our room was nice. the only draw back is you only get 4 wristbands for the pool area per room. and the other thing that was disappointing is the Nascar simulator has been taken out of the Ramada Inn on Merle Hay Rd. in des Moines, Ia. We didnt find this out until we checked inn. that waas one of the only reasons we booked a room here for my sons birthday. Other than that we had a good time during our stay.

We decided at the last minute to head to this hotel/waterpark for our daghter's 6th birthday. We stayed on Thursday so, our rate was $149 for a 2-room suite which I feel is pretty normal for a suite. Check-in was fast and easy, we were ablet o stay parked in the front of the hotel and enter through the lobby. Our room was on the 2nd level overlooking the waterpark. Room was nicely upated, clean and modern. Surprisingly quiet for being right next to the water. Waterpark was busy, but not over-crowded. The "lifeguards" did a great job of keeping teens out of the little kid area. Water was perfectly warm until closer to close and first thing in the morning when it seemed like the shut the heat down/took a minute for it to heat up, but not an issue. Big slides were fun! We were allowed to take out 6 and 2 year old down on our laps. We were only a family of 4, but our room slept 6 so we were given 6 wristbands. I think this is great, but we had no one to invite to go with us so, I felt like we "wasted" to wristbands...wish we would have known this up front adn would have invited 2 cousins to come along for just some swimming and then sent them home. No food or drink allowed in pool area, but we were allowed to order Castaways Restaurant from the tiki bar and allowed to sit in our bathing suits just outside the pool area. This was nice as we didn't think we could get the kids dried and dressed just to go eat! One female bar staff was a bit sub par -- seemingly ignoring me as I stood at the bar outside the pool area with my two year old. Once I gave her to dad and came up to bar from pool area I was recognized by another tender and service was good after that. I used a $25 restaurant certificate and our bill was still about $25 for a family of 4 with gratuity added in. Children orderered off of adult menu as we weren't given a kids menu, but I didn't bother asking either after it took so long to get attention. Food is a bit pricey, but very tasty! Fried pickles were to die for and the bar staff was kind enough to keep refreshing our sodas free of charge when we asked. No wait staff service since we technically were not in the restaurant proper. Breakfast is not free, but a large buffet of hot and cold choices is offered in Castaways. Adult was $9, children, $6, and under 5 free. We had a coupon so we only ended up paying for the adults. Kind of a steep price for what many other hotels are now offering free, but not that big of a deal if you know what you are getting into up front. Little arcade open until 9pm...fun for a bit before bedtime, but many machines were broken/took money/didn't put out tickets. There were signs all over saying they were not responsible for broken games and would not give refunds. I felt this was their way of saying, "We know our games are sucky...too bad!". Not that big of a deal to us, but I am sure some people would hate it. Each child got a little trinket with their tickets and they sweet lady at the counter let them pick one more little thing even though they were 3 tickets shorts. Nice little snack shop in arcade with "regular" prices, not marked up. Would have liked to see snack machines in the hotel for after the time the shop closed.Check out is noon so, plenty of time for swimming again in the morning before leaving. I would definitely try this hotel again as my kiddos had a blast! Wonder if the prices are ever cheaper? We have driven past on weeknights and seen hardly any cars in the lot and, out of curiosity, went home and checked the rate and it was still pretty high. Maybe if they dropped the rate for last-minute guests tehy would get a few more. I know I might be convinced to take a sick day tomorrow if I could get the room for 1/2 price at the spur of the moment, last minute! :)

Stopped here on family road trip. Kids loved the slides, pool and arcade. Stayed in pool side room which was convenient to access pool although a little noisy. Hot tub was less than hot. Rooms were clean, small and basic. Staff seemed to be working hard to keep up with guests and turn over rooms. Saw a number of room service dishes in the hall in the afternoon when we checked in. If I found another good deal on a room price I would stay again for one night to give the kids a chance to play in the pool.

I stayed here before, in January 2011, and I checked in again (with my parents) in the summer 2011 as I was moving cross-country. The service was still good, no complaints. We stayed with my little dog for a couple of days. The waterpark is a pretty good size and would probably be really fun for little kids. I mostly used the hot tub, which was really not very hot. There were a lot of kids and so it was pretty loud when I visited the waterpark. It seemed that just as the noise was starting to die down, the waterpark closed, so we were kicked out of the area. That was understandable, but a little bit annoying from my point of view. The rooms were good.