Great Wolf Lodge Williamsburg is the perfect family getaway 30

Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg VA makes October into Howl-O-Ween month

A few weeks ago we visited the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia for the first time.  The Howl-o-ween activities happen every day during the month of October and we got to experience a really fun and quite rare family weekend away.  There were activities for kids of all ages and I am happy to share some of the highlights of our trip with you.  Overall, it was an awesome experience.  Our kids of varying ages had a great time.  Do you know how hard it is to find activities that elementary, middle school and high school kids all will enjoy? The staff was super helpful and friendly.  The indoor waterpark felt so good on a cold day.  I am excited to share a few highlights with you.

This cool green bracelet is not only your ticket to the indoor water park, it is also the key to your room.  No need to worry about dropping or forgetting your room key. This waterproof wristband has your room key built into it (if you want it to be). It can also be a charging device if you put your credit card info on it.  This was a great way for our kids to be able to use the entire resort and then go back to our room whenever they wanted to.

Picture an 80,000 square foot indoor water park at a consistent 84 degrees every day of the year.  The water park is filled with slides, a lazy river, a surfing simulator, a wave pool and so much more.  This water park would be perfect when there is snow outside, you will feel like you took a trip to Florida, while you are still in Virginia. 1000 gallons are collected then dumped out of the bucket at the top of the climbing structure.  The kids wait underneath of the bucket and squeal in delight each time the water pours out.  There is also an outdoor pool that is open memorial day to labor day.  Amazing water slides all around, some for toddlers, some for children and then many for teens and adults.  You can even ride in a raft with 3 of your closest friends. Walking up all the flights of stairs to get to the top was not easy for some of my kids, but it was totally worth it to slide down these super fast and fun slides.  We have some cool GoPro videos that we will link to soon from inside the slides.

The lazy river was very relaxing, as was the wave pool.  The best part of the indoor water park were the incredibly attentive lifeguards.  I’ve never seen lifeguards so diligent and careful about their job.  Each one was constantly and carefully surveying the attraction they were in charge of. I felt at ease knowing that these dedicated professionals were watching over all the children in the park.  No surprise that you heard this bell ringing all day long.  These lifeguards deserve many high fives!

Most people come for the water park, but there are plenty of other fun activities to do at the Great Wolf Lodge. Ten paw bowling is one of the cutest bowling alleys I have ever seen.  The pins are suspended on strings and the balls weigh less than 5 pounds each.  It is a great way to introduce bowling to younger children or just have a fun time as an older kid or adult.

Other activities that you can try include:

• Green screen photos
• 9 holes of mini golf
• 4D interactive video game
• 4D interactive movie
• Outdoor Ropes Course

After doing all of these activities your family will be very hungry.  Don’t worry, you will not need to leave the resort.  There are tons of food options: pizza, alcohol, wings, salads, dippin dots, Edy’s scoops, home made fudge, Dunkin Donuts, and some fresh made desserts.  Or, you can eat at the Loose Moose restaurant for Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner.   We enjoyed both the Breakfast and Dinner buffets with tons of delicious food options.  Check out this video to see all the options we had at the breakfast and dinner buffets.

The Great Wolf Lodge is totally nut-free, they do not even sell Virginia peanuts in the gift shop anymore.

If your kids like personalized items as souvenirs you can find an entire store with products you can put their name on, such as bracelets or keychains.

You can also visit the adult spa or the kids spa “Scoops”.  Kids can choose from a variety of services that all revolve around ice cream flavors.

Magiquest is a fun indoor activity in which each person needs a magic wand to complete missions that take place throughout 3 floors of the hotel.  A wand can be purchased on the first floor of the hotel and you can even customize your wand.  This is a great activity to do when you are tired from the waterpark or on a rainy day.  Make sure you use the side staircases as it will save you a lot of time.  October 1st was the first weekend for a new technology upgrade so there were a few kinks, but we had a really fun time finding treasures, opening treasure chests and finally beating the dragon in the final challenge.  You can watch our video here to see some of the Magiquest activities as well as some video from the hotel.

There was a large arcade on the first floor with many games to choose from.

The Kid’s store had one of our favorite stops, the fill up a cup with Mike and Ike’s candy.  There were also tables for coloring and other activities.  It was quite hard to choose which flavor was our favorite.

There were many areas around the hotel with pop-up activities, we saw bracelets being made, face painting stations, and also yoga in the morning.

Howl-o-ween activities nightly include trick or treating, story time and dance parties. Kids are encouraged to come in costume and adults can too!  There are also plenty of character photo opportunities and your kids will enjoy interacting with the staff as well as the characters.

Don’t forget to bring your costumes!

Every staff member we met was so kind and happy to help us, from the servers at the restaurant, to the check-in staff and the people who cleaned the rooms.  Our whole family loved the group slides at the water park. They were super fast, exhilarating, and full of laughs.

The rooms were a bit small for our family, but we have some very tall kids in our group.  However, we were so exhausted that we all fell asleep the minute our heads hit the pillows.  The beds were super comfortable and we had a very good night’s sleep.

There is so much to do at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, definitely something for everyone to choose from.  No matter what age child or adult you are, you could find something fun to do. We would like to thank The Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg for hosting us.  It was the perfect place to do some family bonding, laughing and playing.