I had a blast taking my family to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg this past December. It was my family's first visit and it will not be our last!
My review focuses on taking young children to visit the Great Wolf Lodge. We spent one night and two days at the lodge with our three children ages 1, 3 and 5. Our children are not proficient swimmers, but there was plenty for them to do and they had a blast nonetheless.
We checked in around 2 pm and were immediately given our room. We were very excited that our room was ready because check in officially begins at 4pm. I was also pleased with how quickly the check in process took. We were happily situated in our room within minutes and were ready to explore the park.
We opted to stay in the Majestic Bear Suite. This suite perfectly met our needs in that it had a private room adjacent to the living area and other beds. This allowed us to place the 1 year old to sleep earlier than the rest of us. The room was ample in size. It contained a mini fridge and microwave as well as 2 queen beds, 1 king bed, and a pull out couch. Even though we did not stay in a kid themed room our children loved our room. Other reviews have mentioned that the rooms are quite basic and worn. I took into account that this is a family resort and not a honeymoon retreat. Therefore, I was pleased with our accommodations.
We chose to stay for one night and to take advantage of two days at the waterpark. This gave us plenty of time to enjoy our trip and we agreed that this will be the amount of time we will spend at the lodge in the future.
Waterpark:
Before we could enter the waterpark my oldest two children (ages 3 and 5) were measured and given bands according to their sizes. The only ride they could not go on was the Howlin' Tornado. My 3 year old just barely made the height requirement for Wold Rider Wipeout--which he loved. Before visiting the park I wondered if my 1 year old would be able to ride the rides with us. Most of the information on the Great Wolf Website states that children under 42" tall must be supervised by an adult. I interpreted this to mean that if they were under the height requirement that they could ride with me. I found out that this is not the case. I could in fact place my one year old on the slides, but I would have to meet her at the bottom. There is no way that this would have worked for my little one. Instead we opted to take her on the River Canyon Run where she was allowed to sit by our side. I have noticed that the website now claims that you must be 42" tall to ride this ride.
My 1, 3, and 5 year old enjoyed:
- Beaver Tail Lake
- Crooked Creek
- Hot Springs
- Raccoon Lagoon
- River Canyon Run
- Whooping Hollow
- Fort Mackenzie
- Totem Towers
- Alberta Falls (watch out: these are fast!)
- Wolf Rider Wipeout
- Chinook Cove
- Big Foot Pass
- Eagle's Peak Rock Wall
- The Northern Lights Arcade
- Cub Club
MagiQuest:
If you think you can visit Great Wolf lodge without your kids knowing about MagiQuest think again. MagiQuest is located down ALL hallways and at ALL elevators. We allowed our boys to play and they LOVED it. We purchased one wand and shared it as a family. I would highly recommend sharing wands with young children. It takes a long time to complete the tasks and having to find the clues once was enough for us. We also purchased the cheapest wand, without accessories.
Dining:
We did not eat at the restaurants, but did order pizza at the waterpark. No outside food is allowed in the waterpark and we did not want to leave the waterpark. The food and snacks are expensive. We bought a small container of milk for our 1 year old at the snack bar and paid more than we would for a gallon of milk at home. There are many restaurants nearby. We chose to eat at Chick-fil-A for dinner.
Final Review:
Even though there was not much for our 1 year old to do we would highly recommend The great Wolf Lodge. My 3 and 5 year old loved it and eagerly await our return. We plan on taking our family to the Great Wolf Lodge once a year from now on.
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