Is it possible to do Great Wolf Lodge on a budget?

[ceecee]

I took my GS troop in July and it was $198 a room for 1 adult and 4 girls and the room with 1 adult and 5 girls was $25.00 more. We ate acrossed the street at McD's one night and went to a nicer place (off site) one night. We brought lunch and breakfast and snack items. We bought one wand and they shared it for the two nights. We had Pizza Hut (at Great Wolf) it cost $45.00 for 2 one topping pizzas. (we used our own pop as they wanted $5.00 for a 2 lt). We were albe to get the girl's each a tee shirt with Great Wolf on it as the gift shop had them on sale for $8.00 each).

 

[KTSMOM]

We just got back last Fri from a Wed-Fri stay at the GWL in VA. It was a lot of fun. We stayed 2 nights for a total of $390. I thought that was a pretty good deal. I will let you know that I booked on line using one rate and then discovered that later they had a better rate. I called and they allowed me to use it!
We didn't eat any food at the hotel. We had been warned about the expense and that it wasn't that good. We brought stuff for breakfast for Thurs/Fri am and lunch Thurs. We just went back to our room to eat. That also gave us a nice break from it all. We did leave for dinner both Wed and Thurs night. We found a local seafood and itallian restaurant to try. There are quite a few restaurants within minutes of the GWL, so it's not hard at all to leave. The last day my DD played magicquest so I ran out and got ChickfilA and brought it back to the hotel. I saw other people do the same and also bring pizza back in from other places. Just a note all the rooms have fridges and microwaves.
The magicquest game is a lot of fun for the kids. The racket is in the buying of the wand. I belive the wand is about $15 or so and then there are toppers for the wands, about another $15 or so. The game itself is $9.99 and I believe that is good for your entire stay. We were fortunate to have a friend who had been to GWL before and had a wand that they let my DD borrow so all we had to pay for was the game

 

[torinsmom]

Wow, that does sound like a great rate!! I need to book something. Did you use any code with that? With homeschooling going on a Sunday night would be a piece of cake. Wish it were open NOW so we could do something fun and different during all this freezing cold weather.....brrrr!

Can't wait for IKEA to open either.....

No, that was the regular rate for Sun-Thurs, I believe. I want to try this new one, because last time we went to the one in VA, we had poor customer service. They put us in a room far away from the water park and it smelled really musty. Went down and got a new room, same area and it was still musty. This time a manager came up and let us in another room to see if it was okay. It still smelled, but not as bad, so we just took it instead of continuing to argue. They were getting snooty, saying they didn't smell anything. I think that one is several years old and they need to change out the carpets. Some people have no respect and lay their wet things on the carpet. The Concord one will also be closer to me.

If I went to the VA one, I would request a room close to the waterpark(not necessarily on the waterpark level, just in the same area)

Marsha

 

[Mom-to-2-Princesses]

What is the magic wand thing?

It is called MagiQuest and caused my girls to hardly want to go in the pool area! Seriously.

They are 10 and 12. At our Great Wolf Lodge (Traverse City Michigan) it cost $15 each to buy a wand. Then for $10 you could activate for your whole stay. A very good deal if you already have a wand. An added expense of $50 for us as newbies. But it did keep us out of the arcade - does that count as a savings?

You then used these wands to run around designated areas to "activate" items -- treasure chests would open, animals would talk, pictures would animate and talk, etc to find clues and items to complete quests in a booklet. There were about 10 quests to complete and after all the quests are done there were 3 Adventures - slaying a dragon, defeating the Goblin King (and retrieving the princesses' jewels) and retrieving the fairies lost crystal.

At our Lodge it covered 3 floors with 6 distinct areas. And of course each clue was in a different area so there was much running up and down stairs. With the age of my girls I just plopped on a sofa in the lobby as I watched them go all over.

The girls spent around 6 to 8 hours doing it. And they still talk about it and my daughter brought down her "Ancient Book of Wisdom" with all the details for me to write this e-mail. BTW, this is one of her comments - It is tiring running up and down stairs, but the elevators take too long. As you can see, so much fun the kids don't want to use the glass elevators.

That said -- all age levels were doing it, but it would be an easy item to skip with a 5 year old. It would need a lot of parent participation and help, it is more of an older kid's game. They feel pretty smart as they catch the clues, etc.