At Christmas time, the boys were given money to be used for a Great Wolf Lodge visit from my Aunt Kathy, Uncle Duncan, Aunt Alison and Uncle Wells. They were looking for gift ideas, and I suggested this as a way to make more memories, instead of filling the playroom with more "stuff". We used a Groupon deal a booked our night at the GWL for mid-March. We didn't tell the boys in advance and they were so excited when they realized that they were skipping preschool and going for a fun outing! Our deal came with accommodations for 6 people so we invited MaSha to join us and she was glad to come.
Luckily I had some friends that had been before with their kids and was able to get some good tips and insider info to know what to expect and how to plan for the visit. We went to the GWL in Concord, NC, right outside of Charlotte, so it was really convenient for us.
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| GWL in Concord, NC |
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| Excited to arrive! |
You can get access to the water park as early at 1:00 on the day you check in. When we got there, right around 1, our room was actually ready (standard check in is at 4:00, I think). We got our bags up to the room and settled in and immediately went to the water park to begin playtime. There were several different pool areas, rides, slides, you name it! It was fun to just wander around and see all of the amenities.
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| Water park time |
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| Holding my Ryan in the wave pool |
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| Mama & Ryan |
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| William on the "wave runner" |
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| MaSha and Stokie |
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| Handsome boy |
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| Family time at GWL |
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| Grandsons with MaSha |
We had snacks in our bag, so including a little snack time that afternoon, we stayed at the water park basically until evening time. When we were tired of playing and swimming we went back up to our room to get showered. Thomas called for a pizza and had it delivered to the hotel. We had a mini fridge, microwave and a table, along with 2 queen beds and a pull-out sofa in our room so we were all staying together and also were able to have meals/snacks in there as well!
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| Reading a story! |
When we were all showered and had eaten our pizza, the boys, Dada and I decided to wander around the halls and explore. There are treasure chests that open up, pictures on the walls that you can interact with, neat "settings" or environments on each floor near the elevators. We just wanted to walk around and see everything.
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| Adventures in the hall of GWL |
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So many cool things to see!
This was a fairy corner |
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| Fun times...in a forest....in a hotel |
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| They love GWL |
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| Dada with S & W |
We, of course, did the obligatory picture in front of the GWL bear in the lobby. #cheesy
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| Ryan |
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| Stokes |
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| William |
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| GREAT picture of all the boys (eye roll) Hahaha |
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| In front of the fire! |
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| Oh, hey cuties! |
Later that evening, I think it was around 8 PM, GWL does a little show and has a story time in the lobby. A lot of the kids come down in their pjs and slippers to participate before bedtime.
After the brief show, Stokes decided he was tired and wanted to go back to the room. That boy plays hard and sleeps hard. It doesn't take much convincing to make him go to bed. He will put himself to bed most nights when he's just tired and ready to call it a night. So after the show, but before the story had started, he was done. I'm glad that he just calls it like it is and doesn't try to fight it! I stayed in the lobby with William and Ryan while Thomas walked Stokes back up to the room for night time. Thomas told me later that Stokes said, "Dada, this isn't going to take long!" He was referencing how quickly he would fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Too funny!
The other two stayed for the story time. There were a lot of kiddos down there in the lobby for this!
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| Show in the lobby |
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| William with Mama |
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| Storytime |
After the story, they will allow the kids to come up and take pictures with the characters.
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| Waiting for a pic |
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| Picture with our new friends |
It's safe to say that after a full day of water park playtime, we were all exhausted and everyone slept well that night! The cool thing is that at GWL, you can stay at the water park for as long as you want on the day that you check out. We packed all of our stuff, got checked out of our room and went to the water park with our dry change of clothes in our bag for when we were ready to leave.
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| Refreshed and ready for a new day at the water park! |
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| Silly |
They all loved the big wave pool, where they would practice swimming from one adult to another. We took turns holding Ryan, but MaSha took on most of the Ryan time while Thomas and I split up with the other 2. You had to be a certain height to get on most of the slides and rides and unfortunately for Stokes, William was the only one tall enough to ride them. We went on some inner tube rides over and over again. There weren't too many people there so the lines for all the rides were relatively short. You would only have to wait for 5 minutes, or maybe 10 at the most. That allowed us to ride consecutively until we were ready to move on and check on the other family members. Hopefully Stokes will be tall enough to enjoy some of those activities for our next visit! I know he would love them!
There was a huge bucket that would fill with water and once it was full, maybe every 15 minutes or so, the bucket would dump over and soak everyone nearby. I thought it was fun but the boys didn't really love it.
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| Hanging out near the water dump zone! |
We had a full morning playing at the water park. We had snacks while there and then even rinsed off quickly in the showers in the locker rooms before putting on our dry change of clothes. We were all water park-ed out and ready to get back home. It was so fun! Stokes and William got some great swimming practice and are getting more and more comfortable in the water and better at swimming. They had a blast! Ryan enjoyed splashing around some and loved being held by MaSha. If he wasn't "floating" in the water and kicking his feet, you might've found him snoozing on MaSha's lap at one of the tables.
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| Ending our GWL adventure |
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| Last pic before departure |
We had a great experience and definitely hope to return sometime (preferably when everyone is taller!). I was so glad to have the tricks and tips in my back pocket to know the best way to maximize our trip. It certainly was fun to take 2 days off of work to go play with the kids and have some fun. Until next time, Great Wolf Lodge......arh-wooooooo! (that's a wolf howl noise)
A special thanks to Uncle Wells, Aunt Alison, Aunt Kathy, and Uncle Duncan for funding our GWL adventure! We adore you all and are so thankful to get to experience fun getaways like that! And thanks to MaSha for accompanying us and being an extra set of hands to keep 3 little guys safe in the water and entertained while there!
