Property
The Great Wolf Lodge is a family resort, water park, and interactive activity center all under one roof. Decorated extensively in a woodsy motif, its theme is carried out throughout the property to include its play areas, restaurants, and guest rooms. The centerpiece is without doubt the massive indoor water park.

Location
Located on I-5 between Seattle and Portland, the resort is near Centralia, which offers several good alternatives to the lodge’s expensive dining. Nearby Olympia is a good source for family fun as well, especially their Hands On Museum.

Sleeps
The all-suite resort offers several different floor plans sleeping from 4-8, several of which are themed for kids. Just be careful to reserve the suite that best reflects your family size: for instance, the Kid Cabin suite includes 5 water park passes, so it worked best for our family of five. Our kids would have preferred the Wolf Den suite, but that only included four passes. We would have had to pay a la carte for the fifth pass.

Highlights
We thought the highlight was going to be the water park, but in fact, it was the MagiQuest game played by kids throughout the resort. Once kids buy an interactive wand, they are sent throughout the hotel’s public spaces seeking clues and solving puzzles as features in the hallways and stairwells come to life. We’d never seen anything like it, and they spent as much time playing (and getting exercise) as they did in the water park.

Good to know
The price is higher than we’re used to paying for a family resort, but the room rate does include park passes, and good deals can be found if you check the website.

More information on The Great Wolf Lodge (but not a repetition of what is written here) can be found at my travel website, www.pitstopsforkids.com.

Contact
http://www.greatwolf.com/grandmound/lodge

August 10th, 2009 | by Amy Whitley