Instead of gifting toys for the kids’ birthdays this summer,
David and I decided that we wanted to treat them to some type of family getaway
where we could spend some quality time together. Since both children love the water, we decided
on a mini vacation to Great Wolf Lodge.
This hotel chain has a few locations across the country. They all have a wonderful lodge décor with
many different room options. They have restaurants
on site, sweet shops for ice cream-candy-and more, little stores to shop, an arcade,
a salon for facials-manicures-and pedicures which was decorated so cute, and
are well-known for their large indoor/outdoor waterparks.
Neither of us had ever been to one of these hotels prior to
this, so we did our research, and hoped for the best. Here’s a little of what we did and what we
learned.
1. We booked our stay
for Sunday night. The rates are MUCH
cheaper for a weekday and Sundays as they aren’t in as high of demand. You are able to check-in to use the pool at 1pm
the day of arrival, even though you may not get into your room until 4pm. We arrived in Kansas City around noon,
grabbed lunch, and then checked in.
2. The kids LOVED
everything about the waterpark-the pools and the waterslides-and so did
we. I was overly impressed by all the
options. There were multiple swimming
areas for infants and young kids, some pools for larger kids and adults, and
some areas for everyone. I was shocked
that they had slides that even Brady could ride! The beauty of it all is that there were
options. To top it off, there was an
outside pool as well. There weren’t any
waterslides in the outside area, but the pool and toys out there were perfect
for Brady and Tessa’s age. They even had
a bar so we adults could enjoy a few cocktails in the water as well. We took full advantage of the outside pool
area and toys on Sunday afternoon. I’m
so glad we did as it was closed on Monday.
At the end of summer they don’t supply lifeguards and other staffing
during the week for the outdoor area.
3. After we swam and
slid our little hearts out, we went to dinner at the restaurant. I don’t know if we were all really hungry
from the day’s activities or what, but the food was awesome. I’m not sure little man was able to cast his
vote though?
4. We enjoyed some
free ice cream in the sweet shop since it was the kids’ birthday celebration
and then enjoyed story time in the lobby.
The Lodge characters come out to visit periodically and one is always at story time. They offer this in the afternoon and the evening. Brady loved the characters but the feeling wasn’t mutual with Miss Tess. She has some hesitancy with life-sized creatures and well, I don’t really blame her. They can be a little intimidating.
5. The next morning we
went down to the sweet shop to get our Starbucks coffee. We sat out on the balcony and enjoyed
ourselves before the pool opened. We
even made a quick stop at the arcade for a few games and a visit to the
salon. (I still regret not purchasing
these amazing slippers I saw). We needed
to be checked out of our room by 11am.
They have lockers and showers down in the waterpark and your pass is good
until 9pm that night. Needless to say we
took what we needed for the ride home down to the pool, packed the rest in the
car, and spent the morning and early afternoon soaking up some fun at the pool.
6. We left the lodge
around 2pm and made our trek back to Iowa.
Initially I thought maybe we lost out on some good water time, but in
the end that was about as much excitement as the kids could handle.
They rode the waterslides CONSTANTLY that morning, seriously enough to make me dizzy trying to see which one was on the slide and where.
7. To sum it up, I
was really impressed with the Great Wolf Lodge.
I think the hubs and I did a good job with planning and communicating
with the staff so we knew what they had and what we needed to bring. Because the hotel is based around children, everything
was tailored to our needs. All I had to
pack were our clothes and some snacks to keep in the room. We would make this trip again in a heartbeat…and
maybe again for only 1 night…well, maybe 2. ;)
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