a shout out to Lee in the Marrakesh Market! The resorts closes the ability to room charge on the day of check out and he was very accomodating since i didnt know. The market has just about anything you need/forgot at about triple the price point. TRAVEL Tip: Eat at Salt Lick across the street for great Texas BBQ! See my Google Review for...