Wilderness at the Smokies

We had the great pleasure of spending the long weekend at a fun and adventure filled getaway at Wilderness at the Smokies in Sevierville TN!!  If you’ll remember, this was the littles’ “something to do” gift from Santa, so we’ve been counting down the days since Christmas morning!

The resort is an easy four hour drive from Atlanta so we squeezed every last drop of fun out of the excursion by arriving for a late supper Friday night and staying until early Monday evening.  We didn’t leave the resort the entire time, which was SO nice!  We stayed in a fireplace suite in the River Lodge and were impressed with the size of the room.  There was a kitchenette, bed for us and then a sofa sleeper and murphy bed for the littles that stowed away nicely when not in use. 

Now, on to the good stuff!!  We all slept in every single day of the trip.  And, after breakfast in the room, we spent our days hopping between the Wild Water Dome and Wilderness Adventure Forest.  The indoor water park was such fun – even more so with the snow flurries outside. 

The Great Wave wave pool was the baby’s favorite.  He adored jumping the waves during the frenzy and then chilling back in an tube when the waters calmed down.

Honey’s favorite spot was absolutely the Magnolia Grove indoor/outdoor GIANT hot tub.  Oh, who am I kidding?  We all loved the hot tub!

As for me, well, I just couldn’t get enough of the water slides.  There are four different options, and all were just so much fun!!

 

And, if you have a boy between the ages of 8 and 48, he will likely spend his time here in the basketball pool.  The PCP logged some serious hours here and loved every second!  He also tried his hand at the Smokies Surf Rider but said he never wanted to do that “never again”.

      

We spent the other half of our days at the Wilderness Adventure Forest.  There was so much fun to be had, between mini bowling, blacklight mini golf, a laser maze, two-story laser tag, rock climbing and the tree top ropes course.  There were more than a few times when my heart caught in my throat seeing the PCP two stories up walking a tight rope.  The baby gave it a quick go and then settled in the Cubs Climbing Den play house and completed at least 100 games of bowling.  One things is for sure, we all did things we had never done before!!

We took breaks in the afternoons to relax in the room for a couple of hours and usually stayed out pretty late at the water dome.  There were plenty of treats to be had at the resort!!

If you go…

• Bring food and drinks!  Our only complaint was that the food on-site, while plentiful, was not the best.  We ate breakfast in our room each morning – bars, oatmeal, poptarts, fruit, etc. – and found the sandwiches at the deli and whole large pizzas in the water dome snack bars to be the best tasting and best values.  We would skip all of the buffets, even with the lure of kids eat free.  There are tons of fast food joints in the area, but we didn’t want to leave the resort.
• Bring your own towels.  They certainly offer unlimited towels in the water dome, but they are the size of hand towels and super scratchy.  I was so jealous of the obvious veteran guests that were all bundled up in their nice towels :-)  Some very smart people even had little bathrobes for their littles.
• Get to the water dome EARLY if you want a table.  There didn’t seem to be any sort of monitoring of people just reserving tables with a few towels and they were gone within minutes of it opening.  There are tons of single chairs, but if you want a table, go grab it early.
• I found the resort to be a few degrees too chilly over all.  Of course, it was snowing outside at times.  Definitely bring clothes to bundle up in on the walk back from the water dome. 
• 42” seems to be the magic height to be able to ride and do almost everything.  There was only one raft ride the baby was too small to do – even with an adult.  He didn’t miss it at all :-)  There is a great water play structure and another small area for little ones, and the resort did a great job of making sure there is something for everyone.  I wouldn’t be scared to travel here with small ones at all.
• All stay Water Dome admission is included for resort guests.  When we booked there was a deal for all stay adventure forest passes and I’m so glad we did that rather than going a la carte.  These passes included everything in adventure forest except laser tag and the arcade games.  We somehow miraculously avoided all arcade games but we did spring for the laser tag.  You can get a coupon for 1 free laser tag at the concierge and it’s $8 per person after that.  I was skeptical but the littles really wanted to do it and boy am I glad we did.  It was SO much fun!!
• We lucked out with a room that was on the top floor and almost as far as you could get from the water dome and still be in the building.  I would definitely request a room like this next time, as the adventure forest stays open until 1am and I’d bet those rooms near by were loud all night  long.
• Look for deals online before you book! I can’t remember the specifics of ours, but when it was all said and done, our long weekend was affordable and so much fun.
• We would love to go back in the summer when the outdoor water attractions are open too.  Of course, there is something really special about being able to ride the waves in the dead of winter :-)
• There is the cutest pottery painting shop on the main level called Polka Dot Pots.  We peeked in and were excited to see that they had tons of things to paint for girls and boys alike.  Unfortunately, we didn’t make time to do it this trip, but it comes highly recommended by bestie F.  It’s definitely on our list for next time!!!

If you have specific questions, leave them in the comments below and I will answer within the next week or so.

With that, we’re back to the grind – basketball games, school projects, baseball tryouts and errands.  Have a great week, y’all!!
xoxo