Wilderness Hotel & Golf Resort
About Wilderness Hotel & Golf Resort
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Insider Pages Reviews for Wilderness Hotel & Golf Resort
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Insider Expert
| Rank: 5,355
This plave absolutley blows Great wolf lodge away- we have stayed at both and the 4 indoor water parks here alongside the outdoor jacuzzi in -3 degree weather- so cool! ( pun intended).
December 24, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
Insider Guru
| Rank: 352
The Wilderness is one of the new generation of mega-waterpark-resort facilities popping up throughout the Dells.
We visited in the off season, during the week of spring break, and it was busy but not insane. The resort is huge, and is essentially several long three story motels connected end-to-end via skywalks, so you can get pretty much anywhere, but it can be a lot of walking. Getting a room on the third floor is recommended; the second floor will tend to see an amazing amount of foot traffic, and I would imagine you hear the stampede on the first floor as well. The room was unremarkable, with a television with moderate selection of DirecTV channels, free WiFi that bogged down in the evenings, a combined bathroom fan/light that was extremely noisy, and a tendency for the room to get really warm even with the heater off. Fridge and microwave, reasonably spacious, clean rooms. There's a registration desk at each end of the hotel facility, use the one farther in if the near one seems busy. We were promised a crib at check-in, but this never appeared.
We were satisfied with, but not too horribly impressed by, the buffet restaurant serving breakfast at the south end.
Wilderness claims four indoor waterparks (and of course the outdoor ones were closed), but this is a bit of advertising sleight-of-hand. There are only three at Wilderness Resort, one more is at Wilderness on the Lake, which is a different location. Of the three, one is a large wave pool and small play area for children, with large raft water slides behind. An indoor overpass to the Klondike Kavern makes this a good area for adults and kids, and the Klondike Kavern sports several tube and body slides, a lazy river, and a large water play fort, plus an indoor/outdoor hot tub and waterball pool. All of the body slides are slide-outs, where you don't get dumped into a pool, but rather slide to a stop and then get out. Good for kids, but don't expect that kersploosh-fhwump at the end. All the slides except the very smallest are completely staffed.
The Wild West waterpark was a little different, it had a small wave pool, waterplay fort, and some slides. We didn't care for it as much as Klondike Kavern, but it was mostly just different, not bad.
There's also a dry soft play area, the Timberland Play Park, that is a combined three story ball shooter area completely surrounded by tubes and crawl areas, slides, and all sorts of fun stuff. Any toddler's or small child's dream playland. A soft play area for infants and toddlers is also included, though bigger kids tend to not recognize the boundaries and storm through it at high speed, so be prepared to fend them off. A staff member is generally policing the area and enforcing the socks rule, a definite plus.
In any play area (water guns, ball shooter guns, valves and gags in the water play forts, etc) expect that a large number of items will be nonfunctional, which is kind of a shame. At least here, a large number of them were also operational, but it is a bit annoying to see pictures of all these things working on the website. The lazy river and waterslides in Klondike Kavern were closed for several hours, no explanation, but did eventually open.
The most annoying thing? Some of the other patrons. Kids old enough to know to be watching out for little kids, charging around like water buffaloes, getting scolded by guards for running, plowing by toddlers and infants. Elementary school aged kids trying to swing on the infant swings and swinging from the valve ropes. Teenagers going down the toddler slide. A father with his kid, trying to get his kid to swim in the lazy river (signs indicate you have to have a tube) - and he decided to get confrontational with the (extremely professional) lifeguard, who calmly and insistently prevailed and forced them to exit, but the kid became so agitated over the event, he threw up (fortunately after exiting the lazy river, unfortunately right next to us). Chaos and mayhem.
The big tube rides typically involved long waits, and were fairly short rides, but good fun.
We had an error on our bill. We had tendered two Dells chamber of commerce gift certificates and a Wilderness gift card as payment towards our room, and there was also a credit card advance payment deposit. One of the certificates did not appear on our bill. We did eventually work through that by finding the desk clerk that had registered us, but I am skeptical we would have resolved this otherwise.
The best deal for a place like this is the one-night stay. You get to use the waterparks on the day you arrive (you can check in even if your room isn't guaranteed ready until 4PM) and the day you leave, effectively getting you two days of waterpark for one night of hotel. You can probably get burned out after two days of waterpark.
Overall, it is a nice facility, room for improvement, but not a bad place to go. It isn't the Dells motel of the '70's, that's for sure!
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
Although this has multiple indoor water areas, they are separated by outdoor areas so you have to go outside or up to an overpass to get there from your room.
184 dollars/night for a two queen bed room in June.
Refund policy is horrible, when my child acted up and I needed to take her home, the only refund option was a gift card back to the resort. As if that would be appropriate. It's like the resort is saying to the child, go ahead and misbehave, we've already got your families money.
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
Our entire family loves the Wilderness Resort. This resort has something for everyone and you never have to leave the resort. There are water play areas for the very young and unbelievable water slides for the older kids. The rooms are spacious and accommodated my family of six. If the weather is bad outside you can move into the indoor section. We come all the way from California to stay at this resort.
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
The Wilderness is our favorite resort in the Dells. The rooms are large, well-appointed and comfortable. The water parks - indoor and outdoor are the best anywhere. The restaurants are top notch. Even the Sarrentos Italian restaurant adjacent to the resort (and owned by the Wilderness) is advertised as a family restaurant, but is extremely up-scale with delicious food. There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about this resort. We love it!
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
In the winter this is the best place to go on vacation. It is very reasonably priced and has many amenities for you. Rooms are very nice. They have 4 main water parks and then lazier tag and some other off water adventures to do. But the parks are big enough you don't feel confined and a lot of places to just sit and relax also!
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
Insider
| Rank: 15,895
We took the family here for a few days. WOW! We were impressed. The water parks were big and fun. The golf course was beautiful. We look forward to going back again.
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
Top100
| Rank: 32
This resort is absolute fun for the entire family. It is the largest indoor/outdoor water park in the USA and the only way you can use the facilities is if you are staying at the resort. This policy ensures that the lines for slides are always reasonable. A vacation here allows all ages to have a great time, and does not wear you out like a trip to Disney. Resort room prices may seem high at first glance, but are actually a bargain considering that everything you do at the water park is included. This resort is worth a trek to Wisconsin all by itself.
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
I have to pre-empt this by saying that *anything* The Wilderness does, turns to gold.
It's worthy of you money and time. Your children will thank you again and again, and you will certainly return for more family fun adventures.
Give The Wilderness a try. It really is the BEST.
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
We stayed here this past May during the week. Of course, there were very few hotel guests, which made using the water parks a great time for our family. We have three young children, and the two oldest really enjoyed the water park. The indoor wave pool is one of a kind. Both water areas have things to do for people of all ages. The heated indoor/outdoor pools were really nice for this time of year. There are lifeguards at all times. Food is available at both places.
There is a HUGE three story indoor play place for kids and adults to have fun in.
The hotel rooms were very rustic looking. Definitely kept the theme from the hotel going. The rooms were your run of the mill hotel room, but very clean.
If we are ever in the area again, we will definitely stay here. The off-season rates are very affordable.
PROS: cannot say enough good stuff, this place rocks!
CONS: LOTS of walking to get to each waterpark
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We received a gift certificate for the Wilderness resort! We normally stay at the Kalahari in the Dells. If we had never stayed at the Kalahari we probably would have liked the Wilderness better, but we didn't find nearly as much for little kids as they have at the Kalahari. If our kids were older we might like them equally!
The rooms were nice and we enjoyed the kids eat free at the restaurant. One thing that our kids really enjoyed was the dry playland with all the ball shooters! They could have spent a whole day just playing in there! Also enjoyed the pottery painting, the kids had fun and made me a souviner for my curio cabinet!
A nice weekend getaway, but if we are staying in the dells and spending our money, we prefer the Kalahari.
PROS: Good value for the $.
CONS: We think there are better resorts in the Dells.
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This waterpark resort has 2 locations, Wilderness Resort and Wilderness on the Lake. Theyre both great places to take the family for a mini vacation or a long weekend. The waterparks are exclusive to guests of the resort and you can use the waterparks at each location. The condos, villas, and cabins are great to stay in if youre with a large group. But be prepared to pay quite a bit for your stay. This is one of the more expensive waterpark resorts in the area.
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
The wilderness hotel is known for their famous hurricane waterslide which is a few stories high and looks sooo scary. I went there on a saturday night and loved it. their indoor lazy river is huge and their waterslides are great. I highly recommend it. I went during the Fall so i can imagine how much more rides and slides you can go on during the summer
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
We stay at the Wilderness on an average of 3 times per year. The kids always enjoy every aspect of the trip, from the great indoor/outdoor waterparks, to arcade and restaurants. The rooms are spacious and comfortable, and the staff is very attentive. We also like that this waterpark is closed to the public, so only hotel guests can use them.
August 31, 2009Was this review helpful to you?
well, be carefull when reserving a standard room. there are many rooms with communicating door between them. I wouldn't mind very much the security- they are locked- but the noise... you can hear every word of the persons next door.
Beside that- the hotel is ok. I guess it is the best you can get in wisconsin dells (it better be, because it is very expensive, especially in season). But- they have the most gorgeous water park, huge inside water park and even bigger outside.
The water parks are open ONLY for the clients of the hotel.
PROS: large, nice
CONS: sometimes rude staff (or at least not helpful), very expensive
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This is an exciting hotel to visit! The interior decorations are great. This hotel is special for having both an indoor and outdoor waterpark! It was fun to visit during the fall -- except the outdoor waterpark was closed by then. This is one of the more expensive places to stay in the Dells -- but if you're looking for a good time and not worried about money, I recommend this hotel.
PROS: waterpark
CONS: price
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Latest reviews from Citysearch.
Wow, what a great looking place online......read all the great reviews and had to stay here! We set up a 3 bedroom condo for our family seeing we don't get up there too often (so we splurged).Thought the condo would be seperate (like what we saw in the picture????) but there were 4 put together.....no biggie just thought there was going to be more 'wilderness' around these for $640.00 a night. Inside was nice but nothing more than a 'house' with some wood beams in it it (again we were looking for some wilderness here). Yes, things were broken/not exactly working...again, for $640.00 per night I EXPECTED quite a bit. Now onto the park......what a complete bummer, sort of! First off, great the way the park is designed to have rides for people of ALL ages. Easy to get from one park to another and again, great rides at each park (inside and out)...now for the bad...no fooling... this place closed down (outside parks) right before our eyes (approx 3:00 p.m., normally would close at 8:00)...sure, we had some rain but it had been raining all morning and afternoon, boom, closed. When asking the workers, they looked as dumbfounded as us (those that could understand our Anglo American dialect. When we did get an answer, we were told basicly it was due to 'hard rain', no lighting/thunder mind you. This person said it may reopen up in half an hour or so but it sure seemed like due to the parks not being crowded like a sardine can, they were sending people home early (some of the parks were being closed up by the employees like they had no intention on reopening). The other problem here is a the difficulty in communicating with the employees. It was very, very difficult to speak with them (at least the ones we dealt with) as most would have very little idea what we were asking since it didn't seem they spoke the local language. Cleaning staff was the best people we met there...courteous and out of their way help. Overall it was an interesting stop but for the money shelled out for 2 days...in THIS economy, Wilderness Territory was a let down....sorry.
Pros: cool water parks right on site (go HURRICANE!)
Cons: Expensive!, bad communications
My family and friends have been her definitely over 5 times, and we're going back for spring break to try the mini-golf. Everyone here is so friendly and nice. The first time we stayed here, we stayed in the whirlpool room. It was nice, but I mean it wasn't anything too special. The great part about it is that the whirlpool room are a couple feet away from one of the waterparks, Klondike Kavern. Another time we stayed on the 3 bedroom deluxe condo in Glacier Canyon Lodge, but it was a lot of walking. We didn't get a hang of it until the last day we were there. Every time we go now, we fit about 5 people into the double queen suite. It's spacious enough, and pretty clean. The waterparks are also pretty clean. The timberland play park is also quite fun, I suggest that black slide that practically goes vertical. At first, none of us wanted to try the lazer tag because we thought it would be boring but we gave it a shot and it was very, very fun. About the Wave Pool: I strongly suggest that you don't let children under 7 in here without a parent. The waves are very strong, and with all the people you have tubes flying over your head.
Overall, I strongly suggest wilderness resort. You'll have a great time, no matter what your age. ;)
Pros: The resort is huge! Everything is right next door though.
Cons: The smell of chlorine is abundant.
