PERRYVILLE — Welcoming over one million guests in its opening year, Great Wolf Lodge celebrated its first birthday Wednesday with a celebration featuring a massive smash cake as it looks to continue offering fun and entertainment at the Perryville lodge.
Duff Goldman, chef and founder of Baltimore’s Charm City Cakes, created a massive display of 12 cakes honoring each month the lodge has been open. After singing “Happy Birthday”, children in attendance were allowed to swarm the cakes and demolish every last crumb with many smiles and much laughter.
Goldman also made an extravagant cake last summer for the lodge’s grand opening. That cake was styled after one of the resort water park’s massive tipping bucket.
“We love this place… Maryland loves you guys,” said Goldman, who, along with his friends and family, is a frequent guest at the Lodge.
Since opening, Great Wolf Lodge has created over 1,000 jobs and sustained 80% capacity throughout the year, according to General Manager Nadine Miracle. The majority of the staff are from Cecil and Harford County, Miracle said, while international students help out during their peak periods throughout the year.
The Lodge also offers a housing program to help these students find a home away from home and make work more accessible.
“We’re continuing to learn each and every day with our international program, but it’s adding a lot of value to our team and our seasonality in the business here,” Miracle said.
As the newest resort under the Great Wolf Lodge name, they took feedback from guests throughout the years to create the best possible experience for everyone, offering the most hotel rooms and largest water park than any other brand location in the country.
In the water park’s first year, it used over 30 million gallons of water provided by the Town of Perryville, all of which is treated, filtered, and recycled. In addition to the water park, the lodge offers something for everyone, including an adventure park, a bowling alley, an arcade game room, a mini golf course, and more.
Families have bowled over 130,000 games since opening while the pack members have served over 90,000 burgers and 50,000 frozen drinks to guests, according to Miracle.
“Our benchmark that we’re most proud of is that we are more than 1,000 strong with our pack members,” said Miracle. “We have been able to create so many jobs by bringing Great Wolf Lodge here to Maryland. And our pack members are part of each and every day that we bring joy to families and have really made a difference in creating memories with families that come here that have been countless.”
Great Wolf Lodge’s successful first year wouldn’t have been possible without their team collaboration and unwavering support from the community, according to Miracle.
“I’m truly appreciative of everything that’s come and gone throughout the last year, the amazing team that we have that has helped us get to this milestone, and really grateful or all the families that have come to visit us and the community support we’ve had in activating our lodge and making Great Wolf Lodge Maryland what it is today,” said Miracle.
Located in a travel hub nearby Baltimore, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York, they plan to continue to make this the best vacation destination for families in the Mid Atlantic region.
“This is our largest location and for the foreseeable future it absolutely will be, so what we really look to be is that carefree, convenient, close destination for families to pick up and have these vacations to,” said Nadine.
To celebrate the lodge’s first birthday, Great Wolf has a special promotion on their website to encourage new and returning customers to enjoy all the resort has to offer.
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