Keylime Cove Sneak Preview
By Jesse Mendoza
I can say one thing right of the bat- this thing is going to be HUGE.
The resort is scheduled to open its doors to the public on February 29, 2008, and features over 400 resort-style suites and staterooms, a 6000 square-foot state of the art arcade and entertainment center, two new restaurant concepts including DW Anderson’s Eatery & Ice Cream Parlor and the Crazy Toucan Margarita Grill, a luxurious KeyLime Cove spa and treatment rooms, and of course the 65,000 square foot tropical themed, indoor water park.
Walking into what would appear to be the front entrance of the building still under construction, you can begin to see the sheer size of this massive structure. I could already hear the excited screams of giddy children, the sound of rushing water, and the chatter of happy families enjoying a day indoors – at a water park! And In Gurnee!
Keylime Cove’s visionary, “Famous” Dave Anderson, award-winning restaurateur, and the man behind great restaurants such as Famous Dave’s Barbecue, and Rainforest Café, was our gracious tour guide and was nice enough to talk to us for a minute about his vision for the grand resort- a place where families can escape the daily grind of life right in their own back yard, where children and adults alike can enjoy some relaxation without having to worry about crummy weather and big crowds.
We were then walked over to the area where the resort will present guests with an indoor water park encompassing 65,000 square feet. We can already see the lazy river and the wave pool taking shape. Dave also pointed to holes in the outer walls that will send tube riders through long water-filled tubes from inside the park, and then outside, only to dump them back indoors in the pool below. How fun is that!
We moved along to what will become one of the resorts 414, resort-style guest suites, some accommodating up to 12 people. Is that a large screen, HDTV I see in the photo?
One question Kelly and I brought up to Dave is whether or not the resort will have general admission prices for guests who only want to enjoy the water park and not stay in the rooms. Dave’s vision of reserving the use of the water park for staying guests only made sense- to keep long lines to the various attractions low, unlike the lines you see at major outdoor amusement parks. I wholeheartedly agree.
I’m looking forward to opening day, and I can see it being a nice getaway during the winter months when cabin fever gets a good grip on me. There will be no putting away the swimming shorts this coming winter…
…I’ll be sipping a tasty margarita by the pool.
Visit the official Keylime Cove Water Resort website.Visit my Flickr photo gallery for more Keylime Cove tour photos
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6 Comments:
Can't wait to go... will be there on 3/11/08 for our 1st and hopeful not last trip.
KeyLime Cove is committed to providing guests with an escape from everyday worries through its carefree lifestyle and environment within its doors. KeyLime Cove is working with its staff to ensure that we deliver quality customer service to every patron.
My family and I just visited the Key Lime Cove in Gurnee. We were very much looking forward to our visit. It took 25 minutes to check into our rooms due to the long line. We were given arm bands to wear during our visit to show that we were hotel visitors and could have used the bands to charge food, beverages, and arcade games (but chose not to do so as the children would have racked up quite a bill with that option.)
The hotel room was nice and comfortable. Large soft bath towels and comfortable beds and flat screen tvs.
The water park was clean and not overcrowded. However, we were expecting the water park to be larger (more the size of Kalahari or Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells), but it was smaller with less water park activities than these two water parks. We had heard that Key Lime Cove will be expanding the size of its water park in the future.
It took about 20 minutes to check out of the hotel because of the long line for check-out.
Overall, this was a good visit but we would have preferred to have gone to the larger water parks in Wisconsin Dells for the money that we spent.
Takes us 2 hours to get to gurnee and 4 hrs to the dells and for us It's great! 2 kids one 4 and one 6 had the time of their life at key lime cove. We had fun rooms were great and everyone was a great help. Front desk was like a 5 star hotel the way they take care of you for it being new is okay. They have growing pains but it is new and very nice! We go to the dells alot and were coming back here! We met famous dave in the elevtor! Great guy!Great food and nice people!They got to work on the wristbands with the vending machines.And color code them for over 21 so you don't have to carry a I.D. and allow you to buy more than one drink per customer. But thats all and that's not bad. We are comming back!THANK YOU KEY LIME COVE FOR A GREAT TIME!
It was our first visit -- and it's an impressive site when you first arrive. As it's a new facility, everything looks shiny and new. The rooms, especially the suites, are spacious -- but the layout is less desirable for traveling with kids. By that I mean that the hallway entry is into the main bedroom -- not into the sitting room with the pull out couch. So those up early kids have to trek thru the bedroom to get to the bathroom, and thus wake everyone up anyway. Probably much better to try to book two adjoining rooms so the kids can have their space and let the adults sleep a little longer.
The water park is great -- and short lines and nice pools and slides abound.
The housekeeping staff is very inconsistent (did not come make up our rooms, we had to call to get linens and towels) and the rooms are missing some key things (What was missing? Do not disturb signs, small pads of paper and pens/pencils, notebook/binder with resort info and policies -- none of those are 'deal breakers' but definitely something one would expect to find in a $310/night hotel). But the TVs and beds are nice. Double vanities in the suites are a nice touch. Single cup coffee maker -- but ours was only supplied with decaf coffee (another oversight).
The biggest turnoff for us was the on-site food & restaurants. The one venue with live music is really too loud for families (kids were holding their ears) although without kids it would be tolerable. The hamburger and pizza shop was inexcusably slow in service (wait for 30 min in a line with 3 people in front of you to place an order for a hot dog and slice of pizza only to have it take 15 min to fill the order). It may have been understaffed or staffed with new people -- but for our entire 3 day visit the service was never good there. Bright spot: The ice cream shop near the arcade did have fast and friendly service -- kudos to them.
All in all, a place that kids will love and adults will wish they booked somewhere else.
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for your comments. We appreciate your feedback, and are always open to hear how we can improve upon our guest experience. As a new resort, we recognize that it may take some time to smooth out the rough edges, but your experience certainly does not meet our standards of service at any level. We apologize for your disappointing stay at KeyLime Cove and assure you that we will review your comments closely and make the appropriate changes.
On behalf of KeyLime Cove, we hope you are willing to give us another try and come stay with us in the future. We are continually making improvements in order to guarantee our guests a delightful experience.
Best,
Jennifer Evans
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