Great Wolf Lodge is an exciting indoor water park with mini golf, a climbing wall, a ropes course, an arcade, and food. They have a variety of pools for all age levels. The easy going atmosphere was a big plus.
Day 1: Check-in, Pool, and Arcade
A few months ago, I had heard about Great Wolf Lodge. Perhaps it was an ad that I saw, I’m not really sure. But since I had some time off during Thanksgiving break, I booked a suite for the Friday after Thanksgiving at Great Wolf Lodge for 4 kids and 2 adults. I also told my parents, brother, and sister, so they booked a larger suite.
Arriving at Great Wolf Lodge, check in was very easy. They offer you wristbands that unlock the door and can also purchase food. If you connect your credit card to the wrist band, you can simply use it to buy food when you are in the water park. I originally declined to connect my credit card to my wrist band, because I knew that it would lead to over spending. However, on my second day, I added it so I could buy my kids some Dippin’ Dots.
You can get as many wristbands as you need for you and your older kids. After checking in, we brought all of our stuff to our rooms. Great Wolf Lodge has plenty of carts that we used to carry all of our luggage to our room.
Great Wolf Lodge is huge, so be prepared to walk a ways and figure out where you are. It was a bit confusing at first because our room was pretty far away from the elevators.
After unpacking and changing to our swimsuits, we went to the water park. The colored wrist bands you are given also indicate which rides your kids can go on. It’s a really quick and easy for for everyone to know which water slides they can go down.
The first thing that hits you is the warm air. The water park air is very warm and moist. It feels good, but also once you get wet, it can be kind of cold. It is right at the temperature of being cold. The air and the water could stand to be a couple of degrees warmer I think, but overall, it is tolerable. One of my kids is very skinny and gets cold and shivers very easily. There were a couple of times he was cold, but overall, he did very well, and it didn’t slow us down at all.
I am not sure if wearing a rash guard or t-shirt would warm you up or not, but it is worth a shot.
There are numerous tubes slides and single slides and kids areas. It is very easy to lose your child, so try and stay close.
The first thing we did was find a table and chairs. It was quite crowded so we had to go pretty deep into the water park to finally find a place to sit. I actually asked a gentleman who was sitting alone at a large table if we could join him, and he was just putzing around on his phone, so he just said yes and got up and left.
Once we had our spot, the kids went in all different directions. The only valuables we had with us were our phones, but there are lockers available if you need to lock things up. We didn’t because we had someone stay at the table with our stuff.
Lifeguards are present, but they are not overbearing. They are enforcing safety rules and things like no food and drink weren’t really enforced. I appreciated that as we had some little snackies to keep us going. There needs to be some tolerance; it’s not like we brought in a 4 course meal to the place.
There was a bar that was showing college football, so if you don’t want to swim, there are other things to do as well.
The water park is great. It really is. It’s a lot of fun for the kids, and there’s a lot to explore. Some slides can fit up to 5 people on a tube. It was a lot of fun going down a super fast tube slide with 3 generations (me, my mom, and my daughter). It’s an experience that we’ll remember forever.
After spending a few hours in the water park, we were ready for dinner. We actually ordered some food from a local, affordable restaurant and ate in our rooms. My brother had a larger suite with tables, so that was convenient for them.
We may have napped too, and then the kids went down to a dance party. I thought the dance party was a blast, but the kids all wanted to go to the arcade.
The arcade was fun; there are a lot of games there and the prize room is fun. The games are packed very closely together, and the prize room is kind of hard for the kids to keep track of how many points they have spent. It took us a long time to choose our prizes and get out of there.
From what I can tell, each night Great Wolf Lodge has a fun activity in the lobby. On our night, they were reading a story. Before the story started though, they had crayons and coloring paper for kids to work on. It unfortunately took the staff a long time to get the story going, and after a few minutes, my kids had gotten bored. The story was about a few animals, and the staff did choose kids from the crowd to play the animals. Of course this made it engaging, but it took a while. After that, we decided it was bed time.
Luckily, the room we chose had separate kids section with a bunk bed, a bed, and a tv. The kids enjoyed their little nook, and no one had issues sharing the bathroom or the sink. The sink was located separate from the toilet. I think we all slept well that night.
Day 2: Back to the Pool
Day 2 was a little more hectic. We woke up a bit later than we had wanted. Since we had brought everything we needed for breakfast, we ate and got ready to go back to the pool. Which seems like a great idea, because Great Wolf Lodge allows you to access the pool on the day of arrival through your day of departure, but check-out is at 11a.
The nice thing about check-out is that you don’t have to do anything. Your wrist band automatically stops working at the check-out time. So my family all met up and the kids went to the pool while I got everything to the car. The car was a total mess by then, and it was cold out! But with planning ahead, we were able to stay at the pool past check-out and then change into our warm clothes.
After the pool, we ate lunch, did some climbing, did some more games, and finally decided it was time to hit the road. Overall, we had a great time, and I will plan to go back every 2 years.
Reflections
When you go on vacation with kids, it can be very, very stressful. Your patience and your marriage can be tested. Even though it is meant to be fun, it can turn into a nightmare.
I heard numerous kids crying and numerous adults arguing. It was often around getting the stuff into and out of the car. My suggestion is to try and bring more adults with you if you can. It’s totally inevitable that you’ll need to do something without the kids, like order and wait for food. If you have an extra person or two there to help out, it will be so relieving for you.
Also, the lines weren’t too bad. I think we were there on 2 of the busiest days of the year, and I don’t think it was insanely packed or we had to wait too long.
Also, take things slow. There’s a lot to take in, there’s a lot of stuff to schlep, there are lines. Remind kids and yourself that it will take time to check-in and orient yourself and to get food. Oh yeah, the wait for food at the restaurants was like 15-20 minutes, so make a plan for food so you don’t have melt downs.
They also have little private cabanas that looked nice. If you have a big group, that would be worth it, I think.
I can’t wait to go back again. I think this is going to be a holiday tradition for us to go on the Friday after Thanksgiving, even though it is one of the busiest times.
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