Great Wolf Lodge, Day 1

My husband and I took a family trip up to The Great Wolf Lodge in Washington this week and we had a blast! In looking the place up I had a tough time finding specific info on certain things so I thought a review would be in order.

Day 1: We left the Eugene area a little after 8 am, and since we were in no real hurry the trip up was not at all stressful. We made stops for breakfast and lunch and managed to make it up to the Lodge before 2pm. The nice thing about getting there early is that even though rooms are not guaranteed available until 4, you still can access the water park! They have lockers and changing rooms that you can get into right inside. My husband checked us in, which at that time took quite a while so be prepared for that. Lucky for us our rooms were ready so we got to go straight up to settle in.

When you arrive you get Wolf ear headbands for your kiddos and your wrist bands that allow you access to the water park and serve as keys to your room. Now, you have the option to give your kids wristbands that have the same chip inside as yours but beware: this will allow them to get into the room without you but it also allows them to charge things to the room as well. We opted not to do this as all our kids are 8 and under. We got the room key enabled bands for myself, my husband and his 16 year old brother who was staying with us. I really loved this feature. No more searching for room keys, digging it out of your purse or discovering that it fell out of your pocket somewhere and no getting locked out of your room. It was also super convenient not having to carry my wallet around to buy drinks, snacks or souvenirs. We used the bracelets to pay for our meals while in the hotel and that is really nice when you are just hopping out of the water park-I mean, who carries their wallet with them in their swimsuits?

We hit the water park once we got settled in and let me tell you, it was amazing. The entrance is on the 2nd floor. When you enter the park you are on a huge balcony that overlooks everything. You can see the kids area, the slides, the wave pool...its a great way to survey where you are heading first. Inside the park there is a full service bar (which I never checked out since I am 4 months pregnant) and there is also a swim shop that sells swimsuits, cover ups, swim diapers and more. There is also a Pack Member (read: employee)waiting at the top of the stairs to measure any kids before they head for the water. This is nice because it saves time on the lines at the slides. Each kid is measured and given a wrist band that lets you and the employees working the slides just which slides your kids can go on alone and which ones they need an adult for.
Once you are in the park itself you are going to want to find a spot. The place is pretty busy, so the earlier you get there the more likely you are to get a nice area for sitting and stashing your stuff. Our group was pretty big, with a total of 12 people, so it was a little tougher to find adequate room. We ended up sitting between the kids area and the park food joint,Buckets Incredible Craveables, which actually worked out well because we had a table and there were restrooms nearby.
The little kids area was where I spent 90% of my time. My littles had a great time playing on the stationary jet skis with movable water cannons, a cute little "bait hut" that had cool water features and a wide slide. There was also a taller, faster slide for the littles who were bigger, but not big enough for the real big kid slides. The water at its deepest was about a 18 inches I think. My 2 year old had no problem walking everywhere in the area although she still wore a little puddle jumper to prevent any falls from being bumped into by other kids. In the little kids area there were two life guards walking around at all times and starting at 11 am, the area shuts down for 10 minutes every 2 hours. They like to use that time for parents to take their kids to the bathroom and re-hydrate.

There are two hot tubs in the park, one inside, one outside. I think they temps for both hover around 100 degrees. While I was there kids were getting in and out of the tubs and no one seemed to have a problem with it. So, if you are looking for an adults only section to chill out, you won't find it there.
There is also a huge structure in the center where you access 2 slides. My hubby took my kids on it and my 5 year old daughter rode it twice. This is a one at a time slide, so no doubling up with a younger kid. On this structure is a 1,000 gallon bucket that dumps its contents every few minutes. Luckily, you get a warning before it happens by way of bells ringing. I never stood under it but from what I was told it comes down with quite a lot of force- ladies, you probably want to hold on to the tops of your suits to avoid any accidental flashing. I noticed that there were not a lot of kids playing on the structure because of the water bucket, and my kids instead played in the little kid area or the wave pool. The wave pool was pretty neat, alternating between calm water and waves; it was a great spot for kids to play. There is also a separate pool area for basketball playing and this interesting rope/lily pad thing that I never got close to.
The slides are accessed via stairs and you have to carry your single or double tubes up with you to ride the lower slides. They are short, fast and not at all scary. I rode down both with my husband in a double tube and he took my older kids and they all loved it. The upper slides do not require any tube carrying as they are already up there waiting for you. One one side is the calmer River Canyon Run for up to 5 people at a time. I liked this one the best as it was smooth and not too fast for this pregnant lady. I did not ride the other upper slide, The Howlin' Tornado. My husband, brother in laws and sister in law did and they enjoyed it. It's a fast ride with a drop-all on a raft built for 4 people at a time. You can read more info about the water attractions here

The view from our room gave us a good look at one of the big slides, as well as the outdoor ropes course

That night we ate at one of the hotel restaurants, the Lodge Wood Fired Grill. The prices were not as outlandish as you'd expect and the food was good. I will warn you that from what I saw the beers were small and not at all cheap. You can of course save a lot of money by packing your own food and eating in your room. There are places to eat outside of the hotel (like a Dairy Queen down the road and a Burger Claim practically in the Lodge parking lot).
The water park closes at 9 pm, so we took a look around the hotel and scouted out the other activities. They have a pretty nice sized arcade (which I didn't use-I wanted to focus on the activities we couldn't do anywhere else) they have a kids shop, a huge gift shop, a sweets shop that sells ice cream, cotton candy, cookies and a host of other sweet treats. There is mini-golf, a kids spa, an adults spa (both with high prices so we did not take advantage of those) a shooting game and this thing called the Great Forest Challenge. The only thing we decided to do aside from the water park was the MagiQuest. There is a little magic shop in the hotel where you buy wands that you use to play the game along with all sorts of accessories from capes and hats to wand holding belts. The first time you go in there to purchase the wand and the access to the game it will run you anywhere from $30-$40 depending on which game and wand you start with. We got a simple gender neutral wand for the kids to share and access to the first level game. Access starts at 7 am and ends at 10 pm. The game spans from the first floor all the way up to the fifth. The game we purchased was Called MagiQuest and comes with a book that is really helpful in pointing your kids in the right direction. You "wave" your wand at objects like chests, paintings etc and in this way collect runes and things to complete tasks. We could have spent more time doing this as we did not get through everything, but we only had the wand for 2 days and spent a lot of time in the pool. Some people think its not worth it the first time you go, but I thought it was a nice break from the water park and you are still staying pretty active going down the halls and up and down the stairs. You will definitely get your exercise while staying here....although I did see some lazy kids taking the elevator to go up and down one floor. I enjoyed the MagiQuest as a way to participate in an activity with my kids instead of just sitting around watching them play video games in the arcade.

For more information and details about the hotel activities click here.
If you want to know more about the shops in the hotel, click here.

A word of warning to parents- once in your hotel room, please use the top locking bar on your room door. We had an incident where a little one opened the door (the basic lock disengages when someone turns the handle from the inside) and she got out into the hall. The door obviously closes on its own and that can lead to some scary situations. Trust me, I have quite a few more gray hairs now because of it.
We stayed in the Majestic Bear Suite- it has 2 queen sized beds and a sofa that pulls out into a queen, one full bathroom, a bar with a sink, and the standard microwave, coffee maker and mini-fridge. There was also a king bed in a room of its own (yes you can close and lock the door, yay!) and two TV's, one in each separate area. We were on the 8th floor which was very quiet as the MagicQuest games don't go up that far.

Here is the page with information on the rooms available in the hotel.
I will have a few more posts to share for days 2 and 3 and will be sure to include info on what you need to bring and the extra costs so there are as few surprises for you as possible!