Indoor Waterpark Resort Chain Officially Opens Newest “Green” Location

Great Wolf Lodge^® in Concord, the newest property of parent company Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.^® (NASDAQ:WOLF), staged an official grand opening this evening in Concord, N.C., that verged on every kid’s dream-come-true, from the live performance by Walt Disney Records Recording Artist Mitchel Musso, best-known for his role as Oliver Oken on the Disney Channel sitcom, “Hannah Montana,” to an evening in the waterpark trying out every ride, slide and splashdown in the massive 80,000 square foot wonderland.

Nearly 500 “V.I.F.s” – short for “Very Important Families” – from across the region dove into the festivities. V.I.F. guests dined on a Carolina Barbecue feast, complete with a special kids’ buffet, in the colorful, balloon-filled grand ballroom. After the dinner, parents and children were led by a group of Radio Disney Kids to the main lobby where Kim Schaefer, CEO of Great Wolf Resorts, triggered a beach ball drop as the prelude to the Mitchel Musso concert.

Later, the festivities moved into the waterpark, officially known as Bear Track Landing™, while other families tried out the resort’s other amenities, including Cub Club^™, a children’s activity center featuring programming developed by National Geographic Kids^™; MagiQuest^™, a resort-wide, live-action fantasy adventure game that leads players through themed challenges; gr8_space^™, a teen tech center with computers, karaoke and movies; and Scooops^® Kid Spa, an ice cream-themed spa for the under 12 crowd.

Phil Cunningham, general manager of the resort, said, “Families from coast to coast have created lifelong traditions at our resorts, and now we’re happy to have a location to extend that same hospitality to families in the southeast.”

In addition to the grand opening celebration, Great Wolf Resorts recently announced that all U.S. properties have achieved Green Seal^™ certification for the lodging portion of its operations, making it the first – and only – national hotel chain to earn that distinction. Existing properties have already seen a return for the environmentally responsible changes at the resort. For example, the Pocono Mountains property has saved nearly nine million gallons of water in one year simply by changing the plumbing fixtures to low flow units.