Great Wolf Lodge. Four days ago, all I knew about this place was that it had water slides and that it was in Niagara Falls. Here’s what I didn’t know:
When you walk in to the cavernous lobby, decorated in log-cabin style with elaborate animal-themed decorations, you are greeted to the eerily life-like howl of a wolf (which comes from the animatronic wolf perched above the fireplace…). Also in the lobby is a continuous puppet show of sorts where a talking tree, grizzly bear, moose and racoon chat about their respective childhoods, favourite foods and hobbies. This talking display became a fast favourite of my daughter over the course of our visit; she spent hours perched at the bear’s feet asking questions like "Mr. Bear, how old are you?". She didn’t seem plussed that his pre-recorded answers had nothing to do with her queries. At one point, she pulled out a half-eaten chicken nugget from her pocket and quietly left it at his feet as an offering of friendship.
The next stop was our room, which in this case was a suite that we shared with my dad, who had joined us for our holiday. The rooms are spacious, comfortable and well set up for family bonding and relaxation. The resort-provided wristbands conveniently allow access to your room with a swipe along with acting as an all-round key for purchasing items from the restaurants, gift shop and towel booth.
After quickly settling in, we made our way to the water park which is truly the heart and soul of Great Wolf Lodge. Though my experience is fairly limited, it’s the biggest indoor water park I have ever seen. It was thrilling to see my kids’ reaction upon entry – their eyes widened and their jaws dropped upon seeing the more than 10 water slide of various sizes and shapes. Along with the slides, there are numerous pools, fountains, sprays, and a wave pool.
My son, the daredevil among us, whizzed down the more sophisticatd slides (with either my husband and I behind him) and my little one went up and down the "baby slide" at least twenty times. The water park was a huge success with my kids, and served to impress them over and over again every day. It was great to have a fun activity for the kids; after a day at the falls or touring around, the water park was a great way to entertain the kids and tire them out for the night.
Other child-friendly facilities at the Lodge included a Cub Club where the kids could do crafts, watch Treehouse or run around; this place would have been much better if we could have actually left the kids there for an hour – it wasn’t quite clear what the staff was there for as no child was to be left their without parental supervision. Some kind of in-hotel childcare facility would have come in handy in allowing us to check out the spa and gym together, both of which remained unexplored on this visit.
The weak spot for me at the Lodge was the food. Understandably, the menu was child-focused, but what I don’t understand is why child-friendly cuisine in North America has become synonymous with chicken nuggets, macaroni ‘n cheese and french fries. These were indeed the components of the "kids’ buffet" along with some dreary boiled vegetables. For the grown-ups, there was definitely some more variety, but the quality of the food was poor and once again, the healthy choices were limited.
That being said, we will probably return there at some point. I enjoyed the water park, the lobby, the little café (with my favourite coffee, A.L. Van Houtte and great magazines) and most important the family time for which Great Wolf Lodge is a fun venue.
We had a very similar experience there – great fun, so-so food. Our kids are 3 and 5 and were too small for the bigger slides and we were not allowed to accompany them, but they loved the smaller slides, the wave pool, the lazy river and the hot tub. The cub club people actually took our children away without our knowledge (we thought they were sitting in the lobby but had to search high and low for them – they were safe and sound doing a craft upstairs). Maybe the lodge got some feedback about that… As well, as a pointer for anyone thinking of going – be sure to request a room away from the fire doors on the main floor. They bang like nobody’s business when they close, which goes on into the wee hours of the night. Also, rates are much cheaper if you go during the week. We went Sunday/Monday and it was about 2/3 of the cost of a Friday or Saturday night.
our friends go to great wolf lodge all the time – but mostly in the winter. i’d love to go – sounds GREAT!