Great Wolf Lodge

Great Wolf Lodge is a YouTube channel about the eponymous chain of indoor water park resorts located in the United States with one in Canada. The chain is mostly well known for their indoor water parks which are open year round. They are also known for having multiple other attractions including the Northern Lights Arcade as well as MagiQuest, an interactive live action game involving a wand. The resorts are popular among families. The mascot for Great Wolf Lodge is Wiley the Wolf, an anthropomorphic wolf character who has been the mascot of the resort chain since 2001. 
== On YouTube ==
Great Wolf Lodge's YouTube Channel primarily consists of body cam footage of the various water rides found at the resort locations. In addition, they also upload advertisements for various services the resort provides. The channel also makes DIY craft videos as well as story time narrations and animations. Many of these kind of videos were uploaded during the COVID-19 pandemic when most GWL locations weren't open.
== History ==
Great Wolf Lodge began as a small indoor water park resort called Black Wolf Lodge which was founded in 1997 by brothers Jack and Andrew "Turk" Waterman, the original owners of Noah's Ark water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Black Wolf Lodge was purchased by The Great Lakes Companies Inc in 1999. In 2000, founders Marc Vaccaro and Bruce Neviaser changed the name to Great Wolf Lodge and the company headquarters were established in Madison, Wisconsin. In 2001, the company built a second location in Sandusky, Ohio, and named it Great Bear Lodge. When a third location opened in 2003, the decision was made to place all future parks under the Great Wolf Lodge banner. The name of the Ohio location was changed to Great Wolf Lodge in 2004. The chain has since added sixteen additional locations and has one under construction.
On May 1, 2012, Great Wolf announced they were adding a new amenity or attraction to each of their resorts in time for the summer season. In addition, they spent over $4 million renovating the company's first two locations – Wisconsin Dells and Sandusky.
In April 2017, Great Wolf relocated their corporate headquarters to Chicago, Illinois.
=== Apollo acquisition ===
On March 13, 2012, Apollo Global Management announced an agreement to acquire the company for $703 million. Following the announcement, an investor group filed a complaint in Delaware Chancery Court stating that the deal, in which Apollo would pay $5 a share, undervalued the company. On April 12, 2012, KSL Capital Partners made an unsolicited offer of $6.25 a share, and Apollo followed suit raising its bid to $6.75 a share. KSL then raised its cash offer to $7 a share on April 8, 2012, beginning a rare public bidding war. After Apollo upped its offer again to $7.85 a share on April 20, 2012, KSL Capital Partners later announced it would not be making additional offers. The company's shares traded as low as $2.18 in October 2011, but they climbed above $5 following the announcement in March 2012 and reached a 52-week high of $7.50 during trading in April 2012.
=== Centerbridge acquisition ===
On March 24, 2015, Centerbridge Partners reached an agreement with Apollo to acquire the Great Wolf chain for $1.35 billion. The acquisition was finalized on May 12, 2015.
=== Blackstone and Centerbridge Joint Venture ===
In September 2019, Blackstone Group made a deal to purchase 65% controlling interest in Great Wolf Resorts from Centerbridge Partners. The two firms agreed to form a $2.9 billion joint-venture to own the company.
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