Great Wolf Lodge Snowland Event

In December, a group of us Northwestern bloggers were invited to a fun event at Great Wolf Lodge….as if Great Wolf Lodge isn’t fun all by itself!  It was their annual Snowland Event for the holiday season.  Myself and 14 other bloggers and our families attended the event, ready to have fun!

Our family decided to stay an extra night since we hit such bad traffic the last time we went.  Fortunately, we left late enough to bypass most of the evening traffic.  It was a smooth 2 hour drive there.  We arrived, checked in, and headed to our room.  Last time we visited Great Wolf Lodge, we stayed in a Family Suite.  However, this time around, we had the opportunity to stay in a KidCabin Suite.

As soon as the boys saw their own Northwoods Log Cabin in the room, they immediately claimed their beds and made themselves at home.  The KidCabin was a great experience! The kids had their own room within the room – housing a bunk bed, day bed, and their own TV.  It was nice because they could watch cartoons while we watched our shows on the main TV.  If your kids are into Nintendo, they could even play that on their TV – and you can set up parental controls on their TV.  I loved that the main room came with a Queen bed, a Full-Size Sleeper Sofa, and a Gas Fireplace.  The fireplace was totally relaxing!

Another thing I love about Great Wolf Lodge is that there is a refrigerator, microwave, ironing board, and hair dryer in the room.  If you are on a budget and don’t want to spend money eating out, you can bring your own food into the Lodge.  I saw people with coolers and cases of soda heading to their rooms.  We brought cereal, milk, and fruit for breakfast and sandwich goodies for lunch.  On Friday night, we ate dinner before we arrived, but on Saturday night, we ate at the Loose Moose Cottage.  I enjoyed tons of crab and salmon and the boys loved the mini corn dogs, pizza, and chicken nuggets.  It’s nice to eat on the premises because you simply eat, pay, and head off to do more activities or hang out in your room.  Last time, we ate at a restaurant up the street that ended up being similar in price and we lost a really good parking spot because we had to drive to the restaurant.  So this time, we decided to eat on site.  It was a good choice!

On Saturday, we hung out in the Water Park for much of the day.  Brian and George went off on their own, checking back every now and then.  They enjoyed going down the bigger water slides.  Dallen, Sam, and I hung out at the Tadpole Pond and had a blast.  It took a while for Sam to be willing to get off my lap and wade in the pool.  But once George came back to the Tadpole Pond, Sam was willing to give it a try.  George hung out with the kids for a while and was holding Sam while talking to the husband of another blogger.  And yep…Sam fell asleep in his arms…life jacket and all!!  I love that they have chairs everywhere so I could sit back and relax while the kids played in the water.  Plus, they have lifeguards all over the park, so I felt comfortable with my kids being in the water around all of the other kids and parents.  Plus, you can go to the Water Park at any time of the year…since it’s indoors.  That’s awesome!

By 4:30 p.m., the little ones were tuckered out from the Water Park, so we dried off and headed up to our room to shower and put some fresh clothes on.  We ate dinner at Loose Moose Cottage and headed over to the Clock Tower, where the kids watched the Clock Tower Show, followed by a story with Rowdy the Reindeer.  After the Clock Tower Show, it snowed…indoors.  The kids LOVED it!  There was snow falling everywhere!  We then decided it was time to head up to the room.  The boys got in their beds and turned their TV on, while George tended to Sam.  I headed out for some Mommy Blogger time at Camp Critter.

I met up with a few of the girls and we headed to Camp Critter, since most of the other food places were closed on site.  I wasn’t feeling too well, so sipped on some water, bu some of the other moms ordered appetizers, sodas, and drinks.  It was fun getting to know some of them.  Not everyone showed up to hang out, but I had a blast with the ones who did!

We met up at 9:00 the next morning for a Blogger Breakfast sponsored by Great Wolf Lodge.  I had the opportunity to meet some other bloggers in person (i.e. Kristin, Erin, Jenny, Linda, Kathryn, Liz, and Isabel).  I also had the chance to visit with some of the local bloggers I’ve hung out with before (i.e. Stacey, Shera, Mona, Alexis, Carrie, Angie, and Carrie).  They had kids tables set up with balloons, bags, coloring books, and crayons on one side of the room and adult tables on the other side.  The room was huge!  Much bigger than the room we met in last time.

The breakfast was very informal.  We came in and were greeted by John Poole (he’s awesome by the way) and then sat down at a table.  For breakfast, there were eggs, sausage, bacon, french toast sticks, and fruit.  Plus we had our choice of juice.  I think I ate almost 3 plates of food.  It was really yummy!  After breakfast, a few of us hung out for a little longer talking and then we went our separate ways.  Erin, Kristin, and I headed to the entrance to take our family pictures.  There was a huge Christmas tree in the front, along with tons of holiday decorations.  It was gorgeous!

After taking pictures, we headed over to the Crocs station, where each of the boys got to choose a pair of crocs.  Brian chose Navy Blue, while Dallen and Sam chose Red.  They each came with one Jibbet, which is a cute type of button that fits on the Croc.  Brian chose Batman, Dallen chose a Happy Face, and Sam chose a Rocket Ship.  Then the boys each picked out a stuffed animal, which they got to stuff themselves (real simple – push on the pedal and it fills the plush toy with fluff).  Then we headed over to color our shirts – with the Christmas theme and play with the wands.  You don’t have to play the game if you have the wands.  Our kids wouldn’t understand the game, so we just ask them to activate the wands so that they can wave them at the different statues and animals and turn them on.  The kids love the wands!

I want to extend a huge thanks to John, Elizabeth, and Jennifer for making our stay at Great Wolf Lodge as comfortable and fun as possible!  We love Great Wolf Lodge and are so glad to know about it and share our feelings with friends and family!

We received a media discount for our stay at Great Wolf Lodge.  We were given breakfast on one day of of our stay.  All opinions expressed in this post are 100% mine!