Review of Anderson Indoor Aquatic Center at Fort Knox

February 14, 2018 Family Fun, Indoor, Travel

Our writer was granted free admission for purpose of this review.

Recently, my kids and I were invited to check out the newly renovated Anderson Indoor Aquatic Center in Fort Knox.

Anderson had a 3 million dollar renovation which resulted in a beautiful indoor, heated, Olympic-sized pool. The pool has some cool features including a 1-meter diving board

(which felt much higher than a meter above the water), Aqua Climb (a rock wall in the water), 50 foot tube water slide (super fun and slightly scary), and a basketball net over the water. The pool is up to 12 feet deep. I loved that there were a ton of lounge chairs around the pool. However, the pool deck can be very slippery – keep your flip flops on when walking around.

There is an indoor splash pad (it wasn’t open when we were there, but looks great for little kids), and a seasonal outdoor splash pad (for big and little kids) and snack area with tables and a Tiki Hut snack bar.

There are large, clean, locker rooms with showers and curtained changing areas, plus my daughter’s favorite, the swim suit dryer. There are also lots of lockers which you can bring your own lock for. It was all very clean and felt very safe.

The Anderson Indoor Aquatic Center only allows Coast Guard Approved flotation devices in the pool – that means no blow up floaties. But Anderson does have a variety of flotations available to borrow. Don’t forget to bring your goggles. There is a great cardiovascular fitness room with lots of equipment that is available to use with admission to the aquatic center. There is also a party room you can rent, and the Anderson Center looks like a great place for a birthday party!

You can bring food, but unfortunately, there is no food allowed near the pool deck area. There is a vending machine room where you can eat inside, or you can eat outside at the splash pad area, outside at the gazebo area in front of the Anderson building, or at the building with restaurants next door to the Anderson Center.

My kids and I had a great time. There are different prices for military, civilian, individual visits, punch cards (10 visits), and memberships. But for about $4 a visit per person, it is worth the hour trip from Louisville for a day trip.

In February 2018 the Anderson Indoor Aquatic Center will have a What the Wibit? activity (giant water obstacle course) and cardboard boat regatta (literally make a boat out of cardboard and race with it in the pool). These would be excellent events to check out the Anderson Indoor Aquatic Center.

While my kids could have enjoyed the pool and playground outside the Anderson Center all day, since it was raining and we hadn’t brought lunch with us, we left Anderson to head over to the Houston Bowling Center for lunch and bowling. Houston has 32 lanes with a tv at each set of lanes (we watched the snowboard X Games while bowling which made my son thrilled), automatic bumpers available, video games, pro-shop, and the recently renovated Strike Zone cafe.The Strike Zone had a good selection of food – the usual bowling alley food as well as some healthy options. While the food did take longer than expected, it was good, and the food was reasonably priced. The cafe was very clean and well stocked. There were a lot of tables available, however we chose to eat at the high table behind our bowling lane. They called our number when our food was ready, and we enjoyed eating while bowling. It was lots of fun, and we even got to keep the birthday party bowling pin with helium balloons that we signed to commemorate our day of fun!

My tips:

Set your GPS for the Visitor Center. Leave lots of time to wait in line to get your pass onto Fort Knox if you haven’t been on base yet this year. Once you get through the gate, then set your GPS for the Anderson Aquatic Center – there were no signs until close to it. When you’re ready to leave, set your GPS to the visitor Center again so you take the correct way out. Otherwise, you will be taken to restricted roads.

We really enjoyed our day. Fort Knox has a ton to offer all year round, and my kids are already begging to go back!

7962 Wilson Rd

Fort Knox, KY 40121

By Guest Contributor: Caryn

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