hotel – Urban Suburban Mommy

Another great getaway

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Urban Suburban Mommy Posted in Bon Voyage .

Upgrade!

Recently, my husband was on a job out of town and had to spend two weeks living in a hotel. Not getting to see their dad nightly was hard on the boys. Dad’s hours are insanely long – he’s not a 9-to-5er and he’s only occasionally home for dinner during the week – but a whole 2 weeks with little more than a few Facetime sessions just wasn’t working for us.

Now we love a good hotel stay – and I’ve written about our staycations before – so the boys and I turned it into a good time. I was able to take some vacation time each Friday, and drive us out to spend some time together.

I did not have to make this bed

I can’t recommend staycations highly enough. You may think “Why on earth would I ever spend money on a room when I already have a home that I pay for, and it’s only a few miles away?”

Think about it differently. If you take a day off and spend it at home, do you really take a day off? Or do you use it to catch up on chores. Do you see the cobwebs in the corner and think “Wow, I have the time to take care of that!” Or get to the little reno/repair/redecorate project that you’ve been putting off. And at home, do the kids expect you to make dinner? Get them stuff? Are they feeling the fun?

Nope.

The Doubletree gave us cookies when we checked in (and then more cookies when we went late-night exploring)

Hotels don’t have to be expensive. Hotwire.com, Hotels.com, Trivago.ca, Expedia.ca – and a ton of others, from Groupon to WagJag have offers and deals galore. And you might be surprised to find that big cities and airport strips are especially full of empty rooms on weekends that no big events are taking place. They’d rather get something than nothing, and some of the deals I’ve enjoyed have been crazy. My best find was a 4-star hotel with breakfast, parking and free Internet for $72.

The fun of a hotel lays with the amenities. Room service. Breakfast in PJs. Late-night hotel exploring. Swimming pools. Games rooms. Having the whole family snuggling in front of one TV watching a movie – and many hotels have a movie service that offers movies still playing in theatres. A new release for a family of 4 $12 in the room as opposed to $50 at the theatre – what a steal! If you’re celebrating something and you let them know, they often offer you an upgrade or send a treat to your room. Even if you’re not celebrating, always ask about upgrades. If there really are a lot of vacancies they may try to win your love with a special suite. We’ve had huge jacuzzi rooms, double rooms, palatial rooms, dessert sent up and even wine brought to our room with the hotel’s compliments.

Just be nice.

And remember to tip.

: The Raddisson

: The Westin Bristol Place

: The Best Western Plus

: The Sheraton

Just goofing at the Hilton

Nobody expects you to make dinner. Nobody expects you to make a bed. Nobody expects anything! Turn off the cell phone, shut down the laptop and just relax, nobody can find you, nobody can bother you, and the kids are mesmerized by the different environment.

I love hotels. I always have – and they’re magical to kids. It’s fancy. It’s rich. It’s a treat-and-a-half. Remember jumping bed to bed, thinking that the complimentary soaps, potions and lotions were treasure, that having your parents’ full attention was the happiest time of your life?

Yep.

Late night at The Raddisson

Staycate. Try it. It’s the most amazing family getaway because it’s easy, convenient and really requires no planning. In fact, we’ve had completely unplanned staycations where we’ve been out and decided to just find a room. There’s an app for that, you know. A quick stop for bathing suits and toothbrushes were all we needed. I would never say no.

Great Wolf Lodge – 10 insider tips for a howling fun stay!

Posted on December 13, 2015 by urbansuburbanmommy Posted in Bon Voyage, Mommy Approved .

Holiday Lodge – Great Wolf Lodge, Niagara Falls

We had a howling good time during our recent stay at Great Wolf Lodge. They were just getting ready for the holidays and had Santa and Mrs. Claus as special guests. They made it snow in the lodge!!!!

It’s really quite an unbelievable place, a hotel chain designed around making a child’s every vacation moment too good to be true. Brilliant really, it keeps the kids asking to come back, again and again.

Don’t get me wrong, my husband and I love Great Wolf Lodge just as much as the kids. First a bit about the place and why we go, then scroll down to the bottom to see the best insider tips for a great stay.

The basics:

Our trip last spring

Great Wolf Lodge has 14 locations, 13 in the United States and one location in the Honeymoon Capital of the World, Niagara Falls. Each hotel has a very similar set-up. Rooms are themed, some offering bunk beds, a fireplace and whirlpool tubs, it varies depending on the suite. They really are amazing!

Throughout the hotel there are animated forest animals that the kids can meet. There is a waterpark – each location is unique – but all have amazing waterslides, water playgrounds, wave pools, play pools, hot tubs and a lazy river.

The hotel is also the setting for Magic Quest. All it takes is a wand and starting up a game, and each child can be turned into a Magi, following quests, hunting clues, waving wands, collecting digital gold and amassing runes to fight the dragon. The computer system keeps the games going and each visit your young Magi can add onto their previous progress.

There are also other funtimes, like bowling, mini-put, an arcade and a bunch of restaurants, as well as gift shops and lots of merchandise for the little ones to dig into!

Why we love the place:

Story Time

The kids have the bet time. All of the activity helps them to sleep very well at night, but just to ensure this, the hotel does music and story time to help get the littles off to bed. They even offer a Cub Club, paid childcare to run your little muppet through some great activities and story time. Mommy and Daddy deserve some alone time in all of this crazy kid-centred fun (so I hear, we’ve yet to try it)!

They even offer an all-inclusive dining package. We like it. Breakfast, lunch and dinner without having to think about it. The food is quite decent and ultimately, though not cheap, offers decent value. It includes non-alcoholic drinks and tip. Where else can you let your kids roam around a hotel making friends and having high-volume fun while getting to stay in your pajamas or comfies all day. Seriously, flip-flops and fuzzy bunny slippers are the only footwear you need, because you never have to leave.

It’s my vacation too. The private patios in the room are a great place to enjoy the view and have a break

We’ve gone at least twice a year for about 3 years now, and have learned a few tricks to a great deal and a great stay.

One night is fun, it gives you waterpark passes for both the day of arrival and day of departure, but two nights is more optimal, three is our max. There’s just too much to do for a one-night stay and your kids can’t get enough of it.
Join their newsletter mailing lists. They regularly send out discount codes. I wait until I get a 25% – 30% off code and then book. For the best savings, you should plan to book 2 – 3 months in advance.
It’s not as expensive as it sounds. We usually upgrade to a themed suite so we’re not going for the cheapest room price, but even at $200/night, when you think, there are 2 days of waterpark passes for 4 people for the one night’s stay. If you consider a regular waterpark is at least $30/person admission, do the math and you can clearly see the value.
Be nice. They’re super-accommodating, and the employees, from my experience, will always try to go the extra mile. It CAN NOT BE EASY to work there, yet everyone is so nice. The kids yelling, the kids going crazy, the lights and sounds and activity of the Magic Quest, the costumes, the events, the waterpark and the weekend kids’ dance parties… It’s quite a ‘special’ work environment, and requires a special kind of employee.
Paw Passes are great for the first visit, but may not offer you value if you’re only staying one night. And they’re not so simple to share between your kids so they can get expensive. But they’re a treat, so check first if you’re planning on doing and buying a few of the things included in the Paw Pass because there’s extremely good value if you’re planning to do a lot of Great Wolf Lodge’s activities.
The rooms have fridges and microwaves with a little bar skink – like a little kitchenette set-up. Bring your own cocktails, snacks and food. We do the inclusive meal package one night and have a quiet pizza night the other. If you have dietary restrictions or just want to keep costs down, bring your own food and eat in your room. It’s totally do-able.
While I don’t drink much – or often – around my kids, it’s my vacation too. The Niagara falls location (and possibly others) is completely licensed, so, when you leave the restaurant they will put your adult beverage in a to-go cup and you can take it with you throughout the resort. Ditto for your morning coffee! If you bring your own alcohol with, keep it in travel cups, don’t go carrying wine glasses and beer bottles through the hotel, the kids will catch on that you’re having your own kind of fun, and you know how that goes!
Have a credit card with available funds on it so that you can have your wristband connected to your credit card, that way you never need to carry money. The wristband is your waterpark pass, your hotel room key and your spending account. I wish I had one of these for the rest of my life.
On check-out day, if you want to stay at the waterpark past 11am (check-out time) you should get a locker. They’re cheap and convenient and hold a fair amount of stuff. They can put your luggage in storage for the day. I don’t ever feel good about leaving my stuff in our van in a parking lot all day.
Have fun. Seriously, give it all a try. The only thing that bothers me is that they didn’t have anything like this when I was a kid!

After so many trips to Great Wolf Lodge, I still haven’t had my fill. We just went a couple of weeks ago and we’re already looking forward to returning. If you’ve got any Great Wolf questions, just hit us up, and we’ll give you our Urban Suburban Mommy-approved insight. It really is a howling good time.

Staycation elation

Posted on November 11, 2015 by urbansuburbanmommy Posted in Bon Voyage .

I staycate. It’s in my DNA. My mother was a staycater too.

We didn’t go to a cottage in the summer or spend one week a year at an all-inclusive, The Holiday Inn in Grand Island was her cottage and cross-border shopping was her big indulgence.

While we didn’t do too many big trips, we did do a lot of regular get-aways to hotels. Sometimes we didn’t even leave the city, we just checked into a 4-star a couple of miles from home for a weekend.

Now that I’ve got a family of my own, I get the appeal. We are all about last-minute hotel bookings and staycations. Last birthday when we asked my son what he wanted to do for his big day, he asked to go to a hotel. The kids love it as much as we do.

There’s no major packing, no great anticipation and no planning. Expenses are pretty minimal. On weekends where we don’t have crazy complicated playdates/commitments/arrangements we pick a 4-star hotel with a great rate and we go. We throw bathingsuits, stuffies and jammies into a bag and just go.

The kids love it. We let them stay up late and watch movies. We always pick a place with nice rooms and a pool. We stop for provisions like jerky and pop and chips and cereal and milk and bananas and we treat ourselves to a weekend of no responsibility.

If you haven’t tried a local hotel staycation, I highly recommend it.

Things I’ve learned:

It’s often cheaper to pick a place with free parking and free breakfast, even if the list price is a bit higher.
It doesn’t matter where we stay, so long as it’s no more than a half-hour drive from our home.
Often the best deals are at suburban hotels, which is fine, because we aren’t there for the sightseeing. Sometimes we don’t even leave the hotel from check-in until checkout.
If you’re supremely nice to the staff they will upgrade you, offer you free breakfast, drink vouchers or give you a late check-out. We’ve had some pretty sweet suites!
Always ask if the freebies aren’t offered.
Always check what currency the booking site is using. Sometimes it’s CAD, sometimes it’s USD. The exchange rate can make a huge difference on price.

While we book through a variety of websites – Groupon, WagJag, Hotels.com, the booking website we love best is Hotwire.com. It’s not just because that’s the cheapest way to staycate (Hotwire.com always has the lowest prices), it’s because it’s really fun to be surprised by the hotel that you’ve picked. You can select the location, the amenities and the star level, and you know the price you’ll be charged, but you won’t know the hotel chain until your payment is completed. That reveal screen is way more fun than any reality show I’ve ever watched!

I know, little thrills – gotta take ’em where you get ’em!

Everyone needs a break. If you think about it, we actually need more breaks than we take. A week away at an all-inclusive is nice, but lets face it – how often do you make that happen and how many road blocks are in your way? Give yourself the breaks you deserve. Crisp clean sheets, room service, movie service, great restaurants and a full staff whose only concern is your comfort and satisfaction.

My mother was definitely right about this one!