Great Wolf Lodge

We had an extra day off of school on Monday, the day before Veteran's Day. In Aug we decided to go to Great Wolf Lodge with our friends, who had found a great rate. We didn't tell the kids where we were going. We packed for them, and they didn't even know we were going overnight anywhere!

The Lodge was great. Totally worth it, but you need to book early. We booked through Expedia, and got a much better rate than through the hotel. It was $179 for 2 queen beds, and you get 2 days of the water park. We went the Natsuharas. Marian invited another friend, who only booked 3 weeks ago, and paid $259 for the same room, through GWL. We got there about 1pm on Sun. We left after church, but we could have gotten there earlier if it was another day. We took a break about 6pm and went to Centrailia (next exit down the freeway) for dinner. They have lots of food/snacks at GWL, but pricey. We brought lots of snacks for ourselves also. We forgot water, which we really could have used. Bring some bottles, since it's hot in the waterpark, and you really get tired. They have tons of towels for the waterpark area. We looked around the rest of the hotel when we got back from dinner. There is an arcade, gift shop, Starbucks, pizza, ice cream, and other food places. There is also a place with electronics games and TV's for $5 a day. They have dances there at the night.

They have something called Magic Quest, which looks fun. It's $10 for the game, which allows you to play for 4 days, and $15 for a wand, which you only have to buy once. There are 10 different quests, and 3 adventures. You go around the hotel following clues and looking for stations. I think we're going to go back down in a few months with the kids and just do that. Not spend the night or do the water park. We'll bring a book, and let the kids go at it. The guy said it takes about 4 - 6 hours to do all the quests. They add new ones on every year, and you don't ever need a new wand, only the $10. So you could also stop by if you were going down to Portland for a few days. Stop and play for a couple of hours on the way down, and hit it again on the way back.

Our room was fine, typical hotel room.

Mon we got a notice under our door to check out early by 9;30am and get $15 off your room. So we did that, and parked our stuff at a table in the waterpark. We had snacks and clothes with us. The rest went in the car. We stayed until about 4pm. There are family restroom/showers in the waterpark, so you can easily change and get ready to go home. We snacked during the day, and ate an early dinner on the way home. We were all exhausted. It's big enough to be fun, but you can let your kids go OK. Mari (who is 5) went off by herself for a while to the toddler pool, but I wouldn't let kids in the wave pool unless they are a strong swimmer, it gets kind of crazy. There were lots of lifeguards. There is a large shallow water toddler pool, with warm water, squiring toys, small slides, etc. There are 2 hot tubs. There is a huge tree house fort thing, like Wild Waves, with a bucket that dumps, and 2 water slides. They are OK, but not great. They are the sitting up kind, with open tops, no innertube. There are many life vests for smaller children available. There is a huge wave pool, with single and double inner tubes. Spent tons of time there. There is a larger deeper pool, 3.5 ft to 4ft, with some floating toys, basketball, lily pads to walk on, etc. Then there are 2 giant waterslide tubes for single or double innertubes, and the best ride ever invented the Howling Tornado. It's for 4 people. The best is with 4 adults, so you have some weight. It's awesome! Scared Kyler to death the first time, but he got over it the next day. You must be 48 inches. The other tubes are 42 inches to ride w/adult, 48 for solo. We went on the big one maybe 10 -12 times, and loved it every time. Lines were not bad, better by far than Wild Waves. It was a great deal for the price. I could see going every 18mo-2 yrs or so. Maybe every year. Don't need 2 nights. You're totally wiped out by 2 days. You can stay as long as you like the second day. The first day was open to 9:30 pm, so we could have had a quick dinner and gone back if we wanted to. We were in our room watching TV by 9pm because we were so tired. The night we got home, Kipp and I were sore, and exhausted. We left around 4, had dinner in Lacey, and still made it home by 5:45.

There is also a story time with a disney-like tree in the lobby for kids, with talking animals, etc. Gift shop, starbucks, pizza, other foods, ice cream/chocolate, an arcade, an internet room for $5 w/wii, PS, internet, tv, dances at night, etc. Plus the magic quest. It was amazing!