3 days after getting home from our incredible adventure at The Great Wolf Lodge, the girls are still begging me to just LOOK at the pictures, reminiscing and exclaiming “I wish we were back there! That was the best adventure of our lives!” -direct quote from our 7 yr old, Kendall. We have spent so many free moments talking about the quests we conquered, the fun water slides we wore out, and the bravery we discovered in trying new things like obstacle courses, water slides, and yoga.
Guess how many pictures of food they look at and reminisce on? ….none.
Absolutely not-a-one.
Not even when we did take them out and get them cupcake pancakes (they only wanted to talk about the game we played while waiting for the food!) How did we keep them from asking for the food counter food? We had delish snacks at the ready and kept them busy by playing with them!
Saving Money Where it Didn’t Matter
Prices of food at a theme park or resort like the Great Wolf Lodge look something like this:
Breakfast: $14 per kid, $19 per adult, per day
Lunch: (if you go cheap and get a pretzel): $8 per person
Dinner: Lets just set a low average of $10 per person
That’s a low-ball total of $400 (not including extra snacks and drinks) for a 3 day stay! As a result, I used strategies and the foods listed below so that the girls were able to buy souvenirs, play more games, and do every activity possible while staying within our family budget.
Priorities
My top 3 priorities were:
- Bringing protein to stay full and energized
- Bringing “treats” so the girls didn’t feel gipped.
- Having quick grab and go options for the mornings and during play time
I also gave myself some grace to be ok with a couple things as well…such as:
Pancake wrapped sausage sticks for breakfast.
And microwavable breakfast sandwiches.
And pumpkin spice peanut butter to eat out of the jar 😉
The Necessities!
My list of food necessities packed was as follows:
- A tub of oven-baked chicken I made the morning before we left.
- Cheese sticks and deli meat
- Cliff bar kids edition protein bars
- Hard boiled eggs
- Leftover roasted potatoes and carrots
- Banana oat muffins because…the bananas were brown and we were going to need some nutrient dense carbs to keep our energy up!
(Recipe: 4 ripe bananas, 2 eggs, 1/4C coconut oil, 1/8C coconut sugar, 1 1/2C oat flour (Throw oats in a blender to make oat flour), 1/2C oats for texture, 1.5t baking powder, 1t vanilla, and a crack of salt. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.) - Avocado oil chips. The big mama bag from Sam’s Club.
- Cucumbers and hummus
- Avocados
- PB&J needs
Fun foods packed were
- Hot chocolate packets (we used the coffee maker and cups to help us “brew” it!)
- Popcorn for when we were winding down at night watching 1/2 of a movie
- Cotton candy grapes. These are a delicacy in our house!
I called ahead to make sure our mini fridge had a small freezer for the frozen breakfast items. But when we got there, there wasn’t a microwave! So you better believe I called the guest service center and explained that I had food allergies that I needed to cater to (which is true). BUT my recommendation would be to bring a microwave if you don’t want to make that call 😉 Since the Great Wolf Lodge was local, I have no shame and would totally bring a microwave next time.
Even though Matt commented that I was a wee bit crazy for packing so much before we left, by the first afternoon, he was hugging me, saying, “You did good mama.” <3
