All wet

WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT A rendering shows the “dip-in” theatre pool at CoCo Key, where guests can watch movies from the comfort of their water tubes.

Christmas is coming a few days early this year for Chicago-area families stuck in town over the holidays. Starting December 21, they’ll get to take a tropical holiday without traveling any farther than Arlington Heights when CoCo Key Water Resort opens there inside the Sheraton Chicago Northwest.

The new 65,000-square-foot, $20 million indoor water park, designed to evoke a Key West feel, will be the largest in the state—meaning treks to the Wisconsin Dells (which bills itself as the water-park capital of the world) will no longer be mandatory for water-loving families. “[Local] families will have more quality time together, not time in the car,” says Amy Shimon, a spokeswoman for the resort.

That translates to time spent inside a place where it’ll always feel like a perfect summer day, with the temperature set at a constant 84 degrees. Features include four water slides totaling 1,252 feet with names like Gator Gush (billed as a “full-speed splashing body slide with banked turns”) and Barracuda Blast (a one- or two-person raft ride). There’s a simulated-wave beach and a “dip-in” theater pool, where you can float around on tubes and watch a continuous loop of movies and cartoons on giant projection screens. Parrot’s Perch, a water-play structure for preschoolers, has small slides, water cannons and a giant tipping bucket that dumps 300 gallons of water every few minutes. There’s also an “adventure river” for tube rides and an activity pool, called Coral Reef Cavern, that’s dotted with lily pads for water basketball and other sports with animated fish swimming by on a surrounding wall. Another animated backdrop within the water park changes from sunrise to midday sun to sunset throughout the day, according to Shimon. “The swaying palm trees, bright colors and thatched roofs make you feel like you’re in the Keys,” she says. “It’s like a tropical escape.”

For adults, there’s an indoor/outdoor whirlpool spa that’s open year round, a full-service bar, and an outdoor “splash pad,” with cascading waterfalls and a tanning deck open when the weather’s warm. Outside the water, there’s also a casual restaurant and state-of-the-art arcade.

Visitors also have the option of renting seven private poolside cabanas by the day, each decorated according to an individual theme and containing TVs, safes, refrigerators and private butler service. The cabanas hold 7-10 people, and cost $90/half day and $125/full day during the week, and $140 /half day $200/full day on weekends

While guests at the hotel, which has undergone an extensive renovation of its own, will have first dibs on access to CoCo Key, Shimon says day passes will be sold based on availability at rates of $30 midweek, and $40 on the weekends.This is the first of two CoCo Key Resorts to open in the area, according to Shimon, with another slated to open in January at the Clock Tower Resort in Rockford. Slightly smaller at 60,000 square feet, that resort will have most of the same features as the Arlington Heights property. Other CoCo Key water parks are planned throughout the country, at locations including Cincinnati and Kansas City.

CoCo Key Water Resort at the Sheraton Chicago Northwest Hotel (3400 Euclid Ave, Arlington Heights, 847-394-2000) opens on December 21. For more info, go to www.cocokeywaterresort.com.