Family Fun at Great Wolf Lodge!

My family and I had a chance to celebrate my son turning six years old this year by heading off for a little mini-vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells, WI. To say we had fun might be an understatement!

We have been long overdue for a vacation, and this trip was just what our family needed. From an awesome water park, to good food, and just fun family time; we made sure we made the most of our two nights at Great Wolf.

About Great Wolf Lodge (Wisconsin)

Your Great Wolf Lodge adventure begins in our massive, 84-degree indoor water park. Splash the day away in over 80,000 square feet of water-packed excitement, including jaw-dropping slides for thrill seekers or zero-depth entry areas for little ones. Outside the water park, the fun continues. Grab a wand and battle a dragon in MagiQuest or get an ice cream-themed manicure in Scooops Kid Spa before gathering your family in our Grand Lobby for nightly fireside Story Time, the perfect ending to a Great Wolf day.

Getting Wet at Great Wolf (Day 1)

Our family started out by heading straight to the water park! The kids couldn’t wait to splash around and just get sopping wet. The first place they found was Hawk’s Beak; a great place to start for little thrill seekers. These water slides designed for younger kids were a great way to get everyone’s feet wet.

Once everyone did a few trips down the slides at Hawk’s Beak, Lookout Mountain was the next slide tackled. This tube slide allows you to go down as a single, or double rider. My little dare devil of a son loves to go down by himself, while the more timid kids in the group chose to ride double with adults.

Next to Hawk’s Beak and Lookout Mountain is the Mineshaft. My son loves these slides, and went down a few times with grandpa in tow. A few of the other kiddos joined in, but some were just not quite ready for the big plop into the pool at the end.

(Image courtesy of Great Wolf Lodge)

My son and his best pal made sure to head across the Frog Bog Log Walk, and both did really well making it across on their own!

Once they kids had their fill of the first pool room, I herded them over to Fort Mackenzie, which was my three year old daughter’s favorite place to hang out. She loved going down the “green slides”; but walking up to the slides may mean a bucket of water could be dumped on your head….watch out!

All of the kids were too small for the Howlin’ Tornado except for my niece. I grabbed her and hauled the huge tube up what seemed like fifty flights of stairs so we could check it out. Neither of us were quite ready for the big drop off, and it was quite the thrill! She got a little nervous at first, but after I assured her she just needed to hang on she really enjoyed it and wanted to go again.  I made grandma climb all those stairs the second time around. 🙂

(image courtesy of Great Wolf Lodge)

The  Chinook Cove activity pool was a great place to just unwind a little and float around. The kids really liked the floating log; trying to get on, and stay on was tons of fun!

After all that splashing and sliding, one of the favorite spots to hang out was in the family warming pool (North and South Hot Springs). The kids liked that they could go in the hot-tub, and I liked warming up a little.  🙂

Enjoying Family Time at Great Wolf (day 2)

When day two rolled around, we actually had to rouse the kids from their peaceful–let.mommy.sleep.in–slumber. We wanted to hit the water and make the most of our day!

Low-and-behold…day two found us over by Slap Tail Pond, which is a wave pool located in a third room we didn’t even realize was there the day before! My kids do like floating up and down on tubes in the wave pool, but they each had their favorite part of this fun room.

My son (and my husband and I) LOVED Mountain Edge Raceway. I think this is the slide that we went down the most. It was so much fun sliding down on the mats and trying to see who would get to the bottom first.

My son always won of course, but when you have to give him a little push I suppose he gets a bit of a head-start.

My daughter was in heaven at Racoon Lagoon. Although this little play area is designed more for toddlers, she had a blast spraying us with the “dolphins”. They were pretend jet skis, but she called them dolphins.

Great Wolf Lodge Waterslide Mashup

Here is a fun little video I put together of a few of the waterslides we went down. Take a peek and get a first-hand look at plunging down the slides!

Enjoying the food at Great Wolf

On our first night we actually went out to eat at Buffalo Phil’s, a nearby restaurant that delivers your food by train! The next morning, however, we enjoyed the breakfast at Camp Critter Buffet, and we each got to pick our favorites, including freshly made waffles and omelets.

Don’t these look like the tastiest waffles ever?! And they are made fresh, right in front of you!

That night, we stayed up late to make sure we got all our swimming in. We worked up an appetite and decided to order pizza from The Loose Moose, Great Wolf’s in-house restaurant/bar.

The pizza was delicious…just like I like it with lots of cheese!

We couldn’t forget about dessert though, and had a HUGE selection of items to choose from at the Bear Paw Sweets & Eats.

We all settled on ice cream in the end, and enjoyed our treats next to Bear Paw himself!

Great Wolf Lodge Impressions

My overall impression of Great Wolf Lodge is that it is a great place for a family to have a little fun, a weekend getaway, or a mid-winter vacation. It does seem to be designed to cater to younger kids, but there is something fun for all ages, and some of the slides do require a certain height to go on them.

The customer service was okay. It did take me a very long time to get checked in, but once we were settled everything went quite smoothly.

Great Wolf has activities and fun events for all ages, unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to partake in any when we were there. We wanted to get the most out of the water park so we spent all of our time there. Some of the activities include:

photo courtesy of Great Wolf Lodge

• MagiQuest (explore an enchanted kingdom and join in the ultimate adventure as you enchant objects, befriend a pixie, learn from an ancient wizard, battle a goblin and outwit a dragon)
• Cub Club (activities and crafts designed to enlighten and entertain your younger ones for hours)
• Great Clock Tower Show (mornings)
• Story Time (Meet & Greet Wiley the Wolf, Violet, and Oliver every night)

Great Rate for Homeschooling Families!

Great Wolf Lodge offers a wonderful discount for those who homeschool their children. If you need a little break during the year, head over to Great Wolf and use promo code: HOME to receive the discounted rate. Only certain dates are available, click here to view the Homeschooling Flyer.

I was provided a Discounted hotel stay in exchange for this review, all opinions are my own.