[Updated December 9, 2021] When designing a new indoor water park, adults are not usually the targeted demographic.
I mean, sure, adults are welcome but I think the expectation is that they’ll typically be there as parent or guardian rather than with the sole intention of having kid-like fun on their own.
Here’s something about not having kids: you don’t get a lot of chances to act like one. So when Matt and I plan our day trips or weekend getaways, they’re usually adult-oriented or at the very least, not planned with kid-friendly activities in mind.
But by March of 2019, in the waning dark days of an endless Northeast winter, we’d already had our cold-weather fun, which included gliding across a frozen lake at the Lake George Winter Carnival and cross-country skiing in the Adirondacks. We wanted to get away but we wanted warmth.
So when The Kartrite Resort & Indoor Water Park opened, it seemed like an appealing quick winter getaway fairly close to our home in New York City. Ads promised a simulated tropical environment heated to 84 degrees with a clear roof overhead, allowing Vitamin D-deprived guests to feel the weak winter sun shining in.
Lounging in a heated lazy river sounded fun. Cruising on inflatable inner tubes down steep waterslides actually did, too. Plus, The Kartrite advertises itself as a “top-notch, stylish hotel” set in the gorgeous Catskill Mountains.
On the other hand, a resort that calls itself the biggest indoor water park in the state is obviously made more for children and families and that’s where we hesitated.
We like kids but wouldn’t it be weird for two grown adults to go play on their own at a water park? And while we love our freedom to pick up and go to a Catskills water park for a couple of days, we don’t exactly celebrate being childless.
About ten years ago, when we decided to move to Inwood and were winding down our vagabond lifestyle, we knew that having children was the next step for us. To make a long story short, my body disagreed and we started a long, unexpected journey down a road of infertility treatments.
Nothing worked for us and we ended up where we were when we started, so needless to say, not having children is kind of a sensitive topic. We don’t usually seek out family-oriented experiences unless we’re traveling with our nieces and nephews–who, by the way, are some of our favorite travel buddies of all time!
But on this occasion, we decided to try it and booked our weekend at The Kartrite, feeling mostly excited for a dose of warm water-focused activities and just a little worried that we’d look like the creepy adults at the playground.
Either way, we’d get to spend a winter weekend in the Catskills, and that’s never a bad thing. Here’s a review of our weekend at The Kartrite Resort & Indoor Water Park, and my thoughts on whether it’s a good indoor water park for adults.
First Impressions: Check-in and Accommodations
I spent some of the time on our drive up to our Catskills water park destination looking over online reviews. Because it was the end of the resort’s first week in business, comments were just starting to make their way online.
Many were good. A lot were downright scathing.
A common complaint was arriving at the designated check-in time and then waiting hours before getting a room. Several reviewers implied that the resort was overwhelmed and understaffed during that first opening week.
Luckily, our check-in went smoothly. Since guests can enjoy the water park on their day of check-in and check-out, we arrived at 10 a.m., thinking that if we couldn’t get into our room, we’d head straight to the water park.
They ended up letting us in to our room right away with no problem at all. Our room was a Junior Suite Double Queen that could accommodate six people. It’s not the smallest room type at The Kartrite but it was the smallest they had at the time I booked it.
Our room was on the ground floor. It was spacious and spotlessly clean with a pleasant view outside. We looked out onto the courtyard and could even see the indoor-outdoor hot tub across the yard, steaming up invitingly into the cold air.
Our visit began on a Sunday, at the tail end of spring break and we fortunately experienced none of the chaos mentioned online. Maybe the kinks had been ironed out by then or maybe we just got lucky.
Room Sizes and Rates
Guest room sizes and rates vary. Below are examples prices and room sizes but additional options exist. All prices below EXCLUDE taxes and fees–a resort fee is charged per room. Passes to the water park are INCLUDED in the total guest room cost. Search for more room sizes and rates here.
- The smallest is a Junior King Suite, which includes one king-sized bed and a sofa. Maximum number of guests is four. Weekend prices currently start at $400 per night. *This is the best room choice for couples.
- The next size up is a Junior Double Queen Suite, which has two queen-sized beds and a sofa. Maximum number of guests is six. Weekend prices currently start at $400 per night.
- A Family King Suite with Bunkroom has one king-sized bed and two twin bunks. Maximum number of guests is eight. Weekend prices currently start at $420 per night.
- If you don’t want to stay overnight, The Kartrite offers a Day Pass, otherwise known as a Splash Pass.
Restaurants at The Kartrite
For us, one deciding factor on whether The Kartrite was a suitable water park for adults was the quality of cuisine and types of restaurants we had access to. We had an uneven experience with this.
After checking in to our room, our first order of business was to fuel up before hitting the water park. Of the several restaurant options, we decided on Bixby’s Derby for lunch. They offer the finest dining of all The Kartrite restaurants, though the main courses on the lunch menu were mostly burgers and sandwiches (the dinner menu is more upscale).
The burgers looked good but became much less appealing when paired with the image of ourselves sloshing our way down the waterslides, which was where we were headed after lunch. We kept our meals light, ordering a salad each, and made plans to return for dinner.
When we did come back at dinnertime though, the entire restaurant had been shut down for the night because, as the host explained, the gas wasn’t working properly. We knew that The Kartrite had just recently opened and seemed to still be working out a few issues and we decided to be cool and roll with things.
However, that left us with fewer, less desirable dinner options.
One of the great benefits of not having children is—ask anyone—eating leisurely, uninterrupted meals, any time of day or night, at any given restaurant. It was the one thing that set us apart from literally every other adult guest we’d seen at The Kartrite.
Now we had to turn to the more “family-friendly” dining experiences, which I pictured mainly to be plates heaped with chicken tenders or maybe those giant pizza slices you see up and down East Coast boardwalks.
I’m kidding. We had more options than elementary school cafeteria food but still, we weren’t thrilled with our meals.
The buffet at the bluntly named Eat. Eat. Eat. did not look overly appealing. I also didn’t want the pressure of feeling, at around $30 per person, like I had to eat my money’s worth. I strongly believe buffet meals are meant for people with tremendous self-control around food and/or those who can eat a large meal and go on to sleep soundly through the night.
I am neither of those people.
We ended up at Harvey’s Wallbanger which, according to the website’s description, was exactly the kind of place where Hemingway would’ve drunk, “gabbing with his pals about his latest adventure in Venice and Pamplona.”
Ummm….
I can agree that Hemingway would’ve enjoyed the specialty cocktail menu and the knowledgeable, conversational bartenders. But any comparison to his usual haunts must stop there.
All around us were the bleeping lights and sounds of digital video games played by many small, loud children. Mind you, I’m not complaining and this exactly what we’d expected. But calling Hemingway to mind in this setting just didn’t work.
We ate chicken wings and burgers. Were those part of Hemingway’s “Moveable Feast”? Was an appetizer called Chipsters part of his daily lunch and did he eat them slowly after a good day’s writing, savoring them like he liked to do with nearly everything he ate?
I couldn’t picture it. More likely, a clever copywriter was looking to be ironic. After all, Bixby’s Derby is described as “the restaurant where you walk in and everything just works.” (See above if you’ve forgotten why we couldn’t have dinner at Bixby’s Derby).
Our chicken wings and burgers, by the way, were fine but not memorable. We had wanted something a little different than pub fare but really found the food to be OK.
Breakfast brought around a similar mediocrity. We opted for coffee and breakfast sandwiches at The Highline. It was perfectly OK but I wouldn’t have eaten there twice.
Conclusion?
We’d had a very good lunch at Bixby’s Derby and I’d like to go back and try their dinner menu. Harvey’s Wallbanger had a comfortable bar area and an awesome selection of adult beverages. Those two things, in my opinion, gave us enough options, food wise, to make The Kartrite a suitable choice as an indoor waterpark for adults.
Additional restaurants at The Kartrite:
- Surfside Grill – A small selection of snacks, pizza, and burgers served inside the water park. This is perfect if you want to stay poolside, without having to change into dry clothes and leave the water park area.
- Bar Mez – A scenic bar with a great view on the mezzanine level of the water park.
- Pop’s Sweet Shoppe – A literal candy shop for kids and anyone with a sweet tooth. Selections include candy apples, gelato, fudge, and much more.
- Kosher options are always available at The Kartrite.
- Dining specials are often available for the holidays.
The Kartrite Indoor Waterpark
The Kartrite has 11 water rides and slides and is advertised as the largest water park in New York.
Before entering the water park, it was tempting to imagine loads of frenzied parents chasing after their shrieking kids, while we blissfully sipped tropical cocktails from our inner tubes on the lazy river.
In fact, none of that happened.
The water park, as water parks go, actually had a relaxing, chill vibe. The place is huge for one thing, with plenty of room for everyone to spread out and get comfortable. Surfside Grille serves up some of the comfort beach food you’d find along the boardwalks of the Jersey Shore, and a full bar-Bar Mez-is located up on a scenic mezzanine.
Every adult except us was attached to kids. But my biggest fear, that we’d look out of place without them, did not happen—we just became part of the scenery like everyone else.
The lazy river was incredibly relaxing. The slides were a lot of fun but be prepared to climb a lot of stairs to get up to the top. The lines weren’t terribly long and there were a ton of friendly lifeguards on hand helping to move things along. The slides do have height requirements and there’s a separate area of the water park with rides and slides for smaller kids.
The Kartrite Water Park is impressive. The transparent roof, the 84-degree inside temperature, and the lush green foliage work together to create a tropical effect. Water whooshes all around, drowning out any loud voices or screaming and even the background music was a muted, pleasant hum.
Bursts of color everywhere contrasted with the bright green foliage—beach umbrellas in orange, yellow, and green. Candy-cane striped slides twisting and turning every which way. We spent two pleasant days alternating between the lazy river, the slides, the hot tub, and the lounge chairs.
One nice touch for adults: private cabana rentals are available in the water park. Rent one for the day and it will come with lounge chairs, towels, and a stocked mini-fridge.
The major disappointment was the outdoor section of the indoor-outdoor hot tub—the part that beckoned us from across the courtyard from our hotel room window—was closed, with no sign or explanation why.
We both left the water park on the second day with sore muscles from the jerky twists and steep drops of the waterslides. But our sore stomach muscles were also from laughing so much at ourselves—at being more scared of hurting ourselves than anything, at coming to the end of the rides into a facefull of water, and at the pure delight of feeling like little kids as we shot like cannons down the water slides.
Arcade and Entertainment at The Kartrite
The moment the revolving door spills you out into the hotel lobby, The Kartrite Resort & Water Park would like to assure you that you will have fun!
The lobby is massive, and the seating area is furnished like an oversized, luxury hunting cabin. A game of Connect Four, so large that players have to stand up to drop their plate-sized discs into the grid (the resulting noise is something like an echoing gunshot) sits on a large wood-carved table. Two little girls were playing Go-Fish with playing cards each the size of an iPad mini.
The Kartrite Resort appears to partly be a modern version of Catskills resorts from the early to mid-twentieth century, when Sullivan County was home to hundreds of hotels and resorts.
Remember the summer days packed with guest activities from “Dirty Dancing”? Or more recently, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” in which the quirky Maisel family spends two months in the fresh mountain air, paddling around the lake and playing organized games?
Similarly, The Kartrite also has a full calendar of events. It can be found online, and yes, the activities are 100% family-oriented (no Patrick Swayze-like character to give dance lessons; no adult games—thankfully—of Simon Says, in which Midge Maisel gets kicked out of for swearing).
There was plenty for us to do, both indoors and outdoors. To get from the lobby to the water park involves walking through a meandering arcade area, with games and activities for people of all ages.
We played a game of mini-bowling at Van Winkle’s Alley, then a few rounds of Skee-Ball. We also watched a short 3-D interactive movie in which we were being chased by dinosaurs inside a Jurassic Park-type setting.
Neither of us tried the indoor zipline or ropes course, but it was fun to watch others.
Additional Activities at The Kartrite
It’s not only waterslides and questionable comparisons to Hemingway that make The Kartrite a suitable water park for adults. They also offer plenty of activities that appeal to all ages. Outside, guests can hike on one of five hiking trails at varying levels of difficulty, though all of them are suitable for beginning hikers.
There’s a fitness center called SWEAT for anyone not too exhausted from careening down the waterslides all day. There are also a ton of nearby local attractions like Resorts World Catskills Casino.
When to Go & What to Bring
- When to go: It’s an indoor water park that’s open all year so winter is an excellent time for a getaway. We had a couple of rainy days when we went, so we couldn’t enjoy the outdoor fire pits. If you’re planning on experiencing the great outdoors of the Catskills, fall is the perfect time to go. Room rates drop somewhat in the summer months.
- What to Bring: Bathing suits, of course. Towels are provided inside the water park, as well as showers and changing rooms. Consider bringing some food to stock your in-room refrigerator—maybe fruit and yogurt for breakfast, and deli meat and bread for lunch. While we did have decent meals during our stay, the healthy options were limited and the food is priced for a resort.
How to get to The Kartrite Resort & Indoor Water Park
The Kartrite Resort is a conveniently located indoor water park near NYC. Distance from major cities to The Kartrite:
- New York City: 95 miles. 90-minute drive.
- Albany: 100 miles. 2-hour drive.
- Syracuse: 160 miles. 3-hour drive.
Shortline Coach bus travels from NYC to The Kartrite Resort & Waterpark.
As a final note, I ended up being very glad we went. It was a quick drive from our apartment in Inwood and as I mentioned, it was a welcome change from what had been a long winter. And while it wasn’t exclusively an adult indoor water park (because that would be really weird, honestly), there was enough to keep two adults busy–and feeling like kids again–for the weekend.
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