Kalahari Indoor Waterpark — Attraction in Tobyhanna Township

I went for two days with my husband, son and his children, as well as my other grandchild. The children were ages 2,6, and 12. This wasn’t my first rodeo because I had seven children on my own, but it was my first time at an indoor park waterpark such as this. I really didn’t know what to expect but a lot of chaos. We arrived at three, and we immediately were given our bracelets to use that opened our doors to our rooms, let us in the waterpark , and we used as our wallet the entire time. One of a good things that I loved was that I left my phone behind in the room. After we checked in, we immediately went to the waterpark which is outdoor and indoor. It was a beautiful day so we started with the outdoor. My 12 year-old grandson immediately went to the basketball pool And had a terrific time. While he was occupied, we took the younger two in the pools that were outdoors where they both could use slides as well as just swim. Both kids needed lifevests and I think this is a great precaution on the parks behalf. Later in the afternoon, we each got one drink to enjoy outside. It was a bit pricey, but I expected this. After playing in the water for about an hour outside my son took the two older kids inside to go on some of the slides. My two year-old grandson refused to leave the outdoor pool, which was perfect with me! A beautiful day outside. I about 6 o’clock. We were kind of worn out for a while and we decided to go inside and have our evening. Of course my 12 year-old grandson loved the arcade walking through, but he was really great about staying with the other kids and we went up to the room and we ordered dinner in of pizza . Everyone was really tired as we had had a 2 Hour Dr. over. We were celebrating my granddaughter’s birthday so we went down and got some ice cream and came back up to the room and opened presents and went to sleep. The bed itself was just so so I’ll talk about that down below. The next morning we woke up and my husband and I worked out in the fitness room at about 6:30 AM. I wish they had a peloton I don’t understand why they don’t. They just had a recumbent type of bike and another bike that did not have any kind of screen. They had a lot of elliptical and great weights and they also had a treadmills. It’s just I’m a bike person and a lot of hotels lately. Have the peloton. We got back up to the room by eight and we all went down to the breakfast buffet. Now here’s I really have to complement the place. If you go to Kalahari and you miss the breakfast buffet you’re really missing quality food. It was like 120 for all of us to eat and drink all we wanted to of coffees and juices. The fruit was phenomenal and they made eggs right in front of you and pancakes were delicious as well as the waffles. But there was all kinds of other foods as well – from bacon and sausage sausages to egg burritos oh my goodness, I cannot even say how much food there was. The only trouble is putting a bathing suit on afterwards. It was delightful. We all loved it and our waitress the first day,Yalden, was so professional and so friendly she just made the meal even twice as good. OK, so we spent the entire day at the waterpark. We enjoyed the inside and outside. My grandson of two loved the lazy river and he loved a lot of the small indoor slides. There’s a good amount of things to do with a young child. The older children went down on the other slides with my son and then a few times with me and my husband. We all had a delightful day at the indoor and outdoor pools . Some of the bigger slides had weight lines and at one point my six-year-old granddaughter waited in line for about half an hour, and it was told she was too short. This should be my only comment is that they should have a measuring thing at the very bottom of The slide. Because then we had to go wait in another line even though they told us we could cut – that would’ve been impossible and would’ve made us many enemies! But those slides are worth the wait—they are so much fun!!! Everything was super clean at the waterpark and...

Overall, I give this place a C- The room was decent, normal bed was fine but pull-out Couch was horrible to sleep on. They leave some water & snacks on the counter but charge u if u eat any of it. Which I think is kind of rude. A bag of chips was $9, a bottle of water was $8, that kind of thing. The waterpark itself wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either. The lazy river was so packed that people were literally pushing each other to get in & out of the river & nobody is standing there regulating it. I almost got in a fight w/ someone because they wouldn’t let us off the river so we had to push our way through 2 people just to get off. There are several lifeguards posted, but none of them did a thing. They have signs posted that everyone has to be on a raft, but there were numerous people walking through & the lifeguards didn’t say a thing. It’s like signs are posted everywhere to tell u the rules, but when people disobey the rules, no one corrects them. Another example of this is the hot tub. “no kids under six are allowed. No food or drink in the hot tub. No jumping/horseplay.” ALL of those things were witnessed by me & my husband when we were sitting in there trying to relax. But There is no relaxing in a hot tub when u have ignorant kids, jumping over your head & splashing u in the face. The kids were bringing drinks into the hot tub too. No idea where their parents were. any kid over the age of 8, I would say, seemed to just be running amok. The waterslides were the best thing about the whole place. Although walking up all of those stairs wore me out! My calves were killing me the next day! I was so excited for the wave pool but it is designed for kids! Even in 5 feet of water, the waves were extremely tiny & not at all fun. (I went to Dorney Park last week & the wave pool was fantastic! But this is definitely not Dorney Park).The only place I got a little peace was the thirsty turtle which is a warm swim up bar & you have to be 21 to get in, But the strawberry daiquiri I ordered was gross. It had hunks of strawberry in it. And it was $16. There is a pool w/basketball nets, which looked cool but the kids were constantly fighting over the balls & my husband got elbowed by teenagers twice so he had to get out. They dunk each other too. Plus, u pretty much have to rob a bank before u come here. I spent $457 just on the room for one night & it cost me $170 for dinner. any additional snacks we got, breakfast the next morning, and gifts to go home, totaled another $200. And PLEASE check your bill Afterwards. They apparently have tried to scam everyone who comes there w/ extra charges. So when they did it to me, I wasn’t surprised. I made sure that none of us touched any water or snacks in that bedroom but yet I had a $9 fee for “snacks/water in the room”. When I sent them a message About it, the only thing they responded was “I will cancel that charge” it should’ve never been charging in the first place, is what I told them!! Most of the workers at the hotel don't speak English. So when I asked a lady a question about the room, she had no idea what I was saying. It was very frustrating. I spent $25 at the arcade which literally lasted my son 10 mins. That was a total waste of money. this trip was supposed to be amazing! Especially for the money that I spent on it. And I tried so hard to have fun but ignorant people made it impossible to be happy. The worst part about the entire experience was the fact that we were trying to sleep, but someone was blasting music all night! I called the front desk 4 different times & told them where the music was coming from & they told me all four times, they would send security to the room to Tell them they needed to turn it off. I called at 9pm, again at 10pm, again at 10:30, and again at 11 PM. At that point, I put my earplugs in & tried to sleep. But my husband was awake till 3 o’clock in the morning, listening to that Music that was literally rocking our room. Miserable night....

Been here 3 times. Each time they’ve found more ways to make money. Prices on food are ridiculous and most of the grab-n-go food is gross except the Italian restaurant (healthy and regular options are be-low quality; pizza tasty but very greasy..mostly reminds me of race track concession not a resort. The mass food handling could be handled better with healthier options at that price point). Save your money and don’t go to the breakfast buffet. Pat O’Neill at the coconut bar in the waterpark went above and beyond to accommodate us, what a great asset. But an extra 12% charge just for going to that location in the park? Make it easy for people to spend their money (ie. $4 one hot dog $6 for 2). I heard quite a few patrons freak out on a cashier in the 48 hours we stayed. Be prepared to do extensive walking with the way their check in and out process works if you’re not a local. A lot of work to get in and out of the water park and the layout of the hotel is huge. Clean rooms, fast room service. Amazing water park, everything is heated. 3 hot tubs and all were overcrowded. Please put some muscle on the victorian falls…every operator struggles to get rafts 250-800lbs each over the edge and wants the riders to rock the float over it taking up to 3 minutes after the go ahead for each launch. Our group of 15’s eyes burned badly just walking around the water park from the chlorine gases which means not enough chlorine is being put in. Chlorine is odorless when enough is present (I run a very successful pool company and marketing agency). Wait times have increased exponentially, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they adopt a “fast lane”. Speaking of fast lanes, kids water park has several slides where the biggest ones have a longer wait. Kids get yelled at by parents repeatedly on a line for skipping when the stairs could be roped off to pass for the no-wait shorter slides. That could be adopted for shared staircase rides as well (like splish splash or universal/disney rides..hey at that consumer price point). Unfortunately since people started stealing towels you have to check them out and check them back in which falls on the visitor if the towel gets stolen from where it was left. So, it’s the same idea as bringing your own towels but pay a premium if they’re stolen. Nice touch adding a paid reserved table area but this place is so packed it’s now almost impossible to reserve a table and lockers are getting there as well. Overall, they have good intentions but the wait and walking times seriously cut into your stay making it inconvenient, especially with the rooms not being ready before the water park opens. Our room wasn’t ready until almost 3 when we arrived at 11. Had to leave the water park, walk about 2 miles to get the luggages to our room when it was just to find out we had to walk about 10 minutes to front desk to get new room key bands because ours didn’t work. Didn’t offer anything for the inconvenience. Checking out you basically need to put your bathing suit on, pack your car in the cold and walk a long distance..and then rent a $30 locker to store your change of clothes for after. Water park locker changing room is all open (no changing privacy besides 2 family changing rooms that are always occupied) with 2 bathing suit dryers and showers. We will return in a few years maybe, hopefully the experience gets a faster customer experience overhaul/expansion and quicker transformation, it would be a great investment for their family run business. I hope my review is considered constructive criticism as I’ve helped businesses grow to over 1b-6b in annual revenue. Thanks again for another kalahari experience! Please don’t hesitate to contact me for more recommendations/biz dev consult, it...