The Great Wolf Lodge (the one I visited was in the poconos in PA) was a fantastic family experience.  Great indoor water park, nice sized rooms and suites, plenty to do for the kids.

The Highlights:

The indoor water park is only for hotel guests.  This means no public use of the water park.  This is MUCH different than some other water park hotels we have been to.  Most of the others are open to the public.  This means crowds, but also additional expense.  Tickets to the water park even though they are part of the hotel are included at the GWL, but not the others we visited and can cost close to $50 a day.  This can be a huge savings.

Savings is important and certainly the GWL is not cheap at first glance, but you need to truly add all the expenses in when looking into water park resorts.

To keep the kids occupied, the GWL has storytime in the lobby I believe 2x a day.  Obviously the water park.  But they also have a fantastic game that runs throughout the hotel called MagiQuest.  The game is an additional cost and you must purchase a magic wand.  Be prepared, the kids will want accessories.

The game however can take hours to play and will run throughout your stay.  The children have to find various items throughout the hotel and point their wand at the item.  The item then talks back to them.  There are computer screens which tell the children what to look for and allows them to choose there quest.  2 quests are available, a dragon slaying quest where you fight the dragon at the end in the dragons lair, and a pixie quest which to be honest I don’t remember the premise for.  Kids rack up points and the standings are shown throughout the day on computer screens.  My description doesn’t do it justice, but be assured this will occupy the kids for hours if not days and certainly worth the cost.  Be warned, if you go with the kids on the quest, you will be going up and down stairs for hours.

There is a restaurant inside but it gets crowded as it really isn’t big enough to hold all the guests.  There is a snack bar (and a bar bar) in the water park and a fast food (pizza, ice cream, deserts) stand near the arcade.  There is a spa for the grown ups and a mini-spa for the pampered princesses in your life (expensive).

Staff was friendly, rooms were clean and a good size, and the atmosphere certainly was great for families.  If you don’t have kids, not sure you want to go.  This is truly a family resort.