Tips on Enjoying Great Wolf Lodge with your Family

Last year on our Southeast road trip, our family visited Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte, North Carolina. We had visited one in Michigan and absolutely loved it, so we decided to give it another try. For those of you who have never heard of this brand, let me enlighten you. Great Wolf Lodge is a chain of indoor water park slides and kid centered activities. It is very family friendly and your room price includes water park admission to the slides and pools on their property. We were blown away at the amount of activities, family fun and room accommodations this hotel had to offer. Here are my tips on enjoying Great Wolf Lodge with your family...

1. Book early

One of the biggest tips I can give you is to plan in advance. They often have deals and promo codes if you book early. I'm talking about 50% off kind of deals! You can easily get a room for around $200-250. They also run plenty of 20-30% off promotions as well. To check out their rates, click here.

2. Take advantage of your time there

Another one of my tips on enjoying Great Wolf Lodge with your family is to make the most of your time and arrive early. Check in is usually around 3-4pm, however you can use their water park the minute you arrive! This one of the bonuses of Great Wolf Lodge... you can use their water slides, pools, arcade, bowling alleys and more early the morning until you check out the next day. This is a huge benefit!

We always try to arrive in the morning and take our swimsuits in a bag, so that we change at the hotel, even though check in is in the afternoon. Once you arrive, you simply tell the hotel staff that you are here early. They will hold your luggage for you and give you a bracelet to allow access into the water areas.

Almost all of the Great Wolf Lodge resorts have a wave pool, kiddie play structure and kid slides, lazy rivers, pool basketball, hot tubs, and bigger kid/adult slides. Some of them even offer a ropes course and outdoor pools too (depending on their location and time of year you visit). Most of them also include arcades, kid areas for arts and crafts, a bowling alley, and MagiQuest (an indoor scavenger hunt adventure). Some of these activities do cost extra, but there are passes (Great Wolf Lodge Paw Pass) that you can get to combine many activities for a discounted price.

Our kids really enjoyed the racing slides and the circular family tube ride. They also spent plenty of time lounging around in the lazy river and bouncing up and down in the wave pool. They climbed the kid water play structure about 10 times, and waited under the giant bucket that dumped water on them over and over again. The adults enjoyed sliding around with the kids, yet some relaxing time in the hot tub area.

3. Enjoy the room too

Both times we have stayed at Great Wolf Lodge, we have upgraded to a Wolf Den room (it is maybe $30 more). It is a family room with one queen bed, a sofa (usually) and a set of themed bunk beds called the Wolf Den. It is essentially a little room within your hotel room. They kids love the privacy and the fact that there is a TV in there, so they have a cool space all to themselves.

There is also a mini refrigerator included, and a small table and chairs. The room has ample space for luggage and some even have views/balconies to the outside. Overall, it is a wonderful place for a family vacation or just a weekend of fun! I highly recommend staying at a Great Wolf Lodge in the future. I hope you found this post - Tips on Enjoying Great Wolf Lodge with your Family helpful in planning your Great Wolf vacation in the future.

Great Wolf Lodge Wolf Den

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To check out my two other favorite family hotels:

The Best Family Resort in Marco Island Florida

Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Review - Estero, FL

If you are looking for how to stay at some great hotels for free, check out my post - How to Get Free Hotel Stays.

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