Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Smoky mountains - Williamsburg - Washington DC - New York) Day 10

[janey2000]

Day 10 - Sunday 9th April 2017

We woke at 7 after a fairly good night sleep. We seemed to have a fire station based nearby and heard sirens regularly but it didn't impact too much on our sleep! The breakfast area was chaos with the same family from the pool again monopolising seating and the waffle maker! This was the usual hotel free breakfast set up, cereal, bread, bagels, muffins, coffee, juice, porridge sachets, oranges and apples and a waffle maker. We filled up and I took us each a piece of fruit and muffin to go.

We had a bit of time to kill before the 1pm check in at Great Wolf Lodge so headed to the Premium outlets for a look around. Nothing purchased here and prices seemed to be the same as the Tanger outlets we had visited in Pigeon Forge.

We made a stop in at Au bon Pain as I had a coupon for a free travel mug, this was handy as Jack had been looking to buy one earlier in the week to save on buying so many coffees when we were out and about. The refills varied in price in the different locations but were approx. £1.50 a time. It was good coffee and there were a range of options to choose.

The plan had been to get a proper dinner at lunchtime so we could just stay at Great Wolf Lodge and not have to leave but we weren't very hungry. I managed to knock up a PB&J sandwich using up some of the food leftover from the cabin that we brought with us, along with the fruit from breakfast earlier. They had a dinner buffet at GWL but it was $20 per adult and $15 per child but we thought it was overpriced. There were obviously fast food style options such as pizza and a dunkin donuts also.

The check in line was long but moved fairly quickly. Some characters came out and Georgia ran to meet which pleased me... never too old for characters

They were offering free Minute Maid lemonade and raspberry lemonade so we sampled some of those.
We were in the pool by 2pm. GWL if you've never heard of it is a bit like our Centre Parcs but you can stay for just 1 night or for several. It is based around the indoor waterpark but they also have bowling, mii golf, rope course and kids activities going on. For a 1 night stay you can check in and use the pool from 1pm and you can have access to it the whole of the following day till close. If our trip was in summer I probably would have just booked us a day at Dolly's splash county in the Smoky's or Busch Gardens splash park here but I felt Georgia needed some swimming time on a holiday. It was a pricy stay at about £180 for the night, and that was on a discounted promotional rate. Looking at prices nearer the time they were in excess of £400.

We enjoyed the lazy river and a few flume rides that allow 2 people in the rubber boat which Georgia prefers.
We came out wrinkly at about 4 to find they were offering crisps, cookies, wine and soft drinks in the lobby!

The room was good, they even had a roaring fire playing on the tv!

We took the 5 minute trip to Olive Garden for dinner, passing the Yankee Candle store on the way (which unfortunately was closed as it was a Sunday evening)

Who needs a waiter when you can order and pay the bill on a tablet?!

Georgia's meal here was huge, she had pasta, chicken tenders and broccoli. The salad and bread sticks were also good, but not as great as I had heard everyone on here raving about?

The waiter had told us we could get a free kids meal by signing up on the tablet to the eclub. On trying to do this it wouldn't allow me without a valid US telephone number. After some tooing and froing the waiter had told us to make up a number (but remember it) to be able to claim the kids meal. It all worked out in the end but I ended up tipping extra for all his help so it was all the same in the end, about $37.
We arrived back to some dancing games led by the staff and a story time. Georgia was a little old for this part so we completed a scavenger hunt instead where she got a couple of 'party bag' style prizes to choose from.

[WileyCoyote]

Great day, GWL looks fab. Nice that the hotel had those little extras too. Nice dinner ... I think the breadsticks are amazing, shame they didn't live up to expectations !

[CrispyA]

Hotel looks great!

[disney owl]

GWL looks good for kids