Our family was invited on a trip to review and share our experience with you on the KeyLime Cove Water Park in Gurnee, Illinois. To say that my children were more than thrilled about this trip opportunity would be an understatement. Although this may surprise you, we have never taken a family vacation before. I travel so often with my own work that my husband uses his vacation time for my work travel and our family travel has been pushed off because of this. Although Gurnee is just a few hours from our home, we could not have been more excited to experience the water park for ourselves and share it with you!
KeyLime Cove Water Park is situated in the town of Gurnee, IL and is just three short blocks away from Six Flags Great America. We had fun not only exploring the water park, but also had the opportunity to explore the restaurants in town and get to see all of the cool things that Gurnee offered. TripAdvisor named Gurnee one of the Top Ten Vacation Destinations in 2009 and we could definitely see why. With outlet malls, an amusement park, a water park, and great restaurants… it would definitely be a town we would like to visit again and again.
The rooms had a tropical feel to them and we were in a Queen Deluxe Stateroom that offered two queen beds, a sofa bed, a refrigerator, a dining table for two, and a flat screen television. The room was spacious and had plenty of room for the four of us. The hotel can house parties up to twelve, by giving everyone adjoining rooms that connect and each room can hold two to eight guests.
The refrigerator in the room was a fabulous way for our family to bring our favorite breakfast foods, lunch foods, and snacks and have them on hand to keep our extra spending down. Thanks to the dining table and couch, we even had a place to enjoy all of our food in the cozy seating area. Since we saved so much on our dinners we were able to enjoy dining in the resort in the evenings, as well as checking out other fun restaurants in town through the help of my Yelp app on my phone.
More pictures of their accommodations can be seen here.
There is truly something for everyone in the KeyLime Cove water park area. My children are 5 & 9 years-old and they both had an incredible time at the water park and with over 65,000 square feet of water park space, it is no surprise that we had no cries of boredom that day.
Younger children have their own separate area with small slides and shallow depth for the toddlers in your family. Children that are a little bit older can enjoy splashing in a larger water park structure complete with oodles of slides, from small to large with slides that could accommodate children both large and small.
For the older and braver kids (and adults), the Hurricane Vortex boasts a 44-foot drop and makes you feel like you are spinning in a top. Wahoo & Screamin’ Banshee are two other fun slides that you can ride on with inner tubes and have 40-foot drops and they loop through the exterior of the building. For the really brave, two enclosed body slides are also available.
My 9 year old just made the height requirement for the Hurricane Vortex which was 48″ tall. Thanks to his recent growth spurt, he was able to do every single one of these slides and he truly loved them. He even did the body slides on the last day. When my husband told me that he was moving really slowly through the body slides, a lifeguard offered a tip and said that his rash guard shirt that he was wearing could have been slowing him down. Once he removed his little shirt, he was a human cannon ball and shot through the slides at lightning speed. Luckily, his mother was sitting on the lazy river and had no idea what was occurring up there.
Being of the old and not brave variety, I did try the Hurricane Vortex, the Wahoo, & the Screamin’ Banshee which was quite impressive for me. Our entire family also enjoyed hanging out in the Washout Wavepool, where the water is meant to simulate the ocean and you can lounge around in beach chairs or on an inner tube to enjoy the waves. Ride the waves into the Keylime Creek and you can loop all through the water park and coast along in your inner tube on the lazy river and enjoy every moment of being lazy for a change. Both the wave pool and the creek can be enjoyed with children of all ages. Parents can double up on one inner tube with their smaller children or laze around solo holding on to the handles of your child’s tube.
Regardless of what age your child is, lifeguards were present in a big way there and were vigilant about watching children in the play area and also reminding them of safety when exiting the slides and keeping everyone safe when going down the slides. I witnessed one child who could not find his mom & dad, and a lifeguard was there in three minutes flat to take care of him. A first aid station is located within the facility and life-jackets are available for smaller children to make sure that they are safe.
Just as impressive as the water park itself, the Leapin’ Lizards kid’s activity center was my kid’s favorite hangout and where they wanted to spend all of their downtime. They had everything from a bean bag toss game, to checkers, to oodles of art supplies, and toys for the kids to play with. My daughter spent hours coloring princess pictures and my son & I enjoyed a few rounds of checkers between water sliding.
The most impressive part were the activities that were available to the kids each day. A dry erase board outside of the activity center listed that days activities and would include things like my making a foam hand for hi-five day to celebrating birthdays for that particular month to Mario Kart Wii racing in the evening.
My son talked the employee’s ears off about video gaming and no one ever seemed anything, but interested in what he had to say. He had a blast in the Mario Wii Kart competition which yielded him coins to spend at the RipTide Arcade while my daughter submitted endless coloring sheets for the coloring contests and came home with jewels from their prize boxes. A dance party was held in the evening and Emily got the party started with the employees which made us so proud that all of our Just Dance Wii game practice has been paying off.
Of course, my son’s favorite part was the RipTide Reef Arcade with over 8,000 square feet of gaming fun. My husband kept remarking how impressed he was with the game selection as well as how up-to-date the games were that were offered. The boys spent some money at the arcade, which led to tickets, which led to spider rings, which led to tears because only brother got a spider ring, which led to more games, which led to a purple jelly bracelet for someone else, which led to happiness. In all seriousness, there were so many great family-friendly games to choose from and the boys had a blast playing in here in the evening.
With our first family vacation under our belt, we now feel like we can do anything. When we asked the kids if they would like to spend a day at Six Flags… they regretfully… declined.
No, they wanted to spend the last day on the water slides. Playing in the activity center. Eating the food at the resort. Playing in the arcade.
I think that should speak for itself on how much fun we had together and how thankful we were for the opportunity to explore this resort.
I have a very, very good feeling that we will be back soon!
Our family received a free stay at this hotel in exchange for our thoughts and opinions on the water park and its services. All opinions expressed are our own and we received no additional compensation.