Kalahari, in Sandusky, is one of Kinley's favorite places in the whole world. So when I saw a Groupon come through for it, I had to jump at the deal. If you have ever been to Kalahari, you know how expensive it can be. We paid $189 and received at check in, a $100 arcade card. This was an amazing deal. Would we normally spend $100 at the arcade? No, I am sure not but in this case, why would I pass it up?
Upon check in, we were told that we had been upgraded to a Nomad room. I was so excited as I have never been upgraded at any hotel, ever. It wasn't a grand upgrade by any means, but the room did have 2 beds, plus a pull out sleeper sofa, a fireplace, and a walkout balcony overlooking the outside attractions. Seeing as it is winter, there wasn't much going on out there but it was still a nice feature. Another awesome bonus this trip was that our room was ready early, when we arrived at noon. We were definitely not expecting this but it did make life easier.
After settling our luggage,we went straight to the water park. Kinley was so excited as she is now officially over 48 inches so she could ride just about everything. She likes to choose the lazy river first to ease her way into things and we definitely weren't complaining. From there we headed to Victoria Falls as that has always been a family favorite. We never ride this without constant giggling. This year Kinley really took to the wave pool. After months of swimming lessons, she is quite the water bug and really enjoyed just having somewhere to just swim. She is a bit overconfident I must say and the first time the waves came, it was quite an eye-opening experience for her.
After testing out every water attraction, we decided we were hungry and went to get some dinner at the buffet. The price tag carries a bit of a sticker shock for most at first but when comparing options, it really is reasonably priced. For comparison, our dinner bill came in at $55 while lunch the next day at the water park was $44 and included much fewer options. I tried lots of new foods at the buffet , just because I could and found quite a bit of things I liked.
We also spent time in the arcade with our "free" $100 arcade card. Each game costs a different amount of points so some games were more of a value than others. However, any parent who has ever been to Chuck E. Cheese or some place similar knows, the prizes for tickets are pretty lackluster and usually not worth it. We decided to try our luck on the numerous crane machines. Not to toot my own horn but I am pretty good at them and they actually had some nice prizes in them. Kinley walked away with 7 prizes, including a Cutetito and a Spongebob mashem, both of which she was really excited about and were worth more than any prize she could have won with tickets in the range of money we had to spend.
The next morning we packed up our stuff and handed it off to concierge. They will hold your luggage until you are ready to leave. We try to get the most bang for our buck so we always use the water park on departure day. This day was a learning experience for me. I saw many people who had brought their own food into the water park. I did not know this was allowed but boy could that save you some money. I also learned that you could buy a souvenir cup and keep refilling it with pop or the frozen slushes. How had I been there so many ties and not known these tidbits of info, I have no idea. It will definitely change things for our next visit though.
Here is a breakdown of our overall spending:
- Room for 1 night through groupon-$189 with $100 arcade card
- Locker on the 1st day- $25
- Snacks from candy shop- $7
- Breakfast- $16
- Dinner at the buffet $55
- Lunch in water park $44
For a grand total of $336. Not bad at all for a one night stay at Kalahari. We will be returning for sure!
