Our 3rd Anniversary Getaway

For our 3rd anniversary, I knew I wanted to do something special, something fun, and something that would allow G and I some downtime that we sooooo needed.  He suggested that we go to the Spa at the Hotel Hershey (which, I'm not going to lie, is positively fabulous), but, since I was just there, the idea did not thrill me and I knew we would still have to come home and our relaxation time would be short lived.  So I did a little searching online and came across the Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos.  What is better than an indoor water park in April, adult beverages, one on one time, and eating meals in more than 5 minutes.  Well....let me tell you about our wonderful adventure.

The drive up was not so fun.  Traffic was surprisingly heavy on a Wednesday morning.  But, we arrived a little before 1pm.  Check in is normally at 4pm, but, guests are allowed to start using the facilities at 1pm on the day of their arrival.  So, I wanted to be there as close to 1pm as possible.  To my delight, our "den" (that's what they call the rooms- to keep with the wilderness theme) was ready, on-line check in made our check-in a breeze, we dropped off our bags, and decided to learn the lay of the land and grab a bite to eat.  We settled for the Pizza Hut Express because we were starving and it was right there. 

After lunch, we went back to our room and got changed into our swimsuits.  The fun was about to begin.  First off, there is no need to take ANYTHING down to the water park (except a cover up and flip flops).  Towels are provided, and instead of a room key, you get a wristband- which opens your room door, gets you admission to the water park, and allows you to charge things back to your room.  Doesn't get much easier than that. 

The water slides were AMAZING.  OMG they were so much fun.  I don't know how the little kids were riding them, because, they were throwing me around.  Starting at the top, there are three, aggressive slides.  The first is a roller water coaster, which holds 3-4 people.  Our butts hurt a little on this one because there's just a piece of nylon between you and the track.  But, nothing to keep us from doing it again!  The second was a big tube that also held 4 people.  This one sent you down a pretty quick run, with twists and turns, before crashing down into the pool (this was our least favorite of the "big slides").  Finally, the third one, and our favorite, was a 2 person tube where you sit face to face.  You go down a dark tunnel that has flashing lights and loud music, but then, you drop not once, but, twice, into these huge vortexes, where you slosh around and just get drenched.  It was a blast and I think our last time on it I got a little too much water in my ears!

There is also another level of slides.  These you have to carry your own tube (either single or double) up to the slides.  There are four chutes on the deck.  Two of them were your basic, riding down a tube, and splashing down into a pool, kind of slide.  Another was for kiddos 12 and under (so obviously we didn't ride that one).  But, the last one was awesome.  We kept calling it the "toilet".  So you get in your tube and almost instantly drop about 50 feet into this huge bowl-like vortex, where you go round and round a few times, before being "flushed" down another tube and into the lazy river.  So much fun, and if you ride this one, be sure to keep your butt lifted (again, learned that one the hard way!!).

Aside from the slides, other notables in the water park were the lazy river, wave pool, hot tubs (one for families and one for the 21+ crowd), a giant tree fort with two slides and buckets and water cannons (reminds me of the big structure in the middle of Hershey Park at the Boardwalk), a toddler swimming area with slides, and then an area for the bigger kids with basketball hoops and stuff like that.  There's also an outdoor pool, but, that was closed.

It was also nice that there was a bar and a snack bar in the water park, because trust me, if you are wet, you don't want to leave the 84 degrees!!  And it was great because they just scanned our wristbands and just like that we had beer and snacks!

After playing for about 5 hours, we headed back to the room to relax.  Then, we went to the spa.  It was a pretty decent spa.  G had a deep tissue massage, which he said was his second best ever.  I opted for a Caribbean Body Treatment, which was an exfoliation, mud wrap, and moisturizer treatment, with a little bit of massage.  I wouldn't say it was my favorite, but, it was a great way to end the day.

After the spa, we showered and went to dinner (around 9pm).  There were two options- a buffet or glorified pub fare.  We thought we were going to go with the pub fare, but, opted to try the buffet.  It was pretty good.  There were three main entrees, a few sides, big salad bar, three soups, create your own pasta, kid friendly foods, and desserts galore.  It wasn't the best meal in the world, but, it sufficed and at that point I would have eaten anything.  For breakfast the following morning, we hit up the buffet again, and it was pretty much your typical breakfast buffet.

The dens were very spacious.  We had a Family Fireplace Suite (which was one of the cheapest rooms), which had a little wet bar area with sink, refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker, decent sized bathroom, two queen beds and a TV, and a separate living area with couch, coffee table, table/chairs, TV, and of course, fireplace.  Beds were comfy and we slept till 9am....HEAVENLY!!!

There are tons of other things for the kids, like arcades, bowling alleys, story time, etc.  Since we didn't have L with us, we didn't check any of those out.  We figure we'll bring him back in 2-3 years.  Hopefully, G and I will get back before then!

So....if you are looking for a family fun place (or just a place to get away with your hunny to have some fun), definitely check out the Great Wolf Lodge.  I would definitely go again!

PS- I can't believe I didn't take a single picture.  Very unlike me!!  Guess we were too busy having fun! :-)

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! It was only a matter of time before I entered the wonderful world of blogging. Here you will find tales of my day to day adventures of being a dedicated housewife and mom, amongst many other roles. I am not going to lie, it will probably revolve more around cleaning and the little guy and less about cleaning, lol. So sit back and happy reading! Thanks for stopping by!