Vacation at Great Wolf Lodge, Pocono Mountains, Pa By: Lori Loesch
We had a great vacation at Great Wolf Lodge, in the Pocono Mountains, Pa. It was a different setting than what our typical summer vacay’s are. We usually head to the beach. The beach is hot, the food is fried, there’s sand, and standing in line for, well, everything from a bottle of water to dinner.
Great Wolf Lodge, on the other side, was fun, happy, cool weather, quiet, relaxing, great food, not fried, nice; no, great, friendly people that were more than happy to be at work. I get the feeling when I’m at the beach, or other tourist destinations, that the people are frustrated with waiting on the tourist that haven’t a clue what they want to do.
I must tell you about the food, fabulous food. I expected fried chicken nuggets with dried out french fries…I got mussels, shrimp, clams, meatloaf, pork chop with peach glaze, cheese cake, fresh vegetables, an omelet bar, for breakfast, if you choose, and a fresh made pasta bar for dinner. I felt as though I was at a fancy hotel in the caribbean. Oh, and a must have, there was a Starbucks in the hotel lobby. I enjoyed shopping the shops, most of the clothing had a picture of a wolf. My daughter and I love wolfs’!
We played MagiQuest, a scavenger hunt, for kids and their parents. It was a lot of fun and, for me, exercise. Up and down the steps. Down the hallways. Wait for the elevator, when we were out of breath. There were a lot of parents yawning and some not so ‘happy’ to be on the Quest. There were hidden hallways, which we only found, thanks to a friendly girl or boy who lead us there. There were riddles that needed to be solved, and treasures, that had to be found. Some were on the ceiling, other’s were tucked in a corner. It was all interactive with a wand that activated all of the treasure boxes and pictures. After finding the correct box, you earned a ‘Rune’. If, and when you earn all of the Runes, you will embark on yet, another adventure where you will meet and interact with the creatures that live in MagiQuest. We only need three more runes to get to the dragon, but we had to leave. You need quite a bit of time to complete this Quest, unless you are savvy with clues and riddles, it will take less time. In the beginning, I would loose hope and want to give up looking for a treasure, Faith kept me on task, but by the second day, early in the morning, not in the evening after swimming all day, I found myself not wanting to give up, when she was waning. It was a great way to end our vacation. We really didn’t want to go. Which is often not the case, we usually leave a vacation, one day early.
Howler’s Peak was outside our room. We had a good view from the balcony. Kids put on a harness and climbed up and onto rope bridges and zip lines. There was a smaller version just a few feet off the ground, but we declined. We’re not that adventurous. The indoor water park was perfect. The lazy river, the lily pads that you had to hop from one to the other. There was an ocean. Everything great about the ocean, except for falling into unseen holes, seaweed, jelly fish, and sand. We played mini golf and took in an XD movie. I was impressed with the movie. It was the best. It was small, only four people could sit. This helped with how close we were to the screen and how much more real it felt. I wanted to do the spa, they had one for kids and one for moms.
There’s too much to do at Great Wolf Lodge. We need to go back, and the great thing about that is, the MagiQuest wand, that we purchased, will remember where we left off and we can pick up from there. Hopefully, I didn’t damage it when I dropped it off the high countertop, yesterday!
Tags: fun, Great Wolf Lodge, happy, MagiQuest, Pocono Mountains, vacation destination
