Getting Splash Happy

Even with year-round climate control, attendance at the indoor water parks spikes during school vacations, so smart operators are courting business travelers on weekdays, says water-park-industry consultant Bill Haralson. "Some hotels make the mistake of assuming that if you add a water park, your worries are over," he says. The Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells, for example, runs a 125,000-sq.-ft. indoor water park (the U.S.'s largest) and almost as much meeting and convention space. The Reno Hilton will reopen in 2007, as the Grand Sierra Resort, with a similar dual strategy.

Then again, perhaps the parks will find a way to unleash the 5-year-old in every road warrior. At the mouth of a slide called Coyote Cannon, a middle-aged father of two climbs onto an inner tube and disappears with a smile and a quip: "You check your dignity at the door."