great wolf lodge

For New Year's Eve we decided to give Great Wolf Lodge a try! We had visited before, once in Texas and once in Colorado Springs but never for a holiday. It did not disappoint! 
To be sure we got the best pricing, we booked several months out. If you have flexibility, you can often find a Groupon or great week day rates but these will not apply for holidays. Their basic rooms are very spacious and every room includes a mini fridge and microwave. For an extra treat, you can upgrade to the kids' cabin room which includes a fun little kid's area with bunk beds and a tv. 

You can arrive as early as 1:00pm the day of your reservation to enjoy the waterpark- rooms are not guaranteed to be ready until 4pm. They will happily store your luggage and deliver it to your room once it's ready! Just pack a small bag with your swim gear and you can easily change in their roomy locker rooms. 

Since we were meeting up with friends, we thought it would be nice to have a dedicated table and chairs for this day (current guests have to check out of their rooms by 11 but can enjoy the water park all day long, so they have seating access beginning in the morning and by 1 most chairs were taken.) The cabanas and day beds were all reserved but we were able to snag a reserved table and 4 chairs- this runs $55 but also includes a large pizza and a 2-liter of soda which was perfect for the kids' dinner later that evening! It gave us a great spot to keep all of our things and have a snack break while still having a good view of the park. No need to worry about reserving anything for the next day- you can enter the park in the morning and snag a spot easily, free of charge. We also packed a small bag of snacks and drinks which are allowed in! 

When you are tired of the waterpark, there is still plenty to do around the resort- there's an arcade, mini golf, ropes courses, mini bowling, and of course the Magi-Quest! These all cost extra- you can purchase everything separately or buy the Paw Pass which includes multiple options. Paw passes in CO run from $49-99 each depending on which one you buy. We decided to go with one $99 Wolf Pass for the 3 kids to share- it included one wand and one magi-quest and then we just purchased 2 more. If you plan to come back, you can reuse the wands and just pay for the game! 

The Wolf pass also included several more options so the kids each got to pick 2 things and then share a few such as the small candy cup. 

There are also lots of free activities going on, especially for the younger kids- there's a pj storytime, crafting, and more! 

New Year's Eve was especially fun- after doing some questing, we headed down to the big ballroom to watch the early ball drop! It was very festive- there was cider, coffee, and a popcorn bar! They also had the NYC ball drop live on tv and the staff was leading everyone in different dances. Confetti and balloons everywhere made it so much fun and there was even a great big photo booth with props! We hung out there for a while before heading up to our room to play some games and wait for midnight Colorado-time. 

goodies left in our room!

Ball drop party!