GRAPEVINE, Texas – We had a great time at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas. Let me say that right now. However, getting to the fun was a bit of a slog. Let me explain.
Getting it all set up
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I had my suspicions about Great Wolf Lodge when I was making the trip reservations. All the add-ons felt like I was buying a Spirit flight.
As I clicked through the prompts, I immediately went into mommy money-saver mode, only purchasing the base fare, I mean, reservations for everything. This was a slippery slope. I suppose it’s something you could expect from a water park. Har Har. Mom humor engaged.
And what exactly were all these attraction passes and breakfast options? Take a look if you’d like. Wolf Pass, Paw Pass and Pup Pass. They’re varying degrees of attractions that are all basically, not the water park.
We didn’t buy any of it. We wanted to go solely for the water park, which comes with the hotel stay. My entire family loves the water. However, I would be lying if I didn’t kind of want to see how hard the Lodge’s marketing department would work for my money before I committed. I didn’t do a ton of research for it, so I decided to make them work to convince me. Oh, boy, did they try.
In the weeks leading up to our June trip, Great Wolf Lodge sent a total of seven emails with multiple promotions highlighted and especially its passes aimed at savings on its Build-A-Bear, candy, ice cream and arcade options.
I wasn’t biting. All of those things sound fun on the surface, but I thought about it a minute and put myself where I thought it would all lead: in a Build-A-Bear shop with two sopping wet, sticky toddlers who would be eating an ice cream cone, toting a sack of candy, repeatedly asking me for another arcade game.
Help me, Jesus. I didn’t want to go there. We didn’t buy the passes. And no, we didn’t do the breakfast package that this helpful couple pointed out was basically paying $18 for a child’s breakfast each morning. My kids regularly will eat two – yes two – bites of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and say they’re done. I wasn’t paying $18 a head for that special joy, probably after waiting in line.
I archived the messages and started packing for the trip.
Packing up and the drive
The beauty of Great Wolf Lodge is the ease of it for families.
Packing was easy. No jackets. No extensive clothing. Just mostly swimsuits, pajamas and a few outfits for going out to eat. I didn’t even need to pack bulky beach towels. You get them at the resort at a cabana setup that’s linked to your room key armband. This lack of packing is a huge deal if you know what packing for a family of four looks like for a beach trip. No sand toys. No wagon. Just the basics.
The drive from Houston to Grapevine, Texas, was an easy one. When we arrived on Friday, we were excited to get to the waterpark, as Great Wolf Lodge does have a wonderful policy: it permits folks to use its facilities starting at 1 p.m. on check-in day. How great is that? Great Wolf Lodge, indeed.
Check-in
Check-in was pretty seamless, except it’s not clear where the line started. Have you ever seen parents who have traveled long distances stand in line with their kids champing at the bit to go to the waterpark? Parenting is sometimes not joyful. This was one of those moments.
The check-in staff worked hard to handle the influx of guests and move people through quickly, but their endless supply of what seemed mandatory promotional prompts continued to slow down the process. Was I sure I didn’t want an attractions package? Was I sure I didn’t want breakfast? Was I absolutely, positively, sure?
I was positively sure.
We finally received our armband bracelets and I asked how to get to the waterpark. They said the elevators were down the hall. Here’s where the real fun began. The hall led past a gift shop, a Starbucks and several MagiQuest boxes. So. Much. Marketing.
“Go, go, go,” I mouthed to my husband.
We almost ran to the elevators, went down a floor and then faced another long hall filled with an arcade lining one wall and restaurants lining the other. A Build-A-Bear shop and a gift shop literally blocked the entrance to the waterpark. What. The. Hell.
It was then I realized every time we would be going to the waterpark, we’d have to go through a mall. This isn’t a big thing for older kids, but with littles, this was going to be a big deal. Little kids cannot weed out this stuff. It’s one distraction after another.
My kids noticed the arcade first. They wanted to ride the motorcycles and then the race cars. We let them play on the games, but asked them what they wanted to do first and then came back another time to actually play. Each of the games is fired up using a credit-card looking pass. You spend about $2 each game. The business has you load money up on cards and then disassociates you from your cash. The same tactic is used in the Great Wolf Lodge pass set-up as well. It’s an old tactic. It’s why people who want to save are often urged to use cash.
The card strategy is genius marketing, but, as I walked through that neon wall of noise and games and watched my kids eyes glaze over in the light, I got mad at the creators of Great Wolf Lodge for this. It’s just SO irresponsible and a bit amoral when working with families with kids. Kids don’t know what they’re being sucked into. And, as a friend recently told me, when you basically drain your pass (if you purchased one), very little in the ticket redemption area is attainable. This experience causes severe disappointment for parents and kids. I was so confused by the existence of machines filled with tickets when I was there, but when she explained this, I realized what those machines were for – you can use a claw machine to actually attempt to win more tickets. It all felt just so YUCK.
After my husband and I literally picked our kids up and carried them away from all of that, we arrived at the waterpark.
Reaching the destination
This was what it was all about. My whole family marveled at the size of the waterpark situation at Great Wolf Lodge. The big “Great Wolf Lodge”-emblazoned bucket that spills over everything was just epic. Seriously. Stand under that thing and it’ll blow your dress up -- and soak you to your skin.
We went straight to the indoor waterslides and the toddler slide areas. My boys loved climbing and running and sliding. The setups in the kids area are so whimsical and fun. Our kids especially loved the wave pool set off with a wolf howl. And the best part, for a second, you could close your eyes and imagine you’re at the beach. Without the sand. And the blistering sun. No sunscreen needed for indoor play.
I love the outdoors, don’t get me wrong. It’s fantastic outside -- just not in Texas in June.
Over the next two days, we spent as much time at the waterpark as possible. We went to the indoor and outdoor areas. I loved watching my older son fly down a waterslide with his dad for the first time. The look on his face was true exhilaration and kid happiness like I had hoped to find at this place. My husband also had a great time trying out one of the big slides that went down in a pretty scary vertical drop.
Inside the hotel room
The hotel suite we purchased was clean and neat, though a bit of a trek from the elevator. I loved the addition of a clothesline in the bathroom to hang up our wet swimsuits so they’d be dry the next morning. The beds were comfortable and the décor charming. My boys both wanted to sleep in the bed under the wolf picture on the wall. Our suite had a refrigerator that we used for leftovers from dinner and for things we packed in our cooler. I was pleased with the setup.
Dining decision
As for food, we ended up taking a suggestion from a YouTube video that we saw that recommended bringing breakfast and snacks and a cooler. We did, bringing along protein granola bars, Uncrustables peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fruit snacks for breakfast and then eating out lunch and dinner at local Grapevine restaurants.
Side note: I have a stance that it’s vacation, yes, but I don’t have to buy everything at the attraction I’m going to because it’s often so much easier to provide it yourself or go elsewhere rather than wait in a long line with antsy, hangry kids. And that was often the case with the lines at Great Wolf Lodge. While many parents waited in the lengthy line at the snack bar-type eatery at the waterpark, my kids were munching on sandwiches and snacks without a wait. Happy as little clams. It’s a good move to be prepared just like you would be any other time you leave the house with little kids.
The local restaurants we went to were great, too. We tried out local favorite Tommy Tamale, a fun Tex-Mex place with a general store, and my favorite, OldWest Café, with stellar breakfast-for-anytime options. We never left hungry and the food at both places was great quality. I also liked that we had the opportunity to see a little bit of the area. It’s easy to get a feeling like you’re not part of the outside world at Great Wolf Lodge. That can be a good and bad thing. I liked that we were away from the world, but I also enjoyed exploring the Grapevine area and seeing a new place with our kids.
The bottom line
The trip to Great Wolf Lodge was wonderful for my family, especially when we made it past all of the arcade stuff. I highly recommend for families with young kids looking for a plug-and-play vacation. This is just what you need.
(And just a note to the Great Wolf Lodge creators from parents in the Houston-area ahead of the Webster Great Wolf Lodge opening: I know my husband and I would spend more at family attractions if the prices and the experiences were just more meaningful and within reach.) Do you feel like this too? Let us know what you think about that question and Great Wolf Lodge in the comments.