Disclosure: Castaway Bay provided overnight accommodations and water park passes, as well as four day passes to give away to one reader. All opinions are my own.
This has officially been the snowiest January we’ve ever had in Northwest Ohio. And while I love the snow, I don’t love the bitter cold. Today is our sixth unexpected day off of school this month, with number seven all but assured tomorrow. The kids are stir-crazy, as you might imagine. So when Castaway Bay invited us to join them for some family fun and a blissful 82 degrees, we started packing our bags.
We arrived to a warm fire and a huge pirate ship, checked in, and grabbed our Island Times. Each day the staff puts out this newsletter with all of the resort’s activities, be sure to grab one at the front desk! In it, you’ll find lots of children’s activities like face painting, story time with Snoopy, and times that you can catch the Peanuts Gang in the lobby for a photo or just a hug.
The water park was great. I loved the layout, open and in a big circle with one monitored entrance in and out, I felt really comfortable finding Dave quickly when we headed to separate areas with the kids. There is a large toddler pool with both small and slightly bigger water slides as well as fountains with a light spray. There is a big wave pool, several medium and larger sized water slides, and a huge waterslide that you tackle in a raft. There is the family funhouse full of shooting water, a big pool for water basketball and fun things like the cargo net crossing where bigger kids can try their hand at making it across the pool on floating rafts. There is also an indoor/outdoor hot tub that seats almost 100 people. I saw toddlers and 80 year olds alike, there was a little something for everyone and it’s extremely family friendly.
I would also like to note that in every single pool I paid attention to the safety issue, something that is really important to me. What I saw was a hyper-attentive lifeguard staff, and life jackets available for anyone who might need one. Obviously, that doesn’t make up for a lack of parental supervision, but I felt very comfortable with the level of staff to visitors. The lifeguards were really paying attention to everything going on in the pools.
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Castaway Bay wanted to include you in the fun, so I’m giving away FOUR day passes to the waterpark, a $116 value! Leave a comment telling me your favorite snow day activity and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.
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31 comments:
my favorite snow day activity is sending the kids outside with my husband while I stay warm inside. I do usually make hot cocoa, at least.
On snowy days my family does many fun things. Depending on the wind chill temp we may go play in the snow (sledding, build snow people, snowball fights) and we always are baking some thing whether it is cakes, cookies, brownies or just covering things in chocolate... Family time is important because they grow up fast... The fact that my 19 year old still enjoys doing things with her siblings (ages 12 and 10) proves that making family time a part of your life makes everything better.
If I had a fireplace, it would be curl up by that and read a good book!! (during naptime) :)
I really enjoy organizing so I play with the kids if it's Lego's(putting like pieces together) or coloring (weeding out old crayons or dried up markers)or reading (books back in order) the list is endless but I'm still playing and keeping up on the house! Everyone is happy
Puzzles and yatzee!
Have uyou been to Great Wolf Lodge? Do you like Castaway Bay or GWL better? We want to take our son for his fifth birthday and torn between the two.
OOOOPS! I didn't see the question before my last comment. We love to do crafts and science projects, play video games, cuddle under blankets and watch movies and read good books!
We play in the snow when its not so bitterly cold :) This time, we spent time in the house with Roxy - playing whatever her imagination led her to.
Reading books and lots of snuggle time.
Kids out to play with Dad while I stay warm inside and read :)
Cuddle with my lil bug
sounds amazing! we can't wait to visit. soon, i hope!
I love to make some soup or cookies or both when I am in on a snowy day. like we have had so often this winter. The whole house smells great and I know we will have a fun dinner when the day is done. My dog, MAX, is usually sleeping but wakes up to the WONDERFUL smells!ringit on winter. This house is ready for YOU!
I love to hang out inside, curl up with my little one and watch a good movie.
I love baking on snow days... hence the noticeable weight gain since the beginning of this polar vortex crap!
Depends on if it's with kids or without :) With kids - fingerpainting, baking cookies, and Disney movies. Without kids - sleeping and a good book!
We love to play board games (today we played clue and quelf), watch Disney movies and bake sweet treats on snow days!! School's cancelled tomorrow as well, so we've already planned on baking blueberry, banana nut and cranberry-orange muffins!!
Love watching my daughters have fashion shows and we love watching movies!
We like to have a beach party when we have the winter blues...put swim suits on, a little suntan lotion (for the beachy smell), lay beach towels on the living room floor, pack a beach bag with a few snacks/sunglasses/beach ball and blast the Jimmy Buffet CD. Now...hook a girl up with a real beach trip to Castaway Bay! ;o)
We like to curl up with hot chocolate and some TMNT videos on snow days in CT. Neither boy is a fan of the cold, so they'd loooooove a trip to Castaway Bay. :)
Read books. Watch movies. Take naps.
Baking, baking, and more baking!!!! Definitely need to get outside and get moving to work off all of our snacking :)
We like to sleep in, binge on pointless TV and bake!
We like to play games - apples to apples is one of our favorites.
I love to watch movies with the kids!
Jennifer Marie
lilnursejen at yahoo dot com
We all cuddle under blankets and watch movies.
Amy Williams
sethandtjay@yahoo.com
We just recently discovered the joy of bringing snow into the bathtub! The kids get their fill without the pain staking winter gear assembly line that usually lasts longer than the actual outside play :) We also like to make as many adjoining forts throughout the house ad possible, having picnics and "campfire" ghost story adventures!
We enjoy staying in our pajamas and playing games. It's also a fun time to try new pintrest crafts.
Board games are always fun on a snow day.
Judy S
pookiecat123 at yahoo dot com
My favorite winter activity is snowshoeing.
On a snowy day I love to stay indoors, drink hot chocolate, and catch up on my DVR! :)
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