My six year old requested a stay at Great Wolf Lodge for her birthday for the second year in a row. If you are looking for some water park fun during the cooler months, I recommend staying here for sure! It’s indoors so you can enjoy it no matter what the weather is like outside. There are so many activities for kids and the price of the room includes admission to the water park starting at 1 pm the day of check-in through closing time your day of check-out.
Upon checking in, your kids will get a pair of wolf ears. Since we told the front desk ahead of time that we were there for a birthday, Lila got wolf ears with a party hat on them. It’s the little things, right?
We upgraded our room to the “Wolf Pup Den Suite” so the kids got bunk beds in their own little cave with a TV. It was cute and separated them a bit from where our bed was so we didn’t wake each other up in the night.
The Kiddie playground in the pool 
The wave pool. It was empty during a mandatory break
Things to do:
Arcade: We spent a lot of time at the arcade. Did you know if you spend $150 in games, you can get $50 worth of fucking garbage? Haha, actually the kids did go home with quite the stash and Vince and I had a surprising amount of fun on the Sponge Bob game.
MagiQuest: We did this last year but didn’t do it this time around. You pay for a magic wand and go on scavenger hunt around the hotel. You point the wand at different stations and it gives you clues on where to go next on your hunt. The wands are $23.99 and you can bring them back every time you stay at the hotel. Games cost $14 per person and last about 30 minutes. (Longer if you’re my kids and easily distracted.) You can get more info here.
There’s also a Build-A-Bear workshop, a rock climbing wall, a mini golf course, a ropes course, and a mining company where your kid can mine for gems and take home the one they find as a keepsake. They also have story time, and my three year old loved the puppet show that they put on at 9 am in the lobby with their animatronic animals. For adults there is a fitness center and spa on site as well.
Dining: There are plenty of dining options but they all serve pretty much the same foods. Think hot dogs, pizza, nachos, and the usual bullshit. Check out the different restaurants here. They also have an Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop and Dunkin’ Donuts on site. The food in general is overpriced for what you get so I recommend bringing your own snacks at least for the pool. I brought a mini cooler with bottled waters, goldfish crackers, sliced up apples, fruit snacks, and juice boxes so the kids could snack without it costing us an arm and a leg. You also can go off-site to hit up regular restaurants very easily at the Colorado Springs location or order pizzas to your room.
What to bring: Swimsuits of course. Perhaps two so you don’t have to put a cold wet on during your second day of swimming. A small cooler or insulated lunch box with snacks for your kids, and water bottles are all a must. I also recommend comfy clothes to change into after you’re done swimming so you can walk around the resort. There are showers to rinse off in the water park if you’re there past check-out time and no longer have a room to clean up in. They do have a PJ Party for kids which is cute but our kids stayed at the pool until they kicked us out and then were too tired to do much else but sleep. But if your kids partake in that, it’d be good to have them in matching pjs or cute festive ones for the sake of photos. Every room has a mini fridge so you can store smaller items and leftovers in your room. If you can manage going during the week you get rooms for much cheaper (no shit, right?) Great Wolf Lodge does also offer day passes if you prefer to just swim for the day and then go home.
