For our family Spring Break vacation this year, Brett and I planned an amazing trip to Georgia, where we spent the first half at The Great Wolf Lodge with some friends and the other half in a chalet in North Georgia.
Our time at The Great Wolf Lodge is enough for an entire blog post itself and I couldn’t wait to come home and talk about it. We really didn’t know what to expect, especially coming from Florida where we can go to a slew of water parks and pools, but I can tell you that there was so much to do, it’s so much more than a waterpark! We spent three nights there, and were able to do everything they had to offer.
Day 1
We woke up super early, around 5:30am to start the drive. The kids were looking forward to “still being asleep” as we grabbed them out of bed, packed up and hit the road. During the drive, I was checking out the app and saw that I could check in, so when we arrived around 12:30pm the room was ready for us. It was already exciting for the kids to have their own “Wolf Den” with a TV and bunk beds.
We met up with our friends from back home and immediately got changed to check out the water park.
There was a BBQ pavilion and a grill to grab a bite to eat right near the pool, which is where we ended up eating everyday for lunch. The wings were the best thing on the menu!
At around 4pm we came in and got ready for dinner. We were still discovering the place and ate at the pizza joint, right inside from the pool. And we realized that was definitely not where we wanted to eat for the remaining two nights. There was one other restaurant which was more upscale, called Barnwood, which was booked up, so we made a reservation for the the next night to make sure we could get in.
I also scoped everything out the first day and after doing a little research, I decided to get Wolf Passes for the kids so they could enjoy all the activities at the resort, it was a really good deal. I wasn’t sure when I first booked which passes we would need, but once we were there I quickly learned that Brett and I definitely didn’t need our own, so we saved money there. As part of the Wolf Pass, the kids were able to participate in everything on site, including MagiQuest (more on this later) and it included a huge container filled from the candy bar and an ice cream cone at Ben & Jerry’s. Which we totally used as bribery for good behavior the entire trip.
We were pretty spent after a long, exciting day so we hit the hay pretty early.
Day 2
We woke up bright and early on day two. And we had a game plan this time. We headed straight to the water park to grab our favorite spot (which we learned was a round table and chairs right near the restaurants and in a central location for all the kiddos to do their age appropriate water activities.)
And on the way, we caught a yoga class going on in the lobby.
Before it got too late in the day, we headed over to MagiQuest to check out what it was all about. This was probably the most genius thing I’ve ever seen at a resort. The kids got to pick out their very own wands (a standard one is included with the Wolf Pass, but for a special topper you have to pay extra. You do get a discount, though) and throughout the entire hotel are interactive screens, battle stations, ornaments and displays that will interact with the wands on command. I mean, how cool is that? It was not hard to geek out over—even the adults were looking forward to the next quest!
It’s a really cool idea too, because as you walk around the hotel each day, you can do a little bit more of the quest, and it’s a great way to break up being at the park all day. It’s challenging and fun and the goal is to complete the entire quest so you can become a Master Magi!
We spent most of the morning through lunch at the water park and this time we got the kids to go on the big slides. Reece was of course a go, but it took a little persuading for Rylee. But once she did it, it was slides on repeat for hours!
(No pics of this, was living in the moment, I guess! You can see them in the background a little of me and Nicole 😉
After lunch, it was more MagiQuest.
Then we headed inside to climb the rock climbing wall. I was so impressed with the kids, they did so good!
Dinner that night was amazing. Barnwood is where you want to go for dinner, but make a reservation because it books up. It was so amazing we made a reservation there again for the last night.
I wish I would have taken a picture of the Wild Mushroom Pappardelle we had there, it was so good.
After dinner, we reserved a lane at the bowling alley, which was a must since they still had lanes blocked off to help with social distancing.
And finished the night at the dance party.
Day 3
Our last day started with some MagiQuesting, of course, on the way to the water park where we spent the first half of the day on water slides, in the wave pool and at the playground. We even made it outside to enjoy the sunshine in the outdoor pool.
The one thing I could appreciate about an indoor water park as a Floridian, is that we did not have to reapply sun screen every half hour or worry about the rain. It was a bigger deal than I realized, looking back, and was so enjoyable not to have to fight my children with the reapplication process or dealing with sunburns.
There was still so much to do on our Wolf Passes, so we headed inside to the arcade, rock climbing wall again and gem mining.
Then, more MagiQuesting. We had to complete the entire quest by 5:30pm that night to become Master Magis and get a certificate at the ceremony.
We were able to complete the entire quest in time for the ceremony and enjoyed watching the kids get their certificates.
Then it was dinner, and off to the ropes course for me and Rylee. Reece was too short for the course, so he played mini golf with Brett instead which worked out great. We also had to cap off the night with another dance party, of course!
We had such a blast at The Great Wolf Lodge! But that was only the beginning of our Spring Break Adventure. We were leaving bright and early the next day to drive another three hours north into the Blue Ridge Mountains to our very own chalet at the Dillard house.
Up next – Family Spring Break Vacation: The Dillard House
