Waterpark Vacation
Aug. 27th, 2008 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qosWolfling and I are back from our trip to Great Wolf Lodge. We're both exhausted, but we had a very good time.
The big feature of Great Wolf is a very large indoor waterpark -- and it definitely lived up to expectations. Our favorite part was the Howling Tornado waterslide, which I consider the waterpark equivalent to Space Mountain. You're seated in a four-person cloverleaf "tube" (bottom in a hole, legs up in the center, handgrips for all) and pushed into a giant tube that's dark. You slide down and around in blackness, then there are small lights on the ceiling. More twisting and sliding -- at an extremely fast rate -- and then you're dumped down a long drop, and from there into a huge chamber where you slide about twenty feet or more up the wall, then down and up the other side, and repeat until you go "down the drain" and are deposited in the landing pool. It's quite a rush. (The link has streaming video as well as stills.)
There's also a wave pool (which actually got scary to me once or twice, when the waves were very large and hard), multiple smaller slides, and a bunch of areas geared for small children.
Wolfling and I arrived before our room was ready, but we were given wristbands to admit us to the waterpark, and we played for about three hours -- and then she was done. I had expected we'd go back after dinner, or first thing this morning, but that never happened.
It took us more than an hour to get changed back into our clothes and then stand in the registration line again to get checked in -- plus another twenty minutes or more to go out to the car, retrieve our luggag and get to our room. Once we were settled, all Wolfling wanted to do was rest. I made her take a shower, then let her play an hour of Mario Karts on the room's entertainment center.
After that, we went to the arcade, where we spent more than an hour on games. We ended up with over 500 tickets, allowing her to get a stuffed dog and me a small wolf figurine. We took our loot back to the room, then had a late dinner (after a twenty minute wait for a table), followed by curling up on the bed together and watching "Fool's Gold" which was a fun comedy-romance-adventure romp and a nice way to end the day.
It was a fun Mom-and-Wolfling day, but the night was tough. I woke up at about 4am aching from the middle of my ribs to the base of my skull. Hanging in an inner tube in the wave pool had been more taxing than I'd realized. Of course we didn't have any ibuprofin, and the gift shop was close and the front desk couldn't help. About the time I finally got to sleep, Wolfling came to crawl into bed with me because she was cold.
We were supposed to visit Wolf Haven on the way home this morning, but Wolfling was pooped from the adrenaline rush of the evening before, and asked "Do we have to?" She's already been there and taken the tour, so it wasn't going to be a new-special thing. I was disappointed, but after sleeping so badly, I didn't mind.
Overall, we didn't do quite as much as I had planned, but we had a good time together, which was the main point.
For those who live near one of these lodges, I have to say that they're not a bad value for a group -- but they're designed for families of four or more. I didn't get nearly the bang for the buck as a parent of a larger family would. I know we'd like to go back, but next time I'm going to invite others to share the trip.
They also make it very, very easy to spend money. Each guest gets a wristband that's coded with their room number, and you use that instead of card keys. It can also be coded to your credit card, so you don't need to carry your wallet (which is really convenient when the main activity is a water park). They just scan your bracelet and it goes on your account. But I swear, it's a vortex for $$$. I've never seen a place that makes it so easy to spend!
In the end, I had only one question: if the main attraction is a water park, why is it Great Wolf Lodge? Shouldn't it be Big Otter Lodge, or something like that???
The big feature of Great Wolf is a very large indoor waterpark -- and it definitely lived up to expectations. Our favorite part was the Howling Tornado waterslide, which I consider the waterpark equivalent to Space Mountain. You're seated in a four-person cloverleaf "tube" (bottom in a hole, legs up in the center, handgrips for all) and pushed into a giant tube that's dark. You slide down and around in blackness, then there are small lights on the ceiling. More twisting and sliding -- at an extremely fast rate -- and then you're dumped down a long drop, and from there into a huge chamber where you slide about twenty feet or more up the wall, then down and up the other side, and repeat until you go "down the drain" and are deposited in the landing pool. It's quite a rush. (The link has streaming video as well as stills.)
There's also a wave pool (which actually got scary to me once or twice, when the waves were very large and hard), multiple smaller slides, and a bunch of areas geared for small children.
Wolfling and I arrived before our room was ready, but we were given wristbands to admit us to the waterpark, and we played for about three hours -- and then she was done. I had expected we'd go back after dinner, or first thing this morning, but that never happened.
It took us more than an hour to get changed back into our clothes and then stand in the registration line again to get checked in -- plus another twenty minutes or more to go out to the car, retrieve our luggag and get to our room. Once we were settled, all Wolfling wanted to do was rest. I made her take a shower, then let her play an hour of Mario Karts on the room's entertainment center.
After that, we went to the arcade, where we spent more than an hour on games. We ended up with over 500 tickets, allowing her to get a stuffed dog and me a small wolf figurine. We took our loot back to the room, then had a late dinner (after a twenty minute wait for a table), followed by curling up on the bed together and watching "Fool's Gold" which was a fun comedy-romance-adventure romp and a nice way to end the day.
It was a fun Mom-and-Wolfling day, but the night was tough. I woke up at about 4am aching from the middle of my ribs to the base of my skull. Hanging in an inner tube in the wave pool had been more taxing than I'd realized. Of course we didn't have any ibuprofin, and the gift shop was close and the front desk couldn't help. About the time I finally got to sleep, Wolfling came to crawl into bed with me because she was cold.
We were supposed to visit Wolf Haven on the way home this morning, but Wolfling was pooped from the adrenaline rush of the evening before, and asked "Do we have to?" She's already been there and taken the tour, so it wasn't going to be a new-special thing. I was disappointed, but after sleeping so badly, I didn't mind.
Overall, we didn't do quite as much as I had planned, but we had a good time together, which was the main point.
For those who live near one of these lodges, I have to say that they're not a bad value for a group -- but they're designed for families of four or more. I didn't get nearly the bang for the buck as a parent of a larger family would. I know we'd like to go back, but next time I'm going to invite others to share the trip.
They also make it very, very easy to spend money. Each guest gets a wristband that's coded with their room number, and you use that instead of card keys. It can also be coded to your credit card, so you don't need to carry your wallet (which is really convenient when the main activity is a water park). They just scan your bracelet and it goes on your account. But I swear, it's a vortex for $$$. I've never seen a place that makes it so easy to spend!
In the end, I had only one question: if the main attraction is a water park, why is it Great Wolf Lodge? Shouldn't it be Big Otter Lodge, or something like that???
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-27 07:56 pm (UTC)And I approve of the otter suggestion!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-27 08:21 pm (UTC)You can just go with RJ, or score major points with neice and nephew and take them along. ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-27 08:31 pm (UTC)It didn't occur to me until after I'd emailed B that there might be an issue about it. However, they all seemed very grateful to have Wolfling visit for an hour.