Hellobee

It’s been a couple of rainy months in Southern California, so we had to cancel a lot of our weekend plans. As a last minute decision, my sister’s family and my family decided to check out Great Wolf Lodge for a quick family getaway!

The best way I can describe it is that it’s like a kids’ version of Vegas — 7 restaurants, a spa treatment center for moms and kids, interactive breakfasts with characters, buffets, a mini bowling alley with mini bowling balls, arcades, shows and an insane water park are all within in this giant building. As you drive in, you can see giant slides that extend outside of the building! I thought to myself, there was no way it was a real slide – perhaps it was decoration? But, nope! Those are actual real slides inside the waterpark!

I loved the tips that Mrs. High Heels wrote a few months ago, and here are some of my additional notes!

• Bring goggles! The smell of chlorine as you walk in will take your breath away. I’m sure that’s what they need to do for such a large space for people. But even for myself, my eyes were stinging right away.
• Buy a waterproof camera lanyard! We saw someone else who had it and they mentioned they sold it at the stores for $32. (But of course it’s only $9 on Amazon!) Hilariously, we got asked several times where we got ours from other parents and we kept seeing them everywhere. It was really worth having a waterproof, touch sensitive phone protector while you’re in the water for texting, communicating and taking lots of photos of your kids.
• Bring a robe or extra covering for your kids while you’re at the pool. They’re pretty strict about counting your rented towels coming in and out, because they need to stay inside the waterpark area. You cannot take the rented towels to your room. So when you’re all done with the waterpark, it would be nice to have a jacket or a plush robe to coverup as you leave.
• No locks needed! They have locker storage (about $15-17 for the whole day) so try sharing the larger size locker if you’re with another family.
• Shoe wise, everyone ended up being barefoot once you were inside the waterpark. The only reason you would need water shoes was to go to the bathroom, but it seemed like most people were barefoot for the majority of the time.
• We paid for a later check-out and it was totally worth it. With nap schedules and lunch, a 11:30am check-out just seemed too early! The late check-out time was 2:00pm and apparently is difficult to request. If they give you option, take it!

BEST THINGS about Great Wolf:

• There were so many lifeguards at every corner, pacing the pool areas. It really did seem well staffed! They were all friendly and great at handling children, like when Toddler Pencil started howling like a wolf, another worker started howling together with him!
• The slide area for little kids (toddler ages to about 6-7 years old) seemed safe to just watch your kids go up by themselves. This is a game changer for parents who would not want to walk their kid to every single slide. You have a pretty good visual watching them go up the steps and slide back down without ever leaving the pool. The steps around the area to the slides are softly padded, and there’s a worker at the top to guide each child safely.
• This is only my own personal experience, but I felt as though the type of families and parents at Great Wolf were all really nice and understanding. I spoke to lots of random parents and we all seemed to be on the same page of wanting our kids to have a nice time. Everyone was great about taking turns, and disciplining their kids to follow the rules. No parent shaming and unruly behavior here!
• If you’re staying the night, you get a wristband with all of your credit card information on there. This means if you want to buy a cup of coffee or food, you can quickly scan your wristband without taking out your wallet. This is also the “key” to the hotel room lock! Makes things a lot easier when you’re carrying around a bunch of items! (This is only on the adults’ wristbands.)
• Plenty of places for small babies to splash and play.
• Lots of food, lots of entertainment, lots of choices!