Mini-Cation Post #12 – Great Wolf Lodge Waterpark

Wow where to start, this one is probably going to be a long one but oh so fun.  Crooked creek is probably one of my favorite parts of the whole Great Wolf Lodge trip.  Lay back in a tube and just relax while the water flows you around the lazy river, perfect for when the babies want some down time and Maddisyn actually fell asleep while we were just floating around it was perfect.

Thunder Bay is the outdoor portion of the water park but is not open until Memorial Day weekend so i was not able to try that out or take any pictures of it.  Want to relax in the hot tubs?  Perfect you can choose one of two in Manitoba Tubs.  There is one for people age 21 and over so you can relax without a bunch of kids running around or one for the whole family to enjoy which I know my kids certainly did enjoy.  Big foot pass is a fun area where the kids can jump, or climb with the assistance of an overhead net from one side of the pool to the other on giant lilly pads, my kids loved that part.  Plus there was a floating snake in the same pool that they could climb all over and while in the same pool a small wall separated basketball nets where you could have some water fun with your kids or they could interact with other kids, this part of the pool is called Chinook Cove and is 4.5 feet deep.

The water slides are probably my kids favorite part of this all and there are slides for kids of all sizes.  The little ones can play in Whooping Hollow on the kiddie slides where kids under 48″ only are allowed to use the slides (adult supervised of course).  Maddisyn loved climbing up the stairs and sliding back down to her dad and I who were waiting at the bottom for her.  Alberta Falls is a four story high water slide that goes in and out of the building while you ride on a tube, super fun.  There are three water slide options in this area, one you can ride with up to three people and there are specific tubes.  The other side you carry your own tube up and you can ride either single or double down here.  I seen people bringing kids younger then Maddisyn down but I don’t think that she would like the water in her face so it would not work out for her.

The last area I have been saving is Fort Mackenzie. Fort Mackenzie is a four-story interactive tree house water fort offering 12 levels of super-soaking fun for the family. Younger kids can climb with their parents to reach the slides at the top. The older ones will love making their way over suspension bridges and cargo nets to spray stations and soaker buckets. (Watch out below!) The grand daddy of soaker buckets is the 1,000-gallon tipper that sits atop Fort Mackenzie. Every few minutes, the warning bell clangs, and the bucket begins to tip its contents over the roof and onto the giggling group below.

Here is a video i took of the bucket dump as well as a ton of photos I took that I wanted to share, just click on the thumbnail to open the picture and view it full size.

The last thing I want to talk about here is the most important thing.  We have been to Great Wolf Lodge before and this never ceases to amaze me no matter how many times i see it.  The lifeguards and their reaction time is awesome.  They test the lifeguards occasionally by floating a doll named Timmy into the different pools at different times without letting the lifeguards know they are there, they then watch to see how long it takes the lifeguard to react and get Timmy out of the water.  The one lifeguard I saw do it was amazingly fast how quickly he saw Timmy and we were in a pool full of people and Timmy happened to float underneath Lees tube at the time.  Lee then got to witness this again a little bit later and this time the lifeguard dove in jacket and all on to save Timmy.  I then got to see them jump in after a little boy who lost his footing and took in a bit too much water.  I have never had to use them but am extremely thankful for the lifeguards there and how fast they can react.  Kudos Great Wolf Lodge for ensuring your lifeguards are well trained and on the ball with everything.

Mini-cation post #4 – Great Wolf Lodge – Lodge Life Part 3

This is my third post about life around the Great Wolf Lodge.  I know there has been a ton of information shared already but there is still a few more things I want to share with you about the amazing atmosphere and activities that are there for you to do with your family.  This will be my last Lodge Life post but then I am excited to share the most amazing exciting part of our trip…the WATERPARK.

Lets get this party started by talking about having your wedding at Great Wolf Lodge.  There are ballrooms in the lodge that allow you to have your wedding reception right in Great Wolf Lodge, the bonus of this is if you have family travelling in from out of town they could stay right at the lodge and if they have kids they could bring a babysitter and leave the kids in the room with the babysitter while they enjoy your wedding reception all while knowing the kids are simply an elevator ride (or walk down the hallway) away and that there is lots of stuff for the kids to do to be amused.  There is a wedding coordinator, banquet facilities and gourmet cuisine all available for you to help make your special day perfect.

My family loves to play games so going to the Northern Lights arcade is the perfect thing for any fun loving family.   Jam-packed with over a hundred games. Dance, race, spin, throw — it’s the only “workout” that will let you earn prizes.  You play the fun filled games, earn tickets that are automatically dispensed from each machine in varying amounts dependent on the game and your points/success.  Once you earn your tickets you take them and feed them into the ticket counter which once done prints out a receipt that shows how many tickets you have earned.  Then you can go and redeem them for prizes of different values.  They have stuff from 5 tickets all the way up to over 2000 tickets.  We got Maddisyn the most adorable pink guitar for 1200 tickets and Maddisyn and Holden each a ball for 150 and 400 tickets respectively and we only spent 30 dollars playing the games.  The boys got a bunch of junk food, a couple balls and multiple other things that I have not even had the chance to see yet.  Tons of fun and a great way to pass the time.

Great Wolf Lodge even has a spa called Elements Spa for adults.  The prices are I think reasonable for a Spa although i have never been so I honestly cannot say one way or another on that front.  You can go and get many different treatments like an antioxidant facial, radiant skin facial, green science facial, the Elements signature facial, teen facial, a neti body treatment, aroma body wrap or a Caribbean Therapy Body Treatment.  I had not planned this time to have a spa trip but I will for sure be returning to Great Wolf Lodge and I will be going to the Spa then.  Want to send your little girl to the spa while your there to pamper her?  They have a spa for kids called Scoopswhere your kids can get a facial, manicure or pedicure.  Whats so special about Scoops?  Well other then that they are girls only, they do their treatments with ICE CREAM.  It is designed specifically for kids 4-12 years of age.

I have been saving my kids activity for the very last bit of this post because it is a big one.  Magiquest.  You purchase a wand and receive a quest book and it takes you all over the lodge playing, looking for items.  When you find a chest you can point your wand at it and it opens and gives you gold.  The same practice is with the quests, you go around and when you find the item you point your wand at it to activate it and it records to the wand.  Then as you finish each part of the quest you must report to the boxes with a certain character like a gargoyle or man or stone etc to check your progress.  Then you report back to the magic trees to start a new quest.  Once you complete all the quests you get to go on adventures and have to help power a fairy stone, defeat a gargoyle and defeat the dragon to become a dragon master.  The kids all complete the entire set of quests while we were there in no time at all, I was rather proud of them and while I bought myself a pink wand merely because it is pink I did not get to really play.

Well that was life at the lodge, and while I tried to share with you as much as I possibly could I truly believe that you need to visit Great Wolf Lodge at least once with your kids because in this case seeing is truly believing.

Mini-cation post #2 – Great Wolf Lodge – Lodge Life Part 2

So yesterday I wrote a post about lodge life at Great Wolf that talked about the rooms, lobby, story time and food.  There is just so much I want to share that this I had to split it into three posts.

While we were there I took Maddisyn and Holden off on our own little adventure so that Lee could go on the waterslides with the kids for a little bit because they love doing that with him but hitis too hard for us to all be in the water at the same time and me be with both babies while he his off sliding.  While out on our adventure we decided to take a visit to Cub Club.  Cub Club is a place where you can take kids and they can tye die or paint their own t-shirts or pillowcases.  They an also make a little necklace, paint a piggy bank or a turtle bank or make sandart.  There is also a computer that has a kids game loaded on it that your older little ones can play with.  There was a playhouse and a story corner complete with an adorable tree and rocking chair with a ton or books to read to your little one.  We painted the piggy bank and turtle and created a necklace, Maddisyn had fun and it was a nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle of the activities we had been doing.

I love that Great Wolf is very environmentally friendly and gives you the option to not have fresh towels daily to help use less water, there are also recycling bins all through the lodge including in the rooms which is a large help in easily being able to dispose of not only our garbage but our recycling.  We are a green family as well so this was great.

I took a bit of me time and went and explored the gift shop, better known as Buckhorn Exchange.  They had so many great things branded with the Great Wolf Lodge logo as well as essentials you perhaps may have left home like tylenol or toothbrush etc.  The kids each got a gift from the shop, Chase and Blake chose a mug and a glass that is Great Wolf Lodge Branded, Maddisyn and Holden each got a stuffed wolf wearing a Great Wolf Lodge shirt, a pair of flippers and swimming goggles.  They are adorable, Maddisyns has a pink shirt and a pink hairbow, Holdens is wearing a blue shirt.  The gift shop is huge and even sells board games which is great for some down time in your room.  My favorite thing that I saw there was a Great Wolf Lodge scrapbooking page kit that came with over 500 pieces to make your own Great Wolf Lodge pages for your scrapbook.

The gift shop also has a Great Wolf stuffing station where you can Create your very own Stuffed Wolf and other stuffed animals friends from the animal kingdom! You can choose, stuff, stitch, fluff and dress your new furry friend, name him and walk away hand in paw with your friend for life, that you helped bring to life!  Forget your swimsuit?  No need to panic down in the pool area there was a Bear Essentials swim shop where you can go to get your pool essentials.  They have towels, swimsuits, flip flops, goggles, swim diapers, cover-ups and so much more.

We were there in March so it was still cold and yucky out but we are hoping to visit again in the summertime with the kids, why you ask?  Because we would LOVE to do the Howl-In-One Mini-Golf.  It was closed while we were there so I was not even able to get any pictures of it or really see it up close but we as a family love mini-golf so I know it would be right up our alley.  Giant life-like beavers, golf ball-eating fish, floating greens. Those are just a few of the wacky features you’ll find on our state-of-the-art, 18-hole mini-golf course.

This was another fun filled post, I was trying to get it all done in two posts but we will be headed into a third one tomorrow because I want you all to read all I have to say about the lodge and the fun that you can have as a family there.

Mini-cation post #1 – Great Wolf Lodge – Lodge Life

What a great trip, I love the Great Wolf Lodge we had so much fun while there, we spent hours swimming, playing in the arcade and doing Magiquest.   I am going to do this in a couple separate posts just because I don’t want to overwhelm you with all the stuff you can do here.  So lets start with lodge life.  When we arrived we went to the counter to attempt to check-in, now I say attempt because here at Great Wolf Lodge check-in time is at 4:00 pm but you can check in as your room becomes available.  We got here at about 2:30 and went to the check-in counter to register and at least get our water park passes so we could play in the water park while waiting for your room.  We were lucky and our room was ready so we were able to go right into our room.  If our room had not been ready we did have  a separate bag packed with our swimming gear because you are able to start using the water park area as of 1:00 PM on your check-in date even if your room is not ready.  We got to our room, got everyone settled and of course we went off to the water park.

I will get into more of the water park a little later on in another post but for now lets talk more about the lodge, the rooms and the fun activities.  We are staying in the Majestic Bear Suite which sleeps max of 8 people in it.  There are rooms that vary in capacity from 4-8 people or less.  Our room is simply amazing.  It has two queen size beds, a double sized sleeper sofa and a separate bedroom with a king sized bed in it.  There are two TV’s in the room and the one in the main area has a Nintendo 64 controller hooked to it and you can rent the Nintendo for a fee each day if you choose to.  You can also rent pay per view movies for after the kids are in bed.  The main area has a dress with four drawers and a chair in it as well as a door to the patio.  The bedroom has the dresser, chair with footstool and door to the patio area which is where you must smoke if you are a smoker because Great Wolf Lodge is a non-smoking lodge.

There are two restaurants you can go and eat in, the Loose Moose Cottage or Camp Critter.  I recommend the Wiley Wolf Wrap it is so delicious, my new favorite.  Camp Critter is absolutely adorable all done up like the great outdoors with trees and cabanas which you eat under at wooden tables.  Loose Moose Cottage is more of a family style normal restaurant except for Lucy the Moose who sometimes will sing for you.  There is also the Spirit Island Snack Shop for if you can’t get your crew out of the water park to eat.  The food there is great as well although I wish they had some sort of dipping sauce for the chicken strips they serve there.  They also have funnel cakes, soft pretzels, and hot and cold beverages both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

The hotel lobby is absolutely mind blowing.  It is all done up in the outdoors theme that is throughout the entire hotel complete with a tree house style reception desk, lots of chairs to sit and chat in as well as the Great Clock Tower which tells kids a story every night at 8 pm sharp.  It is a great tradition and one that Maddisyn liked to do every night, she would scamper into the room, get her pajamas on and then we would head to the lobby for the story time with Wiley Wolf.

Is your head spinning yet?  I know mine was there is just so much to see and do.  I have decided to break this into a two part post so that it is not too long and so that the pictures don’t make this post too long to load.  So look forward to tomorrows exciting installment of Mini-cation post #1 – Great Wolf Lodge – Lodge Life where I will tell you about the gift shop, howl-in-one mini-golf, iron horse fitness center and a few more things I really want to share.