Great Wolf Lodge visit #1

Are you looking for a great way to wear the kids adults in your family out?  I think I found a great way to do it.   Spend the night (and two days) at the Great Wolf Lodge near Charlotte, NC.  This indoor water park has enough to keep you busy and wear everyone out in just a few hours.  Then head up to your room for a short sleep before heading back down to the waterpark shortly after breakfast.

Sound tiring?  It is.  But it is a lot of fun.

I was warned before heading up to bring my wallet.  Once I was there I understood why that warning was given but it is also an easy enough problem to avoid.   Food at the hotel is extreme.  Two quick examples.  1.  dinner buffet = $20 per adult.    2.  One large pizza, some bread sticks, and a two liter = $30.   The mall is across the street and there are a ton of restaurants to choose from where you can eat for a fraction of the cost.  So if you want to avoid the cost at the hotel you can do it.

The other part that seems to suck the money out of your wallet is the in-hotel shops and the "bonus" packages you can purchase.  We easily avoided all of these traps as well.

There is a lot to choose from as you spend your days in the lodge but we focused mainly on the water park areas and had no problem staying entertained.

There are several nearly half a dozen water slides to try, a wave pool, a kids area (which my teen thoroughly enjoyed), and a "fort" area where a bucket dumps 1,000 gallons on you.   That's just the inside stuff.

I hadn't previously heard of Great Wolf Lodge but the 8th grade class took a trip up there at the end of last year and my son said it was awesome.  He told his sisters how awesome it was as well and we decided we should check it out.   The girls loved it.   It was a great weekend trip that wasn't far from home.

The one thing I found odd here was the life guards.  There are plenty of them!  The odd part is how they monitor the stations.  First of all, the life guards can't be bothered with anything other than watching the water.  Don't try to talk to them.  They will ignore you and wave a supervisor over.   But it's the way they watch the water.  They can't stand in one place and scan the crowd.  They must pace their area and use exaggerated head movements to scan the water.  No peripheral vision allowed!

Being an inside park, this could be a great place to visit during a winter break.  They keep the water and air temperature in the 80's in there and I never felt cold.   I guess if we're going to be visiting again I better start saving now.