I love sharing recaps of our trips on the blog and I am excited to share our THIRD (and best yet!) trip to The Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, MO. We usually go every winter, but last year we skipped… This year we went on the weekend after Autumn’s birthday and with the extra days off school it worked out perfectly! We actually drove down on Thanksgiving and they had a delicious Thanksgiving buffet that we ate an hour after we arrived. We then left on Saturday (we only stay two nights) and celebrated Thanksgiving with my family on Sunday. I have to say, I really think this may have been my favorite Great Wolf Lodge trip ever!
Driving to Kansas City from St. Louis is pretty easy. It took us 3 hours and 50 minutes, but we did stop at Steak N Shake for lunch. Who knew that Steak N Shake would be so crowded on Thanksgiving? But, it was! And… you have got to try their new Butter Cookie shake. Mmm!!!
When we got to the lodge, it was decked out for Christmas! This was new, because the first time we went in January and the time after that it was Valentine’s weekend. I really liked seeing all the Christmas decor and we may just have to come back around this time of year again!
There are so many places to take photos at in the lobby, so here are a couple more. 🙂
When we got to our room, Autumn had a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign on her door, she got balloons and a cake! You’ll also see that her wolf ear headband has a birthday hat on it. We did pay extra for the birthday package and it was so worth it!
Here is my plate from the Thanksgiving buffet that they had. I should have taken a photo of the desserts, too. They had several pies, cakes and even a chocolate fountain! It was really good! After dinner we went back up to the room and rested a bit before going to the indoor pool. I’ll share photos of the pool on the next day of our trip (so, just keep reading!).
After swimming, the kids took their bath/shower and we got our PJ’s on. Autumn and I went down for the story time. It was so pretty with all the Christmas lights.
After story time, Autumn had a $40 arcade gift card that she got with her birthday package. She wanted to spend it all!!! And… she did. She got a lot of tickets! After that we went back up to the room and sang happy birthday to her and had cake. And, that’s a wrap on the first night.
Our second day we decided to leave the Great Wolf Lodge for the morning and we headed to The Crown Center in Kansas City, MO (it is about 20 minutes away). Every time we’ve gone to the Great Wolf Lodge, we go to The Crown Center, there is a lot to do there! Our first trip we went to the Legoland, second trip to the aquarium and this time we went to the Hallmark Kaleidoscope, which was free! We also ate at Fritz’s, which is a neat restaurant that has electric trains that bring you your food.
Kaleidoscope is a crafting session set up by Hallmark. There are several different stations with different materials and mixed medias. The kids could paint, create a card or puzzle, color, etc. It was a lot of fun! Each session is 40 minutes long.
Autumn painted this rocking horse. They had a dryer that you could put your painted pieces in and they would come out dry in 3 minutes! Both of the kids made hats.
We had lunch at Fritz’s, which has trains that roll over your head and they drop down a little lever with your food! It is really fascinating and the kids LOVE it.
My absolute favorite meal is their burger with the hash browns on it. SO good. I have never ordered anything else. They also have cherry limeade, which is one of my favorite drinks.
At lunch, Brian surprised me with this card. I didn’t even see him make it in Kaleidoscope! What a keeper… 🙂 It was sweet that he thought of doing this… Mr. Charming! 🙂
After eating lunch, we came back to our room and rested for a couple of hours. Then we decided to hit the pool again!
Here is a photo I took of the pool… I know, there is A LOT and this doesn’t even show you the indoor lazy river, hot tubs and the second pool with an obstacle course. There is A LOT for the kids to do! We have never done their outdoor pool, but are thinking about going in the summer sometime.
For dinner we went to the T-Rex Cafe, which is always a good time. We’ve gone here for our last 3 visits and this time they only had a 15 minute wait! Not bad on Black Friday! We’ve had to wait for HOURS in the past. Autumn made a dinosaur (it’s like Build a Bear) and Nathan bought a rock lamp (uhh, yeah… he really did). 
This isn’t a very good picture, but they have cotton candy martinis at T-Rex. They bring out a martini glass with cotton candy in it and then they pour the liquor over it and the cotton candy melts. It is really good!
After dinner, we got back to the lodge and saw that they had decorated it with green and red lights. So festive!
On the morning of our last day, the kids wanted to play MagiQuest. It is a game where you purchase a wand and go around the hotel flicking it at different screens, treasure chests, pictures, etc. to solve challenges. It is a lot of fun and the kids LOVE it.
Here the kids are in action with the game. You’ll see that they even put in colored lights in the halls that have the game.
That’s a wrap on our third trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. We had just such a wonderful time!
You can see the recap posts I did on our other Great Wolf Lodge trips below:
Great Wolf Lodge – February 2015
Great Wolf Lodge – January 2015 (Day One, Day Two)
