According to my daughter, Great Wolf Lodge is “the best hotel in the universe”. (If you’re planning on going make sure to check Groupon for deals!) I had been hesitant to take my kids here, as we’ve struggled during swim lessons and other water activities. But after getting my daughter private lessons and spending a good bit of time in the pool this summer, both my children are more comfortable in the water so I thought we’d give it a shot!

When you arrive…

At Great Wolf Lodge you can start swimming the day of check in at 1pm (check in isn’t until 4pm) and continue to play until closing on the day of checkout (around 8pm, but varies depending on the day). So while the hotel is a bit on the pricey side, you also essentially get 2 day tickets to a water park.  To go to 6 flags white water in Atlanta, you are looking at $40-50 for single day tickets. So when you do the math, Great Wolf Lodge makes sense. Plus it’s indoor and you don’t have to deal with suncreen and overexposure.

At check in, you are given a waterproof wrist band that gives you access to your room and the pool area. You can also link it to your credit card and leave your wallet locked away.

Non-aquatic attractions…

Great Wolf Lodge offers other experiences as well: mini-golf, a ropes course, a bowling ally, an arcade, a 4D theater and magiquest. They each come with their own price tag or you can purchase a paw pass for access to multiple attractions at a discounted rate.

For us, the pool was enough. We arrived at 4pm – which is check in time and a crazy time to arrive!! I would not recommend coming in right at 4pm. Got into our room and swam for a couple of hours before grabbing an on site pizza and a burger for my daughter, and back to our room for warm showers and dinner while watching cartoons. We went back down to the lobby for story time with one of the wolf characters, which was… OK. I could not really hear the story well and my kids were only mildly interested.

What about food???

The next day we ate breakfast in our room (I brought this meal – there is a fridge and microwave in each room) and hit the pool at 9am when it opened. I was not sure what to do for lunch, the main restaurant is a buffet and a bit too pricey. $20 for adults and $12-15 for kids. Maybe for older kids the buffet is worthwhile – but my kids are disinterested in food most of the time and might eat 4 blueberries. I didn’t want to leave for this meal  – we are all in swimwear and had checked out of the room at this point. So we ended up at the on site Dunkin donuts and about breakfast sandwiches, which was absolutely perfect.  Inexpensive, kid-friendly food that was quick to eat. We took about an hour or so lunch break, after eating we walked around the hotel, looking at gift shops and other sites. It wasn’t totally necessary to have a cover-up, but I was happy I brought ours – especially the warm ones for the kids (see below).

Pool activities…

I didn’t realize it at the time, but taking an hour from the pool really helped all of us recharge and gave us a break from the chlorine. We returned to the pool around 1pm and played another 3 hours before leaving for home.

My 6 year old daughter, who is short for her age was able to ride all the big slides (inner tube slides) except for one. 2 of the big slides had double inner tubes and one was a big raft. My 4 year old could have done the raft slide as well, he just had no interest and we didn’t push it.

There are a couple of medium height water slides – no tubes that end in about a half a foot of water. Both my kids were able to do those – however it was good to have a parent waiting at the bottom of the slide. My 4 year old had a face full of water after getting twisted around on the slide and I was relieved to be close enough to rescue my very upset little boy. However a life guard was there and he was watching closely. All the life guards were very professional and there were a lot of them. In fact the entire staff at GWL was very professional and friendly.

Both my kids LOVED the wave pool, a new onset of waves signaled by a wolf’s howl. They both enjoyed the kiddie pool as well – think of the toddler section at Buffaloe Road Aquatic Center but on a much bigger scale. This section had 3 slides and they were a big hit for my children. I think my 4 year old did them 500 times. No exaggeration!!

Also available is a surfing area, great for older kids and a hot tub. The hot tub was a nice place to warm up periodically. I thought the pool area was a bit cold, except when climbing the 5 flights of stairs to the intertube slides. It wasn’t MISERABLE cold, but the hot tub was appreciated. They have a family one and an adults only tub as well.

Here are the essentials…

• Bring some food/snacks since on site food choices are limited. I’ve heard some people recommend leaving for dinner for a better food selection and a chlorine break.
• Outside food/drinks are prohibited in the pool area…but I did see several parents with toddler snacks (raisins, goldfish, etc). NOTHING like that is sold and I’m not sure that the no snack policy is strictly enforced. I think one improvement GWL could add is a snack stand of kid-friendly foods.
• GWL provides towels that are…adequate. But if you want a nice, fluffy and warm towel you may want to bring your own.
• I loved my cover up and brought ones for the kids as well. That way you can bounce from lobby to pool easily
• Next time I may bring the kids (and perhaps myself) water shoes, the ground is slippery around the pool area.
• I packed a separate bag of travel home clothes. So after check out we packed the car and just had one bag with all our stuff to keep track of. Lockers are available but we didn’t use them this trip.

We loved our stay at GWL at the kids are already asking to go back. Definitely worth checking out!!