Recently my family spent a weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City.  It is much more than just a hotel.  Its biggest draw is their large water park, which has three large water slides, a water playground, a zero-depth entry kiddie pool, a lazy river and more.  It was a great way to escape the mid winter blues and have an exciting mini family vacation.

In addition to the entertainment the waterpark provides, there is also Magiquest, a kids salon, kids club craft area, an arcade, and other daily activites such as storytime and a wolf walk.  There was lots to do.  We never had to leave the lodge for entertainment.

The rooms surprised me by being spacious, clean and kid friendly.  I always try to spend as little money as possible so we got the cheapest room and our family of six had plenty of space.  We had two queen beds and a sitting area with a table and pull-out sofa bed.  We also had a balcony.  The rooms were equipped with a refrigerator and microwave which we took full advantage of.  We stocked our room with groceries and ate most of our meals right in our room.  That saved us a lot of money and the kids never complained.  Eating out would have meant more time away from the lodge and they didn’t want that.  The lodge did have a restaurant which we did not visit.  My husband did buy a couple of ginger ales there one night for $8 so we supposed the food was probably also very overpriced.

We took full advantage of the waterpark.  I was extremely impressed by the lifeguards.  I don’t know if I have ever seen such alert and diligent lifeguards.  They also provided life-jackets for the little ones, free of charge.  It made me feel like my kids were very safe.  The pools had something for everyone, including two hot tubs- one for adults and one for families.  We didn’t need the hot water though because it was warm in the pool area and the swimming pool water was a very comfortable temperature.  The crowds were light on Friday afternoon but very busy on Saturday, and then lighter again on Sunday.  Even with the crowds, it was still pleasant to be in the pool area.  I was not pleased by the rough floor surface of the toddler pool.  It scratched up my two year olds feet quite a bit.  Also, adults were allowed to drink alcohol in the family hot tubs and I just didn’t feel that was safe or appropriate.

We also let our kids play the MagiQuest game.  It is best described as a live video game, where players use a real magic want to complete quests throughout the hotel. It was an additional charge.  You have to buy the magic wand and then pay to activate it.  We bought one wand for our kids to use together.  They spent many hours playing this game so it was absolutely worth the $30 we spent.

We also participated in the lodge’s “Storytime” activity.  Their robotic clocktower in the lobby put on a little show and then one of the “characters” came out and an employee read a story to the kids.  My five year old enjoyed this but the other kids were not impressed.  It was a bit too long and the story was hard for the kids to hear.

All of the staff that we encountered were friendly and helpful.  I have no complaints about the service we received.

Overall, I would definitely visit the Great Wolf Lodge again.  It makes a great weekend getaway for our family.  There are several locations across the United States.  The rooms are expensive so I would only go during off season where prices are more reasonable and crowds are lower.