So I’m sitting in the lobby of our hotel writing this travel post and review. Why? Well because there is nothing else to do at 11:30 at night and I can’t even get coffee anymore.
This week for my wife’s college spring break we packed our son up and headed north to Traverse City Michigan. A few weeks ago I made reservations for Great Wolf Lodge after our plans for heading to Charleston, South Carolina had to be canceled. Our trip consisted of 2 nights and 3 days and we stayed in one of the themed suites called Wolf Den. Prior to being a dad I never had reason to stay in this hotel despite MANY trips to Traverse City. Then again why would a single guy in his twenties or early thirties stay in a place made for kids? Now that I am a dad there was an easy justification for it.
The hotel is great and reminds of a resort you might find in Disney World with its attention to detail right down to the animal and cabin themed restaurants, the decorations in the rooms, the furniture and animal cartoon characters for the kids. The table my laptop is sitting on right now is made of actual logs. Pretty nifty. All this nature and woods themed good times fits right in with the hotel’s location in northern Michigan where there is, in-fact a snowstorm outside. If this hotel was in say, Illinois it wouldn’t feel right. The ability to leave elements outside and step inside to a roaring fireplace and 85-degree waterpark is a giant plus and honestly, the waterpark is the point of all this. It’s not the only thing that is fun to do, however. Even with all the good, there is always bad. But let’s keep this honest and real and start with whats good.
The Basics
Rooms – There are 3 levels of room types. These are Standard, Themed, and Premium. I reserved the Wolf Den Themed room which came with a queen and a bunk bed. The bunk beds sat in a cave looking area in the corner of the room (which was impressibly big) and have a tv just for the kids. It seems these rooms cover most price points and are generally affordability but more than you would pay at a top-tier hotel in the area. I used discount code MOREFUN on the website and got something like 40% off each night since we stayed 2 nights during the week. Our bed was super comfy and I thought the room was clean, really well decorated and very well designed for the most part despite some bad reviews I read about before booking. I also paid extra and got a late checkout at 2 pm (more on THAT later). All rooms come with a mini-fridge, flat screen tv, and microwave.
The waterpark – There are 6 different waterslides (slides are coordinated with colored wristbands), a kiddie pool, a more moderate pool, a lazy river, a hot tub for kids and another for adults only plus more things shooting water than you can really count. There was a towering wooden structure in the center of the waterpark which is also the entrance to the two midsized water slides. On top of this structure sits a giant wooden (looking) bucket which dumps 500 gallons of water on anyone in its dump path every 5 minutes and is pretty intense. This cleverly disguised stairway to the water slides has rope nets, water sprays and hands-on activities all of which keep your kid entertained on their way up. Some of this could get a little tricky for adults especially those with bad knees or other physical issues. My wife is 26 weeks pregnant and she got tired pretty quick going up the stairs and it wasn’t easy on my old knees either. Around the whole water park, there are plenty of chairs and some tables (hard to get) and also lockers if needed.
- What’s nice about this waterpark is that it’s only open to people who stay at the hotel, so no locals and no “day” visitors. So no, grandpa or grandma cant come in for the day.
- Plenty of inner tubes (single and double) are provided which can be used on the lazy river and one of the bigger water slides (which you must carry up yourself).
- Slides are color coordinated with matching wristbands for kids which go by a child’s height this keeps kids safe and in the appropriate area.
- No need to bring your own towels. Towels are provided free by the pool and must stay in the pool area.
- Plenty of lifeguards are all over and looking out for kids and adults who are breaking rules, misbehaving and just keeping an eye out for kids safety in general.
- Besides a few tables, everything seemed to be really clean. With this much water and hundreds of kids, you would think that there would be kid pee in everything. It smelled and looked really clean though. So whatever water treatment system they have works great.
- None of the pools are deeper than 4 feet. The kiddie pool is a foot or foot and a half at the deepest. The “lazy river” is 3 feet deep and my 3 ½-year-old son could touch the bottom the whole time (even though he had a floatation device on). The deepest are the bigger pools which are maybe 4 1/2 feet deep. There is NO deep water, but life vests are provided for free and it’s basically insisted that kids who aren’t good swimmers or very young use them. The park was designed for kids and with an eye on their safety.
- You can use the waterpark as early as 1pm the day of checking in and as late as the pool closes on the day you checkout. (The later is really only convenient if you live relatively close.)
Dining and food – For our stay, I purchased 1 all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for the three of us. It added $35.00 to the bill. The food was good and the restaurant, called Camp Critter Bar & Grill was a pretty relaxing place. The staff was very helpful despite it being a buffet. One side of this restaurant is the buffet and the other is full service which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
- In the water park, you can also buy burgers, hot dogs, and fries and yes, adult beverages (more on that later) at Buckets Incredible Craveables. Outside food is not allowed in the water park.
- On the first floor (before you enter the water park) you will find even more food options from a quick service restaurant called Hungry as a Wolf that serves pizza, pasta, and hot sandwiches. Right next to that you will find Bear Paw Sweets and Eats which serves ice-cream, fudge, and other sweet snacks. I can vouch for everything but the fudge…just saying.
- On the main floor of the hotel near the elevators, you will find a full-service Dunkin Donuts. This comes in really handy when you tire of making coffee in the small in-room coffee pot. Also, they deliver their entire menu (yes breakfast sandwiches too) to your room in the morning and the charge is added to your hotel bill (which not an option). Which is a nice convivence if leaving to go downstairs early isn’t possible or wanted. All you do is fill out the card already in your room when you check in and hang it on the door and then BAM at 9am (or whenever) a dozen donuts, coffee etc are there.
Shopping – The hotel offers a few shopping experiences which, again, are mostly geared towards kids. These include Great Wolf Candy Company, Magi Quest Marketplace and Bear Essential Swim shop (which is very convenient if you forget your suit or need swim diapers). The main and very large gift shop is the Buckhorn Exchange and Gift shop which every in the family can find something at.
Kids Activities – Besides the waterpark one of the more popular activities is Magic Quest. This activity is in the vein of Harry Potter (BUT NOT ACTUALLY HP) and leads kids on a quest all over the hotel using magic wands. The earn points as they open chests of treasure and listen to ghostly paintings and other magic type things. My son was too young to really give a care about this but I saw lots of kids and parents running around and playing and they all seemed to be having fun. In the Magi-Quest Store, you can buy wands (if you don’t get a pre-purchased package at booking) and even things like magician looking outfits.
- In the hotel lobby, there are activities like t-shirt decorating among other things.
- Mommy and Me – This gives moms and their daughter or even son the chance to go and get mani’s and pedi’s with treats.
- All day long there are kid-themed activities and presentations for kids and these are free for the kids. A very popular one seems to be the story time which happens at 8:15pm
- In the summer there is mini golf outside.
- Some locations even have yoga for kids.
- A really nice 24-hour arcade with kid-appropriate games much like you would find at Chucky Cheese.
Ok, so that is a relatively quick and basic run down ( I did try to be brief but thorough) if you want more information check out the website by clicking here. Also, we stayed at the Traverse City, Michigan location but I learned this is national chain so if you are looking for one nearer to you click here. After doing some poking around I found that activities and features vary depending on the location.
The bad
I’ll be straightforward here.
This hotel although nice and full of kid and family-friendly activities is a huge GIANT cash suck. Nothing is cheap…NOTHING. Most of the activities for the kids cost extra (like Magic Quest). Although they can be added to your hotel package at a cheaper rate when booking rather than paying separately it is still expensive and can add up quickly. The whole premise of this resort is to keep you there despite Traverse City being an outdoor vacationers’ paradise and an all season town full of entertainment and dining options. Not counting the two restaurants we ate at outside of the hotel, gas, and odds and ends purchased on a day trip we spent almost $700 bucks. It could have been worse if Jax was older. Below is a quick estimated breakdown of what it would cost a family of four (one boy 6 and one girl 8) who took part in the major add-on activities for the same length of stay as us which was 2 nights and 3 days during the middle of the week. I’ll also use the same room that we reserved which was the WolfDen and with the MOREFUN discount code. In the winter, outdoor activities normally enjoyed in town cannot be (by kids at least) so having things inside to do is nice and this hotel gears towards that. Its very Disneyesque in that they don’t want you leaving and want all the money they can possibly get from you.
More on dining.
If you are a family of four, only eat at the hotels in-house dining options for all of your meals that means your spending on food and activities can easily outpace what you pay for your room even with a discount code depending on how long you stay. Yes, there are ways around this like eating out (which is only marginally cheaper) and bringing in your own food but that only works sometimes. The food isn’t cheap at Camp Critter Bar & Grill for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Prices will run you similar to what you would find at Olive Garden or Red Lobster; so it’s pricey if you’re on a budget. After talking to a few other guests the biggest complaint I heard was the high prices compared to the portion size and quality when it came to non-breakfast buffet food. Also, GWL only offers a dining package for the breakfast buffet.
Food from the poolside restaurant is a “bit more affordable” with a burger running $5.79; HOWEVER additional toppings even as basic as onions and pickles are $0.99 EACH! Drinks such as bottled water, pop or Powerade run $2.50 each. Since my wife is vegetarian I took notice that the salads were nearing a rather pricey $10.00. This seems really expensive considering its poolside fast food. REMEMBER NO OUTSIDE FOOD ALLOWED at the pool. So, plan on eating before or after unless you wanna throw down close to $50.00 each time you’re swimming for a few of your meals.
Also, the breakfast buffet was great from an adult point of view and worth the money spent. Paying $11.00 for my 3-year-old who basically ate 1 piece of sausage and some blueberries wasn’t cool though. We all know little kids don’t eat as much as adults so why GWL charges the same price for kids and adults I will never know. I don’t like it. I don’t know if there is a way to remedy this as a visitor since I don’t know if they allow sharing.
Another thing I had an issue with was the fact that there was a bar at poolside for the adults. I was told there is a limit by some mom but watching parents walking around carrying a beer or mixed drink in one hand and a kid in the other while being around water doesn’t scream safe to me. I think its something the hotel could do without especially with the number of kids all over. I get that sometimes parents need a grownup juice but something like this shouldn’t be allowed in this setting. Maybe that makes me a little square (yes, I do drink sometimes) but it made me feel a little less safe for some kids.
Adult Entertainment
There is NOTHING and I really mean nothing for parents to do at night outside of their room after the kids are in bed. No late night bar, no secret parent orgy at the adults only hot tub, no secret parent rave in an unmarked room…nothing. Even Dunkin Donuts shuts down at 10 pm I think since I couldn’t get coffee before I sat down to start writing this. The only option (if it’s even a possibility for mom and dad) is driving somewhere or calling an UBER to the rescue unless you want to actually go and workout in the gym. On our first night there I went to bed at 8pm…hours before normal. I woke up midnight, panicked that I was wasting my vacation on frivolous sleep and then realized there was nothing to do but sleep since it was 15 degrees out.
- ***PARENTS, REAL TALK TIME***
***Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City probably isn’t the best place for teenagers older than thirteen or maybe fourteen years old. There just really isn’t anything for them to do that is age appropriate and interesting for a modern teenager. The few teens that I did see who looked this age or older seemed bored out of their minds. Understandably the water park can get old when you are there nearly all day, the average age of the kids at the hotel is around six to eight years old and the hotel is geared towards that age group. So, parents, if you bring a teen just be content with them having a bunch of attitude and them spending a lot of time alone in the room using the hotels free WiFi and the TV. Better yet let them take an UBER to somewhere more interesting; like a coffee shop in downtown Traverse City which is a mile down the road. (Yes 14-year-olds take Uber now, deal with it Smallville it’s 2018). The big mistake parents make in a place like this is not taking into consideration that their teenagers are not little kids anymore but still try and make them fit into the interest mold of a small child because they have younger siblings. Nothing is going to piss off a 14-year-old (or older) more than having to be around 6-year-olds all day while on vacation. This place isn’t meant for the teens!
More Thoughts on cost.
Like I said before we paid extra for the late (2pm) checkout which came to an additional $44.99. Although it was nice being able to let Jax swim one more time after he woke up I think twenty-two bucks a day for an extra 2 hours in the hotel was insane. I don’t think I’ll be spending that money again. In all the hotels I’ve stayed at over the years for work and personal use I don’t recall ever being charged extra for a late checkout. Oh yea, you know when you go to a hotel and forget your razor or toothpaste and you call down to the desk and ask if they have any? Generally, even at 1 and 2-star hotels let alone higher ones they do and either you walk down and get it or someone brings it up. Hell, even Disney does it. Great Wolf Lodge doesn’t. We forgot our adult toothpaste so I went to the desk and asked for some. Which is when I was told I need to go and purchase it from the gift shop. $2.99 later I walked out of the gift shop with a little thing of toothpaste that I could have gotten from Walmart or Meijer for a buck. If it’s late and the gift shop is closed you are out of luck.
Also, after you book, pay your deposit, do the prearrival check-in (online) where you can pay your balance you are then notified of a $50.00 dollar charge to your card that will be charged at check-in. After a quick post check-in phone call after we got into our room, I found out that this is refundable. Basically, it covers costs or some cost that might be charged to the room such as Dunkin Donuts or snacks from Bear Paw Sweets and Eats. If you have nothing charged to your room then you will get this fifty bucks back…at some point. As of posting this, we’ve been home for 10 days now and my bank just refunded it yesterday. No, this isn’t the hotel’s fault but it is their fault for charging such a ridiculous fee up front in the first place. Why can’t they just keep a card on file like any other hotel without basically pre-charging for incidentals? Regardless, plan accordingly because unlike other hotels this charge for incidentals is apparently not optional either.
But in the end…
Even with all that I have a suspicion that my family will be back sometime in the future after our daughter is born and perhaps with a grandmother or aunt in tow. Despite the negatives, the expense (a tad overpriced) and some of the flaws I really did enjoy our stay at Great Wolf Lodge. The hotels woodsy and nature-inspired ambiance was nice and I liked it; I was comfortable there. The whole staff was very friendly and helpful. More than anything our son had fun which was really why we went there in the first place. Now that I have a little knowledge of the workings of this place I know what to expect and can plan a little better before our next visit there. The hotel and the trip, in general, gave us a lot of nice memories for our final trip as a family of three.
I have no idea how long the MOREFUN discount code works for but I know there are other discounts like ones for service members. Unless you are staying here in the summer when there is better weather and more to do outside I wouldn’t suggest staying more than two nights unless you are driving from another state. Anything more than that and you will be spending even more money and most likely even the kids will get bored.
Rating Breakdown
Overall Price – 3/5 Stars
Waterpark Cleanliness – 5/5 Stars
Value – 3/5 – Stars
Amenities – 5/5 Stars
Location – 5/5- Stars
Rooms – 5/5 – Stars
Food – 3/5 – Stars
Staff Friendliness – 5/5 Stars
journeysandlife.wordpress.com 
We had a similar experience when we stayed there with, Don, Linda, Beth, Adam & their boys, Joel and his wife at the time. It was a Christmas present to all of us and a way to celebrate Don & Linda’s Anniversary. Jillianne was little, maybe a year old. We had fun but it was expensive. We haven’t gone back but Adam and Beth have for stay-cations. We stayed at the Dells in Wisconsin with my family when Jillianne was older and that was more fun…but again that was because we were with extended family and there was always something going on besides visiting the water parks. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Joyanne, thank you so much for reading my post and responding. Sounds like that was a big group you had there lol. You know I’ve never even been to the Wisconsin Dells and briefly looked into the GWL at that location as well. It looks like a fun place in general. I might have to talk to you about that when I see you again.