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.
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.

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.

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

The water park is separated into three different areas.

You enter the park under a canopy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

They had a great mix of old and new arcade games.
And they had the most important game of all - Air Hockey.

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.



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.

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.

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.

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