The beginning of last year we took a trip to Washington State to spend a few days at the Great Wolf Lodge. I am SURE you've heard about or seen their advertisements online. Anytime I see a "sponsored ad" for this place I read the comments and the most common thing said is "This place is so expensive no normal family can afford it". I wanted to address their concerns from a "Normal families" point of view so YOU too can plan a trip and you'll want to go back again and again.
First of all I am a stay at home mom. My husband is a retail manager and we are not rich by any stretch of the imagination. We do, however, enjoy taking trips with our children and making memories they will always remember. Although my daughter is still really small, we will have pictures for her to remember.
Our very first Great Wolf Lodge trip was in Feb of 2018. It was in Grand Mound Washington and I am embarrassed to say we almost paid full price. I was so overwhelmed by the price of everything I didn't want to spend a single red cent more than we had to. (being like those nasty commenters on those sponsored ads) It was almost no fun. We also spent a lot of time OUTSIDE the lodge in the short amount of time we were there and honestly--I regret that the most. We got our ears wet (see what I did there) and learned so much that I said "next time" I know what we can do....
Looking back I feel like we wasted so much time on worrying about how much everything cost and not wanting to "give them any more of our money". I had the WRONG attitude. Have a budget, yes, but dont come to this place thinking you WILL NOT spend not one red cent more- you will miss out.
Ill explain.
When you book your stay you have three different room options: Standard, Themed and Premium. (Ill an an opinion on that in a second.) After you decide what room option you want it will ask you about "other packages" you'd like. At this point you'll be so overwhelmed with the cost of this place you (and by you I mean me) you'll not want to get a pass, or a package. TRUST ME--these passes you'll want. Before we get to far ahead of ourselves lets talk about the rooms.
This is honestly a preference. We have been in a premium suite and a standard (we stayed in a themed room at a different hotel and its ok--if that is your thing) but I will tell you something. Having a room with two sections if you have multiple children of different ages is CRITICAL for nap times!!! You WILL be in and out of your room. You WILL have children that need naps!! (TRUST ME TAKE NAPS!!) This way you can come and go and have some privacy-to us it is worth the extra money. **Ill also add all rooms come with a microwave and a small refrigerator (more on why this is important later)**
For two boys who dont normally take naps, this was a HARD crash and it was a 3 hour nap.
Before you think I am trying to up sell you on a room-I am not being paid for this from the GWL so I can tell you exactly what I want you to know. Here is a trick you are going to want to do RIGHT NOW if you think you may ever, in the future, stay here, Stop right now and go register on their website. Ill wait. When you do you will get emails OFTEN of deals and coupons and promotions they are running. They now have an option to finance a trip, if you are into that sort of thing, dont wait - if its a good deal to you, BOOK IT. Those deals go fast especially during the weekend and when school is out.
Lets talk timing. We home school, so it is easy for us to go whenever we want, but being realisticly most people can't do that. BUT TRY! Your best times with be smack dab in the middle of the week when EVERYONE is in school. Check the area school schedule if you can. You dont want to be there during spring break or a holiday break--Its miserably busy and you don't want that headache.
Also lets talk length of time you'll want to stay here. My suggestion is a MINIMUM of two days, three is better but, Honestly, dont bother staying one night. Its not worth it. This is a destination, and you'll want at least a day at the swim park and a day doing the MAGIQUEST. There are so many other things you HAVE to do while you are here that if you only stay one night you aren't getting your moneys worth and you will regret the money you did spend on the room. Here is an example of the FREE things available that you'll want to go to. This is what I missed out on during our first visit. In my mind I thought they would be "lame"--DO THEM-- You are paying for these activities and you will be surprised how much fun even the older kids have doing these. (keep in mind this is an example and activities change per hotel and seasonally)
Lets talk about the passes youll want to consider. There are three levels of passes that are good for your entire stay. (you just get to use some items once) They have a Pup Pass, a Paw Pass and a Wolf pass. They have a suggestion according to age, but honestly...We just skipped the Pup Pass for my two year old and went straight to the Paw Pass and I will explain why. The most exciting thing you will ever get at the GWL is their "magic wands"! Its something you will be able to take with you on ALL of your trips no matter where you go. Their toppers are more money, and if you are into Hacks you'll want one to "defeat" the bosses that are around the hotel. It isn't a MUST have, but it is still fun. Now the MAGIQUEST is really for kids who can read and can follow directions. (unless you want to do it mostly yourself) Otherwise they have a "MiniMagi" (good for the ones that dont have the attention span for a quest but still want to play) and the wand is activated so they can use it through the hotel! It is so sweet to watch their face light up in excitement when they point the wand at the object and it starts to interact with them. IT IS WORT IT! Which is what we did for my daughter and she HAD A BLAST! Totally worth the extra money. She spent HOURS upon HOURS running around getting these items to light up.
I want to add this is from Colorado Springs, they are all a little different.
You also get to pick out a Magi Name~ be thinking about that now!
Something else I want to add, that Colorado Springs did for us that I really appreciated, was they allowed us to swap somethings out and use that as a credit for something else. For example: Our most recent stay was our third visit. My son didn't want ANOTHER pair of goggles-so I asked if we could use the price of the goggles toward something else and pay the difference, and they said yes!! This was also handy for my daughter since she wouldn't have used the goggles anyway. This is also something I really love about this place. EVERYONE tries so hard to make my requests a YES. We've not met a single mean or hateful person during all three of our stays. It has been incredible.
Extra Packages.
I am going to step out on a limb here and tell you about these. Why? Because now that I KNOW about them I feel like it would be an injustice not to share them with you.Sometimes you have to do a little bit of digging to find these so if you go hunting I am SURE you can find them.
There is an ADORABLE Story Time Package. (Which they will want to wear during the story time at the end of the night. Prices may vary)
They get:
Small Great Wolf Kids character
Great Wolf Lodge storybook
Blanket
Flashlight
Cinch backpack
for $40! That is a MUST have. I saw a few flashlights and now looking back I wish we would have done that. (You'll thank me later)
Also they have three different levels of a birthday package!!! I wont go into detail with these, but So SO SO cute!
Part 2 we will discuss strategy on how to conquer the hotel and activities.
Thank you for reading.
Pelley
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