Setting Anchor in Keylime Cove

Famous Dave Anderson set out to replicate the “cruise ship experience” on land. But he also wanted the Key West sensation of Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. And a touch of DisneyWorld. And a bit of Wisconsin Dells. And, of course, some Famous Dave’s BBQ. What did he end up with? “It’s like the old Holiday Inn Holidome on steroids,” explains Anderson.

Welcome to Keylime Cove Water Park Resort, the latest brainchild of the Edina resident and founder of Grand Casinos, Rainforest Cafes, and the place that brings you rich and sassy ribs served on a garbage-can lid. Located in Gurnee, Illinois, halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago, Keylime Cove is, first and foremost, an indoor water park, with the requisite giant water slides, swirling whirlpools, wave pool, and lazy river.

But walking into this year-old, $137 million, 414-room-hotel tropical paradise is like walking into Margaritaville—or at least how it would be depicted by Universal Studios: a thatched-roof beach shack bar, a waterfall gurgling over rocks into a small lagoon, palm trees, a Key West streetscape with fake façades, everything awash in bright pastels. That mango/papaya tropical smell you detected upon entering? It wasn’t your imagination. Anderson literally turned his Edina garage into a laboratory, mixing and matching scents “from every spa product I could get” until he came up with the one to use in the scent blowers at the resort’s entrance. The “trop rock” music that permeates the property was also chosen by Anderson, who literally went through thousands of CDs to make the selections. (He did the same for all the music that plays at Famous Dave’s restaurants.) “I wanted the experience to be more Jimmy Buffett than Don Ho,” he says. “But I didn’t want just ‘Margaritaville,’ I also wanted the Beach Boys’ ‘Kokomo.’ I wanted music that would put the sway back into your grass skirt. From the moment you walk in, I want you to feel as if you’ve been transported away.”

When my teenage daughters visited the resort last summer, they thought they had been transported—directly to paradise. They loved the water park, especially the 450-foot slide that culminates in a forty-foot drop and the ten-foot-tall pineapple-shaped bucket atop a tower that dumps 300 gallons of water on bystanders. The park has a capacity of 1,400, and though the hotel was almost full, lines were never long. My daughters also were entranced by the 8,000-square-foot arcade with its 125 games (twenty tokens for $5), where winning tickets could be parlayed into cheap prizes. Kids were literally running around with hundreds of winning tickets trailing behind them, which, when proffered up at the cashier, often translated into a stuffed animal or a pack of gum.

But what the kids enjoyed almost as much was the freedom they felt exploring the grounds with their “cashless” wristbands, which allowed them to access their rooms and water park lockers with a flick of their wrists, as well as purchase food, drinks, and video-game tokens. (Note to parents: You can limit the dollar amount.)

The rooms are bright and spacious, with standard amenities that include a flat-screen TV. They are accessed through hallways so bright that one employee described the experience as “walking through a bowl of sherbet.” There are a limited number of suites with Jacuzzis, fireplaces, and verandas. All room rates also include water park passes.

One of the highlights of our stay, though, occurred after dark when the resort’s main hallways, er, streets, become alive with vendors, music, and games. A Guitar Hero competition was in full swing on one avenue. A Boogie Heads music video game was attracting kids and grandparents alike, as well as a sizable crowd laughing hysterically as real faces on professional dancers’ bodies danced on screen. There was also face painting, a caricature artist, a psychic, and even visits by Captain Jack Sparrow and Hannah Montana look-alikes.

A Dave Anderson enterprise naturally must have a food component, and Keylime Cove’s version is D.W. Anderson’s Ice Cream Parlor and Eatery, a comfort food emporium with walls that are covered, like Famous Dave’s, with old signs, bric-a-brac, and even bicycles. Although you’ll find everything from burgers to shrimp to pizza to ribs (not the same barbecue as Famous Dave’s, though), the signature items are family-focused, with kid-friendly foods always an option. When we visited, they were testing a kids’ dinner buffet ($9.99) with mac ’n’ cheese, hot dogs, Tater Tots, corn dogs, spaghetti hot dish, chocolate pudding—you get the idea. If you’re still a kid at heart but obviously look older than ten, you could partake of the same feast for $3 more. The restaurant also boasts the world’s largest ice cream sundae—eighty-five scoops of ice cream and “endless whipped cream” for $99.99. Or for half the price, you can get one scoop of each flavor on the menu and six toppings, served in a kitchen sink (shades of the garbage-can lid?). There’s also a separate bar and grill with more of a beach shack menu, complete with tropical drinks and steel drum music at night.

For adults, particularly moms who aren’t into the water park experience, the resort’s Paradise Mist Spa offers a full range of services, including Margarita manicures and citrus body polishes. Just down the road from the resort is Gurnee Mills, which claims to be the world’s largest outlet mall with more than 250 stores, and the Six Flags Great America amusement park, open during the warm months and accessible via shuttle.

Ever the visionary, Anderson is already thinking about increasing the size of the park by adding an outdoor component, creating more space for meetings, conferences, and weddings, and expanding the concept to other cities, including foreign locations. In the current economic climate, those plans are on hold, but that doesn’t temper Anderson’s enthusiasm. “People can’t afford the $5,000 investment to fly to Disney. But they still want a two- to three-day getaway, a place where families can gather together and celebrate being together. That was the idea behind eating at Famous Dave’s,” he says. “I’ve just added water.”

Brian Anderson is editor of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.

Getting There Keylime Cove Water Resort is located in Gurnee, Illinois, halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago. It’s just off I-94, sitting, as one local writer described it, “like a giant yellow submarine.” It’s approximately six hours by car from the Twin Cities and equidistant to the Milwaukee and O’Hare airports. Rates from $149.95, 877-360-0403 Chicago Getaway Strategy The resort can be an excellent home base for a Chicago getaway. Metra commuter rail’s Libertyville station is only ten minutes from the resort, with trains departing hourly to Chicago Union Station. The trip takes less than an hour for about $12 roundtrip.