We just got back from an overnight stay at the Clock Tower Resort and Coco Key Water Resort in Rockford, IL. After reading some of the reviews I was hesitant about going...so much so, that I cancelled my first set of reservations! I was looking to do something fun over the Memorial Day holiday and with gas prices the way they are, I didn't want to make the trek all the way up to Wisconsin Dells! So, lo and behold, after canceling, I received a "last minute deal" from CoCo Key. It was $169 for a Sunday night stay (Memorial weekend), plus breakfast for 4, a $10 arcade card, as well as admission to the water park. This package was actually $20 less then my original reservation.
We arrived at the hotel Sunday about 1:00. I was pleasantly surprised to find our room ready. I figured with the holiday, it would be a little busy. So, we got to our room and immendiately changed into our suits. The room was pleasant. We had a king size bed and there was plenty of room for our Aerobed for our kids (which we brought along). There was a small fridge, microwave, coffee maker and tv. I thought the bed was comfortable. The bathroom was clean, although it was showing signs of age, but nothing too terrible.
The only thing I didn't care for was that you had to walk through the arcade to get to the waterpark. We received out wristbands with ease and went on into the waterpark. Granted it's not "Wisconsin Dells" size, but I thought it was adaquate. My 4 year old, loved the play area for her, which was to the right of the entrance. Unfortunately, there were some older kids, who probably shouldn't be playing there, horsing around. The lifeguards did their best...I even yelled at a couple of them. Once they left , my daughter had fun going up and down the slide. My older daughter, who is 10, enjoyed the one bigger slide, the one that uses an innertube. I went on it with her and it was quite fun...dark tunnel with all the twists and turns...the usual. The play area looked like fun, but my younger one didn't care for it. There was the usual pool, with the basket ball nets, the hot tub etc. The locker rooms were very nice. The best feature, which we have at our local park district, was the spinner thing for your swimsuit. For those of you who don't know about it, you put your wet suit in there and it spins it dry, and it doesn't cost a thing! It's great, because you don't go home with a soaking suit! For some reason, the park wasn't that crowded this Memorial Day. When we went back later that night, my daughter and I were the only ones in the kiddie area, which was great for us, but pretty unexciting for the life guards! So my take on the water park? I thought it was fine for the time we were there, any longer, and I think my oldest would have been bored, but my youngest had a hard time leaving.
Our package included breakfast, which I thought was OK. We ate at the hotel restuarant, the Sun Dial. We had the buffet, which was $9.95/person. The menu items, looked like standard fare, but the prices seemed on the higher end, but I didn't take a real close look at it, so I'm not sure what was included. Our waitress was nice and the kids enjoyed it.
Check-out is at 11:00. The water park didn't open until 10:00, so we tried out the hotel's own pool, which they had an indoor and outdoor pool. It was your standard hotel pool, with a nice kiddie area, shallow enough for them to walk around in.
So, overall, I was pleasantly surprised. No it's not the Dells, but I wasn't expecting that it would be. For us, Rockford is only an hour away, so it was easy to get to and most of all, the kids enjoyed it and it didn't break our wallet!
