Has anybody ever been to Great Wolf Lodge?

Going in July with my husband, 20 month old son and my parents.

Anybody have any tips?

5/18/2014 9:47:14 PM

it's a shitty hotel with an indoor water park in the middle.

got roped into going with some friends one time. absolute waste of money.

5/18/2014 9:57:25 PM

Reviews are mixed...

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g49049-d1424547-Reviews-Great_Wolf_Lodge-Concord_North_Carolina.html

But given enough hooch, I can have a great time nearly anywhere.

5/18/2014 10:01:20 PM

Quote :

"absolute waste of money."

My parents are paying.

I wouldn't ever think of going here if I didn't have a kid.

5/18/2014 10:03:20 PM

Not my cup of tea, but I had niece and nephew go last year and it was pretty obvious they had the time of their lives. They are usually pretty quiet kids, but they kept going on and on about how much fun they had and all the different stuff they saw (I've never gone).

If you are going for the kid, 20 months seems a little young IMO. These kids were 10 and 12 and their favorite part seemed to be that they got to run wild in the water park without mom watching over their shoulder - cant really do that at 20 months so their experience may not translate.

5/18/2014 10:10:00 PM

There's a section just for toddlers. I have a friend that took her 13 month old son and he had a blast.

There's also story time, arts & crafts, an arcade and mini golf.

5/18/2014 10:11:53 PM

Quote :

"BEWARE THE SLIDES IF YOU HAVE A LITTLE ONE! My husband made the (terrible!) decision to allow my toddler to go down the slides (by the giant bucket) alone. I'm not sure WhY he OR the employee working the top of the slide thought that this was a good idea but apparently they do not allow parents to ride tandem with their kids so....my two year old non-swimmer was sent down alone (without a life jacket!) where at the bottom he was pushed under water and could not sit himself up as the water continued to flow onto and over him."

AHA, this place sounds awesome.

I wish it was outdoors. That'd be cool.

5/19/2014 2:08:20 AM

Your 20 month old would have just as much fun at a city pool, they wouldn't know the difference. Ridge Road pool is just a few dollars.

[Edited on May 19, 2014 at 6:19 AM. Reason : .]

5/19/2014 6:18:43 AM

My family hit the one in Concord earlier this year on a Groupon, which was still a bit expensive. My kids had a blast and my wife and I did too. But my kids are six and ten, so they were old enough to do all but the biggest ride. We went down them a bunch. I will say midweek is nice because its a LOT busier on the weekends. We showed up on Sunday and it was packed, but Monday and Tuesday was not nearly as crowded.

5/19/2014 6:43:30 AM

Quote :

"I wouldn't ever think of going here if I didn't have a kid."

5/19/2014 9:00:03 AM

I never understood why people would go there in the middle of the summer. It seems like an okay idea if it's like January, but in July I'd rather go to an outdoor pool or water park. My sister takes my nephew and niece every year for a couple days over Christmas break and they seem to enjoy it.

[Edited on May 19, 2014 at 9:23 AM. Reason : a]

5/19/2014 9:20:18 AM

Quote :

""BEWARE THE SLIDES IF YOU HAVE A LITTLE ONE! My husband made the (terrible!) decision to allow my toddler to go down the slides (by the giant bucket) alone. I'm not sure WhY he OR the employee working the top of the slide thought that this was a good idea but apparently they do not allow parents to ride tandem with their kids so....my two year old non-swimmer was sent down alone (without a life jacket!) where at the bottom he was pushed under water and could not sit himself up as the water continued to flow onto and over him.""

I love how it was just her husband's shitty parenting....

5/19/2014 11:34:37 AM

We've taken our kids and their cousins... it is a nice escape during winter months.


I would not recommend eating there, drive off-site and grab something. I also brought a lot of alcohol. There is not much reason to go if you do not have kids. My brothers and I ended up having contests of who could run across a lilly pad/rope course that they had setup (without using the ropes). None of us made it after about a dozen runs and other patrons and lifeguards all gathered to watch and laugh. There were some pretty great wipeouts. I was surprised they kept letting us do it, honestly.

5/19/2014 3:01:21 PM

Yep, it's fun during the winter. But I would not go if it was summer. Just hit the beach or a water park. And don't go if you don't have kids. It's not for you.

5/19/2014 3:32:04 PM

Just got back from 4 days at Great Wolf Lodge.

My son had a blast in the water park. I don't think I've ever seen him so happy before. Smiling and giggling the entire time. He loved waiting for the big bucket of water to drop.

We had a big suite that had a master bedroom with a king bed and then two queens in the main room. The floor we were on was pretty noisy during the day/night so we put our son's crib in the master bedroom bc it was farthest away from the main door.

The MagicQuest thing or whatever looked pretty interesting. Seemed like every kid there had a wand and was running around completing quests.


My only complaint was that the A/C unit in our room was so loud when it was on

We ate in the buffet the first night there. We decided to go off campus for the rest of our meals

[Edited on July 16, 2014 at 4:05 PM. Reason : f]

7/16/2014 4:04:28 PM

where did you eat "off campus"? Just curious since GWL is like 5 miles from my office.

7/16/2014 4:28:30 PM

Hope you hit up Stinky Fingers. Excellent eastern-style bbq.

7/16/2014 5:14:25 PM

Im in wisconsin already. I can never say no to a drunken water adventure.

7/16/2014 6:26:50 PM

I thought it was for people with kids.

7/16/2014 9:57:51 PM

Quote :

"where did you eat "off campus"?"

Jack In the Box, Texas Roadhouse, Red Robin, Sonic

Jack In the Box was really good. It was my first time eating there. We don't got those in Raleigh. AND THERE WAS A 7ELEVEN TOO!

[Edited on July 16, 2014 at 11:29 PM. Reason : f]

7/16/2014 11:29:21 PM

GWL is a great deal, if you find a package deal on sale. We went like Thursday to Sunday, on an off weekend in the fall a few years back. Our package was for 3 adults and 2 kids, and we got a room that had a 'kid area' that was separated from the rest of the room by a wall.

Magi quest is addictive even or adults. My wife bought a wand so she could play with our kid, I ended up stealing both wands and completing all the quests when they got tired of the running back and forth and up and down steps.

The water park was not bad from my point of view, and my at the time 7 year old and his 8 year old cousin enjoyed it a lot. They then made my father in law take them to the arcade for like 12 hours.

Our package included 1 or 2 meals at the lodge. We stayed and enjoyed the park all day on our last day, as your park pass is good after checkout. We kept snack food, etc in our room, and ordered a pizza one of the nights.

Overall, its not a bad vacation if you want to stay in doors or if the weather is nasty. Relatively easy to keep up with kids since its all indoor/contained in winter, though in summer they have some outdoor rides as well. You can overspend in a hurry, like any vacation destination, but with some planning and a budget, its no more expensive than a trip to carowinds or the beach.

7/19/2014 8:42:25 AM

Quote :

"Jack In the Box was really good. It was my first time eating there. We don't got those in Raleigh."

Jack in the Box is terrible

7/19/2014 1:33:24 PM

I'm not really surprised that someone who enjoyed the Great Wolf Lodge would think JITB is good.

7/19/2014 8:40:33 PM

lots of food is good the very first time you eat it

also i heard fuckwads finger banged a hot ass 20 year old Texas Roadhouse waitress in the bathroom

[Edited on July 20, 2014 at 2:10 AM. Reason : warning: don't be sexually explicit in The Lounge]

7/20/2014 2:07:29 AM

lol TT got told.

Our package didn't include any free meals at GWL but it did include a $75 resort credit. We pretty much used the entire credit the first night at the buffet

7/20/2014 5:18:17 PM

Jack in the box is two or three rungs below Hardee's, and Hardee's is dogshit.

7/20/2014 5:24:55 PM

I'll say it again the hella peno munchie meal at jntb is legit

7/20/2014 6:54:55 PM

Get the Salmonella Jack. It'll keep you doubled over in satisfaction for days.

7/22/2014 5:14:15 PM

1993 wants its topical humor back

7/22/2014 5:27:48 PM

jack in the box is one of my top fast food choices due to:

1. Their curly fries.
2. I get a 50% discount when i'm in my uniform.

7/27/2014 8:57:34 AM

Going to Great Wolf Lodge again on Sunday.

Only for one night this time. Taking advantage of a great last minute deal.

6/19/2015 4:40:23 PM

have fun!! use protection!!

6/19/2015 4:55:58 PM

One of my clients brought back bed bugs from a great wolf lodge. Then he looked it up and found that room had several complaints about bed bugs online going back 2 years and they didn't do anything about it so he sued the shit out of them.

6/20/2015 7:42:06 PM

I didn't know this existed. Seems awful.

6/21/2015 7:06:53 PM

Your client brought you bed bugs? What type of operation is this?

6/21/2015 9:56:56 PM

I had to break down and store his fish tank and all its inhabitants while they fumigated his house

6/22/2015 12:22:03 AM

Quote :

"2. I get a 50% discount when i'm in my uniform. "

Employees only get half off??

6/22/2015 10:05:57 AM

Sick burn brah

6/22/2015 10:48:38 AM

I'm going on Friday! Anyone who has been before have some tips on things to do vs. things to not pay extra for?

6/22/2015 11:54:23 AM

We ended up not being able to go. Henry woke up with a fever yesterday. So now we have until November to use our credit.

^I don't know how old your kid(s) is but we didn't buy any of the extras when we took Henry last year. They have this MagiQuest game that all the older kids run around and play but unless our kid is like 5 or 6, they won't understand how to play.

The restaurant there sucks. It is expensive, the food sucks and the service is terrible. You are right across from Concord Mills so you can just go over there for lunch/dinner whatever.

They won't let you use the water park until 1pm on your arrival date. So I'd try and be there as close to 1pm as possible. Your room won't be ready until 3pm but they will give you your water park wristbands so you can go ahead and use the facility. And checkout is at 11:00am but you can use the water park until they close on your checkout day.

We didn't really spend that much extra money when we went. We did all the free stuff with Henry. Story time at night, arts/crafts room etc.

We will probably go in mid-July to use our credit.

[Edited on June 22, 2015 at 2:38 PM. Reason : d]

6/22/2015 2:37:57 PM

Thanks. We'll have a 5 year old, a 2 year old and an 18 month old, so I don't think old enough to do a lot of what they offer. We're hoping the candy shop and water park are enough entertainment for that group.

Good idea about Concord Mills, that certainly is preferable to crappy overpriced food.

6/22/2015 2:49:35 PM

There's a Dave & Busters at Concord Mills. Also a candy shop there too.

There's an aquarium at Concord Mills

Henry had fun at the arcade at GWL just walking around and pushing the buttons. He also liked the ice cream shop.

6/22/2015 3:12:33 PM