The Kalahari Resort and Convention Center is a water park resort chain with locations in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin and Sandusky, Ohio, and a third resort opening in 2012 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At 173,000 square feet, the indoor water park at Kalahari's Ohio resort is the largest in the United States.
Contents |
The Kalahari Resort is named after the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, hence the African theme at all the resorts. The lobbies have artificial fountains, trees, and animals. Special African-themed events, such as getting photographed with baby tigers, are also held. Most of the water slides in the water parks are named after African animals, such as the "Rippling Rhino" and the "Wild Wildebeest". Other services at the Kalahari include restaurants, gift shops, and sweet shops. Both existing Kalahari Resorts include a 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) convention center where groups can hold meetings, parties, and banquets. The Kalahari Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells, and the Nia Center in Sandusky have both won awards for their AquaRecycle system, a laundry water recycling and filtration system that will allow Kalahari Resorts to reuse 70 percent of its laundry water.[1]
The Wisconsin Dells location of Kalahari is its first location, which opened in 2000. The resort has 756 guest rooms, suites, condos, and five-bedroom condos, making it the second largest resort in the state of Wisconsin. It has four main restaurants: The Great Karoo, Ivory Coast Lounge, Damon's Grill, and Kahunaville, with many other eateries in the water park, lobby, and theme park. Other activities include a spa and golfing at the Trappers Turn Golf Club on the north side of Wisconsin Dells.[2]
The resort's signs along I-90/94 at Highway 12 and on Wisconsin Dells Parkway South (Highway 12) and Gasser Road have large, Vegas-style LED screens.
The indoor water park at the Wisconsin Dells location is the largest indoor water park in Wisconsin (125,000 square feet). Until December 2007, it was also America's largest indoor water park. At that time, its sister hotel, Kalahari in Sandusky, finished its indoor water park expansion, making it America's largest at 173,000 square feet (16,100 m2). The Dells Kalahari Indoor Waterpark has the first indoor "Master Blaster", an uphill water coaster. The indoor waterpark is undergoing an expansion with four new rides scheduled to open on December 16, 2011. The new rides include Tufani Falls, the Sahara Sidewinder and the Screaming Hyena. [3]. The Wisconsin Dells Kalahari also has a 77,000-square-foot (7,200 m2) outdoor water park.[4]
The resort contains a 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) indoor theme park with a six-story ferris wheel, a two-floored laser tag arena, go-kart tracks, an 18-hole golf course, a 24-lane bowling alley, rock climbing walls, carousel, sports bar, and a ropes course, and an arcade spread throughout the complex. [5] .
The Sandusky, Ohio location is "America's Largest Indoor Waterpark",[6] at 173,000 square feet (16,100 m2). It is located about 8 miles (13 km) south of Cedar Point Amusement Park on Milan Road (US Route 250) in Huron Township. The water park contains a unique FoilTec roof system which lets in the most natural light, allowing people to receive a suntan at any time of year.[7] The location also features two "Flow Rider" surfing simulators, a basketball pool, a children's play area, an indoor/outdoor hot tub and a swim-up bar. The Sandusky Kalahari also has condominiums and a spa. In addition, Kalahari offers a number of thrill rides, such as the Tanzanian Twister, where riders lie on their back and whirl around in a vortex before falling into the water.[8] Other thrill rides include Victoria Falls, Rippling Rhino,[9] and Swahili Swirl, where riders move through tunnels and vortexes on a raft (and is commonly known as the toilet bowl).[7] Kalahari also has a wave pool whose strong waves create an ocean-like atmosphere.[10]
announced in November 2007 that its next resort location would be in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with a target opening date of December 2009,[11] but due to a weakened economy, Kalahari did not have a planned opening date set as of August 2009. Now, Kalahari is expected to open in March 2012. The project was approved by the city council on April 22, 2008.[12] The indoor water park alone will be 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2), making it the largest in the United States when opened. The resort, like the Wisconsin Dells location, will have an indoor theme park. The resort will also feature a convention center. An outdoor water park will come in a later phase of the project.[13]
Kalahari recently redesigned their website. On the old site, Kalahari featured a "Coming Soon" page for the new planned resort. That page was removed and now only features the two open resorts. There is currently no clear opening date for the Fredericksburg resort.
|
|||||