Our youngest had a birthday coming up and we gave him the choice of having a birthday party with his friends or going to Great Wolf Lodge. He decided on Great Wolf Lodge so we had a quick trip to plan!

What is Great Wolf Lodge?

For those that aren’t familiar with the chain, Great Wolf Lodge has almost 20 locations spread across the US and Canada. Their calling card is that each location has an indoor water park. I’ve only been to the one in Fitchburg, MA so I can only comment on that one, though I’ve heard that other ones are similar in concept and execution.

The resort location in Fitchburg has more than just an indoor pool with a slide and splash pad. It has two huge rooms containing a half dozen slides, including raft/tube slides and a near vertical drop slide. There are also multiple splash pads, a wave pool, a lazy river and several other pools. This is a full fledged water park with no shortage of things to do.

The hotel itself also has several attractions other than the water park including mini golf, a ropes course, an arcade, a nightly animatronic show, and scheduled kids activities throughout the day. There are of course several restaurants so you don’t even need to leave!

They do a pretty good job of carrying the theme to the rooms as well. There are rooms available with bunk beds and all the rooms are family friends as that’s their target audience. While the theming isn’t to the level you would get a a Disney resort, they do a really good job creating a family friendly and safe vibe throughout.

Booking

Even though we were booking a spring weekend and there wasn’t snow on the ground, there was still a big demand for rooms the weekend we chose and the room rates reflected that. On weekdays when demand is light, rates can be less than $100 per night, but during the weekend they can be 3 or 4 times that. On peak weekends it’s not unheard of to see rates of $500 or more for a Saturday night stay. It’s important to note that the room rate INCLUDES admission to the water parks for everyone in the room so the water park doesn’t cost extra. Other activities such as mini golf or the ropes course are add on extras, though.

Due to the spring soccer schedules of the kids, we’d be stuck staying over on a Saturday night when the rates were most expensive. While Great Wolf Lodge is a chain, they aren’t part of a loyalty program so we wouldn’t be using any points to offset the cost. We have stayed at this location several times before, so we were on their mailing list. They often have promo codes for special rates and my wife was able to use one of those to book a room for about 25% off.

We were able to book the night we wanted for $320, which included access to the water park for the four of us. Our room had two queen beds as well as a sofa bed so it had a maximum occupancy of 5. While it’s not cheap, there’s still a fair amount of value due to the water parks.

Logistics

As this hotel is about 45 minutes from our house we would be driving. In fact we’d be driving two cars as we had overlapping soccer schedules to deal with. Parking is free, though you may end up parking a ways away from your room if you arrive at a peak time.

Since Tomatico has soccer both Saturday and Sunday, we’d arrive after my wife and my youngest on Saturday afternoon and go to Tomatico’s games on Sunday morning before returning to the hotel to enjoy the water park for the afternoon.

The hotel allows you to checkin in to your room at 4pm, but you can get there as early as 1pm as begin using the water parks. There are locker rooms you can change in and you can rent lockers if you choose.

On the day of departure, checkout time is 11am unless you pay extra for late checkout. No matter when you check out you are allowed to use the water parks for the remainder of the day until they close (usually between 8 and 9pm).

We had our plan set and our youngest was counting down the days until it was time to go!