the great wolf lodge - opening in grand mound, wa

A couple months (December 2007) ago I started looking for a good vacation spot for the family.

It's our 10th anniversary, plus I wanted to do some fun things.

However - work is kind of slow - so I didn't want to spend alot of money and go to Disneyland, Hawaii, or Paris as I had originally wanted to.

For some reason I started looking up waterparks - I remember the West Edmonton Mall which has a huge indoor waterpark and theme park.

However the thought of driving more than 4 hours (it's about 14 hours from Vancouver) put me off.

I kept googling. And then I found The Great Wolf Lodge. At the time, the lodge wasn't open yet but it was coming in the spring. I bookmarked it and forgot about it.

Finally spring break was 2 weeks away coming, and I was in desperate need of a vacation, and I looked around again, and my bookmatk http://www.greatwolf.com/Locations/Grandmound/ came up - and they were having opening day specials!

We got to arrive on March 18th, their very first day, and play in the new waterpark, and ride the Howling Tornado.

We paid $209 a night, for 2 nights and 3 days.

Pros:
- kiddie area
- wave pool
- play pool
- fort mackenzie - 2 slides + tub
- 2 two person tube slides
- 1 (+1 coming later) four person tube slides
- giant cuckoo clock with animatronic singing
- reasonable food prices
- friendly staff
- listening to my family howl going on the tornado
- seeing my kids grin coming out of the tube slides!

Cons:
- water is too cold - but maybe this is just because it is warming up?
- slow in room internet
- far away from other activities when you want a pool break
- not enough for my wife to do
- no sauna
- no steam room
- heavy European food (no sushi!)
- the proslide (all the slides) equipment is not integrated into the theme


Conclusion:
- I will come back if I can get $209/night again!!