Have you ever looked for an amazingly fun getaway for your family that gives you the best of all worlds. This past weekend my family and I had the opportunity to travel to Traverse City to go to Great Wolf Lodge. We had never been there before, but we had heard of many people that had gone and they had a great time. For us, it took us a little over three hours to get there, but the three hours were definitely worth it. When we got there, of course, the kids wanted to hit the waterpark. While the waterpark is a large part of the resort, I came to find that there was much more to the resort than just water and slides.

Before I get into the rest of the resort, I have to talk about the waterpark itself. The waterpark was huge and had a little bit of everything, from pool, three waterslides, whirlpools and huge waterpark tree park. One of the best things about the waterpark was the fact that they kept it at a constant 84 degrees inside the waterpark and the water is also quite comfortable as well (unlike many waterparks that I have been to in the past). For my eldest daughter, she mentioned that her favorite parts of the waterpark were the waterslides as well as the huge can of water that dumped on bystanders every 5 minutes or so (and did it ever drench you). The three waterslides were quite different, and I have to say that my favorite was the yellow on that allowed up to three people go down and provided a bit faster ride and you even got to go in the dark. My youngest daughter loved the two waterslides that came off of the tree fort and for only being four, she showed some great bravery going on that over and over again!

On day two of our stay at the resort I spoke to the manager and he let me know about a program that they had called the paw pass. This great addition to your stay opens up the rest of the resort to you and your family. It provides you with the opportunity to try out a interactive scavenger hunt called MagiQuest as well as get a cool tattoo, a stuffed friend, a snack in the waterpark, tokens for the Arcade  and a memorable take home gift from the Cub Club.

MagiQuest was something that looked awesome and in starting the quest itself, my eldest daughter worked to become a Master Magi. This took a few hours and quite a bit of walking between floors, but she was able to achieve this rank and then battle both a Dragon and Goblin King.

There was quite a bit more that she could have done if we had more time, but alas, we were not able to complete everything. The game though is fun because you get a magic wand and go around collecting special runes that you need to defeat your enemies, as well as gold to support your quests. The game makes you think deeply about riddles, and remember where things are along the way. The game was a ton of fun and the resort had some hidden fun things around the resort as well which worked with the wand that made it even more worthwhile.

The tattoo that I mentioned is not your run of the mill tattoo but a multicolored, sparkling tattoo that was amazing! They had so many tattoos to choose from and my youngest chose one of the characters from the resort and as you can see it is quite intricate.

The resort itself had a great gift shop, and inside this gift shop you can find some amazing items to help you remember your trip. One of the things that my youngest was able to do thanks to the Paw Pass was build a stuffed friend that she will have forever. If you have ever been to Build-A-Bear workshop this is a similar idea and they have outfits that you can purchase as well.

The Cub Club is a fun location that allows kids to be able to be creative or just chill out playing some games, watching a movie, or making a fun take-home item (for a small fee). They had a ton of things that you could make and take home that allowed kids to show their creative juices and my eldest made a knap sack and my youngest made a monkey pillow (as she loves monkeys).

The arcade was a blast and you can find games that range everywhere from one to four tokens (each token is worth .25/token). Our girls each had 10 tokens so they did not last too long, but that did not stop them from having a blast in the arcade itself!

Finally was the snack that they had in the waterpark. The snack, called Potato Stix, really was a potato on a stick. What was amazing about this was that they literally take a full potato slice it up in a machine with a spiral cut, fry it and place seasoning on it (based on your own taste) and it comes out looking like potato chips on a stick. The snack itself is not completely crunchy like a potato chip, but it was still a lot of tasty fun.

These are only a few things that we tried and enjoyed. There was also a ton of daily activities such as an animatronic show as well as story time every night which was fun and the kids got to meet some of the resort characters after the story. They had an on-site restaurant which the kids liked as well.

All-in-all this was a great trip which will provide long-lasting memories. I think we are hooked and I believe that you will be too! I highly encourage you to consider taking your own family to a Great Wolf Lodge near you!

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site’s Disclaimer  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions.

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