There are several types of rooms/suites. You can click here to see them. Since I was tagging along with the Bubelas, they got a suite which had two bedrooms and two bathrooms. I got the bedroom with the king bed and the private bath (jacuzzi!) and they took the bedroom with two queen beds. There was also a nice sized living area and a "kitchenette" with a sink, microwave and mini-fridge. There were televisions in all three rooms. It worked out great. We set Jax's pack-and-play up in a corner of the living room. Since we were all exhausted both nights, everyone was ready to go to bed when Jax got put down. On both nights he was up much later than his usual 7 PM bedtime. We made sure that everyone had what they needed and when Jax was put down, all the rest of us were in our rooms for the night. I could have actually gone to sleep by 9:30...4 hours earlier than usual for me, but I stayed up until about 10:30, trying to read.
We slept well and got up by 6:30 or so to start our day...which I have already told you about in the previous post about the walk.
What I didn't tell you in the previous post was that we had started out Friday morning with Brent not feeling well. His throat was very sore. Carolyn drove and we did okay until we got close to DFW airport and then we kind of got mixed up with our directions. We had maps printed from Google, navigation in the car, navigation on our phones, but we still got thoroughly confused on the freaking Dallas freeway system when we were probably within 2 miles of our destination. I'm not sure what we did...or how we did it, but we finally got to the highway where we were supposed to exit the freeway....but, from the opposite direction! Yes, we had apparently passed it and then rambled around crazily enough that we approached it from the other side. We never even knew we had missed it! The signage stinks, if you ask me. And we never saw any signs indicating that Great Wolf Lodge was anywhere near us.
Then, when we finally exited onto the highway we were looking for, we went the wrong way. Again, we were following directions, but since we were unknowingly approaching from the opposite way, everything we were doing was exactly wrong. Luckily, we finally figured out what had happened and made it to the hotel before Carolyn had to smack me and Brent upside the head. When I say "luckily" I should probably explain that we were about to drive into the airport, which we knew was on the opposite side of the freeway from where we wanted to be.
All those freeway shenanigans probably added about an hour to our trip. The kids were pretty good, though. Kate had started the "how much further" stuff within 30 minutes of leaving home, but Carolyn finally stopped that by telling her she couldn't ask about it again until the clock said "two, oh, oh." We had one potty stop, or maybe two...and we picked up hamburgers and kiddie meals at McDonald's and ate them on the way. All in all, until the last crazy hour, it was about what you would expect. Brent slept through most of the first few hours, his throat getting worse all the time.
After checking in, we changed into swimsuits and went to the waterpark. I think the temperature is set at 84 degrees in there and the water is not cold, so it was very nice. Actually, with the heat and humidity in the air, we could have been in Wharton County except that the ambient temperature wasn't in the high 90's! Carolyn and the girls started sliding on Fort McKenzie and they stayed there for quite a while. It's the structure shown in the first photo below this paragraph. The giant bucket (1000 gallons) on top fills with water and then tips it all out, making quite a loud noise. After climbing to the top, they slide down the blue tube that's visible to the left and shoot out, making a big wave, in the yellow area seen at the bottom left.
Brent took Jax to the area for smaller kids and he (Jax) played in the water there, enjoying the atmosphere and walking around a bit. Brent was a good sport, since he was feeling really lousy.
You can see/read about other features of the water park...you can also select toddlers, tweens, teens, etc. to see what's available for them by clicking here.
Clicking on a photo will open it in a bigger window. And it will be bigger. On my computer, I then have to hit the browser "back" arrow to get back to the blog. Maybe yours is different.
Above is a view of the front part of the waterpark from inside the lobby of the hotel.
That's Carlee sliding down one of the tamer slides. She shot down like a rocket the first time. And loved it!
Above is a view of the far side of the waterpark, where the "big kid" rides are. The mustard yellow one goes outside the building into a giant funnel looking thing...and then back into the building. Since she gets motion sick easily, Carolyn didn't care for it much. She asked a couple of girls in line behind her what grade they were in.
"Sixth," they replied. "What grade are you in?"
That's not Carolyn, just a photo of the Howling Tornado from the Great Wolf website; that's the ride Carolyn didn't care for very much. The description says:
"Our most thrilling adventure. Grab up to 3 other members of your pack willing to drop into the 6-story funnel. You'll quickly learn how this ride earned its name. Repeatedly swish and swirl 30 feet up the sides of the funnel, before making a safe splash landing."
"Our most thrilling adventure. Grab up to 3 other members of your pack willing to drop into the 6-story funnel. You'll quickly learn how this ride earned its name. Repeatedly swish and swirl 30 feet up the sides of the funnel, before making a safe splash landing."
Jax and Carolyn
Here are Jax and Brent in the very shallow end. Jax enjoyed the little fountains.
Jax's favorite spot
Uh-oh...looks like a centerfold to me!
When you pull one the rope, water spills out onto whoever is standing or sitting in the area below this "life guard" looking structure. It's not for life guards, just for fun.
Kate and Carlee stopped in the hallway leading to our suite so I could take a photo of the three dimensional mural...oh, and them.
We ate in the Camp Critter Bar & Grille where the kids got wolf ears and there was lots of howling going on in the restaurant.
Above is a view of the kitchenette. No real cooking here, but you can heat things in the microwave and keep them cold in the mini-fridge. Carolyn is getting medicine ready for someone. Kate was on an antibiotic before we left home. Eventually, Brent and Jax were on antibiotics, too. More about that in a different post.
Jax trying on (or taking off) his wolf ears.
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