A Christmas Adventure to The Great Wolf Lodge and Cascade Mountain
If you are struggling to find just right Christmas gifts this season, let me encourage you to give the gift of adventure or experience. Instead of buying things to take up space; spend money on memory making opportunities. Those memories will last a lifetime.
We have been able to do this a couple times in the past few years. I was anxiously awaiting for the time when Hunter stopped “believing” so I could spend less money on presents and plan a vacation instead. It doesn’t always have to be a trip around the Christmas season either. It can be tickets or plans for future adventures which we have also done. The first year we were able to do a trip during Christmas was 2009.
I did my research and wanted to find something that both Hunter and Kenzie would enjoy. The kids were 9 and 11, so I was keeping that in mind as well. After some research and planning, I decided on the Wisconsin Dells. Why would anyone want to head to Wisconsin in the winter a few days before Christmas? My main reason for choosing the location was The Great Wolf Lodge and the potential to go snow skiing. And it was within a reasonable driving time – roughly seven hours.
The Great Wolf Lodge offered things that both the kids would enjoy. The indoor waterpark would appeal to both of them. Hunter was excited about the arcade. And I had planned a pedicure at the Scoops Boutique that offered a little ice cream while your feet were being worked on. Since the kids were still young enough, I also thought they would enjoy the “theme” of the place. The rooms looked like treehouses, in the evenings there was bedtime stories in your pajamas, and the whole place was decorated to look like a rustic Christmas lodge.
Since at times the kids would be doing two different activities, I needed a little help in the chaperoning department so I enlisted my sister to go along with us. Which is always an adventure. She doesn’t travel well.
Believe it or not the few days before Christmas break were still in a reasonably priced hotel room bracket. The price of the room may look a little steep at first but that does allow entry to the waterpark. And you can enter the waterpark the day of your reservation even if it isn’t time to check into your room. That’s a plus.
The other part of the trip was suppose to include snow skiing down the beginner’s hill. Snow skiing is on my bucket list, so I was planning on doing that and letting the kids try out it too. That sort of changed when we drove past the mountain on the drive in. Just driving by the kids were a little intimidated by the size. (I was actually nervous about riding the ski lift.) It also didn’t help that it was the first week day and very crowded. I didn’t want to totally cross the winter activities off the list, so I regrouped and came up with a back-up plan.
We decided to do the snow tubing at Cascade Mountain. There were two different option of passes. I opted to buy the all day unlimited rides but could have gotten by with a shorter time. Even riding the magic carpet back up to the top of the hill was tiring after a couple of hours so we didn’t stay the entire time. It’s cold in Wisconsin in December lol. They enjoyed it and I believe the tubing was a better option for us at that time.
We spent the rest of our time (We were there a total of four days and three nights.) at the Great Wolf Lodge dividing our time between the waterpark, the arcade, and Magiquest, which is an interactive scavenger hunt that involves a magic wand. There were also different holiday crafting sessions that were available for the kids to participate in. I scheduled time for Kenzie to have a pedicure. Hunter had no problem finding some boys to play water basketball with while Kenzie continued on the slides and wave pool with my sister. I knew the arcade would interest them as well, so I had been preparing by saving our change for several months to be used specifically for the arcade games. And I enjoyed some time just sitting by the water and people watching.
I was a little worried about the timing and traveling with the possibility of snow but Great Wolf had the option to reschedule our plans if the weather was an issue. That was an added bonus. In the end the trip was a great choice and we have been able to do another Christmas time trip once more which I’ll write about later. We were even able to survivor the van ride home with my sister.
It may be too late to plan a Christmas season trip this year but consider it in the future. It’s not too late to consider giving tickets or planning future trips as gifts for this holiday season. Consider thinking outside the box and giving the gift of an adventure!
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