Local residents asking what’s in it for them may be surprised by everything Great Wolf Lodge is bringing to Collier County this fall. 

Although its massive water park and the themed hotel are the headliners at Great Wolf Lodge, the resort opening this September in Collier County offers other amenities that locals may want to use more regularly because they don’t require a room key or water park admission. 

As with many hotel chains in town, Great Wolf will have restaurants and entertainment features open to the public, not just for guests of the resort. It’s all under construction in City Gate, which is east of Collier Boulevard and north of Interstate 75’s Alligator Alley in unincorporated Collier County. 

Great Wolf plans to add to area options for dining out, the ultimate participatory sport in the Naples area. The resort will host a variety of family eateries open to the public:  

• Fireside, an outdoor-themed, upscale restaurant will offer fire-cooked American cuisine for lunch and dinner. The dine-in restaurant off the resort’s Grand Lobby includes a bar. 
• Timbers Table & Kitchen, a casual family eatery inside the Adventure Park, serves breakfast buffet-style and dinner family-style. Expect dine-in American and Mexican cuisine and table-based games for family fun.  
• Hungry As A Wolf pizzeria serves Brookyn-style, hand-stretched pizza, as well as Italian and meatball sandwiches, garlic cheese bread and fresh salads. The snack bar is in the Adventure Park. 
• Wood’s Edge Creamery ice cream shop will have milkshakes and sundaes made with the resort’s signature ice cream. The dessert shop adjacent to the Grand Lobby includes lodge-made fudge, cookies, baked goods and smoothies. Also adjacent to the Grand Lobby will be a quick-service Dunkin’ doughnut/coffee shop open for breakfast and lunch with bagels, sandwiches and donut holes. 
• The Outpost bar at the outdoor pool will feature signature cocktails, craft beers and bar food for lunch and dinner. Another watering hole, The Tidal Wave Bar, is inside the water park. 

Great Wolf’s Adventure Park links the lodge’s 500 suites to the water park. But it’s an area open to the general public. Visitors can walk through the Grand Lobby and into the Adventure Park. 

“We have a 61,000-square foot Adventure Park so it has a bunch of different family-friendly attractions,” said Jason Bays, general manager of Great Wolf Lodge South Florida. “We’ll have a kids bowling area; we’ll have six lanes. We’re going to have a really awesome ropes course that kids will be able to be entertained by. We’ll have an Oliver’s Sluice, where kids can go mining for gemstones and different rocks. We’ll have a mini golf course, and then we’ll also have a very large arcade. We’ll have 70-plus arcade games in there.” 

The indoor Adventure Park offerings will include: 

• MagiQuest is an immersive game experience that takes users on a magical adventure through Great Wolf Lodge. To unlock challenges, participants use magic wands they purchase that they can take home as souvenirs and bring back to use again. The wands store all game information, so users can start a game where they left off. MagiQuest wands are for sale for $20 and its $20 to activate the game.  
• Ten Paw Alley features bowling alleys with shorter lanes and smaller balls for a more kid-friendly experience. A round of bowling is $7 plus tax. 
• Howl in One Mini Golf will offer nine holes of interactive play for putters of all ages. 
• Howlers Peak Ropes Course is an aerial attraction for families to climb. A single climb is $14.99 plus tax, while an all-day climb is $19.99 plus tax. 
• Northern Lights Arcade will feature challenging arcade games operated by Paw Points, reloadable gaming currency.  
• Oliver’s Mining Co. will allow guests to pan and sift to find gemstones and minerals. Guests then take their discoveries home with them in keepsake collection bags. 
• Build-A-Bear Workshop will allow patrons to create a plush keepsake by choosing Great Wolf Pack characters, outfits and accessories. 

“You can buy individual passes for each of those activities. We’ll have an Adventure Pass desk in our Adventure Center,” Bays said. We do sell Adventure Passes and you can bundle a bunch of those options.” 

After the Great Geyser water park centerpiece attraction, MagiQuest is the resort’s second-most popular feature. “MagiQuest is our exclusive interactive adventure game,” Bays said. “Kids are able to acquire wands and they’ll be able to battle within the MagiQuest. So they get to battle dragons. There’s a bunch of 3-D interactive elements that are tied to this and it really immerses them into a really fun game experience.” 

The lodge will host regular and seasonal events, too. “In our Grand Lobby we’ll gather every night for story time and for dance party. This is going to have different interactive elements to it,” Bays said. “It will show the seasons. Every day it will actually snow in our Grand Lobby for Snowland when we get to our different seasonal programming. It will be a really cool light show and have some interactive elements there.” 

Northern transplants who miss seasonal changes and locals who may have never experienced them may enjoy the fact that Great Wolf celebrates every season.  

“We have Halloween. We celebrate spring. Then, we have a summer camping theme,” Bays said. “We do pool party games and things for kids with a bunch of different elements like face painting, craft time that really add to the experience throughout the year and celebrate the different seasons.” 

Although much of Great Wolf is designed for children, many adults and big kids may enjoy it, too. 

“We have a lot of fun for everyone,” Bays said. “It’s not rare to see adults playing games like MaqiQuest or enjoying the slides. We really are a great place for grandparents to come to visit to enjoy some food and take in all of the action. Parents participate in all of these fun activities and games. We’re open to everyone. It’s not like Chuck E. Cheese where you have to have a child.” 

Great Wolf also will have a convention center for local meetings, conferences or events.  

“We’ll have 6,000 square feet of convention and meeting space at our property,” Bays said. “We’re excited to have that space tied to it as well.” The center, which can seat about 200 people, will be booked by a local director of sales. “We’d be very excited to host local businesses in that sales and convention center,” Bays said. 

For details about the Great Wolf Lodge water park, see the Feb. 23 story. Savvy shoppers can save on admission by purchasing day pass bundles with access to attractions bundled with a full-day pass, while special discounts are available for first responders and members of AAA and AARP.  

The “Tim Aten Knows” weekly column answers local questions from readers. Email Tim at tim.aten@naplespress.com.