21 Tips for Visiting the Great Wolf Lodge

Our family loves visiting Great Wolf Lodge because there’s so much to do, and it’s all in one place! We spend lots of time at the indoor water park, arcade, Magic Quest game, and much more.

We’ve visited the Great Wolf Lodge the past two winters. We like to visit after the holidays during the “winter slump”. Because the indoor water park is always heated to a perfect 84 degrees, we can enjoy swimming fun without having to worry about the weather! We’ve found it’s something to look forward to while we await warmer weather.

After visiting the resort on multiple occasions, we’ve learned a thing or two! In this post, we’re sharing 21 tips for visiting the Great Wolf Lodge. This is based on our experience staying at the Grand Mound, Washington, location. I’m also sharing our room tour if you’re interested in seeing what the rooms look like. At the end of this post, I’m also sharing lots more photos!

Best Tips

1. Be prepared to leave the towels at the park

The resort provides beach towels for the water park. However, it’s important that you return the towels before you exit the water park area, otherwise you will be charged! The staff did let me exit with a towel on one occasion, but they did warn me that my room would be charged if I didn’t immediately return it. (They keep track of beach towel rentals using the wristbands from check-in.) So, if you want to enter and exit the park with a beach towel, you’ll have to bring your own. 

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2. Bring a swimsuit cover-up or robe

I didn’t bring a swimsuit cover-up, and I wish I would have! I didn’t realize that we couldn’t leave the water park with one of their towels, and I didn’t want to walk through the entire hotel in just my bathing suit. For this reason, I think it’s a good idea to bring a swimsuit cover-up or a bath robe. It would have been nice to have just thrown it on and walked back to our room. You could also bring a change of clothes and change in the locker rooms inside the park, but it seemed like a hassle and I would have rather cleaned up in our own hotel room. My daughter loves this unicorn robe, and I have a cute cover-up like this one.

3. Be prepared for the heat

On the plus side, it’s really nice that the indoor water park is very warm. It’s kept at 84 degrees F. It was very comfortable to be in our swimsuits and start playing in the water. However, it was too hot for our newborn baby to spend much time there. We didn’t plan on taking her swimming, and we quickly realized it was just too warm for her to hang out poolside with one of us. Instead, my husband took her back to the hotel room. If you have someone in your party that’s not planning on swimming, the warmth and humidity might be uncomfortable.

4. Bring a waterproof case for your phone

I really regret that I didn’t bring a waterproof case for my phone. I have practically no photos of our family at the water park, because my phone was secured in a locker. However, I saw several families with these waterproof phone cases, and I thought “Now that’s a smart idea!” They simply wore them around their necks. I saw families using these to take photos as they were going down the slides, and I will for sure be bringing one next time!

5. Look for a discount

If you join their mailing list, you’ll find lots of promotions and deals. I regularly receive emails that offer up to 40% off hotel rooms. I’ve heard that GroupOn also offers some good deals too! I ended up purchasing our room for just $179, which I thought was a great deal since it included two days at the water park. During our next trip, I found a deal for around $212. However, on the weekends, the rate was more than double that price!

6. Make the most of the water park

By purchasing an overnight stay, we were allowed access to the water park as soon as it opened on the first day all the way up until it closed on the second day. To make the most of our time, we arrived early on the first day and played in the water park before check-in. We could have also stayed later the next day as well. 

7. Have a plan for communicating with each other

If your family is planning to break into smaller groups, it might be hard to find each other. For example, when my husband was taking our oldest daughter down the tube slides, I wasn’t able to communicate with him while I was watching our youngest. If you’re not planning on bringing your phones into the water park, it might be helpful to have a notepad or mini-white board so you can write down quick messages. It would have been helpful to have a space to write “Be back in 15 minutes” or “Going to the wave pool, see you at 1pm for lunch!” 

8. If you have kids, take note of their height

There are lots of different water slides at the Great Wolf Lodge, and some of them are only for bigger kids. I think it’s a good idea to measure your kids beforehand so you know what slides they can go on. It’s a good idea to set expectations ahead of time, instead of having a disappointed kid upon arrival. 

9. Skip the cabana

There are cabanas available for rent inside the park. They offer reserved seating, a mini-fridge, etc. When I asked how much it would cost to rent one, I was told that they were $350. That was more than the price of our hotel room! I personally don’t think it would be worth it. If you were to split the cost with another family, then maybe it would be worthwhile, but we were able to find chairs by the pool.

10. Don’t forget to get your free wolf ears headbands

Each member of our party received a wolf ears headband from the gift shop for free. Don’t forget to swing by the gift shop to grab yours!

11. Beat the rush for breakfast

When we visited, we decided to purchase the buffet breakfast for an additional fee per person. We woke up a little early and had no trouble getting a table and dining right away. However, we noticed that a line started to form for breakfast around 9:30am. (At least on the day that we visited!) We were pleased with the options at the breakfast buffet. There were lots of things to choose from: make-your-own-omelette station, pancakes, french toast, biscuits and gravy, freshly-blended fruit smoothies, cereals, bacon, sausage, eggs, fresh fruit, pastries, and more. We were able to purchase the breakfast for an additional $17 per guest in our party, and we thought it was well worth the price.

12. Avoid the elevators at check-out time

When we were checking out, the elevators were absolutely packed. Without exaggerating, we waited at least 15 times for an elevator only to find out that each one was full and couldn’t fit our party or our luggage. I recommend bringing your luggage to the car well before the check-out time, because it was really difficult to get downstairs.

13. Take note of the menus

Most of the food available on the property wasn’t particularly healthy. If you have a special diet or if you’re trying to eat more healthy, I recommend dining reservations at one of the sit-down restaurants or bringing your own food. Most of the options included burgers, pizza, pasta, and ice cream from the quick-service counters. (We really enjoyed the pizza… it was better than expected!)

14. Check your room location

Although we really liked our room, we did not like its location. It was right next to one of the restaurants and at the front of a busy hallway. Because quiet time wasn’t until 11pm, it was super noisy at bedtime. Next time we’ll ask to stay further from the busiest areas.

15. Bring scissors

Each person in our party received a color-coded bracelet that allowed entry into the water park. (It also let the life guards know which waterslides we could ride based on the height requirements.) It also served as our room key and was linked to our credit card for purchases. If you don’t want to sleep with the bracelet on, bring some scissors. 

16. Enjoy all the activities

There were tons of free activities that were included in our stay. We enjoyed morning yoga, photo opportunities with characters, BINGO, bubbles, craft time, etc. During the evening, there was a jammy jamboree party!

17. Plan for MagiQuest

MagiQuest is a scavenger-hunt type game where you play games at stations located throughout the resort. To play, you need to purchase a magic wand and game time. For children 5 and under, there’s also a Mini Magi Mode option. Each station takes about 15-30 minutes to complete, although with your purchase you have unlimited play during your stay. We didn’t do the MagiQuest game because we did other activities, but we heard from other parents that it’s quite a time commitment. If you decide to purchase the wand, make sure that you have enough time to play the game.

18. The arcade is expensive

We purchased an arcade pass and then we also put extra money on the card. We quickly realized that the arcade games were very expensive. (Some of them were as much as $4 per play!) We had a blast, so it was worth it for us, but it’s something you might want to consider when budgeting for your trip. Overall we were really pleased with the arcade game selection. There were lots of fun games to choose from. Our daughter especially liked the mini carousel.

We also think it’s a good idea to set expectations with your children about what things you will buy. There are opportunities to up-sell everywhere. Whether it’s a bubble wand, a glow stick, a MagiQuest cape, or something else, it’s helpful to let your children know what experiences you will be doing and which ones you won’t. (My best tip to avoid meltdowns!)

19. Download the app

When you check-in, make sure to download the free app. The app will show you all the activities for the day, that way you won’t miss anything fun!

20. Beat the crowds

We timed our trip for a weekday in March. The resort was pretty quiet and we didn’t have to wait in long lines for the waterslides. If you can visit on a weekday instead of a weekend, we highly recommend it. It was worth it for us!

21. Enjoy the extra paid experiences

In addition to MagiQuest, there’s also the Howler’s Peak outdoor ropes course, Oliver’s Mining (where you can fill a bag of gems), Build-a-Bear Workshop, and the Moonstone Mine (a mirror maze). We only stayed one night during our trip, so we didn’t have time to do these extra activities. We’d definitely like to come back and play some more!

Our Review of the Water Park

The Great Wolf Lodge in Washington State contains a 56,000-square-foot indoor water park. Our daughter was over 42″ tall, so she got to play in Fort Mackenzie. (This is where we spent most of our time!) The fort has lots of fun water activities and squirt guns. We were completely drenched as we tried to make our way through the fort. If you have a sensitive little kid that doesn’t want to get splashed, there really wasn’t a path to the top that didn’t include all the water splashing.

Our favorite thing to do at Fort Mackenzie was to slide down the two Totem Tower water slides. What I liked about these slides was that they didn’t empty into a pool. Our daughter, who’s still learning to swim, didn’t have to exit in a pool. This was great because kids weren’t allowed to sit on adults’ laps and go down the slides.

We also really enjoyed the wave pool at Slap Tail Pond. We spent a lot of time jumping in the waves!

There were also some fun areas for little kids, including Whooping Hollow and the Cub Paw Pool.

We didn’t do the bigger slides on this trip, including the Howlin’ Tornado, Alberta Falls, or the River Canyon. 

We really liked the “water playground” at Chinook Cove. There were lots of basketball hoops set up in that pool. Big Foot Pass also looked really cool, because kids could try to climb the nets without falling in the water.

Room Tour: Luxury King Suite

We stayed in the Luxury King Suite. We had a king-sized bed, a sleeper sofa, a mini-fridge, and a full bath. The room was very spacious, and there was lots of space to spread out. We’re sharing our photos below: