From Tracie: CoCo Key Water Resort Orlando

Sunday, May 18, 2014

CoCo Key Water Resort Orlando

CoCo Key Hotel and Water Resort invited my family to stay with them for Mother's Day weekend to play in their water park. I'm going to let you in on a little secret: before this trip, I had never been to a water park. Shocking, I know, especially for someone who has spent most of her life in Florida, but true. Now that I have experienced a water park, it is definitely something I want to do again. But first, let me tell you about the hotel.
CoCo Key Resort We stayed in an executive suite. It was very nice. Thomas and I had a king size bed that was luxurious and comfortable. It had a large desk - which is a must for a blogger - a couch, and a refrigerator. The adjoining room had two couches, a round table with four chairs, and another desk and dresser, as well as its own bathroom and tv. Katarina was excited to sleep on the pull-out couch (it's the little things when you are a kid) and have a tv to herself.
Executive Suite CoCo Key Orlando
Both rooms were quite large and had a good amount of floor space, even with all of the furniture. When it comes to bathrooms in hotels, I'm looking for a nice shower head and good water pressure, and CoCo Key hit both of those points well, which made me happy.

They have a variety of room sizes and configurations from which to choose. CoCo Key even offers hypoallergenic rooms with special mattresses and pillow covers and treated carpets and furniture. That isn't something Thomas, Katarina, or I need, but I do have people in my extended family who have severe asthma and allergies who would appreciate being able to stay in a hotel without getting sick, so I know what a blessing that is.

champagne and fruit plate

We checked in on Sunday afternoon, which seems to be the busiest day of their week. Monday and Tuesday were less crowded and the front desk staff were more attentive. Shortly after checking in, a bottle of sparkling wine and a seasonal fruit platter was delivered to our room for Mother's Day, which was very nice and yummy.

Sunday night we relaxed, and got ready for Monday - the day of fun.

Water Park Fun

Parrots Perch Water Park

The water park is separated into three different areas.

You enter the park under a canopy.

Under Canopy Water Play

This area is great for small children, because the pool is shallow, less than four feet at its deepest, and the slides are small. But we couldn't resist playing with the water guns and dancing under the mushrooms.

Dancing Under Mushroom

There is a deeper, heated pool under the canopy as well, with a curly water slide. You can see two lifeguards in this picture, but there were actually two more on the other side of the pool, and even more around the rest of the park. I was very pleased to see how much priority was given to safety.

Pool With Water Slide

Once you leave the canopy, you come to the large Parrots Perch play structure, with several water slides, places to climb, and water flowing, falling, shooting, and spraying everywhere.

watery stairs

There were lifeguards in this area as well. They were positioned by each slide, making sure that people weren't running into each other on the slides, and also patrolling the areas at the bottom of the slides.

above water park

Every fifteen minutes or so the large bucket on the top of the structure would tip over and dump a huge amount of water on the people standing below. We all got caught in it more than once, but Thomas and Katarina actually stood there waiting for it to happen.

bucket of water

Beyond the Parrot's Perch you find the big water slides.

tall water slide tube

My favorite of the big slides was the red and white striped Boomerango.

boomerango water slide

The slide starts with a steep drop, but then takes an almost vertical turn. Your inner tube goes up the incline, and then falls back down backwards. It felt more like a roller coaster than a slide.

yellow inner tube

We spent the whole day playing at the water park. It was so much fun. We went from sliding, to swimming, to sliding, to sitting under an umbrella, to swimming, and back to sliding again.

Arcade

After the water park closed for the day, we headed over to the arcade.
arcade galaga
They had a great mix of old and new arcade games.
And they had the most important game of all - Air Hockey.

air hockey queen

Let me tell you about air hockey. It is the closest I will ever come to playing a sport. If there was such a thing as competitive air hockey, I would sign up right now, and win a championship ring - or cup - or puck - or whatever it is you would win for an air hockey championship. With that being said, I always enjoy a chance to mercilessly beat my family at air hockey.

Eating At CoCo Key

There are several dining choices at CoCo Key Resort without having to leave the property. Tradewinds is the restaurant for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast, they have a buffet. Everything on the buffet was great, but my favorite thing was the French Toast. I could have eaten 20 slices. Well, probably not, because they were thick slices, but I wanted to eat 20 slices. And I did eat a whole bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar, because real oatmeal (not instant) is a necessity. Thomas was just excited about the bacon. And it is always a good day when you have a breakfast cereal towers.

breakfast at tradewinds

We ate at Callaloo Grille for lunch. They have burgers, chicken fingers, subs, and salads. The burgers were great, but we were so hungry from playing in the water park that I didn't pause long enough to take a picture before eating it. They also have a Pizza Hut express located by the Callaloo Grille, so there is definitely an option for everyone in the family - even those picky eaters.
dining at coco key
Tradewinds unveiled a new dinner menu the night we were there. They have a little bit of everything - from southern fried chicken to Italian. One of the new options are family platters that give a group of four a chance to sample several different things. We opted for steak and Cesar salads, and we actually ordered our dinner to go, and ate in our room. After spending the day at the water park and arcade, I was ready to get into my comfortable pajamas and relax. Even if you are ordering to go, don't expect fast food, Tradewinds is a restaurant, and you will have to wait accordingly.

They also have a convenience store on the property that was boasting Krispy Kreme doughnuts and other snack food, as well as souvenirs.

dancing behind falling water

We had a wonderful weekend. CoCo Key is a fun family vacation spot.

CoCo Key Hotel and Water Resort is located on International Drive in Orlando. I-Drive is a great location, because there are restaurants and shops within walking distance, and an affordable trolley that runs the length of International Drive with more than 70 stops, including the Orlando Premium Outlet mall and the convention center. This central location allows CoCo Key to offer free shuttles to Universal, Sea World, and Aquatica, and there is also a shuttle to Disney World available for a fee.

If you want to take advantage of CoCo Key's Mother's Day special, you still have time, because they believe that Mother's Day shouldn't just be celebrated one day a year. So if you forgot to do something with your mom for Mother's Day, or you want to do more, CoCo Key can help you. You can also visit the resort and purchase passes to play at the water park, even if you aren't staying overnight in the hotel. They have locker room areas for showering and changing for guests who do not have a room.

*I was given media tickets to visit CoCo Key Hotel and Water Resort, and was not compensated in any other way.

31 comments:

  1. That looks like so much fun! I am so glad you guys got to do that. And a little jealous. :) Our local pool is getting a water slide this summer, but it's not quite the same.

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  2. We have a CoCo Key here in Mass and my boys love it!!

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  3. This looks like so much fun and relaxing!

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  4. Never heard of Coco Key Water Resorts, but have to put on my list. My kids (and husband) would love it there.

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  5. We saw these on our last trip. Going to have to book with them next time!

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  6. Oh wow! This looks like a ton of family fun. The kids would love the water slides but you would find me suntanning at the side of the pool. **happy sigh just thinking about it**

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  7. I'm not a huge water park fan but this looks nice. Maybe if I went to one in a hotel and not an amusement park...Hey, it's on Florida, a great excuse to visit!

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  8. We have a CoCo Key's water park near us- but I don't think it's the same business as the one you shared. That looks like SO much fun!!!!!

    Ours is indoors at a hotel in Granville, OH.

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  9. This looks like a great place. So entertaining. I had not heard of it.

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  10. I have never been to one of these. It looks AMAZING!

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  11. Wow that resort looks awesome. It's like a full size water park with both indoors and outside fun. What more could you ask for?

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  12. That looks like an awesome place to stay! The kids would love the waterpark.

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  13. that outdoor park looks amazing. I really love water parks when they are not crowded.

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  14. Oh what fun, I would love to go and visit this park but of course I can't being in a different country

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  15. i have seen this many times passing it on the highway when we go up to Disney. I keep saying we need to try it out! Looks great!

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  16. I haven't been to a water park in AGES, looks like you had a blast!

    Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly

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  17. OMG it looks so wonderful I'm jelly! love that water park my kids would go crazy there

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  18. This resort looks absolutely awesome.

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  19. What a perfect Vacation for a family. I have not been to a water park in years. Maybe its time to change that. Glad you all had so much fun. Thank you for sharing.

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  20. This looks like so much fun. I would love to take my boys on a vacation like this. LoOKS epic and spectacular.

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  21. So much fun!! We love waterparks! Great place for us to stay when we visit the area!

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  22. omg - this looks AWESOME! I'm so excited you guys got to go there and that you had this opportunity. I kept waiting to see a picture of YOU while reading, you look so happy, as did K and T! YAY!

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  23. Wow, what a wonderful location and the water park is set up in a really nice way with so many fun slips and slides!!!

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  24. What a fun place! Water parks are such a great option in the summer, and that hotel looks fantastic!

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  25. That looks like a a lot of fun! I'll have to look into staying there when we go to Disney!

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  26. Looks like a really fun place! We have CoCo Key up here, but I have never been. We are headed to the Great Wolf Lodge Grand Opening in a couple weeks though - my kids can't wait!

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  27. Yay! We are going to Orlando this Summer and I know this would be so much fun for the kids! Thanks for sharing this!

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  28. We actually have one of these in Mass! I have always wanted to go with my kiddos too! Super cool!

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  29. Looks like fun! There's a HUGE indoor water park in the Smoky Mountains, about 3 hours from us, and Dolly Parton's water park that's outdoors. They'd talked about putting in an outdoor water park here in Nashville, but it was derailed before construction started. Too bad--it would have been about 2 minutes from my house. Oh wait--that might have been a traffic nightmare...

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  30. We would have such a great time here, we are all water lovers in this family! We'd have a hard time coming back home ;)

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  31. Okay, now I REALLY want to go to a water park!

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