going to Great Wolf Lodge, any tips?

[summerrluvv]

Just subscribing! We got a postcard last year from the Great Wolf Lodge (no specials, just an ad) and I always wondered about it. Has anyone been to the GWL in the Poconos?

I went when they first opened and we had a blast. If you do a search for "Great Wolf Lodge" you'll find a couple of trip reports (mine included).

 

[mommyoeo]

We'll be there for Christmas this year. We tried to get in to FW campground but there was no availability. I was bummed about it until I saw this thread! Sounds like a blast! We'll still get an early mini-trip in for MVMCP of course, even if we just run down for a day or two.

 

[OceanAnnie]

One thing I'd recommend is renting one of a waterproof cameras from the gift shop. They take great digital pictures, and you can wear the camera with the attached wristlet right into the pool. We got so many good shots with ours. Before we checked out, we just had them loaded onto a Great Wolf Lodge CD in the gift shop. I'm sorry I can't remember the cost, but this was a great souvenir. The CD has all of our photos in a digital slide show set to GWL music and my kids have watched it again and again.

If you like doing pressed pennies, there's also a pressed penny machine in the lobby like they have in Disney. These also make fun souvenirs.

Thanks for sharing these tips! I didn't know about them. I don't notice a whole lot these days chasing after the kids. I do love the idea of renting the waterproof camera and they make a CD for you set to music?! That sounds so nice! We'll be doing that.

 

[MickeyP]

How was your trip?

 

[kpgclark]

I'm interested to hear about the one in PA. How was your trip?

 

[LisaNJ25]

I'm interested to hear about the one in PA. How was your trip?

My kids are going to the one in PA next weekend.

Any must haves that I should pack for them? They are going with the grandparents.

kpgclark,

summerrluvv did a great trip report with pics a few months ago. If you search for it it should come up.

 

[Annette_VA]

I want to go so bad. It looks so awesome, but the rates are pretty high. Any cheap times of year to go? I was thinking Thanksgiving weekend? My family is out of town anyway and would spend the holiday with just the kids and Hubby. This may be a huge surprise. We are closer to the poconos one. Anyone been there? Their website has a lot of pictures to see...

One of our trips was the Monday after Thanksgiving. It was DEAD. At one point, my sister was the only person in the waterpark. Great time to go!

 

[mjmcca]

The kids here in NY have a 4 day weekend starting on March 30. I was thinking of going to Busch Gardens because we have admission with our SW APs. I thought this would be a great place to stay while there is that a good idea or too much?

 

[summerrluvv]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=947633&highlight=great+wolf+lodge

There's a link to my trip report

 

[starwood]

We're just back from the Poconos and here are my observations - It's definitely not Disney.

As stated before the breakfast is terrible and expensive. We didn't eat there for any other meals. The park was very crowded and there are a lot of chair hogs. They just leave their dirty towels on the chairs when they leave and others who have to take up 4 chairs even though only 1 person is sitting there.

The chlorine level was extremely high. My eyes started burning as soon as I walked in and there were reports of a lot of kids getting rashes.

The room was very nice but we had a family above us that was apparently letting their kids jump out of the bunk beds and run across the floor for about 2 hours. Very annoying. There were a lot of people there that seemed to think they could just let their kids run wild.

I think it is very overpriced right now and maybe the price will come down when the novelty wears off. I can't wait for our July trip to WDW!

 

[nsmith]

We just went last week for 1 night. It was fantastic. But here are my tips.

Request a room on the top floor. We thought the people above us must have been letting their kids jump off the beds the banging was so loud!

The sheets on the bunk bed are weird. Flannel sewn together like a sleeping bag. They didn't stay tucked in so the kids were often on the plastic mattress. My kids were also to tall for the sheets. So have housekeeping make up these beds with regular top and bottom sheets. For one night it was no big deal the kids were soooo tired.


The breakfast buffet was great. The themeing in the resturant was great.
If you are going for more that one night bring food. The fridge, microwave, coffee pot area is really big with a nice counter and sink.

Plan to get there early and stay late. We even ate dinner in the water park the first day so we could stay late.

I love the idea of taking out at the buffet, for a stay of longer than one night. My kids are really light eaters so I could save some $$. They also don't have cable TV at home so breakfast in the room would be a treat.

Have a great time, there is so much to do for kids and adults alike!!!!!!!!

 

[csmommy]

The chlorine level was extremely high. My eyes started burning as soon as I walked in and there were reports of a lot of kids getting rashes.

I asked about that & they say it is not chlorine, but didn't tell me what it was. It really bothered my dd the first day, but not the second.

We had am amazing time, but the food is $$$ & bad. The rooms are great & I thought for $179 a night a bargain, I guess the price has gone up. I see now, if you go during the week it is $239. But we had such a great family time we would pay that.

 

[fivefordisney]

We're just back from the Poconos and here are my observations - It's definitely not Disney.

As stated before the breakfast is terrible and expensive. We didn't eat there for any other meals. The park was very crowded and there are a lot of chair hogs. They just leave their dirty towels on the chairs when they leave and others who have to take up 4 chairs even though only 1 person is sitting there.

The chlorine level was extremely high. My eyes started burning as soon as I walked in and there were reports of a lot of kids getting rashes.

The room was very nice but we had a family above us that was apparently letting their kids jump out of the bunk beds and run across the floor for about 2 hours. Very annoying. There were a lot of people there that seemed to think they could just let their kids run wild.

I think it is very overpriced right now and maybe the price will come down when the novelty wears off. I can't wait for our July trip to WDW!

I did a search as a previous poster suggested and sadly, many of the Poconos trip reports read like yours. I'm wondering how your check-in went? Did you room cost a fortune?

Part of the problem I am having is that Disney is a really tough act to follow!!

 

[starwood]

Check-in took about 15 minutes of waiting on line (it seems some people had no clue as to how to check in to a hotel). The room was very expensive as this was a holiday week I guess the rates were higher and the hotel was sold out. We got the family suite with fireplace and it cost about $400 a night - not sure of the exact amount! I wouldn't consider it again until the rates come down significantly.

I just kept looking around and thinking "gee Disney would do this and they would have audio-animatronics on top of the buildings in the pool area and maybe in the restaurant. They would have a CM at the line to check in giving directions and making it a little more fun. I guess we're just spoiled.

 

[joanchris]

Its good to hear good reviews for this place in Williamsburg (going there this summer, maybe will go to the Lodge there). We were considering a trip there this past week, but after reading several bad reviews, and later some better ones, they seemed too mixed, and too many bad ones for the cost. We went to Newport, RI instead to a hotel with an indoor pool and hot tub. Fun time.
Here's the link to the reviews I read, there do seem to be more positive ones now, maybe since they've been opened longer they've worked on some earlier problems. The reports are specific to the one in the Poconos:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re...ws-Great_Wolf_Lodge-Scotrun_Pennsylvania.html

 

[momandseandodisney]

Does anyone have any pics of the water park? I plan on going this summer to the brand new one in Niaagara Falls, Canada, but it has not water parks pics, just drawings . . .