Great Wolf Lodge

You need to staff the front-desk better for check-in and out. The wait lines were up to an hour, which started the trip on a sour note. Kids had to be entertained, as we couldn't go and use the water park yet, having not checked in.

The main lobby hasn't been dusted in ages. There's a thick layer of dust on the lobby tree.

Magiquest is halfway in the middle of a renovation, and apparently it has been that way for months. If you're remodeling one of your attractions, do it faster; the experience with lots of "coming soon" signs is unattractive.

We ate off-site, which was a good choice because there's plenty of nice local restaurants just a short drive down the road. You might have more food sales if you priced it better...

Where shall I start? Maybe with a teenagers at the reception check-in desk, or the fact that Starbucks says it opens at 7 AM and does not, or maybe the shower leaking dripping keeping you from getting a good nights rest, or maybe the fact that it's took me eight phone calls to get the reception desk on the phone and oh actually it's reservations again. So I never actually spoke with reception. That's exactly why I'm writing this, just too many things to ignore.

If you have the free time of a retired person and a patience level similar Mother Theresa then you'll probably have a good time. We did not.

We booked in November for a small family reunion - two adults, two kids and two seniors in March for spring break. We understood there would be construction and tried to prepare with extra grace and patience.

Pros : clean facility, very short lines right at opening, nice rooms

Cons : food in the water zone. Oye vey
We optimistically made a mobile order never imagining we would wait one hour and thirty minutes for food. A lady actually had to wait 25 minutes for one can of beer and another little girl salivated looking at the dippin dots freezer waiting 35 Minutes for the employee to simply open up the cooler and scoop out her overly priced dessert. We called their food system hangry Keno (Trademark pending) I got to know the life story of all the other fed up parents standing in our swimsuits and telling our hungry kids to wait, and wait and wait. I then would turn into warning karen -- advising newcomers that I had been standing and waiting for an hour plus. I got to know a Michigan mom and her kids and memorized all my acquaintance orders and order numbers. It got so bad that when and order was actually ready we all yelled in happiness for making it so long. My husband likened the experience to a life raft. We ate for $47 and one hour and a half of standing and waiting..... I told the kids I lived outside the food stand now.

The fire alarms during construction have been aggravating. We had six yesterday and already six today and is only 11 am

The magi quest is sort of a dud -- ours reset and the kids lost interest in the integrity

We have booked here in the past and unless it's discounted don't buy.

They also have gotten very greedy and now all parking is $15/day. Absolutely ridiculous.

Location
Just off 635 northwest of Dallas
Parking
Large free lot-also have valet
Atmosphere
Lodge like resort
Seating
Bar, tables-good for groups
Service
It was a holiday so probably not an indication of normal but friendly
Menu
We were at the bar-holiday drink menu and regular-salads, burgers, steaks. Full menu. We had the chicken caesar salad and tomato bisque. The salad was a generous serving with a large grilled chicken breast. Very tasty and fresh. The soup was perfect except
Mine did not have the parmesan crostini's like another customer.
Summary
Conveniently located resort restaurant. Fun atmosphere, great food, nice variety of beverages, wonderful wine list. Free parking! Wolf ears for all!

Absolutely enjoyed The staff. Every staff member at the Lodge is very friendly and helpful. The water park was amazing.!! Although we had a incident where me and my 9 year sons raft turned over and our lifeguard was nowhere to be found. Also I'd recommend ATM machine because at 4am I was thirsty and I want to every floor and all the vending machines took cash only. Food was decent, I definitely enjoyed breakfast more then dinner. Pastas was good, burger was good but my ribs for the price I paid was definitely not worth it at all. Overall I recommend giving this lodge a chance. Definitely a lot to do and fun to be had.!

The Great Wolf Lodge Resort in the Dallas area is located in Grapevine, Tx. The area is very nice with lots of shopping and dining and was decorated very nicely for the Christmas Holidays. The Great Wolf Lodge was too.

The water park, which is the primary attraction of the resort, is a kid's wonderland. The water slides, pools and water attractions are a lot of fun.

The whole of the resort seems very clean and well maintained. I felt safe with a strong life guard presence in the water feature areas - which we really appreciated given we traveled here with our 5 & 7 year old kids (who are proficient swimmers).

The reason this otherwise fantastic resort deserves the rating of a 2 from me is because of the beds!

Despite the fact that the water feature is why one comes here - there is NO EXCUSE for a hotel charging upwards of $300/night (or even anything over $150) to provide guests with a subpar bed.

We are members of DVC (Disney Vacation Club) and we have never visited a Disney resort that had a bed like this. The bed felt like what I've experienced at a Motel 6. Motel 6 beds are fine when you pay for Motel 6 - but there is zero reason to expect that kind of bed in a place like this.

We are experienced travelers and have been all over the world. I was shocked to find that this place would even place a bed like this in one of its resorts.

Unacceptable.

I admit we took one of the last 4 rooms available and that there may be other rooms that have better beds, but again I am SHOCKED that this bed would be in ANY room of this hotel, given the prices charged.

The resort may have world class water features and amenities - but it has classless beds - at least in our room.

If you expect a nice bed - go somewhere else. I hate to say it - but I feel pretty certain that I won't be returning to this resort (or another of their other locations) given the poor quality of the mattress in our room.

Such a shame, really, that the resort would allow subpar beds to be placed in its resort and 100% avoidable. (As an addendum, we ran into friends who also stayed during the same time we were here and have been several times - they said every room they've been in is the same kind of bed).

One other annoying issue was that the toilet in the room did not reliably flush. The water pressure seemed to be an issue and this caused the need to flush at least twice between uses. The toilet tank filled slowly, which meant you had to wait a bit between flushes.

Totally first world problems, I admit - but when living in the first world and paying first world prices - I feel folks should know our experience if it would help them avoid this kind of experience, if they expect more from their guest room experience.

To end the review on a positive note - we purchased a breakfast buffet package for our family and it was well worth it. The buffet included an omelet station, pastries, hot breakfast items, fresh fruit, cereal (and drinks were included in the pre-purchase package). The best part was our wait staff, Carolyn G.

She was a fantastic wait person - friendly and accommodating and very welcoming of our family.

I changed the overall rating of the resort based on my interaction with Carolyn G.

The bed we had was awful - but the customer service from Carolyn was world class! She deserves a raise!

Go and have fun - but bring an egg crate for the bed if you're older than 20 something!

My family loves GWL but I'm not as sold as they are. Maybe because I'm the one who sees the bill, lol. It is definitely worth experiencing the full effect (hotel, buffet, arcade, and water park) at least once. After that, though, you may get more out of doing less - day pass, skip the overpriced arcade, eat outside of the facility. We've done that before and it's a less jagged financial pill to swallow.

There are just several things GWL does weakly compared to other water parks. The wave pool does not produce waves. You barely undulate at all. There really are only 5 cool slides to go on - 4 if your kids aren't tall enough. I haven't even experienced the park in full because there's always a short-staff issue so they don't open the slides outside. The lazy river is the smallest I've ever seen.

And, of course, price gouging. Subpar food is served at the buffet for $18/pp. $20 worth of arcade credits lets you play about 8 games only. A fun hotel room with a bunkbed for the kids eats up your savings in two nights and the rooms are nothing to sing home about. Again, day pass this place and bring your own food. Or you could hit up Hawaiian Falls/Waters and get way more bang for your buck.

We paid for an all day pass for our family to enjoy a little fun on a cold day. The kids had a great time, and there was plenty of water activities for them to do and swim in.

Downside would be their rule of "no outside food allowed", which is understandable but the food they had to offer was really not great and super over priced.

Another thing, this is suppose to be a great place for families, however there were no nursing rooms available. When I asked a "pack member" in the gift shop by the water park if I could use their fitting room to nurse/pump in as (I saw it had a chair and outlet in it). I don't think they really understood what I was asking because they said "no; but oh! I know a place" and took me to a public female restroom outside the water park and pointed me towards the outlet by the sink. They did not offer me a chair to sit in, and when I asked for one they said they couldn't bring me one into the restroom. There were still little boys (aged about 7-9) coming in and out of the public restroom with their moms. And it was so awkward when I overheard the boys asking their mom, "what is she doing?!?". I had to do my best to cover myself, as not to expose them.

Overall, we enjoyed the water park but had a poor experience as a nursing mom.

Seriously. $15 parking fee? This is new starting in Feb 2024. Nothing new other a new way to charge extra. They might as run it up to $50.