On September 30, 2025 it was announced that the Cartoon Network Hotel would close at the end of the year. The hotel would reopen in 2026 after renovations to remove the iconic characters. This is sad for a number of reasons. Primarily: I’ve never heard of this thing! Luckily, I was able to go there before it closed for good.
If you’ve never heard of the Cartoon Network Hotel, consider yourself one of… most people. If I told you there was a Cartoon Network hotel, you’d be right to think it was in LA or Orlando. Maybe Las Vegas or even in Atlanta where Cartoon Network is based. You’d be right to think that and you’d be wrong.
The Cartoon Network Hotel is located in Lancaster, PA. What’s in Lancaster, PA you ask? A major Disney or Universal theme park? No, of course not.
The Cartoon Network Hotel opened in January 2020 and obviously was a retheme of an existing hotel. The hotel in question exists on land owned by the tourist attraction next door: Dutch Wonderland. This is a small theme park that appears to almost exclusively market to very small children. It’s got three roller coasters and a bunch of kiddie rides and that’s basically it.
The hotel was built in the 70s and was just a normal, unthemed hotel until it became the Cartoon Network Hotel in 2020 for… some reason. Obviously this was a big get for the park. There’s other, probably cheaper and better hotels in the area. But if you’re coming to Lancaster just for the park, you might as well get the package deal so you can spend a day in a cheap fairytale land and then hang out with Jake the Dog at night.
What I cannot, for the life of me, is fathom what Cartoon Network got out of this. There is no way this was ever going to be a huge moneymaker for them. If a major entertainment company is going to open a hotel, it makes perfect sense to do so next to a theme park. And I actually think it’s smart to not try and compete with the competition in LA or Orlando, but like… There are at least five better options in Pennsylvania alone.
Off the top of my head there’s Kennywood by Pittsburgh whose parent company owns Dutch Wonderland. There’s also Hershey Park and Sesame Place. And if you wanna lean into the artistic side of Cartoon Network there’s the Crayola Experience which is close to Philadelphia. It’s not really a theme park but neither is Dutch Wonderland.
The only logical assumption is that someone at Dutch Wonderland knows someone at Cartoon Network and the deal was made as more of a favor. Or maybe Cartoon Network wanted to dip their toes in this industry with a low-risk option.
I had never heard of this place until the closure was announced and I was really bummed out that I never had the chance to go. Out of all the horrible corporations that tricked me into watching advertisements as a kid, Cartoon Network is the one I hate the least. It’s an even bigger shame that the hotel is actually geographically close enough that I could probably arrange a trip if I really wanted to.
So I started browsing the website and admiring what they did with the space and kicking myself for not finding out about this sooner. And then I saw the towels.
This photo of the pool really caught my eye because… look at these towels. This weird rounded lineart of iconic CN characters and props printed on the three classic CMYK colors. These towels made me realize that the people behind this project really got the Cartoon Network brand.
This hotel isn’t “immersive” like the rest of the themed attraction industry is going for these days. You don’t go here expecting to feel like you’re literally in Dexter’s Lab or catching rays in Beach City. You’re just in a hotel that reminds you of Cartoon Network. That’s all it needed to be and they did a great job.
I took the news of the hotel’s closure to a group of my comix-making friends and then showed them the towels. I made a joke about organizing a trip to the hotel just so we could steal the towels. Then I took a shower.
By the time I got out of the shower and dried myself with my boring and unthemed towels, my joke had gone off the rails. Everyone was taking the idea seriously. Enough of us are within a couple hours of Lancaster to justify doing it. Pretty soon we were actively planning the trip and before we knew it… We booked the hotel.
One of the things that really bummed me out about the trip was that we weren’t able to get a stay in one of the Dream Suites. These are larger rooms that can hold 6 to 8 people with multiple bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchenette.
This would be a great place to host a mini-retreat and hang out making comics and playing board games or whatever. But the Dream Suites were fully booked for every weekend for the rest of the year and none of us could make the trip on a weekday. I thought there were four types of Dream Suites, but when I found the map I realized it was literally just four total suites - one of each type.
So we booked a normal room which do come in random themes and then figured we’d spend the whole time hanging out in the hotel’s main common areas. These include the Bearista Cafe, the Cartoon Kitchen, the Toon Room, and the Omnicade. Most of us brought sketchbooks and I planned a trivia contest so we’d definitely have stuff to do.
I had never been to Lancaster before and I think technically the hotel is in a different town, but either way I was really surprised by how much it reminded me of my hometown. Our trip was the weekend right after Thanksgiving so I had just spent a few days in my hometown and this place looks basically the same. The only difference is you can be driving down one of the main streets and instead of a dead you see Jake the Dog looming over the horizon.
I guess because I knew it was next to a theme park, I assumed this thing would be a bit off the beaten path. But it is literally right there down the street from like Red Robin. Imagine passing this thing every day on your way to school.
Adorably, Jake was dressed up for the holidays. What a wonderful first sight to behold when we got there.
The lobby has this sorta mansion layout with two big staircases heading upstairs to where the suites are. To the left is the front desk which isn’t really a normal hotel counter. It’s like a mobile desk set up where you kinda just stand next to the worker as they check you in. To the right as the gift shop!
I was really relieved when we walked in and saw how much bespoke merch there was for the hotel itself. I thought it would just be normal Cartoon Network stuff that you can get at Target or Hot Topic, maybe leftover exclusive stuff from bigger conventions. But almost everything was branded specifically to the hotel with very little in the way of generic Cartoon Network merch.
The gift shop was also divided into four sections each representing the four main CN shows prominently featured in the hotel - Steven Universe, Adventure Time, and the reboots of PPG and Ben10. And... can I take a moment here to talk about how weird these choices are?
While browsing the website I figured the reason the hotel was closing at the end of 2025 was because all of these shows had ended and it felt trapped in 2017. That’s why the Nick Hotel closed, most of the stuff there was outdated and the cost to replace them wasn't worth it.
But as I later found out, the Cartoon Network Hotel opened in 2020. By then the only one of these shows still going was Ben10. There is very little Summer Camp Island or Craig of the Creek, two shows that were at their peak in by the end of 2019.
Surprisingly, there was almost no reference to Teen Titans Go! anywhere to be found. Although one of my friends theorized that the last part was because the theme park rights to DC Comics are held by Six Flags and to that I say: They should have built this next to a Six Flags!
Anyway, gift shop. With the closure imminent they’re definitely liquidating whatever they had left and everything was kinda thrown about in any section. There was Steven Universe stuff in the Adventure Time section. We saw multiple products like the mugs in more than one section. There were also dozens of Powerpuff Girls mugs but only Bubbles ones were left. You’d think if they had that much leftover it’d be Blossom.
After we hit up the gift shop we did a quick look through the main Fun Zones in the building. Along the wall we found what looked like concept art from various CN shows hung up on the wall. This was probably the thing we were most excited to see as a bunch of artists, especially because we had no clue it was gonna be there.
I’m not sure if these are original “museum” pieces or if they’re just print outs or like… fake concept art made to be hung up. At least one of them was a pencil draft for a Craig of the Creek poster with a note to remove the water gun. That’s interesting… because it’s one of three Craig of the Creek references in the whole hotel. The others being this kids scavenger hunt map and Craig’s staff on the wallpaper.
After we gawked at all of the concept art we waited for check-in in the Bearista Cafe. I don’t drink coffee or tea or anything like that but the menu seemed pretty basic. One of my friends ordered a drink and said it was good. They also got a slice of some weird cake. They took two bites and threw it away.
I wasn’t terribly surprised by how basic the menu was, but at the same time you can do a lot with a little. Slapping themed names on preexisting drinks is an easy way to add some fun to a boring menu.
They had a few drinks themed to the We Bare Bears bears but that portion of the menu was blocked by a pretzel machine that wasn’t in use. I wonder if they just didn’t want to make any of those.
The cafe also sold bags of chips, candy bars, bottled soda, and you could order adult beverages. But none of us got any of that stuff either. Overall, pretty basic cafe stuff.
The cafe had a handful of small tables and a few comfy couches in the corner where we hung out for like an hour. There were three arcade machines featuring actual games - that is, games like Pac-Man that you play for fun and not tickets.
They also had two screens playing episodes of Cartoon Network shows. The one right by us was showing Uncle Grandpa, which made us all uncomfortable, and the other was showing Teen Titans Go! which, along with some off model Beast Boy and Raven designs on the wallpaper, was the only Teen Titans Go! we saw all weekend.
After that we checked in and drove to our room. Yeah, I said drive. I haven’t mentioned it yet but this is not technically a hotel. It’s a motel.
We had to drive around the corner and park right in front of a door that opened right to our room. This also set expectations pretty low. I didn’t tell anyone ahead of time because I didn’t want to poo poo on my own parade, but I did find some reviews online that talked about bed bugs and black mold in what is very clearly a cheap motel with Ben10 wallpaper.
The biggest laugh I had all weekend was when we turned the corner toward our room and I saw these three big squares at the end of the road in CN’s classic CMYK color palette.
At first I thought they were dumpsters, then covered transformers, then I honestly thought they were just painted cubes like those big red orbs outside of Target.
When we got closer I realized they had a bunch of dead branches coming out of them so I guess they’re planter boxes. Even the dead leaves are themed here. If only Dead Leaves had ever aired on Adult Swim.
So even if we couldn’t book a suite, the normal rooms are still themed to different Cartoon Network shows. While we sat in the cafe we started taking bets on which room we would get.
Aside from the four main shows I knew from the website there were also We Bare Bears rooms. Among our small group each of the five options got one bet - though most of us were memeing it and obviously we all wanted Steven Universe. I wish I was filming our reaction as we walked in because we were all wrong.
Gumball. We got the Gumball room. Do you remember Gumball? I don’t. I was already a grown man when it premiered… like all the other shows, I guess. Gumball also ended before the hotel opened. I really wonder why there aren’t rooms themed to Craig of the Creek or Summer Camp Island. It seems like an easy thing.
Anyway the moment we saw the Gumball theme any plans to steal from the room were squashed. Who the hell wants a Gumball pillow? Not only was the room a Gumball room, instead of one of the walls being painted in a CMYK tone we got plain white. And instead of canvas art featuring characters from Gumball we just got nothing on the wall. Objectively, I think we had the worst room in the hotel. Motel.
After that, we got dinner. We had looked at the menu in the Cartoon Kitchen and it honest to god looks like it exclusively served pizza and an assortment of deep fried sides - none of which were French fries. They also had a $30 holiday dinner that came with a bunch of Thanksgiving classics. I can only assume they serve burgers and pasta or something else throughout the year and the holiday special temporarily replaced those.
Anyway with the underwhelming menu and some unquelled concerns about how they’d handle dietary restrictions we decided to go out for dinner. I should mention here that only four of us were staying in the room but three other friends met us there to hang out and check out the space. After dinner we all headed back to the hotel and chose our next destination: The Omnicade.
The Omnicade is a Ben10-themed arcade… Except, no, actually. It really isn’t. There’s maybe a dozen or so games most of which are ticket redemption games, also known as gambling for kids.
At first we were confused because we didn’t see a prize counter, but later we saw prize vending machines. Part of me thinks that takes a lot of fun out of the experience and more importantly it eliminates someone’s job. But also… No one should have to have that job. And it allows the Omnicade to be open 24/7. So if you're gonna do gambling for kids I guess this is the best way to do it.
The funniest thing about the prizes is that they included a lot of things like Pokemon cards, Disney Funko Pops, and Ninja Turtle toys. Instead of… like… Cartoon Network stuff. I can only assume the games, the prize machines, and the keycard system are all bought from the same company that also has their own license about prizes. Idk. There were two claw machines filled with Cartoon Network plushies in them so… That’s cool.
I wasn’t expecting a full blown retro arcade with pinball and lightguns, and like I said there was Pac-Man and Donkey Kong in the cafe. What I was really upset with was the Ben10 aspect of the Omnicade… And by that I mean how there wasn’t one. There was a picture of Ben and the logo on one wall. Some of the walls had this pattern on the wall that I guess feels like Ben10… But some of the walls were just painted black and that was it.
So with our curiosity satisfied, we left the Omnicade for good and headed back to the cafe to play some trivia contest that I made myself. As the one reading the questions and keeping score, I’m glad I ended up in a seat facing away from the bar. Everyone working the cafe was definitely aware of what we were doing and I probably would have gotten embarrassed if I could tell they were staring at us.
But like… They seemed very cool and I’m sure they didn’t care that a bunch of adults came to Lancaster just for the hotel and made their own fun at a hotel filled with things no one over the age of ten would enjoy.
The highlight of the night was when they popped a bunch of popcorn to pass out to kids watching the Steven Universe movie over in the Toon Room. Later, the cafe workers came by and gave our group a whole bunch of popcorn without us even having to ask. Easily the coolest part of the whole weekend.
The cafe closed at 9 so we headed back to the room and hung out for a bit until it was just the four of us actually staying in the room. We stayed up a bit more talking about cartoons and things and eventually we went to bed.
I say we “went to bed” and not “we went to sleep” because nobody slept that night. Except, ironically, the one person on the air mattress. I don’t know if the air was stuffy or the beds were lumpy. I think the blankets were too tight. Maybe it was Gumball’s face on the pillows. Hang on… is Gumball the name of the character or just the show? I have no idea. At least we didn’t get bit by bedbugs.
Anyway, the next morning we went to a real diner for breakfast. The night before I had asked the staff at the Cartoon Kitchen what the breakfast was like and they described a standard hotel breakfast buffet which is fine… but it was like $15. Screw that. When we got back to the hotel all we did was check out and leave.
I would have loved to see more of the hotel but the tight window we actually had there didn’t leave us with much time. Even if we had an extra day to explore, the weather was gross. I’m certain the waterpark was closed and while there was nice stuff to walk around and look at outside, it was gross and snowing for half the trip.
Also the common areas that were open late were all in one building that we had to drive to get to from our room. What I’m saying is it would have been cool if the Cartoon Network Hotel was all in one connected buulding… like an actual hotel.
My main takeaway was something I haven’t mentioned yet. As far as what we actually got, the quality of the hotel was exactly what I expected. Basic cafe menu with very few themed drinks, an arcade with ticket redemption games, and a gift shop selling off old merch. It was exactly what I expected. However - it was all just really small!
The cafe was cozy but also probably gets cramped in the morning. The arcade was claustrophobically small and barely had any games. Even the gift shop, if it was fully stocked, was a small space. We never went into the Cartoon Kitchen but that is the biggest room on the map so it’s probably adequate for what it is. But the space runs the risk of feeling busier than it actually is on some days.
The biggest surprise I’d say was the Toon Room. We all kinda thought it was gonna be like an open lounge with some coloring pages on some tables. I thought that’s where we’d end up doing the trivia game or maybe a drawing jam. But it was actively bumpin’ all day long with different activities. There were character meet & greats, a dance party, and even a movie screening.
It felt like a kids club or mini day camp sorta thing you see at resorts and on cruises. I hope nobody left their kids unattended there because it was definitely not free childcare. Just extra fun for the kids. We never felt comfortable even walking through it. The website says it's open 24/7 but after we got kicked out of the cafe the Steven Universe movie was still going and the Omnicade sucks so we just went back to our room. Either way, we could definitely tell it was super small too.
The Cartoon Network Hotel was a neat idea, but we could all tell that even in its prime it was always underwhelming. The common spaces were too small, the foo options were underwhelming, the motel layout made navigating it unappealing, and the Cartoon Network representation - even by modern standards - was inconsistently bizarre. And, of course, it was one of the worst night's sleep of our lives.
My biggest regret from the trip is that we never went to the pool. The outdoor waterpark area was obviously closed, but there was an indoor pool that I never knew about until the day of. Nobody packed swimsuits so we were probably just going to curiously check it out. But I had one final thought about it.
I really wanted those towels. I started to suspect they were old towels from the gift shop and had only been staged around the pool for the marketing photos. Then, after I got home, I stumbled upon a photo of the indoor pool. And I noticed two very shocking things.
The first thing I noticed: there, in the background, is a towel rack filled with plain white towels. How unfortunate that the very image that inspired this trip was ultimately, most likely, some form of a lie. The second thing I noticed: the pool is shaped like a dick.
