Spending implement money on vacation

[Thurd Ferguson]

My family is getting ready to take a vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. We have two days open for waterparks and other family activities. Anyone have any suggestions on what to do there is appreciated. We plan on the upper Dells boat excursion, but are open to ideas. Also plan to spend one day at a waterpark, just don't know which one. Thanks for any help.

 

[midlf]

Original Wisconsin Duck tour of the lower Dells. Good natural scenery and the ride is like a amusement park ride. Works for both adults and kids.

 

[midlf]

Also keep your eyes open for coupon deals at the water parks. That can reduce the cost. If you are coming in from out of state stop at the welcome center to look for these coupons. Also do some web searching. Start with the official Dells site. www.dells.com google Wisconsin dells waterpark

 

[THS]

Hey, this is my neck of the woods somewhat. The only true waterpark is Noah's Ark. It's an outdoor waterpark only, so it can be good if it's hot and sunny, not so good if it's cloudy/lightning and stuff. Mount Olympus has combined itself with the old Familyland waterpark (most recently known as Treasure Island). It's like 80 acres of roller coasters, go cart rides, indoor and outdoor waterpark stuff. I wouldn't waste any time at Riverview Park and Waterworld. It's old news. The Kalahari is combination indoor and outdoor, it's big, but it's still a resort with an attached waterpark. So is Great Wolf resort. I think Noah's Ark is still king. The guys who sold Noah's Ark built the BlackWolf resort and indoor waterpark, which they sold and was renamed GreatWolf Resort. Then there's the new Wilderness resort and waterpark, just opened up their latest addition this past Saturday. It is TOTALLY impressive how much land their expansion has gobbled up!!! Lastly, Chula Vista is nearing completion of their multi-million dollar expansion, but I don't know how nice that is yet. I haven't been by that lately.

The Green and White Original Wisconsin Ducks are the only way to go. The Red,White, and Blue Ducks are a copycat. Not as nice in my opinion. The Ducks go on the Lower Wisconsin River, and on Lake Delton for a short while. The Upper Dells Boat Tours take about 3 hours to ride on, makes several stops along the way, and will show the real meaning of the Dells. Means something like sand cliffs or something like that (dalles?). Been a while since I heard that, so it's probably wrong. Since the Wisconsin Ducks and the Upper Dells Boat Tours are practically married, you should be able to get reduced pricing if you go on both. I'd skip the lower Dells Boat tour as you will see the same thing if you go on a Duck ride (stick with Upper Dells boat ride only).

Tommy Bartlett Ski Show is new this year, sounds like it's based loosely on the Pirates of the Caribbean movie with it's "Pirates of Barlett Bay" theme this year. Kids will get a kick out of it. Robot World is an outdated joke I think. Was state of the art back in 1985, but old technology now.

I have been at almost every restaurant in the Dells area, and know most every hotel/motel/resort in the area. If you need help with anything, email me or PM me.

 

[MossRoad]

There is a circus museum in Baraboo, WI. Very fun. Tons of old circus wagons. Most are restored to original condition. They have a rail yard to show how the circus use to move. They do demonstrations with horses loading trains and I think there is at least one and maybe two circus shows a day under the big top.

Circus World Museum

 

[Thurd Ferguson]

All right, thanks guys.

We get free passes to the Riverview Park with our hotel stay, so thought that would be the one to go to. Guees not. Have looked at the Dells.com site, good info there. Noah's does look cool from the guide book we have, but Mt Olympus does too. Thanks for the tip on the coupons at the welcome center. We have rode the ducks at Branson, that was fun. These ducks looked smaller in the pictures.

Also, how does the weather look like for the week of July 17th? We figured the last part of July would be the warmest for the waterparks.

Again, thanks for the help.

 

[THS]

Thurd,

I can say that Riverview's waterpark (all outdoor) is smaller than most of the indoor waterparks in the Dells. They have a bungy launch thingy there, a HUGE ferris wheel, bumper cars, some other odds and ends. Across the street there is a monster truck ride attraction. Riverview is probably going to be cheaper than Noah's but nowhere near as fun. Lines can be long at Noah's though, I'll say that.

Since my wife's birthday is July 20th, I can usually remember what the weather is like, in recent years it usually is upper 80's to low 90's, but humidity can be common which makes it feel like 100 degrees sometimes.

Don't forget mini-golf! It's a great family event, and there are three decent ones close by the Dells action. Pirate's Cove is very large, Timber Falls is good too. The one that's actually located a block off broadway in the Dells is pretty small but challenging.

Forgot to mention that they do Jet boat rides on the Lower Dells now. My Mom took Dad and a few of my siblings for a ride for Fathers Day, YOU WILL GET WET! It's pretty fast I guess. Like 1300hp engine I think the sign says. Mom liked it, Dad got soaked and the day went downhill after that....

Where are you planning on staying?

 

[rox]

THS,

Being that we moved form Wisconsin to France, I am getting a little homesick reading about Wisconsin Dells. What a fun place for a family vacation. Yes it isn't for everybody, some people will say that it is to touristy, but we enjoyed it many many times.

I also second your recomendation about mini golf as great family fun. We like Timber Falls for mini golf. Noah's Ark of course reigns supreme as far as the water parks go. It is pricey so we always brought a picni lunch and went out to the tables under shade awnings and ate lunch. On our way home we always stopped at Kentucky Fried chicken and ate chicken for the drive back home, it is loated on the way out of town headed south.

Here is my tip for Noah's Ark, the best day to go is the Monday of Labor Day. Still great weather and since it was a 3 day week-end all the crowds went on Saturday and Sunday and saved Monday for driving home. If you go on the Monday of Labor Day, guess what? No lines! Really you can just hop on the rides ad not even wait.

Once I took 5 kids middle school aged (French cousins and my son) to Wisconsin Dells for 5 days. I was conerned about cost since a Dells trip has a high daily burn rate of $$$, so I started and Exell spreadsheet and wrote down all the attractions and their hours and costs. Before I left I knew what my expenses were going to be so I felt very comfortable spending daily. So many times my hsuband and I will tend to hold back a little bit because you need to make sure you have enough funds for the whole trip. By putting the trip in Excell, I'm able to show my hsuband how it all works out $$$ wise and then we jsut go ahead and enjoy.

Whne I took those 5 kids to the Dells one thing we enjoyed was Tommy Bartlets water show. In all the years we had lived i Wisconsin we never did that and it was very enjoyable, it is a good show. Another trip to the Dells I took my other in law our two childen and my daughters friend. We stayed at Chula Vista, it was nice but it wasn't great, so if they did a recent renovation I know it needed it.

For the French kids vacation I let them loose on Main street and they went and got their pictures taken dressed up in cowboy outfits. I personally thought that was a waste of their spending money but the photos ame out really good and yers later now, I still enjoy looking at their photograph which hangs in their parents houses. So actually that expense turned out to be worth it, it is a nice souvineer.

Another really stupid attraction that is really pretty fun is the one where the house is on an angle, so it seems like you are at an angle as well. I foret the name of that one, but the cost was low and the kids enjoyed it. As evryone said you have to take the Ducks Tour.

This thread has brought up so many happy memories for me that I am formulating an idea of taking a trip back home next summer and going to the Dells. Instead of having my daughter and her partner and my son visit us in France over the summer, I think we'll all just meet up in Wisconsin and go to the Dells. For at least 5 years in a row we ended every summer by going to Noah's Ark on Labor Day, it brings back a lot of nice family memories....

 

[Thurd Ferguson]

Thanks again.

We are planning on golf at Pirates Cove, forgot about that yesterday. The leaning house is called The Wonder Spot, I think. What about going down to the house on the rock? Would a six year old and 8 year old enjoy it?

We are staying at the Best Western, cheap and we figure we will just sleep there. Plan to run most of the waking hours. Looked at the Dells jet boat ride, don't think my stomach could handle it. My problem with most amusement parks is the waiting in lines, I was hoping that since Riverview was not the best that the lines would be shorter. But in looking around at hotels to stay at, most gave free passes to Riverview. We went to Six Flags on the hottest day of the year last summer, hardly any lines that day. Park was deserted, but it was hot though. Stayed in the shade and drank lots of water. Had a good time and a cool swim in the hotel pool afterwards.

Thanks,

Thurd F.

 

[rox]

Thurd,

I do think that young children would enjoy House On the Rock, however I'm not so sure that I would include them in this trip. House on the Rock is a trip all by itself, possibly a camping trip. With allt he French relatives comeing to Wisconsin to visti us over 20 eyars I ahve seen virtually every attraction within a day's distance of Milwaukee.

Everybody I ahve ever taken to Hosue on the Rock young and old has enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for the reminder, Wonder Spot, that's it. The ticket price was pretty low and it is a wacky off beat fun sight, especially for the kids.