“It’s a random act of magic!” my 10-year-old son declares as the chest magically opens at the wave of his wand. The revealed treasure glitters and a deep voice informs him he has amassed 100 points worth of gold.

We’re at Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara taking part in an interactive game called MagiQuest. It’s a Harry Potter fan’s dream come true. Wielding their own wand, kids navigate a labyrinth of spells, quest stones and hidden clues in rooms with magical names like Whispery Woods spread out over three floors of the hotel. It’s all a little much for a 40-year-old brain, so I asked my seven-year-old daughter to explain it to me. 

“It’s EASY, mom. You find some things hided around the hotel until you find the ones you need for the quest. When you finish the quest, you get  certain thing like protection or healing, and when you get enough things you can defeat things like dragons." 

OK, well thanks kid, but I’m still confused.  But I do know that it was a whole lot of fun for my son and daughter, who were running from one magical object to another up and down stairs, waving their wands at pictures, crystals, small screens, big screens, treasure chests and stars. And these magical objects talked back, letting them know if they were on the right track with their quest. Real life knights and princesses stood by ready to help the young magi in their quests. 

"That was EPIC!" my son said when he finished slaying the sinister-looking red serpent dragon on the large screen. It was the culmination of about three hours of collecting the runes and spells that were needed to achieve this feat. 

And it was one EPIC moment in a veritable sea of EPICness that our kids experienced at Great Wolf Lodge. The fact that the Magiquest game could successfully compete for my kid’s attention over the water park they have here attests to just how compelling this game is. I mean, this is some water park - an indoor wave pool, tree-house water fort, a four-story water slide, and a lazy river are just a few of its features. After two hours of sliding and splashing in the warm water, they wanted to play Magiquest again, which they did until it was time to go home.

 They hung on to their wand throughout the drive home, continuing their own version of the make-believe world. When we arrived, my son waved his wand at the lock at our front door. Unbelievably, the magic didn’t work and the door remained lock. “I guess we’ll have to go back to Great Wolf Lodge," he said.

 ww.greatwolf.com