If you think of summer when you hear the words “water park,” it’s time to think again.
Great Wolf Lodge, a gargantuan water park resort 20 miles south of Olympia is almost entirely indoors.
Located in the tiny tow
n of Grand Mound, just off I-5, this eight-story, 400-room hotel is an ideal weekend getaway for families, especially those who have hit the breaking point of cabin fever and need a vacation that doesn’t require driving over the mountains or, worse, springing for airfare.
Inside the water pa
rk, it’s blissfully warm, 84 degrees to be exact. It’s more steam-room-style balmy than sunshine-soaked hot, but we’ll take what we can get in winter in Western Washington, right?
I didn’t know what to expect when my husband and our 2-year-old son and I tried this family-friendly resort for the first time with our good friends and their 2-year-old son.
We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, apparently along with rest of the state, and found ourselves in a long, slow check-in line.
Children were running around everywhere, admiring the grand, two-story lodge-themed lobby and dying to get into their rooms and on to the water park.
Though waiting in line wasn’t fun, I liked almost everything else about this place, one of 12 similar resorts owned by Madison, Wis.-based Great Wolf Resorts.
Once checked in, you wear a plastic bracelet that not only gets you into the water park, but also allows you to charge anything, anywhere in the hotel, to your room, so you don’t have to carry a wallet inside your swimsuit.
Our basic room, shared with our friends, was fine. But, for me, Great Wolf Lodge was all about the water park. It has everything, not just four big pools, but also seven water slides, including two tall raft rides big enough to hold four delighted adults.
The Howlin’ Tornado was my favorite slide.
Yes, this ride shoots you and your four-person raft down, almost vertically, through a long, winding, giant tube. Then you’re propelled, suddenly and quite forcefully, into a six-story funnel, where you swoosh up and down the sides before flying down another twisty tube to the ride’s conclusion.
Excellent.
Though our little ones couldn’t do such adventurous slides, which have minimum height restrictions, we were able to take them into the various toddler areas, which were shallow and full of sprayers, fountains, slides and other age-appropriate amusements that entertained them for hours.
Another highlight for all ages is Fort Mackenzie, a four-story interactive tree house in the center of the park that periodically dumps a 1,000-gallon bucket of water for a dramatic display.
Bigger kids have options here, too, including balancing games, large floating animals and basketball hoops in a separate activity pool.
Relaxing options include an indoor-outdoor hot tub as well as the Slap Tail Pond, a giant wave pool filled with rhythmic, oceanlike waves.
Thanks to its so-called zero-depth-entry design, kids of any age can walk right in and feel the waves as if they were at the beach. Big kids and adults can swim out to waters 5 feet deep and ride waves up to 3 feet high.
If all that weren’t enough, there’s plenty to do here when you’re not getting soaked, including playing video games in your room, eating at various restaurants and concession stands (including a Starbucks in the lobby), browsing gift shops, going to the arcade or taking in story times and musical shows — performed by animatronic woodland creatures — at the clock tower in the lobby.
There is an entertainment area just for teens and a craft room, featuring daily projects for all ages.
Tweens can enjoy manicures and pedicures in the ice-cream themed Scooops kid spa, while adults can kick back at the Elements spa and salon.
Kids into MagiQuest will find two floors of the hotel dotted with displays for the live-action fantasy-adventure game.
If there is a downside to the Great Wolf Lodge, built in 2008, it’s that it’s not exactly the region’s best-kept secret.
On weekends, lines for the rides can leave you standing on the water park’s stairwells for 15 minutes or more. And, if you don’t bring your own food, you’ll end up spending far more than you’d hoped to on hotel incidentals.
Though in-room pizza and other dining options were available, we were suckered in by the instant gratification and convenience of the buffet.
For breakfast, it costs $13.99 for ages 11 and older, and $7.99 for ages 4 to 10. At dinner, the price goes to $17.99 and $8.99 for the same age groups.
If you’re willing to leave the lodge, you can easily dine off site at fast food joints such as McDonald’s or Figaro’s Pizza in Ground Mound, or head to Centralia, about five miles away, for a choice of fast and slow restaurants.
Despite some negatives, I’ll be going back, maybe every year, with my family and friends to the Great Wolf Lodge.
Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.
If you go
Book a basic room: Our small shared room, called a family suite, was functional and cozy, complete with a mini fridge, microwave and granite-topped bar area, plus a vanity area and basic bathroom. Though the base price for the room was $319, it cost the six of us almost $500 after we added extra occupancy fees ($40 per person over base occupancy of four), fee and taxes ($50) and a late check-out package ($30, allowing us to use our room until 3 p.m.).
All room rates include water park passes for each guest. The water park is open only to registered guests.
Get fancy: Other rooms cater to children with in-suite miniature log cabins, caves and tent-themed areas that double as the kid sleeping quarters, complete with bunk beds, TVs and video game consoles. Saturday night rates for four start at $359 for the KidKamp and Wolf Den suites.
Larger suites for groups are available, too, such as the Grizzly Bear, starting at $769 for eight on a Saturday night, with two private bedrooms, two full baths, a gas fireplace and two flatscreen TVs.
Arrive early, stay late: Though check-in time isn’t until 4 p.m., guests can stop by the front desk and start using the water park any time after 1 p.m. on the day of their stay.
Check-out time is 11 a.m., but guests can use the water park until it closes at 9 p.m. Changing facilities, towels and lockers are available.
Great Wolf Lodge
20500 Old Highway 99 SW, Grand Mound, also called Centralia on some GPS and navigation systems. To book a room, call 866-798-9653 or go to www.greatwolf.com. To reach the front desk, call 360-273-7718, ext. 0.
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