Great Wolf Lodge, Day 2

Our second day was quite full and started at the Loose Moose Cottage for the breakfast buffet. I remember seeing a review that claimed there were not enough "healthy" options at the hotel and was worried about it...but when I stepped in line at the buffet the worry went away. Yes there are piles of sausage links and bacon (really, SOO much bacon)and loads of hash-browns, a section that had syrup, butter and the more sugary breakfast foods, but there was also veggies, eggs how you like them and fruit and oatmeal. So while there are less healthy items to chow down on, you still have enough healthy foods to walk out of that buffet with a full stomach.

This is what the large cabana looks like. Plenty of seating, lots of storage space for your stuff, a safe, and a fridge. As you can see we had to use towels on the floor since it got pretty slippery in there and we had a couple of close calls with the little ones. The little ones are plugging their ears because of the bell ringing and the bucket tipping over. What you can't see in this photo is the TV on the wall just above the table.

My husband decided that for the day he wanted to rent a cabana. Now, we couldn't find any pictures of exactly where the cabana's were located in the water park so when we discovered that they were right next to the little kids area we were very happy. The Grand Mounds Lodge has 4 cabana's and only one of them is a Grizzly cabana. The difference between the Majestic and Grizzly cabanas is size. The Grizzly has more room to house more chairs, so having 12 people it was a good thing we opted for the larger one. Both cabana sizes come with towels, a mini fridge-stocked with nonalcoholic beverages like soda, juice and water, and they come with the price so I advise that you remove whatever you don't drink that day and take it back to your room-you paid for it! They also have a table and a TV, although it is tough to hear it over the roar of water and children playing. It served a good purpose for us though, it helped distract kiddos while adults went to the restroom (can't have on person watching 4 littles in the kid area all alone!) And it served as a nice base for people to hydrate and warm up a bit if they needed to. You get taken care of pretty well too, a Pack Member will offer to bring you your lunch or snack orders instead of you having to go grab it yourself, which is very nice.

                                      This is the view from the large cabana looking out.
We spent the majority of our day in the water park, going out to eat lunch at the Lodge Fired Grill (I don't recommend the Caesar salad-mine came as a whole head of romaine lettuce cut in fourths-I don't believe in having to take a steak knife to my salad in order to eat it)While the food is tasty and the prices not too bad, it might be a meal worth packing for as a way to save money. Another way to save is packing snacks. Now, when you walk into the water park you will see a sign that says you can't bring outside food or coolers into the park. In the bags I had for all my kids stuff (puddle jumpers, extra swim diapers, cover ups etc) I smuggled in some snacks. We talked to some other people who were surprised about the sign-including an employee- because no one was going around telling anyone they couldn't have outside snacks. Perhaps they meant that you couldn't walk in with a lot of food and full meals. I personally think that as long as you don't bring in a lot and you clean up after yourself quickly you should be fine. We bought a few things at the Buckets Craveables place but mostly the kids snacked on our personal stash and the drinks we got in the cabana.

This is a view from the balcony of the little kids area. On the right side beneath the blue signs are the cabanas. At the very back on that side there are changing and showering restrooms as well as lockers.
In the later afternoon when my 2 year old got extremely tired, we took a break from the water. I left my two youngest in the room with my husband and took my older 3 out for the MagiQuest game. My kids LOVED it. The MagiQuest comes with a little booklet to help you out so that you don't waste hours wandering around trying to figure out where to go next and just what object you need to "acquire". Younger kids definitely need an older person to help out and it does involve a lot of back and forth and up and down stairs (or elevators). I won't go into too much detail about it because the people at the Magic Shop can help out-and so can most of the kids you see wandering around with a magic wand- but basically you are on a big scavenger hunt and the trees are where you go to check your quest status and choose a new one. As you go on in the booklet, the quests get longer and a little more complex. For example, we did one that involved finding different wolves and each time we found one, we had to return to a star map. While that wasn't difficult it was more time consuming and since I had my 4 year old with me for that one it took a while.
Since the wand and game access can add up-my kids all shared one wand, taking turns on finding items and waving the wand at it. I have read from other parents that they allowed their kids a certain amount of money to spend on a souvenir for the trip and sometimes the kids used that money (sometimes pooling it together) in order to buy a wand and game access.

This is inside the Pixie's Perch at the end of the Pixie Adventure. The wand activates the crystal and glows green if you have all the items you need but glows red if you are missing anything. The kids love how everything lights up, makes sounds, and at times activates videos.

There are 3 game levels, MagiQuest, Shadow Quest and Compass Quest, in order of difficulty. The wand is yours to keep and you can bring it back and purchase new games without having to buy a new wand. If this is your plan I suggest keeping it in safe place since I am assuming day-to-day play might end up damaging the internals of the wand and it may not work on your next trip.
For dinner on day 2 we hit the dinner buffet. I personally was too exhausted for dinner, so I ended up in the room with my 2 year old napping. Everyone else seemed to enjoy the food. There was a taco bar area, seafood, ham, and salad...so there were quite a few options. We paid $20 a person-not sure on the kids price though. If you or your kiddos aren't big eaters, then going to the buffet might not be worth it. Keep in mind though that drinks and the tip are included in the price.

After dinner my husband, his brother, his sister and her husband all headed back to the pool while my mother-in-law and I took the kids to story time in the lobby. It was a cute little show with a song at the beginning and some moments when the kids got a chance to stand up and be noisy. The story itself was about how the Lodge came to be and while the lady reading it did so pretty fast, the kids didn't seem to care. After the story the kids got to line up and meet the character. Surprisingly all of my kids, even the 2 year old, opted for a high five and a hug.

After that my MIL took the littlest 2 and I again headed out with the older ones for more Magiquest. By the time we finished we were definitely tuckered out.

The adults who headed for the park before closing at 9, said it was awesome. Obviously there were not any long lines for the slides and they rode to their hearts content. The Howlin' Tornado was apparently the coolest because of how dark it was-you never saw the drop coming. My SIL snapped some photos of the water park while it was empty, so the pictures you see here of the park are hers and offer a look at the layout of the water park.

This is a shot of the wave pool. On the far right side you can see the stairs that you go up to reach the 4 larger slides-the two largest ones being at the very top! 

 This is a picture of the kids areas. The structure on the left has the large bucket that dumps 1,000 gallons on top of you every so often. It also is how you get to the 2 small slides. If you look really closely in the background on the left you will see the green contraption that carries the large tubes up to the larger of the 4 slides at the very top. 









 Day two was quite a day for adults and kids alike. Needless to say, we all slept very well.


Next up: our third and final day which includes a minor complication that ended up working out great in the end.