Sorry I have been awol this week all but for my son’s 4th birthday Mrs. GeekJock and I took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge in Concord NC (Just outside of Charlotte). There is a whole lot to do there and everything is quite a bit expensive, even for some packages they give you so you have to pick your spots andfind what you want to do for the best deal. More on the package part later tho as I want to cover a bunch of other things in this review.

Employees

This might be the 2nd happiest place on earth behind Disney b/c everyone is happy, smiling and very helpful. If you had any questions concerning the room, where something is, what the kids can do at each age or where they can go in the water park, everyone is more then happy to help you and extremely polite. I was happy that they seemed to go out of their way to help find a resolution for anything and everything that could go wrong. We only had one or two minor snafu’s but they didn’t take away from any of the experience and the staff more then made up for it in my opinion.

Facilities

The grounds are supremely spotless. From the room areas, to the grounds, to the water park, to the lobby, everything looks great. You hardly noticed people constantlywalking around to pick up any stray trash but they were there and worked quickly and quietly andall with a smile. We ate at the buffet the first night and it was clean and clutter free. There is only a small bar area in the buffet/grill which was a bit of a surprise as I would have expected the area to be bigger and more of a restaurant atmosphere. Which brings me to….

Restaurant/food choices

This is pretty much a two parter. Mainly b/c there are a few areas most of which good but one of which was a HUGE disappointment. I’ll hit the bad first. The Loose Moose Cottage/Camp critter bar and grille is a confusing part here, as it’s two names for the same place. It’s the buffet area where you can also eat off the menu. I wouldn’t poo poo this place so much cept it was 20$ for the buffet. The buffet isn’t “bad” it’s just not a 20$ buffet. If the buffet was 9.99 I would prob be raving about it instead of saying it’s highway robbery. It’s simply not big enough and not refilled enough to warrant 20 bucks a head. Shame Shame! The kids meals however were just fine and came out very quick, andthe staff was great. The Bar area was a bit small in my opinion too. For a place that the whole idea is to not make anyone leave for any reason you would think it would be a tad bigger of an area to relax in for the adult crowd to wind down. The other areas to eat are the in house Dunkin Donuts. It’s the usual DND’s and they make some good coffee as always. The only down point for it is supply. They know that every morning (especially Sat and Sun) they are going to be mobbed, they should have tons and tons of donuts ready to go for the waking patrons. There was entirely too many holes in the stock when I went to get a dozen Sunday morning. They have a smaller Dunkin station in the lobby which is great for quick coffee and some donuts but they only keep the bare minimum for variety of donuts here so it’s not much of an advantage if you want a dozen. A good coffee and one donut place tho to skip the big line.

Next big place near the water park (on level 1) is Bear Paw Sweets andeats paired with a Pizza hut to go. There is fudge galore, a veritable Bakery of sugery treats and candy apples, Ice Cream for the sweets side, and it’s allllll goood. The Pizza hut is quick and perfectly located and convenient. A much better option for snacks or dinner then the buffet. Inside the water park there is another eatery, Spirit Island Snack Shack. If you get hungry while swimming you can grab a burger and a dog and some drinks, including some frozen spirits drinks, and some draft beer. We actually ate dinner here the last night and it was real good, again, much better then the bar and grille.

Water Park

So the main attraction at any Great Wolf Lodge is the water park. It’s got five main areas to the park. The first is the wave pool which is a good size and shape. Off to th side of that is  4 or 5 bigger slides for the bigger kids. This also includes the big bopper The Howling Tornado. It’s the big one you see on all the commercials and is a 4 man tube that goes from a dark slide into a huge funnel looking slide andis a ton of fun. Then there is fort Mackenzie. It’s a big play fort with all sorts of water shooting here and there as you walk thru andyou can shoot some of the walkers below with water. Once you get to the top you then can go on one of two open slides which any size young andold can go on. My son who was just under the 42 inches to go with me on some of the bigger slides loved these 2 slides and we went on them a ton. On top of the fort is a huge 1000 gallon bucket that fills up every few mins and splashes down on everyone below. A complete blast to be below there when this goes off. It also has a very cool bell that starts to ring giving you a good warning when it;s about to tio over below. There is another side pool which is 4 feet deep in all areas which has a combo of basketball hoops and some floating items kids can sit on and play. The other side of this area is a pair of lillypad like floating things which have rope ladders hanging above them like monkey bars where you can hold on and try andwalk from one side to the other. They are set up nicely for 2 kids to race each other as well. The final area is the kiddie pool which is also big enough for a bunch of tots to enjoy themselves with a ton of things to do and a small set of two slides as well.

Rooms

Before I get into the rooms, let me tell you about one of the coolest things I have experienced in quite some time. When you check into Great Wolf you get wrist bands for the whole family. These serve as not only entrance into the water park but for the adults (and I would assume older children/teenagers) they serve as both your room keys and a way to charge for everything on their grounds. It’s a real weird feeling when you leave your room to go to the water park or for a stroll, and you have absolutely nothing on you. You completely feel like you are forgetting something and yet all you need is yourself and these wrist bands, VERY COOL. They have a bunch of different types of rooms you can stay in. They range from the garden variety family room with two beds but the real fun is when you stay in one of their theme rooms. These include the Wolf Den, KidCabin, and KidKamp. Basically theyall have a small alcove with bunk beds and a 20″ tv for the kids decorated like a sleep away camp. They are good but I honestly expected this area to be a little bit bigger but the kids def enjoyed it none the less. If you are really feeling froggy you can get one of a ton of huge suites with multiple rooms for up to 8 people (if you don’t mind the neighborhood of 400$ per night). It’s a bit hard to say whether it’s all worth it but considering you can check in as early as 1pm and can also use the water park the day you check out all day, it all seems to even out and the price is reasonable. That being said I still will continue to look for lats minute deals on stays at the one in Concord or the one up in Va. to get better deals.

Magic Quest

MQ is an interactive game where you use a magic wand (that you purchase) to go around the play area (roughly the halls of 3 of the floors) and solve riddles and gain points and “runes” to complete quests. It’s a decent time waster and has you going all around. They charge by time but if you get one of the paw-passes  you can get 1 wand and the whole weekends worth of play in the game. It’s a fun time for parents and children of about 5-13 but much older then that and they will be bored by the repetition and the fact it’s more busy work then a game per-se.

Thoughts on Paw-Passes

The Paw-Pass has you paying a discounted price and getting a bundle of things. For 60$ we got 1 wand and all weekend play in Magic Quest, 5$ (20) tokens in the game room, 1 mini golf pass, 1 entrance to the teen club, 1 custom made stuffed animal (think of smaller build a bear). Since it’s the dead of winter and 30 degrees outside they were real nice and let us trade that in for more tokens in the game room, as well as let us trade in the 1 admission to the teen club since my kids are 4 and 7. So kudos for the flexibility. However, a MUCH better way to do this is to have some sort of way to build your own paw pass to add X number of things together at a discounted rate, rather then slam it packed with things some families won’t want to use. That way they can pick out 5 items and receive a discount for paying up front for these things and be happy with it all.

Final analysis

I absolutely recommend Great Wolf Lodge as a destination for a long weekend or for a fri-Sunday trip. It can be costly but if done right you can have a great time and not really feel the crunch on your wallet. One thing to remember is there are microwaves and refrigerators in each of the rooms. We planned ahead and brought a 12 pack of diet pepsi, some water, some adult beverages as well as a couple of bags of snacks to keep in the room. If you live close enough you could even pack some pre-made meals and have one meal or some lunches re-heated via microwave and save yourselves that much more money on the trip. Think ahead and you can def help yourself a ton. And like I mentioned above keep an eye on their web site. If you are fairly flexible and are the type of family who could take a spontaneous weekend trip a few hours away they will often have those last minute deals for you right on the site and you could save a ton on the rooms themselves.

I wanted to add that I think that the park itself is a ton better if your kids are over the height of 42″, and obviously the best if they are over 48″ tall. At 42″ they can get on most of the the other slides and at 48″ they can ride anything. If you are on the fence I would check how tall your kids are. If they can at least ride some things with you (at 42″) then go for it. That being said, I cannot say that my son (40″) didn’t have fun b/c he definitely did, but I know 100% that he would have had a TON more fun if he was able to ride a few of the other slides with me as well.

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