For our little mid-winter vacation this year, we took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Located in Scotrun, it’s literally right off the well-traveled Rt.80. Living on Long Island, we made it to the Lodge in minutes less than 2 hours. It was exactly 120 miles door to door (I clocked it).

THE HOTEL

Great Wolf Lodge is a small chain of indoor waterparks with lodging. Themed around the great outdoors, the rooms and the building are full of forest-like, camping-like décor. The obvious attraction is the waterpark but the lodge itself is situated in a tourist area so you can enjoy other activities as well.

There are currently 7 Great Wolf Lodge resorts in existence, with more being built. Each room includes admission to the waterpark, which is its main attraction. There are many different types of rooms you can book from single rooms to multi-bedroom, multi-bath suites. Each room has a microwave oven and refrigerator. As the rooms increase in size, so do the amenities such as dining areas, wet bars, and Jacuzzis. And as the amenities increase, so does the price.

There is one onsite restaurant that serves buffet style meals. It is called the Camp Critter Bar & Grille. You sit beneath a cabin-themed ceiling or in little tent-like booths. This restaurant is in the main lobby/lodge. The Loose Moose Cottage is part of the restaurant as well, and for all meals, you are seated interchangeably between the two.

There is also the Bear Claw Café, which is an ice cream shop and candy store. Here you can get muffins, cookies, snacks, drinks, and homemade fudge (among other things). Attached to this is a Pizza Hut Express. Both of these shops are located directly outside the Waterpark.

Great Wolf Lodge also has a FANTASTIC game room. It’s called the Northern Lights Arcade and it is clean, beautiful, and fun. We spent a lot of time playing the Deal or No Deal video game and won lots of tickets! The kids loved this arcade, as did we. It is approximately 7000 square feet. The workers in the arcade were extremely nice and helpful.

The Great Wolf Lodge also has its own full service Aveda Spa called Elements. Attached to this spa is their own Kids’ Spa called Scoops. I used the spa and was very, very pleased. I got the basic massage which cost me $95 for an hour. This was completely on par with all other spas I’ve been to, including Bliss and Red Door. I was more than satisfied. Scoops, on the other hand, was a child’s dream but a mother’s nightmare. A pedicure for my 7 year-old was $40. She got filed, scrubbed, massaged, and polished, and was served an ice cream sundae while being pampered. She loved it, but I thought it was overpriced.

Accessed from the main lobby is the Buckhorn Exchange gift shop, which had toiletries, magazines, gifts, and souvenirs. It also had a Vera Bradley shop and some Brighton items. It was very reasonably priced in there.

Part of the pull of Great Wolf Lodge is their Magic Quest game. This is an adventure game in which each child buys a wand and admission to the game. They then run all around the hotel solving quests from clues. This is IMMENSELY popular and great fun. My almost 10 year old LOVED it. There is even a separate gift shop for Magic Quest. THIS IS NOT CHEAP! You pay $15 for the wand, $15 for an additional optional cool topper (your child will want one), and $10 for the game. The game stays active during your entire stay so they can play an unlimited amount of times. You will want to give this some thought before buying into this though. We allowed our son to roam on the Quest alone throughout the hotel but that was not the smartest thing to do. We allowed our blinding faith in people’s honesty to guide us but in retrospect, we were lucky. More on this later.


THE LOBBY of the HOTEL

When you arrive at Great Wolf Lodge, the scenery begins before entering. While still in your car driving around to the front entrance, you clearly see the waterpark’s giant tube slides coming OUT of the building! These are the slides that your children (and of course yourself) will be riding. It’s really neat to see and the kids get very excited.

When you enter the lobby, you are actually entering the Lodge itself. It’s the main building by which access to most everything else is achieved. The main check in desk is in the center to the side. The lobby contains a floor to ceiling fireplace with a few couches and chairs in front, the house restaurant, the gift shop, and a Starbucks. You can even charge the Starbucks to your room.

Every night in the lobby, there is an animatronic show for the children. It is so freakishly corny and an obvious rip-off of Disney’s The Lion King. My 7 year old wouldn’t watch it. It starts at 8 pm and lasts 20 minutes or so. Then the wolf mascot of Great Wolf Lodge comes out.

THE WATERPARK

This is the whole reason you pay exorbitant amounts of money to stay here… the Waterpark! The indoor attraction here is a 78000 square foot paradise of water slides, splash rides, hot tubs, and a water roller coaster! Beware, though, sitting in this indoor waterpark for three straight days (like we did) started to nauseate us and bother our eyes. They keep it in the 80’s for comfort and as not to be chilly getting in and out of water.

The waterpark is called Bear Track Landing and it is completely safe and fun. We let our 7 and 10 year olds run freely. I went on every ride with them, as it is equally fun for adults, but we gave them freedom because we felt comfortable with all the lifeguards.

In addition to the fantastic tube slides and water coaster, there are also fun pool activities. You can play pool basketball, walk across a pool on lily pads, or climb this tremendous fort filled with dumping buckets and water guns. And every few minutes, a giant bucket of water drops on everyone below. It was hilarious!

For those less adventurous, they can enjoy the lazy river or the hot tubs. Both were low key.

Inside the waterpark are two changing rooms/bathrooms. There was not ample enough space for changing so we changed in the shower. Great Wolf Lodge allows you to use the pools from the time you arrive (even if your room isn’t ready) so you may need to change here. It’s cramped but clean.

There is NEVER a shortage of towels inside the park. Upon entering, you tell them how many you need and they give them to you. You do not need to bring your own towels.

In addition to the main lobby’s gift shop, there is an additional shop within the waterpark. It sells flip-flops, bathing suits and cover-ups. Total retail prices though, nothing really on sale. If you need a suit, you will pay!

THE SUITE

Honestly, if money is NO object, then by all means, get the fancier rooms that will amuse the kids but if money matters to you, then get the basic Family Room. It is VERY AMPLY sized. There are two queen beds (Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too soft, by the way) and a pull out sofa. There is a kitchenette counter and a sink area with an open closet. The bathroom was just a toilet and shower, as the sink was outside the bathroom. I didn’t like this but it did make teeth brushing much easier!

Leave your hair dryer home as there is one in every room. However, the soap was yucky so you may want to bring some from home. There is a CVS up the road so you can buy additional amenities there if needed (also at the gift shop but they were out of toothpaste during my stay).

The room was immaculately clean and fresh. We were on the fourth floor so we had vaulted ceilings which gave the impression of grandeur. Check their website for all the different (and costlier) room choices. We stayed on the fourth floor, which was quiet (no jumping above us) but it was quite a distance from the waterpark and main lobby.

THE RESTAURANT

Loose Moose Cottage and Little Critter Grille are somewhat connected, especially at mealtime. Each meal is served buffet style during peak vacation season. We had the dinner buffet and I must remark here that it was HORRIFYING. It was bad, really bad. My friend warned me but I didn’t believe her. Add to that that we were tired the first day and too lazy to go offsite so we ventured in. Adults were $28. and children under 10 were $17 I believe. And, are you sitting down??, drinks were NOT included. No soda, no iced tea, nothing. That was extra. So our dinner exceeded $100.

There was a decent pasta station, and an okay carving station. The Chinese food station was inedible, the lo mein noodles were rigid. The King Crab Legs were dried out and impossible to scathe. My kids ate the pizza and said it was yucky. The hamburgers were hockey pucks.

On the plus side, the salad bar was okay and there was unlimited peel-n-eat shrimp. That was good. There were pieces of filet mignon in the hot plate section and they were okay as well. Not great but edible. The Italian section of cold cuts and mozzarella salad was tasty. The best part of the dinner buffet was the dessert bar. The tiramisu and the cherry cheesecake were delicious. Unfortunately I cannot recommend this restaurant for dinner.

The restaurant was okay for a breakfast buffet, however! There was a fresh egg and omelet station, hot plate eggs, sausages, bacon, corned beef hash, waffles, etc. The pancakes were as hard as Frisbees but the rest of the carbo stuff was good…. the bagels, the pastries, and the muffins were all good. Breakfast was a more reasonable $17 or $18 for adults and $9 or $10 for kids. We didn’t look all that much because we knew we wanted to eat breakfast there.

OTHER AMENITIES

Great Wolf Lodge has a gym facility, a Cubs’ Club (where children can do crafts and such at an additional cost), meeting rooms, and of course, the entertainment in the main lobby. This entertainment was sometimes music, sometimes a show, and at night, they had a children’s storybook reader. That was cute.


ADDITIONAL NOTABLES

This weekend adds up quickly. The ways to save money abound. Allow me to suggest the following:
-Bring your own bottled water. They sell Aquafina for $3 a bottle.
-Stock up your room fridge with soda and snacks and bring them down to the pool.
-Eat a big breakfast and skip a full lunch. Lunch will set you back $30 from the snack shacks.
Discourage your child from needing a Magic Quest topper. They provide a simple ball-style topper and save yourself $15.
-Bring everything you would bring to the beach except suntan lotion. Goggles, cover-up, flip-flops.
-Check to see if they still have the EARLY CHECK OUT promotion. If you check out by 9 in the morning, you get $25 off. And you can still use the restaurant, pool, game room…. Everything!
-Get a lower level room if possible. The elevators are PAINFULLY slow and when the kids are Questing, they use the elevators a lot. There are only two and everyone uses them.
-They tell you that you can pre-register at 1:00 and begin using the waterpark. We pre-registered at 11:00 with no problem. This was better because by 1:00, the line to register can exceed 60 people so you can be there for an hour or two. It literally backs up out the door.
-Get into the waterpark early and secure a TABLE and CHAIRS with your personal belongings. Cover every chair you need with shoes, shirts, bags… anything to mark it as yours. Tables and chairs go fast and you will want to sit and take breaks from the fun and you will need a place to eat.
-There’s a little hidden sushi bar in the waterpark area. It’s not on the website so you wouldn’t know unless you went looking for it. My son had the tuna hand roll and it was made FRESH and he said it tasted good. It was $7.95.


FINAL THOUGHTS

This is an ideal family weekend getaway but next time, I will stay only 1 night. We paid $400 per night which is the average. The rates run in the $200’s during summer months and go as high as $500-$600 during the winter. Keep in mind this includes ONLY the waterpark and the cute themes. It is extremely expensive. Since they allow you waterpark usage from the day you come until they close on your last day, you can get better value staying only the one night.

Leave the resort for dinner. Up the road is a Friendly’s but about 5 miles up the road is a Chili’s, Red Robin, and a DELICIOUS Long Horn Steak house. I highly recommend that for dinner. Better tasting and CHEAPER than the resort’s buffet.

Be prepared to follow your child around the property for Magic Quest if you aren’t willing to let them go alone. And you will be miserable but your child will be in heaven! The hallways were extremely HOT and crowded with children questing! We allowed our 10 year old to go alone but that isn’t for everyone. My husband and I realized how vulnerable our son was while questing but didn’t realize it until we were driving home. The Great Wolf Lodge has ZERO security in place. The front doors open to the public with nobody checking if you are a registered guest. So, anyone can come in and cause a problem or worse….. In retrospect, the Magic Quest game needs your supervision for children under 12, in my opinion.

We spent $1300 for three full days and two nights. That was a lot of money but my children’s memories are priceless. Great Wolf Lodge books months in advance so plan ahead. One last tip, I booked 3 months ahead and saved about $75. As you book closer to your arrival date, the price goes up.

Did I mention that Great Wolf Lodge is down the road from Camelback Skiing? And there’s a Crossroads (I think that’s the name) Outlet Shopping Center up the road too. Lastly, there’s a casino nearby as well so there seems to be something for everyone if you choose this resort for your vacation.

I recommend the Great Wolf Lodge for the waterpark and the cleanliness.

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Our FAMILY TRAVEL experiences:

The Nickelodeon Hotel in Orlando
Carnival Triumph to Canada
Royal Caribbean Sovereign of the Seas
Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Studios in Florida
The Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Studios in Florida
Buccaneer Resort in Marathon, Florida Keys
Holiday Inn Family Suites (now the Nickelodeon Hotel)
The Rocking Horse Ranch
Lake George, New York



Recommended: Yes