Coco Key Water Resort: Everything You Could Want in a Family Hotel and More! #Orlando

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All opinions stated are genuine and my own.

THIS is a great place to celebrate back-to-school OR
one last hurrah before school starts (depending on where you are located). :)

This is a hotel review for Coco Key Water Resort in Orlando, Florida, but let me tell you right from the get-go, this is not an ordinary hotel!!

The front lobby is huge and has a lot going on, not to mention it has a huge table full of hotel awards and honors. I took a picture, a few in fact, but the glare from the glass of the frames kept...well, glaring. I knew we were in for a treat though, just by seeing that display. You'll also find a ticket desk, to assist you with getting discounts on area park tickets and events, a small arcade and relaxing area for the kids, seating areas all around, a concierge desk, and a list of resort activities. Yep, they had activities and events going on for the family each and every day. They also had the mascot (Coco the Parrot) running around from time to time, stopping to see the children and take pictures with them too. :)

There is a pool right off of the main lobby. If you want to get an early start or late finish on swiming, this pool is open before and after the water park in the back closes.

There was traditional seating, covered seating, and cabana areas by this pool. There was also a big hut with towels for your convenience.

The rooms were nice and clean. We reserved a double bed room. It was a little larger than a normal hotel room. It had two double beds, a flatscreen television, two separate desk areas, an easy chair and ottoman in the corner and a seating bench. We had company come to visit our last day there (two adults and two children in addition to our two adults and one child). Everyone fit in the room nicely and had a place to sit. Four of the water park bands come with the room reservation (good for your entire stay) and you can buy an all day wrist band for guests to experience it too, for just $10 a piece. It ended up raining that last day though, so they didn't get to join us. Next time, defiintely!

The beds each had four pillows. Oh yes, that did make me happy. Happy enough to take a close-up. ;)

This small sitting area was my favorite. Though the other area was larger and had a full-sized desk and chair, this one was more out of the way, so others could sleep while I got up to do some work. The charger strips on this table were a nice touch too. The rooms had free high-speed WiFi.

This is the full-sized desk, just so you can see it. It's nice but at the end of the beds, so if I sat there working I'd have gotten everyone else up too (I'm an early riser). You can see the microwave and coffee pot. There was also a laptop-sized digital safe in the closet, along with a hair dryer and ironing board.

The refrigerator was half-sized and perfect for keeping our drinks cold.

The bathroom was nice and clean, and a bit larger than a typical hotel too. The granite-top sinks were pretty to look at, and the beauty supplies were top notch. Housekeeping did a great job, each and every day that we were there too. They were noticeably polite when you passed them in the hallways. Not sure if Coco Key puts them through training to be that way or not, but it really was a nice touch.

There's a convenience store on-site. We got milk for cereal there and saw that they had all kinds of things for the hotel guests. They even had swimsuits, swim gear and pool shoes, in case you forgot and left something at home.

There were meeting rooms down one hallway,

a huge conference room down another...

and there were places to host birthday or celebration parties. Believe me, if you have children and live in the area, this is THE PERFECT PLACE to throw a birthday party!!

The walkways in and around the hotel were all so peaceful. They had such a nice, natural and tropical feel to them.

What made this hotel extraordinary though, was the on-site waterpark and the HUGE arcade!!

The children's water park had a zero entry swimming area, multiple smaller scale slides,

and these cool mushroom rains to run through. There were wheels to turn water on and off too, that were easy for little hands to navigate.

Life jackets were provided at no charge, as were towels. In the background you can see there are pool-side rooms available, so you could just walk right out to the water park. The waterpark itself is huge. There are 4 separate areas (for little children, mid-size kids and adults, a play and splash area, and the big slides for adventurers).

I loved the pineapple dump. You know it's going to be a good day when the tilting pineapple starts to fill with water.

The water park has 14 different slides, and lots of space to splash and play. I did notice there are a lot of sneaky pete things to soak other people. My son found the cannons instantly and was had no qualms at all about shooting innocent passerbys with water. ;) There were miniature dump buckets that filled too and of course that big pineapple I mentioned above. That's the best one and people run under it to get soaked.

We opted to do that too (the pineapple soak), several times. It's really just too hard to resist, and you're on vacation, so why would you??? :)

There are two big slide options for those who like adventure. One is enclosed like a capsule and sends you shooting out at high speed towards the opening at the bottom. That was my youngest son's favorite. Rafts were available for one or two riders.

The other was this open-ended slide that my boy was too chicken to try, lol. Everyone on it was definitley laughing. Maybe he'll try it next time. I know my daughter and older boys would have tried this one. All of the above were otherwise occupied though, and didn't join us on this trip. I'm def. re-booking when I can make it a full-family weekend vacation. I'm thinking maybe around Christmas when everyone gets a little time off.

Seating was abundant and everywhere. You could get it inside, or outside. In the sun or out of the sun. You could even get it with a netted cover to keep little ones from getting too much sun. The park was covered on the little chilren's side, and open on the splash zone and big slides side. I love that because it kept it from being muggy and unpleasant (like so many indoor water parks at hotels can be). Such a refreshing change!

If you're hungry, there are food options everywhere. I did notice a lot of people chose to dine in for big breakfast buffet in the mornings. We didn't try it because we had groceries in the room. It did look good though. For lunch on our last day there, we did eat in at one of the on-site restaurants.

The 6,500 sq. ft. arcade was a blast!! Literally everything you could think of that should be in an aracde was there.

The seats on one side of the room overlook the waterpark area. I thought that was convenient. This is a good place to come in and chill for a bit if it rains. We went down early morning too, when no one else was awake yet, and played some of the games.

I was delighted to see a little bowling alley (where my early riser son decidedly did kick my behind).

And they had a life-sized candy crush. Ha!! I used to have such a thing for that game! These days we're playing Pokemon Go, but I did still give the Candy Crush a go for old times sake. :)

There were options for little kids, bigger ones, teens and adults.

We were going to play a game of pool, but some dimwit (*ahem* *me*) swiped their card on the only table that wasn't packed with billiard balls. )

We're always up for a good game of air hockey, and my son's been practicing this in camp, so he's gotten pretty daggone good at it too.

The laser room was of course, awesome. That's my little James Bond you see wiggling around on the floor there, trying to make it to the safety buttons without tripping off a laser in the process. Stealth little fella he is too!

 

We stayed so long a few others finally started to meander in. That was fine by my son, kids his own age are always fun to come across on vacation.

Coco Key also has a rather large work-out-room. I like that some of the cardio machines face the windows.

The weights were in the same room, but separated behind a wall. I thought that was  a nice touch. There was a wall-sized mirror for folks there to see themselves getting their swoll on. Hey, if I worked hard to get pretty muscles, I'd want to see them too. ;)

This hotel was just the absolute perfect place for us to stay on our vacation to Orlando. This trip took us to Sea World, and in addition to the free shuttle offered to and fro, they also sold the tickets on-site too. Very convenient, and very easy to do too.

If you're going to Orlando with kids (ever!) this is a very fun place to take them!! We stayed in the big buiding, close to the waterpark entrance. It was super convenient to just walk out of our room and over to the water park or arcade. I can fully recommend this resort, especially if you have children.

If you're looking for a way to celebrate back to school, or just want to have one last hurrah before school starts THIS could be the perfect way to do so. As I noted above, I'm thinking ahead to Christmas (don't groan, it's going to be here before you know it!) and thinking a trip here would be a great way to enjoy time off this winter too!! Of course if you live in Florida, any time is a good time to pop on over and enjoy all that the resort has to offer.

You can learn more about the Coco Key Water Resort  by visiting their website. You can also follow them on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.