Great Wolf Lodge with Young Kids 🐺

If you’ve been following along with my insta-stories the last few days, you’ve seen my #greatwolflodge behind the scenes with a young family of 3. We almost didn’t go. Even though they invited us as their #sponsored guest to experience the resort, it stressed me out to have 3 young kids (ages 4, 2, and 11 months) who couldn’t swim. BUT: I AM SO GLAD WE DID! (Thank you Will for talking me in to it!)

Like all of our family vacations, I usually pull up my blogpost “20 Tips to Travel with Kids” and immediately download and print our Family Packing List - at the very bottom. (I need to just save it on my computer, but this is an easy way to access it and print it from my phone!) Feel free to use it as a template and make your own!

Back to Great Wolf - there are activities for ALL ages, and Milly and Lyndon (ages 4 + 2) especially loved the morning yoga tails, the evening dance party, the build-a-bear (aka build-a-wolf) workshop, and family bowling. In the waterpark they loved the kiddy area with water fountains and little slides (they went a million times!) as well as the wave pool! Will and I took turns watching the kids in the kiddy area while we went and did the slides ourselves ;). You can bring floaties, and the lifeguards are trained to keep an eye on every inch of the pool, never allowing one area of the pool to go longer than 10 minutes without being in view. All in all, it was a BLAST! Their mission is to "Create family traditions, one family at a time.”

Here are my takeaways, if you’re considering taking your family! 🐺

1. I LOVE that it’s all in one place. There’s no driving, and it takes very little walking to get to your destination - it’s all right there in the lodge! Just hop on an elevator and you’re there.

2. Most kids just walked around in their jammies when they weren’t in swimsuits. My kind of place. The pajama dance parties were a hit!

3. You didn’t have to wear sunscreen! I know this is kind of a “duh” comment, but let me just say: sunscreen and worrying about the sun is a whole element of family vacation that adds stress. Whether you are at the beach or an outdoor amusement park or spending a day on the lake, there’s always the applying and re-applying. Not here! I had that “aha” moment as soon as we were getting in water. Also I think the water is cleaner bc there is no sunscreen getting washed off all the little bodies!

4. Dunkin Donuts is in the hotel. Praise be. We needed coffee.

5. I love that they have characters : Wiley and Violet the Wolfs stole the show for our kids.

6. If you can go during Snowland, GO DURING SNOWLAND. They opened it up early for us as a preview, and it was magical. It snowed in the lobby, and they have so many Christmas dance parties and activities it’ll blow your mind! You can upgrade your room to a Snowland room, and it comes with snowflakes and a Christmas tree and special decor. I think that would be so fun to splurge on at Christmas time! (And yes they are open on Christmas day - I asked!)

7. The Paw Pass is a must. We probably wouldn’t have bought one if we just went ourselves, but for kids our age, it made the trip. (For an additional fee, the Paw Pass includes things like family bowling, a Build a Bear, a cup of candy in their candy shop, etc. You can get different levels.) It would have been frustrating to say “no” to so many things. It was really lovely to be able to say yes to all the things! If we go back we are definitely budgeting for this.

8. Magic Quest is a hotel-wide game that a lot of kids loved. It’s kind of Harry Potter-ish. You can get a cape and a wand and the wand interacts with all kinds of photos on the wall and treasure boxes and screens that come to life when you point at it. It’s too old for my kids, but they still got wands with their paw passes and Milly liked to make things come to life and Lyndon just liked to “play her trumpet” haha!

9. The rooms with bunk beds are so stinking fun. We didn’t stay in one this time, but next time I would love to! Another element that makes it feel so special for the kids.

10. Their culture is phenomenal. As a business junkie, I’m always paying attention to how things are run. They have a clear mission & values, and they don’t call their team of 600+ their “employees,” but rather their “pack family.” We spent quite a bit of time with the General Manager, and I cannot say enough wonderful things about her. She knew several of the workers by name as we walked around, and she talked about how they house their employees during snow. They partner with non-profits to help raise money for families to make memories (like Make a Wish, for example), and they are always looking for ways to improve (hence their $7 Million renovation they recently did). I love it when I can get behind a business I believe in!

Did we have a blast? Yes!

Did my young kids have fun? Absolutely.

Were they the ideal age to take advantage of everything the lodge offered? No, I’d say that 8-14 would be the “ideal” age, to be able to participate in all the water slides, magic quest, laser tag, etc.

But if you do decide to go with your young kids, don’t focus on everything you’re missing out on: focus on everything they are enjoying. And take turns with your spouse to do the water slides when they are napping :).

PS. Milly kept saying, “I am so sad to leave this place!” when we left, and she hasn’t let go of her Violet the wolf yet!