A Howliday Visit to Great Wolf Lodge New England

We recently made our first visit to Great Wolf Lodge New England via a media trip that highlighted some of their fall and winter in-house celebrations. I’m going to review Great Wolf Lodge separately, because there’s just too much I want to talk about, but the Halloween Howliday celebrations start today, so there’s no time like the present.

Great Wolf Lodge, as you may know, is a family-friendly resort that includes a water park, as well as other fun amenities. They love the holidays over there, and why wouldn’t they? Kids and holidays are fun and cute. We had a quick preview of their holiday celebrations, starting with Howl-o-Ween. Kids are invited to wear their costumes (Big is a Ninja wolf, while LadyBug is, of course, Queen Else). They can decorate trick or treat bags and then do a little trick or treating in the halls.

I think Halloween is a really nice time to be at Great Wolf Lodge. We’re all sad to see the end of warmer weather, kids are settled into school routines, and GWL is a pretty cool place to roam around in your costume. LadyBug was especially thrilled that people kept calling her Queen Elsa or referring to her as “your highness.” Plus, you can get cute pictures with Wiley the Wolf!

We alternate Thanksgivings between my family and my in-laws, so it never really crossed my mind to spend it at a resort like this. The table settings were so pretty and perfectly fall-themed. They said that normally, you’d be put at a tabletop that matches your party-size. You won’t have to share your Thanksgiving table with strangers, unless you want to, I suppose. They served a grand buffet that I was too busy eating to get pictures of, but it had everything from standard Thanksgiving fixin’s to shrimp and short ribs and even chicken fingers and mac and cheese. Everyone was happy here and I was extra happy to learn that Great Wolf Lodge is totally peanut free. They are also so great about working with you if you have other allergies. They will assign you a chef for the duration of your stay who will help make sure that everyone in your family can have an equally good time. I love that!

The last in our Howliday tour was a winter wonderland. I think it was very Christmas-y, so if that’s a concern, you’ve been warned. They had this cute winter landscape and then it started to snow and the kids went wild! You should know that the snow is actually soap bubbles, so discourage your kids from sticking out their tongues to try it. My kids knew better, but there were quite a few who got an unpleasant surprise! It was really magical and pretty. We got hot chocolate with huge homemade marshmallows and a bunch of other treats.

I had to have my snow queen pose in the scene, of course. You can see some of the snowflakes falling, but I had to take this picture quick as there were still a lot of excited kids running back and forth across the scene. The best part of this may just be that she’s wearing flip flops!

The Winter Wonderland experience also has other activities, like decorating sugar cookies. The kids loved this, of course. They can also write a letter to Santa for express delivery to the North Pole. I suppose that in the middle of the winter, when you’re done with all of the snow-themed activity, there’s nothing better than donning a bathing suit and hitting the 80+ degree water parks!

As I said earlier, we have so much family that the idea of spending a holiday (or anything close to a holiday) anywhere with them is a tough sell, but I think it would be a lot of fun to be holed up at Great Wolf Lodge in the middle of the winter, sipping hot chocolate and dancing in faux snow, all while wearing flip flips. The staff were so much fun to be around, and the vibe for our mini-celebrations were definitely festive!

Disclosure: We received a free night stay as well as some goodies to allow us to experience Great Wolf Lodge. There was no additional compensation and the opinions in this post are my own.

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