With our weather outside beginning its turn to the wet side, why not go get wet on purpose inside and have fun doing it?
The hubs, Kid and I spent the weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA. And what a great time we had. In case you hadn’t heard, the west coast now has one of these lodge/indoor waterpark destinations. Four Seattle Mom Bloggers wrote about its grand opening this spring, so check out their photos and opinions, too.
After a long summer with lots of work trips for my husband, our family really needed a getaway, and this one magically managed to make everyone happy. Since we’ve been home, I’ve gotten a lot of questions from friends about this lodge. If you’re wondering if this place would work for you, here’s the lowdown:
Getting there took three hours in Friday afternoon traffic from Bainbridge Island, driving across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (”extortion bridge” as the hubs says now that there’s a toll), but the same route took only two hours coming back on Sunday afternoon.
The indoor waterpark has attractions for all ages, from a little toddler pool (6″ deep or less) to two giant slides that yours truly chickened out on and never saw the insides of. But the hubs liked them. Maybe if they make an elevator to the top, rather than five flights of stairs, I’ll think about it. That and a liquid frozen strawberry Xanax beverage…. I heard they’re adding an outdoor pool area for next summer, too.
They have lots of inner tubes for all to use and lots of life vests in three sizes for the littler swimmers, so don’t bring your own water wings. We thoroughly enjoyed the wave pool which reminded me never to fall overboard in the ocean. I’d never make it.
We enjoyed getting hit by the water, and I mean “HIT”, when a giant bucket three stories up dumped I don’t know how many gallons down. Everyone was lying down on the floor and getting pelted, so naturally, Kid and I did, too. (see the photo below) Let’s just say, remember to plug your nose.
If we got a little chilly, which we did a few times, we just headed over to the indoor/outdoor hot tub. Sweet.
The room we had was quite spacious. Each room or suite has a small fridge, microwave, coffee maker and hair dryer. And a TV with on-demand games, movies and tv shows. Each room does not have its own swimsuit spinner, so use the one downstairs at the park. And do what we did: bring two suits per person, so when you head back to the water later that same day, you have a dry suit to wear.
The food from the two restaurants was good, and boy, talk about complete kids menus! All the basics were covered: hot dogs, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, hamburgers, chicken nuggets, spaghetti and meatballs, carrots and dip, and applesauce. One restaurant was an all-you-can-eat buffet style, and the other a sit-down restaurant with menu (which made more sense if you’re not going to eat a lot). They lost money at the buffet the night the hubs found the mussels and crayfish. They even surprised us by having an Erath pinot noir. Yum. Given the fridges in the rooms, you can bring a lot of your own food and/or drinks to keep in your room, too, and spend your money on more fun things….
This brings me to the other activities. Oh, sure you go for the waterpark, but you will be thoroughly entertained by the other games. These GWL people know what they’re doing, in a Disneyland kind of way. Not only is there an arcade with all those Chuck E. Cheese type games, and ticket, and toys. There’s also a “cubs club” room for crafts for littler kids, and a teens room with I don’t even know what. They even have a nightly “musical show” in the lobby with singing animals and storytime afterwards. If all that is just too much for mom or dad, you can purchase a giant beer or margarita and stroll the property with your glass. Like a college dorm party, only some of the partygoers happen to be kindergarteners.
In case the swimming scene isn’t your thing, the lodge offers a spa with massages, facials, pedicures, all the fun stuff, for the biggest kids.
But most fun of all, in a totally addictive way, was the Magi Quest. This game involved us buying a magic wand which activated tons of magical treasure chests, paintings, and crystals throughout the hotel. You pick a quest to earn a rune and have a 21st century scavenger hunt. Over and over again. On five floors of the hotel. Everywhere you went kids, big and small, were waving these wands. (The lodge also provides “birthday packages” if your kids need some way to blow everyone else’s birthday parties out of the water, so to speak.)
Of course, you could buy additional decorations for your wands. I think Kid’s wand now has a street value of $50, easy. And when we go back, the wand will remember where we left off on the adventures. Cool, eh? Let’s hope the dog doesn’t enjoy the wand in the meantime….
All in all, we had a blast. This lodge is a great addition to our area of the country, especially for this Northwest climate. Move over Mouse; here comes the Wolf!
Thanks, GWL!!
Wendy can be found drying off at Let the dog in! You can reach her at wendy(at)letthedogin(dot)com.
