Great Wolf Lodge (Part 1)

It's been a long time since we've went on a vacation. Seriously, other than going down to see Jeff's parents, we never go anywhere really. That all changed the other weekend when we went to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia. I was excited, I've talked to others who have went to Great Wolf Lodge and they had a blast, I checked out their website and it looked like so much fun!

We went during their Howl-O-Ween event, which made it even more fun! My friend Amy went with us to help me with the kids in the indoor waterpark since Jeff don't swim (he don't like water since he almost died when he was 2 and fell into a pool). So Friday I got the kids out of school a little early, and we left! Amy and I with the 3 kiddos in the van and Jeff drove his truck (he was going to visit his parents to trade his truck for a car or something) On the other side of Richmond we stopped at the rest area (the one they DIDN'T close...stupid VDOT closed the one on this side) and I put Jaxon in the truck with Jeff so he could take him to his parent's since they haven't seen him yet. Just a few minutes later Amy, Jeffery, Jaylin and I got to the exit to Williamsburg! We squealed with excitement! Too bad we missed a turn and got lost at first! We arrived around 3:30pm (left around noon I think) The picture here is what we saw, I'm serious I was never so thrilled to be somewhere!!! Once we found a parking spot we walked in and the guest services were awesome, they had guys up front to take your bags...doormen? Right? They asked if they could help us at all, of course I only had my bag with my laptop and stuff in it, along with my camera so no need for help yet lol.

When we walked in, we were in awe of it all! There was so much to see, and it was so elegant, yet rustic! I'm a big outdoorsy girl, so it was so awesome! Checking in was easy, although for my specific check in, it was odd. Apparently I was already checked in...even though we had just gotten there. After less than a minute it was figured out, and they saw I was a blogger and asked about it, they were so courteous. I was then escorted to my room by one lady (I wish I could remember her name!) she was so nice, she took my bag from me and showed me where the room was. Ours was just down the hall from the front desk, first floor. I must say here, one of my favorite things was the bracelet they give the adults...it was the ROOM KEY!!! No need to worry about where the room key was while in the waterpark or anything, it was always on my wrist!

After we were showed to our room, she escorted us to my scheduled interview with the general manager that was supose to be at 3:00pm (yea we were a bit late lol) his name is Curtis Brown. He was very nice, and wasn't upset that we were late. For Part 1 of the Great Wolf Lodge review, I'm only going to post his answers to a few of the questions I asked him. The first questions were:

Why did you want to work at Great Wolf Lodge?

"I had worked for a major hotel company for 20 years and the idea of starting a brand from the ground up interested me. It was exciting starting a new concept"

How long have you worked at Great Wolf Lodge?

"Going on 10 years. Started when there was just 1st lodge and was general manager there. Watched the hotel grown over 9 years into 12 lodges"

What is your favorite activity at Great Wolf Lodge? (I personally love his answer!)

"when you have a bad day, stand at the bottom of the slides in the waterpark and watch kids with smiles come down"

Mr. Brown give my kids a cup of tokens for the arcade (we didn't use them til the 2nd day...I'll post about that later) he was so nice and personable just like the rest of the staff! After the interview we went back to the room and got our suits on to head to the waterpark! Forgive these horrible pictures, I took them through the window (which BTW Mr. Brown said the worst job [joking!] for anyone on the staff was the person who has to clean those windows because the kids are always putting their hands on it when they see the waterpark!) and the water isn't running because I went around taking pictures after Amy and the kids were sleeping, it was like 11pm I was too scared to take my camera into the waterpark while it was on since it's an expensive camera.

I also went out and took these pictures while they were sleeping, that was the only time I had quiet time that we weren't running around trying to do EVERYTHING there was to do (Which by the way, we didn't get to do everything!)

This is what 3-4hours in a car, hours in a waterpark, plus multiple other activities will do to a 4yr old and 3r old! Seriously, how precious do they look sleeping in the same bed!

This is what that same stuff, along with helping to wrangle the 4yr old and 3yr old will do to a 24yr old! BTW this is my friend Amy who went with us! She's not used to kids...and she usually stays up LATE...this picture was taken around 10pm!

The wolves over the fireplace in the lobby...notice one wolf biting another's tail on the bottom?

The fireplace...isn't it beautiful? It's HUGE!

Picture of the outside at night....kind of hard to see but it's beautiful!

I'll have a TON more pictures and more posts about our trip to Great Wolf Lodge coming up, it was too much to put into one post! I'm sure most of you are tired of reading this long one! We had a blast! I hope we get to go back again soon!

I received a discount rate for our stay at Great Wolf Lodge in return for writing this review. The discount had no influence on my opinion of Great Wolf Lodge.