Friday, July 29, 2016

Five Things To Know About Great Wolf Lodge

Over the past few years I have heard of the Great Wolf Lodge and always wondered if it was worth the four-hour drive and cost with the exchange rate. We waited until our kids were a great age range (4-9) so that we could get the most out of it and try it out for ourselves. Was it worth it? 

Five things to know about Great Wolf Lodge–is it worth it?

Five Things To Know About the Great Wolf Lodge:

1.  It's great to do at least once. 
It's a fun new experience having a water park in a hotel and there is something for every age. We stayed just one night and enjoyed two days at the water park. As we left our kids said "When can we go again?!" and they rated it as a 9/10.  We paid about $380 Canadian for one night at Great Wolf Lodge–on the cheapest weekday and with 25% off. This is quite an expensive stay for our family and if we only had two kids it would be about $100 cheaper. There are more ways to save by booking at least 60 days in advance and waiting for promo codes.

Five things to know about Great Wolf Lodge–is it worth it?

2.  There are many activities to participate in. 
It is very convenient that the adult wrist bands are the keys for the rooms and tied to your credit card for any purchases you wish to make. Ropes course, mini golf, spa, Magic Quest are all an extra fee that we did not do. People put down some serious cash! Our kids loved the arcade even though we only gave them $5 to spend there. There is a story time (with free snacks!) and dance parties throughout the day as well. Note that the Magic Quest game only goes up to the 5th floor so our 7th floor was a lot quieter.

Five things to know about Great Wolf Lodge–is it worth it?

3.  There are water activities for all ages.  
The kids all loved the wave pool–Nya spent 90% of her time in the water park floating in the deep end of the wave pool. I enjoyed the tube ride Howlin' Tornado the most and I liked that we could do it as a group (up to four).  Kai and Koen both loved the wave pool and doing the tube rides over and over again. The water park was not as large as I anticipated and I believe that it would be most enjoyed by kids 10 and under. Note that the water park does not open until 9 AM so for our 6 AM risers, this was a long wait! You may want to put your kids in bright swim shirts in order to spot them as it is very busy and noisy inside the water park. Nya (age 4) was not tall enough for the tube rides and afraid of doing the waterslides on her own so she just stuck to the toddler area and wave pool–that was the one downside is that one of us always was with her while the other went on the tube rides with the boys.

Five things to know about Great Wolf Lodge–is it worth it?

4.  There are a lot of food options in the hotel ....
but there are also many nearby and in Centralia–just a five minute drive away from the Grand Mound location we were at. There is also an outlet mall. Our room had a mini fridge so we did bring milk and cereal and several snacks along to save on some of the costs.  

Five things to know about Great Wolf Lodge–is it worth it?

Five things to know about Great Wolf Lodge–is it worth it?

5.  The rooms are a great size.  
We had two queen size beds and a pull out couch which was great for our family of five. It also had a mini fridge, microwave, and coffee machine.  There are fancy theme rooms but we did not upgrade. The hotel itself is not very large so everything is very easy to get to.

Five things to know about Great Wolf Lodge–is it worth it?

Five things to know about Great Wolf Lodge–is it worth it?

All the kids get wolf ears when the check in! We had a good time and I'm not sure if we'll go again but I'm glad that we have now experienced the Great Wolf Lodge.

Have you been? What are you thoughts?

Love,
Louise

Here is a video Gary put together of the water park.

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What to know about Great Wolf Lodge–is it worth it?



3 comments:

  1. Mike loves Great Wolf lodge as much as the kids and always seems to get deals. We do the same and bring cereal and lots of snacks and then eat dinner out. The hamburger restaurant next door (a walk across the parking lot) was good and great prices. Mike's favouritetip is to buy the refillable slushy/pop bottle- it's $10 or something but over a few days he and the kids drank slushies and he hasd his Diet Coke...and then we brought it back the next year..and I have it on the garage shelf for next time ;) This said, I find it an exhausting couple of days!

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    1. Gary was considering that cup! Good idea to keep it :) Is it the Burger Shack or whatever it's called that you're talking about? Our deal was decent but with the exchange, not so great. If we go again, we'll book 60 days in advance (and buy the cup!)

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  2. I honestly think I would enjoy this place!!! ;)

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