Great Wolf Lodge

Me and my three kids (age 16yrs, 13yrs and 11yrs stayed at Great Wolf Lodge on August 17, 2023. When I checked in at 5:45pm I was told that the pool closed at 8pm. So by the time we got changed and to the pool the kids had less than 2 hours of swim time. This is a water park hotel and most hotels keep their pools open until 9pm or later. I was not told this when I made my reservation and I should have been told. When I questioned the pool close time the attendant said that yes the pool closes at 8pm and that there is a dance party at 8pm. We did go to this but honestly, that is for younger kids, not teens. This would have changed my mind on staying at Great Wolf Lodge. The rooms were ok. I did call down and requested extra blankets and we did not get them.

We got to the lodge over an hour early to do the dry activities until the room was ready but were told it was ready already. It was a family suite, not the bunk bed suite I had booked and without the waterpark balcony I paid extra for and we were charged more than the quoted deal. It was also dirty in a few areas. We trucked back downstairs with all of our stuff and were very unapologetically told by the front desk girl that what you book is not actually guaranteed sometimes and they reserve the right to change the room during heavy travel times. This is absolutely crazy! I saw this nowhere when I was booking or I would have taken other steps or postponed our stay. Of course they were now fully booked and it wanted a good 30-45 minutes if our time there that could have been spent playing. It was my kids’ first time ever setting foot in a Great Wolf Lodge and they were so disappointed and mad, rightfully so.

On top of this, we tried to cash in our arcade points at the end of our stay yesterday. My son chose the super air hockey which was on a shelf marked 1100 tickets/points. We were told that it was incorrectly marked and it was actually 3000 points. The lady was very kind and felt really bad we could tell but said she wasn’t allowed to override the system even when it wasn’t our mistake. We understood she didn’t have the authority but feel the employees should be given leeway to do so when it’s a mistake by the resort which they can actually show proof of…My son broke down in tears at this point. He didn’t get to stay in the bunk beds he was so excited for or his prize he had worked so hard to earn enough points for which wasn’t marked appropriately by staff there. My son doesn’t even want to give them another chance he is so mad.

To make matters worse, we got a $32.26 charge for pool towels as well. My husband returned the towels he got in the appropriate fashion (we were well aware of the need to return them) and we never got more towels (we brought our own to use that we used for the shower at the end of the day) so we aren’t sure why they charged us. With such a terrible rainy weather week for Spring Break, we were all so disappointed with how things were handled.