"Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome!" -Mia age 3
"My best day ever!" -Annie age 5
Check in to your room is at 4pm although you can check into the water park at 1pm. We chose to meet Joe after work which ended up getting us there right around 4 anyway.
I told the girls that morning that we were going on an adventure and there would be no naps for them which was exciting in itself (for them). I packed one backpack with jammies toiletries and a change of clothes for the next day, grabbed their blankies and bears and headed to grams to grab swim gear.
Over the summer Joe told Annie he would take her to a water park someday and since then she randomly asks if we can go. She declared when I got in the car at Grams that we were headed to a water park but when I asked her if she wanted to put her bathing suit on and go out in the snow she quickly decided that was not what we were doing!
We dropped Carly off at my sisters for a baby free adventure and ran to Kroger to purchase what ended up to be $35 worth of junk food aka "adventure snacks" and breakfast for the next morning.
When I pulled up to the lodge Annie said "mom, you never told us you were taking us to a big building!" so excited even though she had no idea where we were, you couldn't see the loops of water slides jutting out the sides of the building from the front ;o)
Waiting in the lobby for Daddy
Writing letters to Santa
There was a craft center in the back of the lobby
We got checked in and headed to our room to change.
Excited to head to the water!
We chose to book a standard hotel room (with a fireplace because it was the same price so why not?) as opposed to the cool kid friendly rooms with bunkbeds in a small room designed as a wolf den or tent because it was about $30 more for those and we decided although really adorable and fun they wouldn't know what they were missing and we could spend the $ on food. Looking back the only reason I would pay for the bunk room is so that I could have slept. The girls are not used to sharing a queen size bed and they toss and turn all night long, therefore every 30 min they would wake up crying that they were being kicked or slapped until I finally moved Mia to the floor at 2:00 and when she woke up again at 4:30 and I tucked her back in, I never actually went back to sleep! The water park was AMAZING for their little bitty selves. They had 5 toddler slides and 2 hot tubs (one adult only) a wave pool, 6 tube water slides and 2 open twisty slides, a "lilly pad" pool and a traditional 4ft pool with basketball hoops, a lazy river and a huge jungle gym/tree house where every single part of it had a lever or a button or a handle that squirted or poured or drenched or dripped or dropped water by the gallons... literally, there is a 1,000 gallon bucket that tips over every so often. Its a water wonder land!
I was a little worried about Mia when she didn't even want to go down the kiddie slide at first, but after we took her down the tube slides where she could ride in the front of a double tube sitting wrapped in our legs her spirit of adventure took over and she was riding every slide in the place!
We played for a few hours and then went back to the room for baths and ordered pizza from Pizza Hut (although there is a pizza place in the lodge)
We went to the lobby where the clock tower came to life for story time which was very earth friendly ;o) They sang Christmas songs and then it "snowed" in the lobby. Very Cool!
In the lobby for story time in our jammies
Obligatory Hotel bed jumping
There was never a fight among them, they were adorable running everywhere holding hands!
Annie in the wave pool when the waves were off
The smallest baby slide Annie "catching" Mia
See all those empty chairs? I highly recommend going during the week, we never had to wait for anyone in any line, it felt like we had the place to ourselves! There were so few people there I recognized everyone's faces by the time we left.
Crossing the lily pads (Annie is in the background)
Daddy and Annie getting ready to ride into the "Toilet Bowl"
Ohh the stairs, my pregnant bare feet regret all of this today!
Mia and Daddy riding into the "Toilet Bowl"
Thoughts on our stay.
It was the perfect amount of time, I wouldn't have wanted to stay 2 nights.
I personally wouldn't bring anyone younger than 3, there were TONS of families there with toddlers and infants but as a parent I would have been incredibly bored, I think it was fun to be able to ride the big tube slides with the girls. I think the ideal ages are 3-12 the few older kids we saw looked very bored. The only traditional swimming pool is only 4 feet and there's no rough housing allowed.
It was just a tiny bit too cold in there! They say it was 84, but without sun shining on you 84 degrees is not quite warm enough. We wished we had rash gaurds or something for the girls. We kept heading to the spa to warm up and it was a perfect 98 so I felt safe getting in for a little bit being pregnant.
There are plenty of towels and life jackets so you don't have to bring any.
We ordered pizza from pizza hut down the road for dinner (a large from the lodge is about $15) packed doughnuts and juice for breakfast, there is a microwave and a mini fridge so I even brought oatmeal for myself!
Drinks are $2.50 out of the machine but I had brought a few bottles of water and our water bottles to fill. The prices at the 2 restaurants were not ridiculous. Comparable to any grill, kids meals $6, appitizers $9, a loaded burger was $12 and the breakfast buffet for 4 people was only $26.
We received a $30 voucher when we booked the room (I signed up for their email club which got a 20% discount on the room also) which they loaded onto your wrist band, which was also your keyless entry into the room. They forgot to add it when we checked in and I inquired about it after we ordered dinner. It expired at 11:00am the next day and we planned to use it for lunch. When I asked in the morning what time the grill opened so I could order lunch before 11 they said it opened at 11:30! So my free money was down the tube... however as I talked this out with the lady at the front desk she kindly offered to extend our voucher through the afternoon! Win!
Check out is at 11:00am but you are allowed to stay in the water park until 9:30pm. I would recommend packing very strategically and either leave your stuff in your car or rent a locker for $10 which is what we chose to do since it was Freezing outside. We just took all of our pillows and dirty clothes out to the car and kept a bag with our clothes for the trip home and showered in the changing room, it worked out perfectly!
They offer cool things like bowling, mini golf, an adult spa and a little girls spa (holy expensive) and a cool interactive scavenger hunt type thing called Magiquest. But we didn't find any of it necessary, our time was full with just the water park!
It was a great experience, so glad we did it and we would love to go back some day!
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2 comments:
That is so wonderful. Glad it was such fun. I had told your mom I was afraid the girls might be to little. Guess we missed all the little stuff or WI could be different. They are amazing places. Can hardly wait to hear them tell all about it. Love.
You guys are such fun parents. They are going to remember this fun getaway forever! This sounds awesome. Maybe when our babies are old enough we can join you?
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