My 6-year-old went to ski school and had a ball. To get better prices, you must reserve in advance for everything. The new Woolly's Adventure Summit was disappointing. On the day I went with my toddler, the lifts for tubing were not working and the free play area was still being set up. Can't tell anyone if this would have been a blast for my toddler. The Village is small and not very easy to navigate if you have a stroller. Granted I was in Mammoth after it had snowed a lot, but this is supposed to be a premier winter resort and charges as such. I expected that the streets would be cleared enough for more walking traffic than it was. The village also didn't have much to do in it. There are some outlet stores down Main Street but I didn't come here to shop. I was hoping for more family activities that were conveniently clustered and just couldn't find it. Bottom line: come here when the kids are older.

My five year old adored this place and now thinks Texas is the best state in the country. She loved the lazy river, the water slide, and the pools. She floated and swam all day and then relaxed at night to a movie on the lawn. She rode a rental bike early one morning and walked along the river another. I was here on business but it turned out to be a wonderful place for the family to stay. If we ever have to come back to Austin, I would try to stay here again. It's remote and you need car if you want to leave the resort and see anything else nearby. Also, the hotel restaurant was actually quite good and very child-friendly as you can imagine. Prices weren't bad either for a hotel.

Service was great. The staff was friendly. The breakfast/brunch buffet at the restaurant was worth it. But it was still not a kid-friendly place. Unless you pay for valet parking ($27), you'd have to walk a good distance to park your car and when you're going to the beach and doing stuff in the area, it's kind of a pain to lug your kid and all your stuff all that way. Second, the walls are mighty thin and at night it can be very loud. We were placed in the older part of the hotel, closer to the lobby, so maybe we didn't get the best room. The pools were fine, not the warmest, nor always well located. At the one pool we hung out at, there was no food or drink service. I don't know if the others had. I couldn't find all the pools easily. Also, while the concierge says it's a quick walk to Balboa Island, it's not really. With a young kid, you'll have to drive or stroll. Parking on Balboa is hard to find on the weekends, too.

I went to the area called Little Corona, off Poppy. The tidepool is there for observation only. Because of the damage sustained by visitors, they have set up a protected area and volunteers watch for people reaching in and touching the marine life. It's still interesting for the little ones, especially because there is a little stream that runs into the ocean, but if your child likes to touch and poke around and pick up the marine life then you probably don't want to bring him or her here.

My three-year-old daughter actually really enjoyed herself in the bubble area. She went back to it again and again, and loved the huge bubbles that you can make with their giant circle wands. We also enjoyed the add-on class. For an extra $3 (non-member), she sat in on a story, which was well told by an experienced elementary school teacher who asked interesting questions throughout, followed by an art project. We also enjoyed the disabilities section upstairs, where we played on a braille machine, typing out our names. Upstairs also held the largest block collection we've seen yet on our travels and my daughter spent a good amount of time there as well. The cafe does not offer food, except for the vending machine sort, so do plan to bring your own.