When I first heard Great Wolf Lodge was coming to Minnesota I’ll admit, I was super excited! Great Wolf Lodge is known to have some of the best family fun activities. Did you see I mentioned activities? As in plural. Great Wolf Lodge is much much more than a water park. They have something for everyone in the family and the one they opened in Minnesota, Great Wolf Lodge Minnesota has some features that other Great Wolf Lodges do not. Peyton and I had the opportunity to bring a friend and check out some of the cool activities they have for families and we’re going to share it all with you!
Great Wolf Lodge Minnesota is located minutes from Mall of America, making it a perfect place to stay when you come to enjoy all the tax-free clothes shopping you’ll be doing while in town. I know many of you come in for a weekend in August to tackle the back to school clothes shopping, why not add a few extra days and make it into a mini-family vacation. Your last hurrah before school starts!
One of my favorite things about Great Wolf Lodge Minnesota is the food. You all know Peyton and I travel frequently, most of the time it’s just her and I so having tasty food options near the hotel is a must for me. At Great Wolf Lodge, there are so many choices, you’ll never have to leave the resort. They have a Dunkin Donuts on site! You can get your donut fix and delicious coffee without having to take one step outside! There is also a Ben & Jerrys and let me tell you, it’s stocked with tons of variety. And they let you sample before you choose your flavor. There is also a grab and go style eatery on site too, filled with sandwiches, salads and other quick grab food options. Plus 3 other restaurants! You can have a nice sit-down meal at Campfire Kitchen, grab some pizza at Hungry as a Wolf or if you are in the waterpark and don’t want to leave check out Buckets Incredible Craveables. There are also several locations for Mom and Dad to grab a cocktail and appetizer too! I was not kidding when I said they have lots of options.
Besides having an incredible water park, Great Wolf Lodge also has several dryland activities for families to participate in. Peyton took part in a little obstacle course, Howlers Peak Ropes Course, that happens to be suspended in the air! I didn’t participate because I wore a dress and forgot to wear shorts under it, oops! So Peyton did this one solo. And she loved it! The wonderful staff helps you get into the harness and make sure it’s fitted properly and hook you up to the safety line on the course and then you are off to enjoy 2 suspended levels of fun. But what really impressed me about this activity is there is a helper walking the course to ensure that if anyone gets scared or stuck they are right there to help you through it. And they anticipate the children so well. Peyton had 2 problem areas and before Peyton even realized she was going to panic the staff was right there to help her out. They really did an amazing job and helping walk through Peyton how to overcome her fear and work through the one section she was stuck on. And then when it happened again, they tried to help her be successful but when Peyton said it was too much they backed off and helped her get back to a part of the course she felt comfortable in. As a mom that made my heart so happy. To see a complete stranger treat my child with compassion and empathy was phenomenal to witness.
Another fun activity they have is Oliver’s Mining Co. This was a big hit with the kids! Each child is given a bag full of what looks like sand. But it’s more than sand! Inside each bag of sand, there are beautiful gemstones and minerals waiting to be discovered. You never know what you’ll get and no two bags are the same. The children poured their bag of sand into the mining trays and started using the water to rinse away the sand to reveal the treasures hidden within. Once you’ve revealed all your treasures there is an area set up to help you identify what gemstones and minerals you’ve found! This is a perfect activity for all ages and a great one for the whole family to enjoy.
The last big activity we partook in, that was not water park related, was MagiQuest. Let me tell you, the girls could have played this game all weekend and never gotten bored. We played it for hours today. Hours! Peyton didn’t know what she was getting into when she picked out her wand but once we started playing she caught on fast. You have to complete the quest by finding different stations throughout the resort. Then once you finish a quest you can battle the dragon! We finished one quest and went to battle the dragon and lost. 🙁 But that’s ok, the game is saved in our wands so the next time we come back to Great Wolf Lodge Minnesota to play we can pick up right where we left off!
And of course, we spent a few hours in the water park as well. How could we not? No one can go to Great Wolf Lodge and not hang out there. Though, I will warn you, bring flip-flops. I found some of the flooring to be rough on my feet while I walked around barefoot between pools and slides, flip-flops would have been so greatly appreciated. The lazy river was a big hit with the girls too, plus it opens in to the wave pool. There are several slides, some multiperson rider, throughout the water park area. We all went on the River Canyon Run as a group, it was a blast! You can fit up to 2 adults and 3 children on this ride with an 800 lbs max capacity, it’s a raft ride, but it does go pretty fast so if your little one gets scared easily it’s probably not the right slide. There are flashing lights and you are flying down the slide going from one side of the slide to the other. We had a great time! It’s a fun, fast, thrilling water slide. There is also a surfing area for the older kiddos, splash zone for the littles with little kid size slides and more. There is something for every age group and ability at the water park.
Well, this was just a little taste of all the fun we had with Great Wolf Lodge Minnesota, I hope you enjoyed hearing about it. Feel free to ask questions below. We are hoping to return to Great Wolf Lodge Minnesota and cover more of their adventures and amenities. We’ll keep you posted on when that will be. But until then……
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