On a whim, I loaded the kids in the car and we went to the Great Wolf Lodge. I’ve seen tons of publicity over the years for the place and finally decided to try it out.
I have to admit I wasn’t really excited about this adventure. I’m not a theme park/crowd lover, but I do recognize that raising kids isn’t about my preferences all the time. So . . . off we went. Funny thing is my kids didn’t really want to go. I thought, “This is so backwards. Am I really trying to convince my kids to go?” I won (yay me).
As soon as we arrived, the kids walked in the door and announced “Wow, we love it here.” I was actually pleasantly surprised. It was nicer than I thought. At check-in the kids were given wolf ears, which they thought were pretty dang cool. We were all given wrist bands that gave us access to the pool. My wrist band served as our room key and credit card, which was great because for once in my life I didn’t have to carry my purse around. We immediately checked into our room and ran to the slides. This part was slightly awkward. I forgot a beach bag. I grabbed the hotel’s plastic laundry bag and threw our things in it. Every single seat was taken by the slides, so our laundry bag found a home in a corner.
In my opinion, the slide park is just the right size. Any bigger and I would have had a hard time keeping track of everyone.
I didn’t really want to go on the slides to be honest but obviously had to so Pemberley could go. Once I climbed to the top of the tower and had a kid dump massive amounts of water on me and waited in line, I was committed. Turned out she could have gone alone. In fact, they wouldn’t let us go together. I ended up going first so I could grab her at the bottom. I was worried she would get scared. I should have known better. Pemberley isn’t really afraid of anything. In fact, she thinks she can take down snakes, bears, and bad guys. Anyway, I went down the slide starting out with an inner eye roll and an outward smile. About two seconds in, I was suddenly my kid self and in heaven. At the bottom, I thought to myself, “I’m glad that kid dumped water on my head and I thought I needed to go down that slide, because that was a blast. Next thing I know, I think I’m my kids’ age and we are running through that place with the biggest smiles imaginable. Oh, we really did have so much fun. It helps for me that they keep the place and water incredibly warm.
After the slides, we slipped back up to the room and scrubbed off I don’t even want to know what kind of germs and hit the rest of the lodge.
We went mining for special rocks, played in an arcade, and did just about every activity they had. There were several restaurant choices, which was nice. We opted for the grill, which wasn’t bad.
The kids loved our room. There was a special bunk area for them. For me, the room was okay. The only thing I would have added to their bunk area would have been a door. My kids go to bed early. Really early. When sharing a room, that means I’m basically going to bed at an adult dinnertime. I chatted on the phone out on the patio for a bit, gazing out at the beautiful view of the parking lot and rope course. LOL. I then cuddled into bed and watched movies on my iPad using Pemberley’s Frozen ear phones, trying to be as quiet as possible.
The next morning we did the slides again after a pretty mediocre buffet breakfast, and I was ready to go. They let you stay all day if you want after check-out. We were out of the lodge by about 10:30. We were all exhausted for the next twenty-four hours.
I’ve decided for me one night is plenty. I would go again mid-winter for a night. My kids absolutely loved it. So, worth the trip? Yup. It was.