Great Wolf Lodge Survival Guide

What do I wear?

At Great Wolf Lodge, the vibe is very relaxed, and everyone seems to be wearing what they normally wear. You will need something to wear in the water, hanging out inside the water park, getting to and from your hotel room, and to hang out indoors. It’s pretty casual in there, so you can dress how you like!

Each of these items ended being a good investment for summer, as they can be used for any water activity.

Click on the images for Amazon links!

Swim dress

If you have young kids, you may be standing, walking around or getting splashed a lot. So it’s nice to wear something that’s waterproof but gives convenient coverage.

I have to admit, I was hesitant to start wearing a swim dress!! I wondered if it made me look old. However, after wearing swim dresses multiple times this summer, I can confirm that they look SUPER cute, like a pickleball or golf dress, and are super convenient as I didn’t have to mess around with a separate wrap. It was also great for river tubing.

Trunks with zippered pockets

For men, trunks with zippered pockets and lining with pockets are handy for making sure you don’t lose things when playing with your kids.

Cover up

It’s quite warm inside the water park, but the walk from the water park to the hotel room is air conditioned, so cover ups are a practical choice. To avoid embarrassing situations, choose a cover ups that do not show WATER MARKS.

Brightly colored kids swim suits

Very helpful when you are trying to find your kid amongst a sea of other kids.

Kids robes

We never bothered to go to the changing rooms inside the water park when we were going to shower once we got back to the rooms anyway. So a robe with a waist tie was perfect for drying the kids off and to keep them warm on the walk back.

Water shoes

You don’t need to wear shoes inside the water park, but it’s not entirely clean, and surfaces can be slippery, so I had peace of mind when my kids were wearing water shoes. They can keep them on for walking back to the room!

Flip flops

Get some non-slip ones for walking around in the water park and for walking to your room.

What should I pack?

Waterproof phone cases

If, like me, you like to capture memories, then a waterproof phone case or holder is a must. It was so convenient to know I could contact my other half at any time, in case of emergencies or just for overall logistical purposes.

We used these phone cases so many times over the summer – for kayaking, tubing, and more. Note: they sell these at Great Wolf Lodge but for 2-3x the price on Amazon!

Puddle jumper / Personal flotation device (PFD)

Great Wolf Lodge provides these in all sizes for kids, and we never struggled to find a size we needed. So it’s not required unless you prefer your own PFD. The ones provided are the basic type, vest shaped with no sleeves. There are infant ones with a head support panel.

Waterproof bag/tote

I brought a foldable tote to hold our cover ups, water bottles and snacks while we were in the water park. They do have lockers, but they may be far away or on another floor. A small tote was handy to keep non-valuable items close by.

Light-up bubble wands

This is a pro-tip for saving some money. During the evening dance party for kids, they will wheel out a cart of bubble wands which you can buy for $36+ apiece. Save yourself some money by buying these and bringing them to surprise your kids! These will also entertain them for a long time.

What is there to do?

Water park

The main attraction is the water park! We spend majority of our time there. There are activities for younger children (aged 0-10), as well as older children (10+).

Great Wolf Lodge water park attractions are very standardized. The main attractions are the huge slides, the baby slides, the splash area, lazy river, and wave pool. Some locations may have an outdoor pool or “hot springs”.

Check your location’s website or app for specific attractions in their water park.

It will be pretty evident what parts of the water park your kids are allowed to play in. Make sure they either know how to swim, or keep them in a personal flotation device (life vest) at all times to take the stress out of your stay.

There are staff monitoring the larger and small slides, as well as multiple lifeguards monitoring the pools, however during high season, the pools can get crowded and it can be noisy indoors, so remember – safety first!

Other attractions

There are lots of non water-based indoor activities for the evenings, or for those who don’t want to get wet.

MagiQuest

This is an interactive game where kids wave wands at sensors placed throughout the property to complete a MagiQuest mission. You need to purchase a wand (~$25) to play, and pay another ~$17 to play the game. There is a bundle for ~$35 for both. Note that these wands that you have to purchase are useless outside of Great Wolf Lodge properties.

Younger kids don’t need to play the actual game to have fun waving the wands at the sensors in order to watch an animation or see a light show. Older kids will want to complete the whole quest that takes hours and may take them to several floors of the property.

Arcade

My kids always love to play in arcades, and the ones at Great Wolf Lodge have a good variety of games for all ages. $50 credit lasted us about 2 hours.

Rope course

You need to be a certain height for this, so I’d say it’s for teenagers and adults only. I did this with another parent and it was exhilarating and so fun!

Build-a-bear, bowling, maze, mining

These were not our top picks and they never seemed busy in any location we went to. Our kids went to the maze while some of us parents did the rope course. If we had time, we would probably choose to spend more time in the water park.

Events

The staff put a good amount of effort into these events, and I think my kids enjoyed them! We won some candy from a bingo session, and took part in one of the evening dance parties.

Should I buy the attraction passes?

Overall, I would say no. Each activity is about $10-$15, and the lowest tier pass for kids is $29. This means you have to do at least 3 different activities to make the pass worthwhile.

My kids would spend all day at the water park if they could, so we didn’t have that much time for other activities. We stayed for one night each time, (which was enough time at Great Wolf Lodge) and we only spent 1-2 hours in the evening doing other indoor activities.

This was usually spent at the arcade, attending an event, or “playing” MagiQuest. As mentioned above, the game is not suitable for young kids to play on their own, so keep that in mind.

The passes include one MagiQuest game, but you only get you a (small) discount on the wands.

Where do I eat?

Bring snacks to eat in the room and in the evenings. The food available there skews towards the unhealthy side, and is also quite expensive. It was difficult to stay away from carbs and processed meat at the restaurants, and the “market” store had expensive overpriced prepackaged “grab and go” food.

You don’t need to buy prepaid meal vouchers unless you know you want to eat inside. You can easily drive to a nearby restaurant for better food!

Hot tip: the breakfast buffet is $30, which is quite expensive, but you can get enough food for the entire family on one tray, and since it’s a buffet, you can go back for more.

How do I book to save the most money?

I compared prices on Great Wolf Lodge’ official website (WITH the ~35% off advertised) and it was still MORE expensive than booking on hotels.com.

The difference was only about ~$50, however, I get 2% cashback with hotels.com (OneKeyCash, the hotels.com loyalty program), AND another 4% by booking using Rakuten.

If you haven’t used Rakuten before, you are in for a treat. You can buy almost anything through Rakuten by using their app or browser plugins and get cashback in the form of a payment every quarter to your bank account.