This past weekend the kids were invited to a birthday party at SplashUniverse in Dundee (across the road from Cabela’s). We arrived at noon. The kids and I got dressed, ate pizza and then hit the indoor water park for about 3 hours. We concluded with giant cupcakes and opening of presents in the purple room and then visited the arcade until it was time to go home. It was a nice afternoon; we all really enjoyed the water park.
The water park has two large slides. The green slide is completely enclosed and is a favorite. The yellow slide is open except for a second or two at the end. Both slides are popular and when we were there the lines were the length of the stairs at times. Single and double inner-tubes are available.
In addition to the large slides, there is a lazy river with a family spa in the middle. The lazy river was quite relaxing until I spun around and glided under the waterfall. After that I made sure I was on the inside of the river so as to miss the waterfall and it was much more enjoyable. Nearby was an area with floating disks (“logs”) and ropes above for the kids to try to climb across the water without falling in. This was a challenging task but still enjoyable and very popular.
There is an adult-only hot tub in one corner and a toddler pool area in another corner. In between is a large “tree house” which has lots of sprinklers and a huge pail of water which regular tips over and drenches everyone in its way. The tree house has three smaller water slides which the kids enjoyed (no inner tubes required). You can see a map of the water park here.
Probably the worst thing about our visit to the park was how loud it was. You couldn’t get someone’s attention by yelling at them unless they were within 8 feet or so. The park was busy the entire time we were there. I’m not sure if every day is this busy. I didn’t notice any lulls.  However, it wasn’t so crowded that we couldn’t enjoy ourselves.
Unless you are staying at the resort (Holiday Inn), everyone who enters needs to pay admission (spectator pass is $7; full day admission which provides access to the entire park is $32). There are coupons available to save on admission ($25 for July 2008).