Great Wolf Lodge Part 2 – What To Do

In this part of my Great Wolf Lodge informtional post series, we’ll look at all the “Ages and Stages”, or activities and fun things for them to do while visiting.  I know that one of the biggest concerns for families of any size when considering a vacation is what activities their children can do and will they enjoy them…that is what I’m going to talk about today.  I can actually sum it up in one brief statement…regardless of the ages of your children, or the size of your family, you will find plenty to do at Great Wolf Lodge.

For those of you who want more details, I’m breaking it up into age groups and the various activities available for each.  Because we have every age group from Toddler to Teenager, you’ll get a pretty detailed break down here.  Suffice it to say though that from the moment you arrive, your children will know that they are somewhere fun…and you will know that you don’t have to stress out when “kids are being kids”!  That alone was one of my favorite things.

Mom and Dad…prepare to have fun too. As I mentioned in Part 1, this is not a relaxing vacation, but it’s tons of fun!  I’ll admit right here and now that having Starbucks right downstairs in the lobby was the perfect way to start the day!  Mom was very happy!   Mom and Dad often will need to plan their strategy a little bit…who will hang out with what children and how to keep tabs on everyone.

I did end up spending most of my time with our 3 year olds.  They are unpredictable and tend to go in opposite directions, but I was able to handle it on my own for the most part (potty time became a bit of a challenge).  My husband ended up spending much of our waterpark time going down big slides with the older boys or hanging out with our 6 and 9 year olds.  Honestly, a lot of our time felt like we were just hanging out, not necessarily over supervising which was very nice.

Now, for the kids!  Ready, Set, GO…….

Babies: Granted, we didn’t take a baby and there are definitely a unique set of obstacles that can present themselves when you do take one, but I often found myself thinking “if my Sis were here with Little Miss (4 months), what would she do?”.   There were plenty of little ones attached to mommy’s hip and even several sitting around the edges nursing.  All around the toddler pool, there are chairs and tables and plenty of seating, even on the weekend.  Though there isn’t anything for an infant to do, they can still have fun hanging out with a parent or grandparent on the sidelines or even splashing around in the shallowest depths of the Zero entry pool.

Want to make it even easier, consider bringing grandparents with you.  They’ll have a blast watching the little kids and you might get to participate in activities you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Toddlers & Preschoolers

In the waterpark area: This is a wonderland for little ones.  You are definitely going to see some amazed expressions on their little faces.  They LOVE the toddler pool with it’s Zero entry (no ledge, like the beach) and all the fun activities.  Be sure to bring a swim diaper for them and grab a life vest on your way to that area (no worries, there are plenty to go around!).  They will still need constant supervision, but they will have plenty of fun.  Faves for my little two…Gushin Geyser and Cub Paw Pool.

The middle section of this pool area is definitely the most challenging part as it gets to about 18 inches deep.  Doesn’t seem like much to you and me, but for them, it’s chest deep.  Many parents walked through this area with them and the littler ones stuck to the water sprayers, little fort and slide, squirty flowers and even the sub (though it is a little too challenging to pull hard enough for some of the littler folks).  Lifeguards are all over, and each one is watching a particular area.  The taller slide is a “one at a time” only slide, so be sure to follow the rules.

Tadpole Pond:  This is their outdoor feature for little ones.  There is no pool, so it is perfect for the littlest ones, but be sure to bring your sunscreen with you.  On the days that are in the mid-70′s to mid-80′s this pool is packed during the day.  I took my little three to it just after the sun went to the other side of the Lodge and the timing was perfect.  Everyone had cleared the area, but it was still warm.  Not the place you’d want to be in super cold or super hot weather, but a very fun area nonetheless.

Running Around the Lodge: There are plenty of other activities your little ones can do while in the rest of the Lodge. The three biggest hits with my littlest ones…Ice Cream Shoppe, Animal Land, Nightly Storytime.  Getting wands to play MagiQuest was also a BIG deal to my little ones.  If you decide to let your little ones do this activity, make sure when you purchase the wand that you ask for them to be activated in a way that will set everything off as many times as your child waves at it.  This may not make  a lot of sense until you see how MagiQuest is setup, but trust me, if you have a child that is under 5 this is how you want it setup.  Cub Club was a lot of fun, but if you participate in this, be prepared for this young age group to prefer to play with toys, not participate in crafts and activities.  The clock tower plays a little performance a couple times a day, little ones love this, so if nightly storytime doesn’t work for you try to catch one of these shows.

Children (5-12 years)

In the waterpark area: Wow, there’s just so much for kids to do!  This age group is very diverse, some children are far more adventurous than others, so not all children matching the ages of mine will like the activities mine did, but they will like something!   Because there are so many activities for all the kids, I am breaking them down into areas and sharing my thoughts, hubby’s thoughts and the kiddos thoughts on each.

Fort McKenzie is where my 6, 9 and 10 year olds spent a lot of time.  There are twin waterslides at the top, tons of water features, sprayers, etc and of course, at the very top is the HUGE bucket that spontaneously dumps itself on the crowd below much to everyone’s delight.

Wave Pool: This area was tons of fun for my kids in this age group, but it was a little extreme as you got into the deeper waters, so using caution with the different age groups and swim ability is a must.  If you’re unsure, go with them and have them wear a life vest.  Most of the people in this pool were using floating tubes.

Big Foot Pass: My 11 year old thought this was amazing and that the water in that pool was even warmer than the others.  Not sure if that’s the case LOL.  Kids can get busy climbing across the lily pads and challenging themselves physically.  Definitely a fun one for something different.

Bigger Slides: The Howling Tornado (yup, that’s a photo of it off to the left) was a big hit with all my older guys (including the hubby, though the first time down with our 13 year old he was facing backward and mentioned to our son that he couldn’t see where he was going…son’s response “You don’t want to see where we’re going Dad, just hang on” LOL).  There is a serious drop off on this one, so not all children will like it.  There are also strict height guidelines to follow for these.  I suggest that you have an adult and/or adventurous teen go down these first before taking anyone from this age group…and then go down with them.

Hot Tub: Children under 12 should always be accompanied by an adult and children under (I think…) 5 are not allowed in the Hot tub area at all.  The fun part about the hot tub is that it’s an In and Out, meaning that half of it is indoors and half is outdoors. You can access both sides directly or swim across.

In the Lodge: Again, there are so many activities to talk about this post would just go on and on.  This age group couldn’t be happier with every single area they offer at the Lodge (with the exception of the teen space).  So basically, any of the shops, MagiQuest, Cub Club, the Arcade, Wolf Walk, etc are all going to make this age group extremely happy!  The older ones will probably find story time a bit beneath them, but may be willing to attend with younger siblings.

Teens

Waterpark: Set your teen loose and they will have an amazing time.  Our oldest son had a blast and really spent almost all his time going down the big slides, but he loved the whole waterpark area.  He spent quite a bit of time going down with Dad and various brothers too, but I swear he never stopped from the moment he set foot in the waterpark to the moment we left to do other things he was gogog0.

In the Lodge: If you’re teen is “too cool” to participate in a lot of the other activities, there are two places they will highly enjoy (well, outside of all the food shops that is)…Gr8 space and the Arcade.  Gr8 Space offers many activities throughout the day for teens (though many of them were a little old for our son, so we simply monitored when he could go in), has docks to plug in  portable devices, etc.  There isn’t a lot of information on the site about this area, and it is just kind of a place for this age group to get away from the other activities for a while.  They even play movies and more.  The arcade is the other place they enjoy, this is a HUGE area and they win tickets for each game they play, they are likely to go through a fair amount of spending money in no time flat in this room.  It is not just for teens.

There are several things that the Lodge offers that we were not able to participate in.  They have a great spa for adults and even one for tween/teen girls.  Great Wolf Lodge is becoming quite the destination for birthday parties and a plethora of other family focused events as well.

**Please note that many of the activities I mentioned to have an additional charge attached to them.  The waterpark is included with your stay, as is wolf walk, nightly storytime and the clock tower show.  You can expect everything else to cost extra.

One thing we didn’t have time to participate in this time was the Wolf Walk, I’m hoping that our next visit will include this great tour of the Lodge so that I can share it with all of you.   In the meantime, I’ll be posting soon about Safety at Great Wolf and about Project Green Wolf.

Miss something?  Still have questions?  Be sure to leave a comment below and I’ll answer (either in the comments or another post)!!!