Our CoCo Key #Staycation: All About the Family Guest Rooms, Water Park, Arcade, Dining, and More

Although I have already shared many photos from our January family staycation at the CoCo Key Water Park located in Boston's North Shore, I would like to take the time to share more details about our weekend for those of you who may be considering CoCo Key as the location for your next family getaway.  It was the perfect place for my family of 5 (children ages 6, 6, and 9) to have some fun away from home without extensive traveling or the expense of a resort.  Our staycation consisted of 2 days of the Ultimate Water Park Package.

Our stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Boston North Shore began late on a Friday afternoon and ended on Sunday morning.  We picked the children up from school with our suitcases packed and made the drive to the hotel in Danvers.  We were pleased that there was plenty of free self-parking available at the hotel.  Checking in was a breeze and we even received warm chocolate chip walnut cookies to take back to our room, which was one of their newly renovated family-friendly guest rooms.


The Family-Friendly Guest Room . . . 

• Conveniently located in a wing close to the water park
• Clean and well-maintained
• 2 double beds and 2 junior twin beds worked out fine for the 5 of us

• There is a dividing wall between the double beds and the pair of junior twin beds
• The kids' side was decorated in a fun tropical theme
• The kids' side had its own TV
• Located between the beds is a nightlight and a flexible reading light
• The light switch on the wall glowed so that the children could turn on the ceiling light easily at night
• The 2 ottomans were perfect to sit on to watch TV, as well as to push up to the night stand for a place to draw or color

• Our bathroom was located between the adults' side and the kids' side of the room
• There were Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries (including mouthwash) and plenty of extra towels
• I liked that both trash receptacles in the room were divided to take recyclables in one half and regular trash in the other
• Our kindergartners could barely reach the faucet knobs, so a small stepstool would have come in very handy

By the time we checked in and got settled, we felt like everyone was too tired to go to the water park that evening, even though it would be open until 9pm.  We decided to go out to grab some dinner instead and then went to the arcade for a short time before returning to our room.  We went to bed with the plan to sleep in the next morning, go to the breakfast buffet at TradeWinds, and then head to the water park, where we would stay and have fun until the children were too tuckered out to play any longer.

When we entered the water park, we immediately noticed the climate change.  It is a temperature controlled area and is constantly 84 degrees.  You need to be prepared to dress for the tropical climate even if you are not planning on getting wet.  It is not only warm, but also very humid, just like the summers in Massachusetts.


The CoCo Key Water Park . . . 

• When we arrived around 11am Saturday morning, the water park was buzzing, but not overly crowded
• We stayed a total of 4 hours, which included a short break for food and drinks in the middle.  That was plenty of time for the children to explore and try out different parts of the park and then return to their favorite parts again and again.
• There were plenty of lifeguards posted all around the water park
• There was also plenty of tables and chairs in the center of the park.  We were able to claim a table and could leave our towels and shoes at our table.
• Be careful if you bring a phone or a camera into the park.  Most children (and even some adults) will get you wet without a second thought.  I saw many people dressed in street clothes get wet against their will that day.
• I very much liked that there were life vests provided for younger children
• There are lockers and cabanas available for rent, but because our room was not too far away, we really did not need either

• In the center of the park, there is a complex structure composed of multiple slides and chutes, some of which actually extend outside of the building, walkways, stairs, tipping buckets, and more.
• On the far side of this structure, there is a pool that is 3-1/2ft deep for older children and adults, where there is actual swimming, basketball, and more.  We did not spend any time in this pool because our children are still swim training.
• Also on this side is a fenced off hot tub for teens and adults, which is not monitored by lifeguards

• On the side closer to the entrance is the Dip In Theater, which is a pool for younger children that has a large sail that doubles as a movie screen.
• There were mostly Disney and Dreamworks animated films showing.  Although you can sit in the water to watch the film, you cannot really hear the movie.

• There were plenty of slides for both younger and older children.  There were some slides for which our kindergartners did not meet the height requirement.  There were even slides that I would only recommend for teens and adults.
• Although the water slides were fun and the children enjoyed floating in the Lazy River, I think all 3 of our children loved playing in the fountains the most.
• The Dip In Theater contained several types of fountains and tipping buckets and that is where my children spent about 2/3 of their time at the park.

• The water park is a great place to people watch
• By the time we left the park around 3pm that Saturday, it had gotten quite crowded
• Even when crowded, nobody seemed to get in anyone else's way and there was never longer than a short wait to go on a slide or ride the innertubes

The Key Quest Arcade is conveniently located between our hotel room and the water park.  We stopped by whenever we had time to fill and ended up going a total of 3 times during our 2-night stay.  This arcade does not use tokens or tickets, but rather reloadable arcade cards (like gift cards) that you can load with credits.  You just need to slide the card through each machine you want to play.  The card also keeps track of all the points you have earned from playing so that you can redeem them for prizes later.


The Key Quest Arcade . . . 

• There was only a small number of games designed for younger children
• Although the arcade had the classic games, it also had current favorites, such as Guitar Hero and Fruit Ninja
• I never found the arcade to be overcrowded and only remember my children having to wait once or twice to play a certain game
• The prizes were standard little toys you would expect to see at an arcade.  It would have been nice to be able to pay the difference to get an item when you do not necessarily have enough points.  That way your child could take home a CoCo Key plush or a t-shirt, which to me would have been preferable to the little gumball machine toys they chose. 

During our stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton, we had the chance to sample food at 2 out of the 4 dining options.  The two that we did not try were the Starbucks Coffee Shop located in the hotel lobby and the Wet Rooster Bar, which is located off to the side within the CoCo Key Water Park.  It is mostly for adults and serves alcoholic beverages.


Dining in CoCo Key . . . 

• Gator's Grab and Go serves kid-friendly food within the water park
• Some of the items offered are slushies, soft drinks (with free refills), chicken fingers, fries, and pizza
• One serving of chicken fingers and french fries cost us $5, which seems very reasonable for a water park
• The food was good quality and it was great not to have to leave the water park to go searching for food

In addition to eating at the water park, we also dined at the DoubleTree by Hilton's in-house restaurant twice for breakfast and once for dinner.  The TradeWinds restaurant offers a breakfast buffet each morning, which included (but was not limited to) breakfast cereal, bagels, croissants, toast, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, home fries, and fruit.  The food was great and our children never complained because they could pick and choose what they wanted to eat.


Dinner at TradeWinds . . . 

• Despite the dim lighting and elegant atmosphere for dinner, this turned out to be a very family-friendly restaurant
• They had a children's menu, crayons, activity placemats, and covered straw cups
• The type of food is mostly American
• The service was excellent
• Overall the food was very good.  You can read my review of TradeWinds here.
• The prices are slightly higher than your average family restaurant, but TradeWinds is slightly more upscale.

The idea to go to CoCo Key originated when I was trying to think of a fun, but different way to celebrate our 3 children's birthdays this year, which all fall in the month of January.  Although we did not book a birthday party at CoCo Key, we were able to experience some of the things a birthday boy or girl would during their party at the water park.


Birthdays . . .

• The management surprised our children with a chocolate cake topped with buttercream frosting from Montello's Nut Free Bakery.  It was delicious!
• I had the chance to meet the CoCo Key party planner, who seemed very nice to deal with, was professional and organized.

• We were greeted by CoCo, the water park's official mascot
• CoCo was so colorful and happy that the children were not afraid of him at all.  They shook his hand and happily cuddled up to CoCo for photos.

• We also had a chance to see a sampling of the house magician's magic tricks
• The children were extremely impressed by his card tricks (as were my husband and I)

By the time we left on Sunday morning, we had created some wonderful memories with our children.  You can read more about our staycation here and here.  You can also view all 91 of my photos here.

(I also need to mention how great it was that the front desk at the DoubleTree by Hilton had Pepsi for sale at 11pm when I was up working late and needed some caffeine!)


Suggestions for Improvements?

• Add nachos to the Gator's Grab and Go menu (a request from our 6 year old son)
• A better assortment of CoCo Key souvenirs
• A stepstool for the bathroom in the hotel room
• More kids channels on the hotel room TVs in addition to Disney Channel and Cartoon Network

If anyone has any questions about my family's experience at CoCo Key, please feel free to leave them in a comment below or use my contact form.  I will do my very best to answer them for you.


Thank you to the Coco Key Water Park and the DoubleTree by Hilton for providing us with complimentary accommodations, meals, arcade credits, and water park passes for us to base this review upon. All opinions are my own.

Family Dining at the DoubleTree by Hilton's TradeWinds Restaurant

During our staycation at the Coco Key Water Park in Boston's North Shore, we had the pleasure of dining at the TradeWinds Restaurant, located inside the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel, a total of 3 times.  Our Ultimate Water Park Package not only included our accommodations, water park passes, and arcade credits, but it also included breakfast at the in-house restaurant.  While enjoying the breakfast buffet with my family the first morning around 10am, I could clearly see that the restaurant was popular for businessmen and women.  If there had not been a few other families having breakfast at the same time, I would have felt very out of place.

I could not help but wonder how TradeWinds would fare as a family-friendly restaurant when we dined there that evening.  I should point out that on the second morning, we went to breakfast around 8:30am and found the atmosphere in the restaurant to be much different.  It was actually swarming with families.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how kid-friendly this elegant restaurant turned out to be at dinner.  They even had a children's menu, crayons and activity placements, and covered straw cups.  Our waiter (James) was very polite, but personable, even to the children.

How was the food?

The warm dinner rolls were crusty on the outside and pillowy on the inside, just as freshly baked rolls should be.  You can see how popular they were with my family, since they snatched them all up before I could even take a photo of the full basket.

As an appetizer for the children, we ordered these nachos loaded up with vegetables, cheese, and ground beef.  They dug right into it, but carefully removed anything they found to be suspicious . . . like the black olives.  Our 3 children, with a little help from my husband, finished about 2/3 of this generously-sized appetizer.

My husband ordered the "Chili No. 7" to precede his entree.  He found it to be fresh with high quality ingredients.  He thought the taste was very good, especially for a restaurant that did not specialize in Southwestern cuisine.

I chose the baked French onion soup for myself.  Since I am the only crazed onion fan in my family, this was a treat for me.  I enjoyed the soup very much and wished I had more time to finish it.  It was only available in a crock and not the smaller cup serving, so it was too much for me to finish before I had to turn my attention to my entree.

From the children's menu, our 9 year old son ordered a cheeseburger with french fries.  Even though he had stuffed himself with dinner rolls and nachos, he was able to finish most of it, which indicates that it was a good and tasty meal.  If it was not, he would have left more than half of it on his plate.

Our nearly 6 year old son ordered the cheese pizza from the children's menu.  It was perfectly sized for a child his age, if he had not eaten a dinner roll and too many nachos.  We had to take more than half of the pizza back to our hotel room with us.  Luckily, we are all fans of cold pizza!

Our nearly 6 year old daughter chose the grilled cheese sandwich with french fries.  The bread was thick and it looked like a panini-style sandwich.  I was tempted to steal a piece from her.

I ordered the seasoned steak tips for my entree, which came with french fries and cole slaw.  They were seasoned and cooked perfectly . . . medium, just as I had requested.  I have to say that the french fries were also excellent.  My husband enjoyed my cole slaw since he is the cole slaw fanatic in the family and thought it was very good.

My husband ordered the ribeye steak topped with blue cheese butter with mashed potatoes.  He substituted the asparagus that would have come with his meal with onion rings.  He had ordered his steak medium-rare.  The steak was very high quality and was as amazing as it looked until he got past the edges.  The center of the steak was very rare.  He had even told the waiter that the steak was cooked to his liking when he checked on us because he had only taken a few bites.  My husband actually likes his steak between medium-rare and rare, and he was not able to eat this steak.  He ended up taking it back to our room and cooked it slightly in the microwave.  After that, he thought it was perfect!

Each of the children's meals came with an ice cream sundae.  Although the ice cream topped with hot fudge and whipped cream was very good, they were all too full to finish their desserts.

My husband and I shared the molten chocolate cake, which was served warm and was very rich and decadent.  I definitely would not have been able to finish it on my own after eating my soup and entree.

Overall, our dining experience as a family at TradeWinds was very positive.  As a restaurant with elegant decor and dim lighting, it turned out to be very family-friendly.  I would estimate the prices to be approximately 25% higher than a family restaurant, such as the Olive Garden, which is perfectly fine, especially when you are staying at a hotel on vacation.

You can read about Day #1 of our staycation here, about Day #2 here, and see all the photos from our weekend here.


Thank you to the Coco Key Water Park and the DoubleTree by Hilton for providing us with complimentary accommodations, meals, arcade credits, and water park passes for us to base this review upon. All opinions are my own.

Silly Monkey Stories: Our Daughter the Speed Demon

As part of our recent Coco Key Water Park staycation, we spent quite a lot of time in the arcade located inside the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel.  The first time we went to the arcade, our nearly 6 year old daughter was a little upset because, being a classic over-achiever, she does not like it at all when she does not excel at something right away.  She ran into this problem with many of the games we recommended for her, such as the jump rope game or the dinosaur crane.  With each game she played that she could not win within the first few attempts, she became more and more upset.

On the second evening that we returned to the arcade, she really did not want to go, but I told her that we would keep trying new games until she found some that she liked.  Well, she surprised me by accepting my invitation to try some of the games that even her nearly 6 year old brother and her 9 year old brother were too timid to try.  I was so proud of her.  Even though she did not win at the games, she clearly enjoyed herself.  I think she learned an important lesson that evening at the arcade.

Our daughter the speed demon, ladies and gentlemen . . . 

Click here to read all our Silly Monkey Stories!

Day #2 of Our Family #Staycation at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Coco Key Water Park in Boston North Shore

On the second day of our staycation at the DoubleTree by Hilton Boston North Shore hotel in Danvers, Massachusetts, we let ourselves sleep in until 9am before we headed over to Tradewinds for the breakfast buffet.  Since we all had our swimsuits on, we were ready to head over to the Coco Key Water Park after breakfast.  Since our family suite was so close to the water park, we were able to stop by the room quickly to leave any unnecessary clothing and to grab our beach towels.

The main section of the water park was quite impressive with a complex structure made up of several slides, walkways, a river, and tipping buckets that automatically tipped over and poured the water out once they were full, including the ginormous tipping bucket at the top of the structure that created quite a downpour when it tipped over.  This section of the park did contain some slides that were suitable for children under 4ft, like our nearly 6 year old twins . . .

There were some other slides that were only for those who were at least 4ft tall and are carefully watched by lifeguards who make sure that all the safety rules are followed . . .

Most sections of the water park that were safe for younger children have water that is no deeper than 2-1/2 feet.  Still, we always made sure at least my husband or myself were closeby and alert . . .

Although the water slides were a lot of fun for my children, they also enjoyed the other parts of the water park, such as this system of rotating aqueducts . . .

We probably spent about 4 hours in the water park total.  About halfway through, we took a break to grab some sodas (with free refills), slushies, and some chicken fingers and french fries.  That was when Coco, the official mascot of the Coco Key Water Resort, appeared to surprise our children.  Coco was nice enough to pose for a photo with each child.  And, as if that did not put big enough smiles on our children's faces, the hotel also surprised our children with a birthday cake since they are all January babies . . .

Even though the rest of the park was super-fun and exciting, all 3 of our children enjoyed the Dip In Theater, which is a pool designed for children 4ft and under.  It had slides, tipping buckets, fountains, and most importantly a large sail that doubled as a movie screen . . .

It was clear that our children's favorite things in the whole park were the fountains in the Dip In Theater.  Once they discovered that, by blocking one opening, they could make the water shoot up higher from the other openings, they did not want to play with anything else for quite some time . . .

Right when the children had decided that they were exhausted and ready to head for dryer ground, they received another surprise visit.  This one was from the house magician, who totally impressed the children, especially with his card tricks.  What a fun way to end their afternoon at the Coco Key Water Park . . .

After that, we returned to our room so everyone could shower and dress for dinner.  Our reservation at Tradewinds was for 6:30pm, so we had time to return to the arcade before dinner.  The children had worked up quite an appetite at the water park and the arcade.  Those poor nachos didn't stand a chance . . .

Look for more photos from our dinner at Tradewinds coming soon.  You can read about Day #1 of our staycation here and see all the photos from our weekend here.


Thank you to the Coco Key Water Park and the DoubleTree by Hilton for providing us with complimentary accommodations, meals, arcade credits, and water park passes for us to base this review upon. All opinions are my own.