After fighting through Friday traffic in Charlotte to reach the northeast suburb of Concord, North Carolina, I found myself in the lobby of Great Wolf Lodge. Beneath its soaring log-cabin aesthetics (antler chandeliers, intensely realistic recreations of wolves and bears on the walls), a few dozen elementary schoolers were crazy-dancing to “Uptown Funk.” This throng of kids wore headbands with furry wolf ears and yowled as if satiating primal instincts. I instantly knew this spring break would be nothing like the bacchanalian trips to Panama City in my high school and college years.
The southeastern-most lodge is in a family of 12 across the United States, constituting the world’s largest chain of indoor water parks. In fact, Great Wolf supplied enough activity under one gigantic roof — from thrilling water slides to a dessert-themed manicure. The walls of each Great Wolf hallway are adorned with rustic sconces featuring woodland creatures (wolves, bears, etc.). To help lost lodgers, the animals’ noses point the way back to the Grand Lobby.
This story originally appeared in the September 2015 issue of Living Intown magazine.
A pack of options
There's more to Great Wolf than the water park and incessant rustic decor. Leisure choices include a full arcade that thumps with techno music, a pint-sized bowling alley, a Build-A-Bear-style creation station and MagiQuest, a tech-savvy adventure hunt. Questing kids buy RFID-chipped wands ($15.99 and up) and activate powers ($12.99 and up) in hopes of collecting enough clues at interactive stations throughout the property to become a "Master Magi."
The resort offers a variety of suites starting at $149 (in slow seasons) and upward of $500 nightly. They sleep between four and 10 guests and can include cutesy little "Wolf Den" bunk areas. Families on tighter budgets can prepare meals in the rooms or venture off the grounds, where virtually every chain restaurant in America has an outpost.
Doing so, though, would be ill-advised. Lodges under the Great Wolf flag from Boston to Wisconsin (where the concept and its Northwoods aesthetic was born) to Southern California have overhauled menus in recent years, producing in-house meals that are not only healthier (see: organic ketchup) but sensitive to children with allergies.
In Concord, dining options include a pizza shack (the dough is imported from Brooklyn); the a la carte Loose Moose Cottage (the breakfast buffet, about $12 for adults, was superb, despite the disconcerting wolf faces stamped into waffles); and finally, the most upscale choice, Lodge Wood Fired Grill. There, customizable burgers cost $13, and the bone-in ribeye $29.
Water, water everywhere
With 402 rooms, the Concord lodge is average size (compared to the 600-room lodge outside Dallas, for instance), so be warned that, around spring break, the resort commonly sells out. Clearly, that was the case early Saturday morning, as my party of four ventured to the water park and beheld the Big Kahuna of Great Wolf attractions: 80,000 square feet of faux-summertime fun, a cacophony of gleeful screams and crashing wave-pool curls, with water so heavily chlorinated the humid air (perpetually 84 degrees) could sting a bystander’s eyes. The water park’s nucleus is a three-story, dripping-wet tree house with two large twisty slides and a 1,000-gallon bucket up top, which fills and tips every four minutes to unleash a colossal splash.
To avoid crowds, try booking during “shoulder seasons,” or warmer months when school is in session. To enjoy especially nice weather, the Concord lodge offers such outdoor activities as an outdoor pool with zero-depth entry, miniature golf and a ropes course.
Great Wolf Lodge. 10175 Weddington Road, Concord, N.C. 704-549-8206. www.greatwolf.com/concord
To avoid crowds, try booking during “shoulder seasons,” or warmer months when school is in session. To enjoy especially nice weather, the Concord lodge offers such outdoor activities as an outdoor pool with zero-depth entry, miniature golf and a ropes course.
This story originally appeared in the September 2015 issue of Living Intown magazine.
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