Of heart-shaped tubs and waterslides
Published: August 26, 2010
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“Heart-shaped tubs and water slides can coexist,” says Chris Salerno.
Salerno is director of sales and marketing at Great Wolf Lodge’s Bear Track Landing indoor water park at Tannersville.
Indoor water parks are becoming a popular Pocono Mountains recreational destination. Two parks are already established and three are working their way through the permit stage.
The Poconos have been expanding their promotional concentration from couples and being the “Honeymoon Capitol of the World” to include the whole family. Three years ago they began re-branding themselves, says Pocono Visitors Bureau director Carl Wilgus.
Wilgus, calls indoor water parks a real asset. “They are definitely a popular attraction,” he says.
Outdoor water parks have been thriving in the Poconos for many years. Children with bathing suits clutched in their hands, don’t want to quietly listen to the patter of raindrops on the roof. They do not want to hear about a cold front sweeping down from Canada. With an indoor water park, playing in the water becomes a four-season, any-time activity. Family vacations planned for indoors, have less chance to be destroyed by Mother Nature.
Indoor water park advantages include, no sunburn and a constant year-round temperature that feels toasty in the winter but refreshing in the summer. Technical strides in air purification and humidity controls keep the air inside moving and smelling fresh. Salerno says you can whiz down one of their slides in January, enjoying a balmy 84-degree ride, and look out a window to see people skiing on Camelback Mountain.
After the call to play in the water has been satisfied, Wilgus hopes these visitors to the area will want to explore all the other active things the Poconos have to offer like ziplines, horseback riding, golf and fishing.
More people
All the established and proposed parks appear to be aiming for diversity.
Bear Track Landing, at Great Wolf Lodge, the area’s first indoor park, opened in October of 2005, says Salerno. It is a part of the Great Wolf Lodge chain with 12 locations, coast to coast. Each of the 12 is a full-amenity resort.
Indoor water parks started in the Wisconsin Dells area of the Midwest about 15 years ago, says Salerno. Great Wolf Lodge was one of the first among them.
The attraction to the Poconos is simple: access to 25 million people. Visitors come here from Boston, New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey and as far south as Washington, D.C. Occupancy is strong even though the cost is a bit higher than at other Great Wolf locations, he says. The Wisconsin Dells area has about one-third the population volume to draw from and supports 18 similar resorts. So, a few more indoor parks won’t be a competition problem, he says.
Bear Track Landing, has 78,000 square feet of water park, two full restaurants, and smaller eateries such as Pizza Hut and Starbucks, he says.
Among the other features at the park are, the Elements Spa for adults, Scoops Spa where younger girls can eat ice cream as they get a pedicure. This spa is so popular, says Salerno, it is being incorporated into other Great Wolf Lodge locations. Arcades and tech centers are on the premises. Other entertainments include karaoke, and an interactive scavenger hunt. Both are popular with the whole family, says Salerno.
According to Salerno, “Moms do most of the family vacation planning and they like the fact that access to the park is limited to people staying at the resort.”
When Art and Catrina Wolfe of West Chester booked their vacation at Great Wolf, Catrina says she did the booking. Among the reasons they visited Great Wolf Lodge were recommendations from friends, the fact that it was close to home, and they were vacationing in November.
She says their stay was enjoyable for the entire family, which includes two children, ages one-and-a half and six. There was plenty to do for everybody, and enough staff that she didn’t have to worry about the children. We had an absolute blast,” she says.
Waterpark planning
These projects take a lot of time and financing says Chuck Dickinson, project manager for Split Rock Lodge’s H2Oooohh. This indoor park at Lake Harmony opened in late October of 2008. Preliminary planning started in 1992 and aggressive planning began in 2003. The project was well underway when the financing crunch began, he says.
They don’t know what their volume would be if the economy was stronger, but his resort is doing fine, Dickinson says. He suggests projects still in the planning stages may have difficulty getting financing.
Dickinson says H2Oooohh is different from Bear Track Landing because it has “countless amenities.” Among their amenities are an outdoor water park, spas, regular and miniature golf, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, a lake with a sandy beach lagoon. With planned day activities, it is open to the public. If you live nearby, you don’t have to stay overnight. In June, July and August Split Rock hosted about 50 family reunions, he says.
H2Oooohh has 53,000 square feet of water features. Slides and drops range from four stories high down to wading pools for tiny tots. Air is moved at 1.8 million cubic feet every seven minutes and the humidity is keep at 75 percent, he says.
Dickinson says he loves to see his own children and grandchildren enjoying the amenities. “It makes me smile to go in there and see little ones in the pools and grandfathers going down the slides with their grand kids.”
Proposed indoor parks
Camelback Mountain Resort at Tannersville has an outdoor park and is waiting for final approval on a 100,000-square-foot indoor park of its own, and a hotel. This expansion of the resort is reported to be a $140 million project. It is one of three projected indoor waterparks.
While awaiting the permits for the indoor waterpark, Camelback is expanding their outdoor activities. On Aug. 1, they opened two 1,000-foot zip lines at their CBK Mountain Adventure Park which opened Memorial Day weekend.
Summit Resort is planning The Outback Lodge and Water park. It would have a 100,000-square-foot waterpark and 411 new rooms. It had 184 rooms when it closed.
Spa Castle Pocono is on the drawing board for the old Birchwood Resort. That project would have a total of 600 rooms and include indoor and outdoor waterparks.
No information on financing or permits was offered by the owners of these proposed parks.
All ages
Renate Hamza took her first trip to the indoor water park at age 70. She went with the grandchildren of visiting friends.
“I loved it. I went down all the slides with the kids because their parents didn’t want to. The first time through, I got stuck coming out of the tunnel and needed help from the attendant. The kids wanted to go again and I said yes. But first I studied how the other people were exiting the tunnel. That time, I had no trouble getting out. The attendant was right there to help, but I got out before she got to me.”
“You are a quick learner,” she said.
“After that the rides couldn’t be high enough or fast enough. Each time I passed that attendant she gave me a big smile.
“I can’t wait for the kids to come visit again so I have an excuse to go again.”
