When our eight and nine year old grandchildren were given a choice of a weekend vacation with Grandma and Grandpa, each, separately, said Great Wolf Lodge. We had never heard of Great Wolf Lodge before their mothers took the cousins for their birthdays to Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. We thought that was the only one. We learned that there are many.
Wikipedia tells us “Great Wolf Resorts is the world’s largest chain of indoor water parks. The company owns and operates its family resorts under the Great Wolf Lodge brand. The company is headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to a water park, each resort features specialty restaurants, arcades, spas, fitness rooms and children’s activity areas.”
There are twelve Great Wolf Lodges scattered in the U.S. and Canada and the first opened in 1997. When we were parents, they did not exist. As grandparents, they are the rage.
Grandpa and I intended to take each grandchild alone, so we first went to Williamsburg with the soon to be eight year old. This Great Wolf Lodge in Virginia opened in 2005. We took the soon to be nine year old to Great Wolf Lodge in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, about an hour from Boston, and the newest, New England, opened in 2014, just about a year before we visited.
Comparing two Great Wolf Lodges became this Grandma’s mission, as well as spending quality time with grandchildren. And I am glad I did the comparison. Had I only gone to Virginia Great Wolf Lodge, I would have never gone again. The Poconos Mountains, Pennsylvania, Lodge is the same vintage as Williamsburg, so I know why my daughters would not return. With Great Wolf Lodge, you must go new.
But, first, what makes Great Wolf Lodge wonderful. It is first and foremost an indoor water park, so the weather outside does not matter. It has water treats for toddlers to teenagers. Everyone on the staff is cheerful, friendly, and helpful. Great Wolf Lodge is a happy place with lots to do. The food is passable and surprisingly reasonably priced, although we left the premises for dinner. Drinks are expensive in overly large sizes for children. There is pin bowling and miniature golf, an arcade and arts and crafts and dance parties. Characters walk around and engage the children. You are given a wrist band upon arrival which is your room key and charge card. The indoor water park is included in the room price. Sign up on their website or mailings and take advantage of discounts and specials.
Now to the difference between the old and new parks, and it is more extreme than I could imagine. First and foremost, we immediately noticed NO chlorine smell in New England’s Great Wolf Lodge pool areas. My daughters complained of the overwhelming chlorine smell in Pennsylvania’s Great Wolf Lodge pool areas. The overwhelming chlorine smell in Virginia’s Great Wolf Lodge pool areas made my eyes tear and gave me a severe headache and I had to leave. Fortunately, it is Grandpa who does the water slides with the grandchildren so they did not miss out.
Huffington Post did a question and answer about needing to shower before entering a pool and explained what an overwhelming chlorine pool smell means at Huffington Post.
“If we don’t shower before we get in the water, we’re going to carry in whatever’s sitting on our skin,” says Michele Hlavsa, RN, MPH, an epidemiologist and the chief of Healthy Swimming and Waterborne Disease Prevention at the CDC. That includes natural oils, sweat, makeup and other personal care products, urine and, yep, fecal matter.”
“All of these materials have one thing in common, says Hlavsa: nitrogen. When nitrogen mixes with the chlorine in the pool, chemical irritants called chloramines are formed, which is problematic for two reasons, she says. The first issue is that some of the very-important chlorine is now being tied up as chloramines rather than protecting us from the germs in the pool. Chlorine still manages to kill most of them, thankfully, but the survivors, when swallowed or inhaled while swimming, lead to some 10,000 illnesses a year among Americans, LiveScience reported.”
“The second cause for worry is the chloramines are what’s making that pool smell like, well, a pool. “A good healthy pool does not smell,” says Hlavsa, despite what most of us would like to believe. That smell we often attribute to a clean pool is actually the chloramines, which are also responsible for making your eyes red when you swim. The irritants are also thought to trigger asthma attacks and may even lead to some skin irritation, she says.”
“And all this time we’ve been blaming chlorine!”
So did this Grandma. Now, I know not to return to Great Wolf Lodges in Pennsylvania or Virginia. If Huffington Post is right, those lodges need to fix what is potentially a health risk. In the Williamsburg, Virginia, Great Wolf Lodge pool area, the area was very steamy, uncomfortably so. It was not as steamy in the New England Great Wolf Lodge even though the temperature was said to be the same. Maybe the steaminess is related to the overwhelming chlorine smell?
New England Great Wolf Lodge, being newer, shows less wear and tear, in the rooms, bathrooms, and public areas, even in the arcade. The entire Massachusetts facility seems cleaner and nicer. There is a marked difference between old and new. After coming to the Great Wolf Lodge in Massachusetts, I could see returning here. I would not return to Virginia Great Wolf Lodge as my daughters say they would not return to Pennsylvania Great Wolf Lodge.
Grandpa thinks the slides are better in Virginia, but our grandson spent all his time on the slides or arcade, and our granddaughter wanted to play mini golf and bowl when we took her to New England. The ropes course is in Massachusetts is fabulous and inside. The rock climbing wall in Virginia is outside. So there are minor differences between the Lodges, but the major difference is the important one.
We were fortunate to go to both Great Wolf Lodges on a weekday to avoid crowds, which weekend crowds our daughters said was unpleasant.
Great Wolf Lodges do not seem to age well. If your grandchildren really want the experience, and if they are middle elementary school age they will, combine one overnight at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, New England Great Wolf Lodge with a trip to Boston, an hour away . . . . in the next few years. See post and add the best pizza in the North End of Boston at Reginas.
Joy,
Mema
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