Great Wolf Lodge is a resort and indoor

waterpark A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other baref ...

of located in

Gurnee, Illinois Gurnee ( ) is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Its population was 30,706 as of the 2020 census. It borders the city of Waukegan, and is a popular tourist attraction within the Chicago metropolitan area. Best known for being th ...

near

Six Flags Great America Six Flags Great America is a amusement park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The amusement park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built by the Ma ...

and

Gurnee Mills Gurnee Mills is a shopping mall and outlet mall in Gurnee, Illinois, within the Chicago metropolitan area and it is one of the tourist destinations in Chicago, Illinois. Like the nearby Six Flags Great America and Great Wolf Lodge, the mall's pla ...

. The resort is operated by

Great Wolf Resorts Great Wolf Resorts (formerly known as Great Wolf Lodge) is a chain of indoor water parks. The company owns and operates its family resorts under the Great Wolf Lodge brand. In addition to a water park, each resort features restaurants, arcades, ...

. It was originally opened as Key Lime Cove and was listed as the "Official Resort of Six Flags Great America". The resort is located about an hour away from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and less than an hour from

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

History

KeyLime Cove operations (2008–2017)

Around 2007, the resort, formerly named KeyLime Cove was constructed. It opened the following year, with a water park. It had a tropical theme around the resort. Nine years later, in 2017, the hotel announced its closure. It was announced that it would be owned by Great Wolf Lodge and would be having an extensive renovation throughout the whole hotel. This also ended the partnership with Six Flags Great America, though, as the shuttle entrance to the park removed its signage, and it did not reference the hotel after its removal.

Great Wolf Resorts operations (2017–present)

Renovations on the new Great Wolf Lodge finished around summer of 2018. The renovated hotel opened on July 1, 2018. It featured a new forest and wolf theme. There was a new expansion in the water park by adding new water slides near the original slide complexes. The exterior was painted a new brown and peach color. It also incorporated the

MagiQuest MagiQuest is an interactive attraction in the form of a live action role-playing game where players take the role of magic users. The game takes place in dedicated MagiQuest locations. Players, known as Magi, use an infrared (IR) emitting wand to ...

game throughout the park. In 2020, the hotel closed down for the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The hotel was used for housing navy recruits during April for quarantining purposes. The hotel reopened on August 24, 2020, with temperature checks.

Entertainment

Attractions

Level 1

* Wiley's Waterpark – A water park with a variety of water slides and pools named after Wiley the Wolf, the mascot of Great Wolf Lodge. * Rustic Ridge Climbing Wall – A 21-foot climbing wall. * Howl in One Mini Golf – A

mini golf Miniature golf, also known as minigolf, mini-putt, crazy golf, or putt-putt, is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of points. It is played ...

game with nine courses. * Northern Lights Arcade – An

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

with prizes and games. * Olivers Mining Co. – Sand-sifting experience hunt for a variety of gemstones. * Ten Paw Alley – Family-based bowling alley. *

– An interactive fantasy roleplaying game.

Level 2

* Howler's Peak Ropes Course – An obstacle course elevated over Howl in One Mini Golf and Rustic Ridge Climbing Wall.

Dining

Level 1

* Hungry as a Wolf – An Italian restaurant that serves pizza, pasta and more Italian food. * Timbers – An American restaurant with burgers, salads and sandwiches. * The Outpost – Bar with craft beers and signature cocktails. * Campfire Kitchen –

À la carte In restaurants, ''à la carte'' (; ) is the practice of ordering individual dishes from a menu in a restaurant, as opposed to ''table d'hôte'', where a set menu is offered. It is an early 19th century loan from French meaning "according to ...

dishes that serves both breakfast and dinner. * The Watering Hole – Located in Wiley's Waterpark, The Watering Hole sells poolside soft drinks, cocktails and beer.

Level 2

* Barnwood – An American & bar restaurant with locally-sourced food and beverages. *

Ben & Jerry's Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream p ...

– An

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

shop. * Dunkin' – A popular donut and coffee shop.

Shopping

Level 1

* Great Wolf Candy Company – A

candy Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language an ...

shop. * Paddle Bay Outfitters – Swimwear shop.

Level 2

* Camp H.O.W.L Kids Store – "The Great Wolf Kids" characters themed merchandising. *

Build-A-Bear Workshop Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. is an American retailer headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri that sells teddy bears and other stuffed animals and characters. Customers go through an interactive process in which the stuffed animal of their choice ...

– Chain company that sells stuffed animals. * Buckhorn Exchange – Vacation souvenirs, gifts and other essentials.

History

KeyLime Cove operations (2008–2017)

Great Wolf Resorts operations (2017–present)

Entertainment

Attractions

Level 1

Level 2

Dining

Level 1

Level 2

Shopping

Level 1

Level 2

See also

References

Further reading