Castle Rock Resort and Waterpark, Branson Review

Castle Rock Resort and Waterpark, Branson

My family and I had the awesome opportunity to stay at and review Castle Rock Resort and Waterpark in Branson.  We had a great time.  I'm going to tell you a little bit about it, then I'll let my 12 year old Jake tell you more!

The theme of the resort is of course, Castle Rock.  Therefore, the look was some what castle and rock like on the outside AND on the inside.  For example our counter top in our room was rock looking, the shower was likewise.

Our rooms were fairly spacious.  There were 6 of us so we needed a fair amount of space and for the most part, we had it.  The room had 2 queen beds and 1 set of bunk beds.  Perfect for sleeping arrangements.  The bunk bed room also had its own tv which was very nice.  We didn't' have a lot of arguing over who watched what anymore...although there were times that both rooms were watching the same thing anyway!  :-)

The view from our window was quite nice.  And honestly it was a nice quiet hotel.  No complaints there. 

The first night we were there we were unable to use the swimming pool because it was too late by the time we got there.  Tuesday through Thursday, the water park closes quite early, 8pm.  That was fine though...we were exhausted from the day.  The next day however, Thursday, the pool didn't open until 1pm.  I thought that was a little odd....but it wasn't summer time, so I am sure it costs tons of extra money to have the park open when maybe there aren't as many visitors.  It gave us time to rest...and this is the day we went to the Titanic in the morning, then took MaKenna to the Urgent Care.  So it worked out well for us.  By 1 they were ready to go though.  Jeff (my hubby) stayed in the hotel room with MaKenna (who wasn't well enough to swim) and Cam (who was just being a teenager...little did I know, he was starting to not feel well too though).  I took Jake and Major downstairs with me to the waterpark.

From the elevator on our floor there are windows to see into the park.  Here are a couple of pictures I took from the hallway.

As you can see, there were two big slides, a couple of pools, a kiddie pool and a lazy river.  I don't know if you can see the lazy river in those pictures, but it was really neat how they built it.  It was actually on the second level!  You'll see more pictures in a bit.

So we headed down there, Jake did the slides first and loved them.  He is NOT a high thrill slide type of guy, and these were fairly tame, so he enjoyed them immensely.  Major just LOVES the lazy river, so he and I hung out there for quite some time.

The water was a little cool...but it didn't seem to bother the kids.  We noticed the smaller bodies of water were much warmer though, so we hung out in the kiddie pool when we got chilly!

 The next two pictures are taken of and from the Lazy River.  This first one shows the hallways to each floor where the elevator is.  There are also a lot of rooms that have windows to the water park too.  Very cool...it gives those people something to look at...which I noticed a lot were doing.  The concern I have with that?  Well...if you have children....be forewarned.  There was a couple on the 3rd or 4th floor who had their curtains open....in their mini bathsuits having a make out session in front of the window for all to see.  When the man finally got her bikini top off, she realized she should close the curtains.  It was disturbing....but luckily MY kids anyway were too impressed with the waterpark that they weren't looking at windows.  I was only looking because I was taking pictures.  NO...I am NOT a pervert!  :-)  Really....I just happened to see what was going on.  I am digging myself a deeper hole...I'll shush!

 This is Major in the Lazy River getting acclimated to the water.

This is a picture I took from the Lazy Rover deck looking down on the kiddie pool.

 Here is the end of one of the slides....and you can see one of the pools with a basketball hoop.

 The one in the bottom of the slide with his legs sticking up is Jake!

 Here is the Lazy River.

 Jake swimming in the Lazy River.

There were plenty of lifeguards around and I watched them.....they were very alert to everything going on around them.  I've been to a lot of different water parks...indoor and outdoor, and I haven't always been thrilled with the staff.  In fact, I've been known to complain a time or two to the establishment...but these lifeguards were very attentive to every need.  I even saw one jump in to help a little girl that had just come down the slide and had a bit of a problem getting right side up.  She wasn't struggling, but he didn't hesitate to make sure that it didn't get to that point.  I was really impressed.

The location of Castle Rock was great too.  It was far from downtown...but close to things like Titanic, Ripleys, Branson Tracks, Hollywood Wax museum.  it was right in the middle of downtown and Silver Dollar City, Shepherd of the Hills, etc.  It really was a great location...and due to the fact that I had been to Urgent Care once while we were there, I discovered that there is a really nice Walgreens just a couple blocks away!

We didn't have a chance to try out the restaurant, The Tower Grill.  But I heard it was nice.  Here is a look at the menu, if you can enlarge it:

They did have a game room as well.  However, we also didn't have a chance to check it out either...but it looked pretty basic....but lots of fun for kiddos!

I will say, I was a bit disappointed that there was no Continental Breakfast in the morning.  The Tower Grill offers breakfast but only on the weekends...so we had to fend for ourselves for breakfast....and that was okay...I was prepared for that, so I had brought food...oatmeal, cereal, milk, etc.  The room had a refrigerator in it which was awesome...but no microwave, which was surprising.  So we were unable to make warm breakfasts for ourselves...or pop popcorn in the evening.  We managed though.  It was just surprising as most places we stay have at the bare minimum microwaves and most also have Continental Breakfasts.

It was a nice experience though.  Nice water park, nice rooms, nice staff, nice location.  We all left happy!

Thank you to Castle Rock for having us for those two nights!  We enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Now for Jake's view:

Hi my name is Jake Filleman.  I don't say a lot, but Castle Rock was fun!  I liked the waterpark!  The service was nice, ah...the rooms were nice...the waterpark was awesome.  My favorite thing was EVERYTHING.  The water was kinda warm...the slides were awesome.  They were not too fast, not too slow, but perfect.  I enjoyed playing basketball...its my favorite sport after hockey...and I love to be in the water.  On a scale from 1-10...10 being the best....I would rate Castle Rock Resort and Waterpark a 10.