Staycation at The Great Wolf Lodge – Day 1

For about a week, I’ve been answering the following question from my 5 year old over and over again – “How many days before Great Wolf Lodge?” “Are we going to Great Wolf Lodge today?” Finally, Friday came and I was able to say to him “Today we are going to Great Wolf Lodge and it’s going to be so much fun!” My family and 3 other bloggers with their families had the opportunity to stay at Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, Washington. I had never been there before and only recently discovered it on another blog. I have to admit that I was just as excited as my 5 year old and was looking forward to meeting the other bloggers and their families and enjoying a Staycation at the Family-Friendly Resort!

We left our house at about 4:00 p.m. and it took us about 4 hours to arrive, thanks to awful bumper to bumper traffic around the Tacoma area through Fort Lewis. There was one point around Fort Lewis where there was a huge opening and I have to admit, I put the pedal to the metal – I wasn’t anxious to get there or anything. The kids slept through a lot of the car ride, so it was nice to have some peace and quiet with the stress of traffic.

I was wondering if the Great Wolf Lodge would be hard to find (tucked behind trees or something), but it wasn’t. There was no way you could miss the Great Wolf Lodge! We were so excited to finally arrive! I felt right at home as soon as we walked in. I looked around and saw families and little kids everywhere! I checked us in and they gave us bracelets to put on (red for the adults and white for the kids (the 1 year old didn’t have to wear one). The bracelet was both our ticket into the Water Park and our room key as well. If you pay for your stay using a credit card, you can charge things to your account using your bracelet (for adults and approved amounts for kids by the adult). You can charge food to your account, drinks from Starbucks, items from the gift shop, and so on. If you use a debit card, you can place a dollar amount on your bracelet for your stay.

We unpacked our car and loaded up the luggage cart – heading to our room on the 7th floor. We were staying in a Family Suite and had a view of the Adult water slides and the back of the Water Park.

To our surprise was a plate of goodies waiting on the table, along with 2 Paw Passes for our 5 year old and 3 year old. My boys immediately dove face first into the goodies! There were yummy fruits and a Rice Krispy Bear Claw, along with some cookies and other goodies! The Paw Pass had so many awesome things on it, including a Pair of Crocs with free straps and a Jibitz, an animal at Animal World, a Souvenir Sipper at the Snack Bar, a Shaker at Loose Moose, a Color Your Own Item at Cub Club, free admission to Gr8 Space (ideally for pre-teens and teens), and a free wand at Magic Qwest (more information to come).

Before going to bed, my husband watched the 3 boys and I had a chance to go down to the lobby and meet up with bloggers from Running Away, I’ll Pack and Kirida. We would meet up with the blogger from A Frog in My Soup on Saturday. We had Starbucks (I ordered Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate) and talked about blogging – of course! When I came back up to the room, we put the boys in their jammies and laid back in bed. We were so tired that we laid back and fell asleep, preparing our minds for Day 2 at The Great Wolf Lodge!

Facts About the Great Wolf Lodge:

Location – Great Wolf Lodge is located at the intersection of Interstate 5 and US-12 on Old Highway 99, SW in Centralia, Washington between Seattle and Portland.

Theme – Great Wolf Lodge is a first-class, full-service, family destination resort and conference center, designed to capture the atmosphere and adventure of the northwoods. Great Wolf Lodge serves as Washington‘s Premier Indoor Waterpark Resort and provides a comprehensive package of destination amenities.

Resort Features – Here are some of the features of Great Wolf Lodge.

– Eight-story, northwoods themed resort

– Two-story Grand Lobby

– 398 all-suite Guest Rooms

– Luxury King Suite

– Family Suite

– Wolf Den Suite

– KidCamp Suite

– KidCabin Suite

– Majestic Bear Suite

– Grand Bear Suite

– Grizzly Bear Suite

– Camp Critter Bar & Grille (120-seat, casual themed, family restaurant and bar)

– The Loose Moose Cottage (250-seat, casual themed gourmet buffet and food court)

– Bear Paw Sweets & Eats (Confectionery Cafe)

– Starbucks Coffee Shop

– Pizza Hut Express

– Buckhorn Exchange (Gift Emporium and Convenience Store)

– Great Clock Tower (Feature an eight-minute, animated “Rhythm of Nature” show)

– Mascots – Wiley the Wolf and Biko the Bear