Great Escape Lodge and White Water Bay!

Filling in with some backlogged photos from last year......

This time around its from my first time staying at the Six Flags Great Escape Lodge and White Water Bay indoor water park in Queensbury, New York (Lake George)

Great Escape used to be a yearly pilgrimage for me up until 2009 when I moved to Orlando and I'd been itching to get back ever since... Even getting almost annoyed when the rest of my family had gone back in the years since.... So my dad and I came up with a plan that would allow me to visit the park again, have family time, spend the day at the water park and surprise my mom all at the same time. I got my dad to book the hotel for a weekend trip at the end of September knowing my mom would sort-of boast to me about how they/she was gonna be going to the park and staying at the hotel and that I was gonna be "stuck" in Orlando and such having no idea I was flying up and meeting them. Ok, blah blah blah onto the photos and stuff.

Woo, so after leaving Melrose at 5am and driving out to Lake George we arrived at the lodge.

The Six Flags Great Escape Lodge opened in 2006 and while we had all walked around inside, this would be our first time staying here (we used to stay elsewhere in the area when visiting.) The lodge was Six Flags' first and only water park resort built to date and now the only hotel owned by the chain (having sold off Darien Lake)

The lobby was all set for Halloween and Fright Fest.

 A bear!!!

And... a big spider.

The room was surprisingly large with two queens and pull-out sofa (where of course, I ended up...)

The room was nice but felt a bit dated for something not even 10 years old. It wasn't bad but it could use a refresh.
Although the main reason for booking the hotel is for the indoor water park.

White Water Bay

er..... Fright Water Bay

White Water Bay features a nice sized lazy river, 3 major water slides, a splash fort, kid area, and a Flow Rider within the 38,000-square-foot building.

Tak-it-Eesi-Creek, the best of the four indoor lazy rivers I've experienced.

 Water jets near one of the rivers entrance.

One of the pool areas that branch off the river itself with some jets and waterfalls, Lott-A-Watta-Bay.

Another bear! In the kiddie area, Tip-A-Kanu-Beach.

Due to limited space within the water park there are at least three different levels and all three major water slides take place outside of the building itself.

Tall Timbers Treehouse is on the third level and mostly built over Lott-A-Watta-Bay and the lazy river.

It also featured some theming for Halloween

At the top of the stairs is where the three major slides start. Avalanche, Glacier Run, and Snow Shoe Falls. On the far left you can see what used to be the lift for the massive tubes used on Avalanche. When it first opened the slide used the standard circle raft used on most family slide but at some point the park switched over to using the ProSlide Cloverleaf tube that doesn't seem to fit and now guest have to drag the massive tube up stairs on their own (as seen on the right)

Avalanche as seen from outside.

The exit for Glacier Run and Snow Shoe Falls and a little more Halloween theming.

And.... the same slides as seen from outside.

And lastly, Boogie Bear! Bear themed Flow Rider? 

I just couldn't bring myself to try it front of my family

(I've already embarrassed myself on one in Destin, FL)

yaayyy! Six Flags Great Escape Lodge and White Water Bay, a great way to spend a few hours on a chilly fall morning after driving some 5 hours to upstate New York from Boston and waiting for Great Escape (park) to open at noon so I can ride COMET! <3

woo

A Bear called Wolf?

Great Wolf Lodge.... the original.

Sweet.... an indoor, bear themed waterpark in the Dells?

Having spent the day before at Six Flags Great America and having driven to Madison, WI (and its zoo) and onward to the Dells.... By way of Little Amerricka, Timber Falls and Knucklehead's (that just happens to be next door!) 

we made it to out hotel for the night....yay!

The lodge... its big

Woo, almost there!

The lobby, very luxurious... but who cars because...

There's an arcade inside! but who cars because..........

There's a pretty big waterpark inside!!!!

After dumping our crap in the room MedusaRob and I changed into our swim shorts and ran downstairs to the slides! yaayyyyyy

yyaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!

Once inside, Crooked Creek, the parks lazy river is the first thing you see

In the back of what's the original building is a kiddie area Hawk's Beak and the Mineshaft Slides that ended up being pretty good!

The original room also has some activity pools and a few hot tubs for both family's and adults only.

To the left is what was the second addition to the waterpark.....

Fort Mackenzie and the Totem Tower slides

With the big dumping bucket 'n all. woo

There's also one major slide in this section.. but we'll get to that later. There's also remains of a since-removed slide (patches where it entered and exited the building and where its exit pool once was)

Back in the original building we now head to the right... where most of the new slides are at GWL

Slap Tail Pond... a sizable wavepool is the main attraction here

And its lined with cabanas!!

To the right of the pool are Coyote Cannon and Whirly Bird Run tube slides 

Coyote Cannon is the yellow slide and Whirly Bird Run the green. When it first opened I think Coyote used multi-rider tubes as its slide size was larger than Whirly Birds but I don't know GWL's history, just guessing here.

Here's where Coyote Cannon leaves and reenters the building, exciting. I know.

And up against the back wall... almost in time-out was Montanan Edge Raceway

A pretty sweet four lane headfirst mat-racer, here's the outside view of its helix.

It was one of the best slides at the resort.

An one last photo of this area showing the slides outside of their building.

Ok, now moving back to the original building... in back of it is a small-ish outdoor waterpark area with a few more slides and pools....

Thunder Bay, featuring Thunder Run and Lightning Falls waterslides

and an activity pool.

 Both outdoor slides are tube slides.

And now were back to where I said we'll get back to later.....

.....Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells is home to ProSlide's first enclosed Tornado slide!

Howlin' Tornado!!

This alone made staying at GWL worth it. Tornado slides are pretty notorious for long slow lines, but here you need to be a resort guest to slide. 

Making this Tornado a walk-on! 

Rob and I must have ridden it a good ten (15?) times... As soon as we got off the slide we'd run right back up the 6 flights of stairs just to go down again... 

and again... and again.

Most Tornado slides end after the funnel. Howlin' Tornado has a little bonus slide at the end to get you back inside the building.

And at night the ride is covered in color changing lights.

(The waterpark closed just after sundown the night we stayed so we only got to enjoy the lights while sliding for a little bit... but I would have loved to have gone for a true night ride on it...)

Pretty

So yeah, Great Wolf Lodge was pretty awesome and a nice way to relax... if you call running up stairs and diving head-first down slides relaxing... Having just driven like.. halfway across Wisconsin

and before doing it all over again the next day!

And.... <3 what was basically 'Exclusive Slide Time' on a beasty ProSlide Torando! :D

Also....

This....

Creepy