The hotel part of the place is well done with its' lodgy feeling. There are stuffed animal everywhere, antler chandeliers and a large fireplace. And actually, it almost doesn't match the water park side of the place. But they make it work. There are tons of little treasures to find in the place, especially if you do the MagiQuest game. To participate, you purchase a "magic wand" that makes picture frames come to life, treasure chests open, and stuffed racoons sing and swing from the ceiling. (This last one we saw in person and it got old quick. Cute but OMG please tell that child to put their wand away so we can eat in peace!) Nathan was too young for the game, but I can see how he would have a ball with it when he and Benny are old enough to follow clues and solve puzzles. Anyhow, there is lots to do there aside from the obvious. There is an arcade (Nathan's favorite), Cub Club (a crafty place for kids) and some other kitschy things all in the name of kids. It's a bit of a tourist trap in that all the extras are very much extras on the wallet. A cool thing is the bracelets that you have to wear to show you are a guest there. The adults have ones that open your hotel room and add purchase items with the slide of your wrist. Nathan was excited to show this off to school to show where we went and wore it for about two weeks straight. He said he wanted to wear it until we went to Great "Woof" again someday. The food options are expensive and not the best quality. But people go for the slides!
The water park portion is huge, well-maintained and fun! There are tons of different pools and slides to enjoy, a giant bucket that dumps 1,000 tons of water every so often and lots of place to sit and people watch. There are four giant slides that technically Nathan is too small to ride, but Leo and Nathan were able to get on one anyway (I still don't get how they slipped through!) and it happened to be the least tame. In fact it was pretty darn wild. I went on it myself and can't believe how Nathan did it. I think we may have created a dare-devil. He truly loved it and wanted more. You can see a video of it here (not our video but same ride.) Leo and I wished we could have gone off to ride these together but having two little ones, there was certainly no escape for us. We agreed this would be a fun trip in the future with other families.
The Lodge was in Concord, a short distance from Charlotte. Leo had never been and as much fun as the water park is, you can only take so much. So off we went to explore a new city. There is a kids museum in Charlotte that was close to a brew pub that looked good. All parties won. The museum was great. Being a Friday only a few hours before close, we practically had the place to ourselves. With an area for little kids to play and experiment, a small aquarium and a place to touch living creatures this place was a good find. And a steal - we got in with our Life and Science Membership. Score! The restaurant we went to was awesome too. Nice wait staff, excellent food and a small flight of their craft brews to sample. It was worth the trip, even though we had hellish traffic getting back to The Lodge.
Since we went on a Thursday, the place was pretty quiet. By the time we left Saturday morning, the place was packed and crawling with families. We were very happy to not be there with so many people. I stay away from crowd where I can help it. It's a good strategy if you ever go.Final thoughts: good family vacation. For us the location was perfect and the activities were great too (and will be even better as the boys grow). The price if the place is steep but we were able to make it work. And for a first family vacation, of course, the memories are priceless.
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