Great Wolf Lodge brings Wisconsin Olympians & Milwaukee/ Madison Special Olympians together for water park "Olympic" grand opening
Hockey Olympian Mark Johnson, Skiing Olympians Kurt Stein & Dave Norby, Wrestling Olympian Ben Peterson to attend
In a destination often defined by its density of indoor water parks, it's hard to stand out – and yet the Great Wolf Lodge will do just that as it features Wisconsin's past Olympians and Special Olympics athletes competing in their new water park at the same time!
The Great Wolf Lodge will be holding a grand opening on Tuesday, March 14 at 2 p.m. featuring a group of Special Olympics athletes who will compete with past Olympians in the "Official Mountain Edge Raceway Olympics". The Olympics, which will award bronze, silver and gold medals in the end, will kick off the "awakening" of Bear Track Landing, the new 38,000 square foot indoor water park at Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells.
Olympic athletes attending include 1980 Gold Medalist Hockey player Mark Johnson,
1992 & 1994 Ski Jumper Kurt Stein, 1968 Ski Jumper Dave Norby, and 1972
gold & 1976 silver medalist Wrestler Ben Peterson. These athletes will
take part in the "Official Mountain Edge Raceway Olympics" with
Special Olympics athletes from Madison and Milwaukee as they break in the brand
new Bear Track Landing. The Secretary of the Wisconsin Department
of Tourism, Jim Holperin, will also address those invited to the event.
Great Wolf Background:
The Lodge features 436 guest suite options, including 13 suite layouts and
five condominium layouts; The Loose Moose Bar & Grill™, a 200-seat
family restaurant; a confectionery café; a gift emporium; an animated
Great Clock Tower; and a 64,000 square-foot indoor entertainment area, featuring
a grand-scale water park; Wiley's Woods™, an interactive, live
video game adventure; an Aveda® Concept Spa & Salon; an arcade with
over 100 games and a ticket redemption center; and a fitness room.
Bear Track Landing, the newest addition, doubles the existing complex to nearly 80,000 square feet of soaking wet fun - making Great Wolf Lodge one of the largest indoor water park resorts in North America! Great Wolf Lodge offers a total of 19 state-of-the-art waterslides including the first enclosed competitive family mat racers complete with a finish line, and three-story, fast-paced, action packed tube slides that actually twist outside the Lodge before reentering the water park and dropping riders into a plunge pool below, and two new outdoor slides.
The youngest of thrill seekers will enjoy multiple kiddie slides and a zero-depth entry interactive toddler pool that is anything but standard with kid-sized wave runner simulators that shoot, squirt and spray water at the push of a button. The water park continues the resorts north woods theme and welcomes guests to a Catskills summer beach atmosphere set amidst towering pine trees, complete with family cabanas and Adirondack loungers.
Spirit Island is one of America's largest indoor water parks with four stories, including: ten waterslides, five pools and two whirlpools, along with a leisure river and Fort Mackenzie™, a 12-level tree house water fort interconnected with suspension bridges, cargo nets, web crawls and over 60 guest-activated water effects. A nearly 1,000-gallon tipping bucket suspended at the top offers guests a thrilling introduction to one of the world's largest indoor water parks.
The balmy temperature makes the indoor water park feel like a warm summer day year-round, making Great Wolf Lodge one of the Top 10 Places to Warm Up, listed by USA Today. The water park will be staffed by nearly 100 lifeguards nationally certified by Ellis & Associates, a leading aquatic safety training company. It features 11 different waterslides, including the Hydro Plunge family water rollercoaster in which guests travel uphill in a ride that totals 727 ft. and features an exhilarating 52 ft. vertical drop, and six pools including a massive indoor wave pool, recreation pool, lazy river and a zero-depth entry pool for even the youngest water-fans.
Designed by a child psychologist, Wiley's Woods is an interactive four-story live video game adventure. Children employ physical and mental strategy while using computer technology to score points through game consoles, slides, bridges, nets and mazes. After a long day of play, children can relax and experience the animated Great Clock Tower and sing along to "The Rhythm of Nature Keeps Us Working Together in Harmony," which plays three times a day. After the 8 p.m. show, is Great Pajama Story Time, where a bedtime story is told in front of the massive stone fireplace.
Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.™ (NASDAQ: WOLF) is owned and operated by its family resorts under the Great Wolf Lodge® and Blue Harbor Resort™ brands. Great Wolf Resorts is a fully integrated resort company and owns and/or manages Great Wolf Lodge locations in: Wisconsin Dells, Wis.; Sandusky, Ohio; Traverse City, Mich.; Kansas City, Kan.; Williamsburg, Va.; the Pocono Mountains, Pa. and Blue Harbor Resort & Conference Center in Sheboygan, Wis. Great Wolf Lodge properties are currently under development in Niagara Falls, Ontario; Mason, Ohio; Chehalis, Wash. and Grapevine, Texas. For more information, call 800.559.9653 or visit greatwolflodge.com.