Family Travel

Where’s the only place in town that can guarantee real snow on cue three times a day?  Inside the Great Wolf Lodge® in Charlotte/Concord, North Carolina.  That’s right – inside.

This December marks the fifth anniversary of Snowland, an annual holiday tradition at Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.® (NASDAQ: WOLF), North America’s largest family of indoor waterpark resorts. The month-long celebration welcomes families into the Lodge to celebrate in a unique, family-friendly way.

We were given the privlege to come visit the Snowland last weekend at  Great  Wolf Lodge. It was so cold outside, so it was nice to go inside and be in our bathing suits. Once we were in, the girls went straight for the water park.

We let the girls play their little hearts out and even mom and dad joined in all the fun as well. They have some very cool “big” water slides that even take you outside but you don’t know it. M and I enjoyed those while daddy and L stayed down in the “ocean” as L called it.

It was time to get ready for Santa making his arrival and for the guaranteed snowfall that the girls were eagerly awaiting. As we were heading back to our room, we were greeted with the all mighty black bear.

The girls could not believe the winter wonderland that was taking shape in the lobby of the Great Wolf lodge. It was like magic to their eyes.

Did you notice what the ceiling lights were made of? 😉

The time had arrived… the big man in the red suit made his big debut for the weekend. It was SANTA!

As we headed to dinner, we were greeted yet again with another black bear 😉

We came back with our tummies full to a show put on by moose and owl. The girls thought this was the coolest. It was a really entertaining little show for all.

As you can tell by the smile on M’s face. Day 1 was a huge hit!

Sunday morning we were greeted with snow as we made our way downstairs. What a way to start the morning… playing in the snow and you don’t even have to deal with changing into warmer clothes after playing in the snow 🙂

We were making our way down to breakfast and all we had to do was follow the wonderful aroma of the big buffet breakfast. It truly was smelling so delicious and once we got to the breakfast spot, we knew why. The buffet was loaded with all our favorite breakfast foods!

Two happy parents 🙂

After the kids finished, they all got up and started providing entertainment for everyone.

The kids were just preparing us for the big show. They gave them the best intro HIGHWAY 101! They were taping their Christmas special right there with us in the room as their audience. How cool is that?

The Mom Bloggers!

Here we are with the Band Highway 101

With all our tummies full of wonderful food, it was time to head back to the great water park. The girls just loved being in there. It helps too that the water park is 84 degrees at all times. It felt great!

They have a kiddie area too that is not over 2 ft. They include smaller water slides for the small children and jet skis they can ride that will shoot water.

The girls were on cloud nine the entire time we were there.

M would have stayed on the slides all day if we had let her. I do have to admit, all the slides were so much fun. There is even one slide called the Tornado… I’ll just let you try it out for yourself 😉

Great Wolf Lodge, we truly enjoyed our whole stay.

It’s a mother’s dream that you can go on vacation and not even have to leave the premises. There is so much to do that your little ones will only want to stay there the whole time. You are allowed two days at the water park with one night’s stay. So awesome! Here are the activities going on this month that you will want to take part in:

* Holiday Story Time with Rowdy the Reindeer
* The Writing Depot, where children can write, decorate and mail letters directly to Santa
* Polar Wolf Walk – a wintery nature hike for kids to site penguins, polar bears and more
* North Pole University, complete with educational activities to earn a diploma and special gift
* Toy Creation Station, where children can create toys to keep or give to a friend
* Wrapping Depot for guests to have presents wrapped on-the-spot
* Special musical guest performances
* Holiday caroling
* Santa appearances
* Animated Great Clock Tower holiday performances

One of the great features too is they gave each family member armbands. The two adult armbands features you door lock. You just rub your armband over the door and your door will open. Now is that not the coolest thing? No more worrying about where the key is! Also, you can use your armband all throughout the lodge to buy food, drinks or whatever you may need at the moment. Then just pay for your purchases when you check-out. So much easier on a mom :).

Thank you so much and we plan now to make this an annual tradition with the girls! We definitely give it two thumbs up from the whole family :).

P.S. Full Disclosure. The Great Wolf Lodge provided accommodations for our family, but we were in no way paid for our review. This review comes from our heart and we truly stand behind our words!