We were invited to Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA to preview the Spring-a-palooza events. We just got back and we had the best time! It was our first time and I was excited to see the water park that I’ve heard tons about from friends who take their kids often. My daughter has a small phobia of water, even bath time is tough around here, which is why we haven’t gone before. When they reached out and told me more about all the activities that they had to offer that weren’t part of the water park, I was intrigued and excited to take my family. While I know that most people probably do go their for the water park, which is no doubt, amazing, I wanted to share all the fun experiences we got to do and my tips to enjoy Great Wolf Lodge beyond the water park! But don’t worry, we did not miss out! We still played in the water park, and my daughter, water phobia and all, loved it!
8 tips for Great Wolf Lodge beyond the water park
We were coming from North Seattle and it is about a 2 hour drive, which is very reasonable. It’s also a great stop if you are planning on going to Portland, Oregon as well (or if you are coming from Portland too!)
Check the schedule and plan your day accordingly
Great Wolf Lodge does such a great job of planning all sorts of fun activities throughout the day so there is always something to do! It was easy to find the activities for the day as they listed them out in the lobby.
I recommend noting which activities and time your kids for sure want to do before heading to the water park as you’ll want to make sure that they have enough time to dry off and change into their regular clothes.
Take part in the Spring-a-Palooza activities
Great Wolf Lodge changes out their activities and events based on season and for spring there is so much to do! We loved Violet’s tea party where we got to decorate cookies and play games with Violet herself!
There’s also a bubble dance party, nightly story time and lots of spring themed craft making events. All of these are complimentary with your stay so you’ll definitely want to take advantage of them.
Get the Wolf Pass for even more activities
Great Wolf Lodge has a lot of different activities to do and can be done individually or they also have a Wolf Pass which allows you to do a variety of activities packaged into one great price. I loved having this option seeing that my daughter did not spend a huge amount of time in the water park, as well as having a 4 month old, who couldn’t yet enjoy the water park fully, the wolf pass allowed us to have a ton of fun and kept us really busy.
The Wolf Pass package includes:
- Choice of MagiQuest or ShadowQuest game
- Choice of classic or colored wand, standard topper or Magi belt
- One Creation Station animal (outfit not included)
- One Clubhouse Crew Adventure
- One Paw Points arcade / attractions card (20 points)
- One 12 oz. candy cup
- One pair of Great Wolf Lodge goggles from Bear Essentials Swim Shop
- One Glitz Glitter Tattoo
- One Leather Treaty name bracelet from Buckhorn Exchange Gift Shop
- One experience at Oliver’s Mining Company
You don’t have to do all of them in a day, you are able to do them at your leisure during your stay.
Creation Station – Build a Bear
The current Creation Station is a lot of fun where you get to pick your own animal to stuff, but they did let us know that they will be opening up a Build a Bear which will have exclusive Great Wolf Lodge animals that you can stuff and dress up! My daughter is a huge Build a Bear fan and I can’t wait to take her back to create her own special Great Wolf Lodge animal!
Mining for Gemstones
One of our favorite things to do was mining for gemstones! You get a bag of sand and sift through it in the water and then you get to see what gemstones you find! It was so fun and so cute to see how excited she got every time she found a pretty gemstone.
Earn tickets at the Arcade
I have to mention the arcade. If your kid is like mine and loves to play games for tickets, well they will have a blast at the arcade!
We spent a lot of time in there playing lots of fun games and I have to laugh as Edie totally fell asleep in her stroller there, even though it was one of the loudest/brightest spots in the entire resort!
Head to the spa for mommy and me time
Great Wolf Lodge is not just for kids as they definitely thought of the adults too! The spa offers plenty of services for moms and dads. But of course, they don’t leave out the kids! We loved Scooops Kid Spa! The ice cream theme is just too cute.
Layla got the princess treatment with a crown, sash, glitter in her hair and even strawberry scented hand lotion! Next time we are there I’m booking us a Mommy and Me pedicure.
Use your wolf ears for fun photo opps
When you check in they hand you the cutest wolf ears which Layla loved. She loves putting bows on everything so she grabbed some of her bows to accessorize the ears and then we made sure to take lots of photos with them on.
For spring they have these cute pastel colored wolf ears which I just adore!
The gray wolf ears are usually what they hand out which are darn cute as well. And bring extra bows if your daughter loves to accessorize like mine does!
Don’t plan on leaving the resort, even for meals
There are so many places to eat at Great Wolf Lodge so it’s not neccessary to leave the resort at all! There’s casual places where you can get pizza, ice cream and more and the two restaurants where you can get breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I admit I had low expectations for food as I’ve been to too many places aimed at feeding kids and the food was pretty mediocre. But I was really impressed with the food at Great Wolf Lodge and can definitely tell that they cater to adults too. They have lots of great menu items for the kids and Layla loved everything she tried there. The adult menus had a lot of variety and everything was so delicious!
Leave room in your suitcase for souvenirs
From the moment you walk in there are so many things that your little one will want (and that you’ll want to buy for them!) The gift shop is pretty amazing as they have a ton of great stuff that is beyond just your typical souvenir. My daughter, who is a huge Beanie Boo fan, was amazed to find a whole wall of Beanie Boos and these specials ones that are exclusive to Great Wolf Lodge!
From the activities on the Wolf Pass like the Creation Station stuffed animal, to the gemstones, toys from the arcade and even a wand we ended up coming home with a lot of fun stuff! Luckily we had a bag with extra room to make sure we could fit it all in.
Pack comfy shoes for the whole family
A lot of people end up thinking of the water park and bringing flip flops but for the dry activities, you do a lot of walking as you go from activity to activity and then back to your room. I was glad to have packed comfy shoes for all of us.
If you have a baby or little one that can’t quite do a lot of walking yet, bring your stroller too! It was worth it to have the stroller considering we would have been so tired from carrying Edie around all day. It can get hard to navigate when areas get crowded so try to bring a smaller size stroller if you can.
(bonus tip!) Book a cabana at the water park
Being that we have a baby, having the private cabana at the park made it so much more easier for us. We were able to go in and out of the water as we needed and either I or my husband could stay behind with the baby or when we all went in, we were able to leave our items in the cabana without worrying about them. It was also private enough that I felt comfortable nursing Edie when she got hungry.
There are plenty of chairs around the park so it’s not a necessity but I think for either families with larger groups who want to have seats together or families with babies like us, it’s definitely a plus!
I forgot to grab a photo of the cabana but it was a large space with several chairs, a lounger and plenty of towels for us to use.
The park itself is great as there were plenty of spaces for us to play and even though there were a lot of people in the park, it never felt crowded. And like I said, Layla has a phobia of water but she really enjoyed it as there were a lot of spots where she could go in and just put her feet in the water or have it spray her legs.
There is a section for the younger kids which was a lot of fun and after a bit she even went down one of the water slides! I was so proud of her as I never thought that she would have tried it out. I think seeing all the other kids there having a blast, made her want to try it out herself.
Have fun!
We really had the best time at Great Wolf Lodge and I highly recommend going even if you have kids that aren’t huge fans of water. They really exceeded my expectations with everything from the activities to the food and the service as well. Everyone there was so kind and they all truly want you to have the best time ever.
Layla is already planning our trip back there and I can’t wait for Edie to get a little older so she can enjoy it too!
