Making the most out of a quick, low cost over night trip to Great wolf lodge

It is the middle of winter here in Texas and even though we aren’t under a foot of snow, it is much too cold to spend time outside in the water! My boys could spend each and everyday playing in the water. One of our favorite winter getaways is to visit Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas when it is too cold to be in the water outside. If you haven’t ever visited Great Wolf Lodge, read along and I will share with you the best and most inexpensive way to get the most out of a short visit to this indoor waterpark resort. Our three big ways to save money include cutting room costs, cutting food costs, and skipping on extras.

When you book a stay at Great Wolf Lodge, you can access the waterpark on your arrival day at 1pm and play at the waterpark the following day until closing. Access to the hotel room is limited to standard hotel hours -check in at 4pm and check out is at 11am. For us, it is just under a 4 hour drive, so we always aim to arrive at 1 and start splashing at the waterpark until we can check into our hotel room. By about dinnertime, our boys are ready for a break and dinner! Then, we can get a good nights sleep, wake up and play until we are all wrinkled and shriveled up from playing in the water too long. I usually don’t sleep well in hotel rooms, but the Great Wolf Lodge beds are so comfortable you are sure to sleep good! Between the two days of playing, we get about 13 hours of water play.

We have booked our stays different ways each time. Sometimes it is through a special offer directly from the hotel, but more often than not, we keep an eye on the Groupon deals. Great Wolf Lodge has a variety of rooms available from standard hotel rooms with two queen beds all the way to premium suites with two separate bedrooms. If you can find a way to get a room with the awesome kid bunk area, I would highly recommend it! This particular weekend we had found an amazing rate for the kid cabin room!!! This cabin room included a queen bed and a bunk room with a bunk bed and a single bed. Our three older boys jumped up and down with excitement when they saw the room! I’m not sure what we will do once Adler wants to bunk with the big boys!

Aside from finding the room at a great price, we pack our own food to save money! The hotel rooms come equipped with a microwave and a mini fridge. We pack a TON of snacks and a cooler with meals. We also pack either a hot plate or a WOK to whip up something fairly quick for dinner. After playing for so long in the water, our boys are ravenously hungry! We always pack microwave popcorn since that is the easiest, quickest, most filling snack. Each time we have packed different snacks from pretzels, poptarts, and bananas to nilla wafers, cheezits, and oranges. This time we packed food to make macaroni and cheese. Last time we had brought spaghetti and meatballs. We don’t always eat the healthiest foods on these trips, but it is quick and easy food that will save us from eating out! For us grownups, I usually prepare a large dinner type salad ahead of time. The first time we stayed at Great Wolf Lodge, we did enjoy the on site breakfast buffet and it was very yummy! We just can’t always add that expense to the trip.

Let’s get talking about the water park – everyone’s favorite! There are three height levels – green, yellow, and red. Green is above 48 inches and can ride anything there (this is where Aiden is). The first day we were there, Anson was measured and just had barely squeaked by. He was over the moon excited! When we returned the next morning, someone else remeasured him and he fell short by about a half an inch and he was so incredibly sad that he didn’t get to ride the Tornado ride! Yellow is between 42-48 inches high and is limited on which rides they can ride alone vs. needing a supervising adult with them (Aaron falls into this category). Red is any guest shorter than 42 inches (this is where Adler falls).

Once we get our bands and check out our towels, we are ready to play! Side note about the bands for the water park is that the adult ones are also room keys! They are also linked to a credit card at registration and you can charge anything in the hotel to the band. We usually start in the wave pool and wait through at least one round of waves. Then, we split up and Andy takes the big boys on the water slides while I take the little boys to the smaller splash lagoon. We normally go to the Bear Track Landing. But, for some reason this time, the HUGE bucket above the climbing area that tips over about every 15 minutes was terrifying Adler! He didn’t want to be anywhere near it, even though last year he loved sliding down the slightly bigger slides for him! We spent most of our time in the toddler lagoon area sliding down the smaller slides and Aaron and Adler still had such fun!

While we are in the toddler area, Andy, Aiden, Anson, and even Aaron sometimes went down the bigger slides! The other favorite place to play was the water basketball area called Chinook Cove and cross over Bigfoot Pass.

The hotel has so much more to offer that we have never even experienced even though we have been four times already! They even have storytime each night! There is a new PJ party that includes a story, dancing, and trivia games! For the early birds, which we are absolutely not, there is yoga tails, wolf walk, and wolfercise. They have a Great Clock Tower Show! The best part about all of these things is that they are free!

There are also a ton of additional activities that you can add on for a fee. We have not tried any of these either since our budget is always so tight and our kids are just so happy to splash at the waterpark!

• Howlers Peak Ropes Course-a smaller one for guests under 48 inches and a larger one for guests taller than 48 inches.
• Howlywood XD theater with four different movie choices.
• Scoops Spa is a sweet spa catered towards little girls.
• Creation Station is where you can build your own Great Wolf Lodge Build a Bear!
• Northern Lights Arcade
• Lazer Frenzy
• Magiquest-a game where you buy a wand and a story and walk about the lodge looking for answers to the questions in the story (this is most likely on our list for next time since the boys keep asking to do this!)
• Shadowquest-similar game to Magiquest, but up a level
• Compassquest-similar to Magiquest and Shadowquest, but adds in a compass aspect to it

We always find it so difficult to leave at a decent time from Great Wolf Lodge! After a long water park day and a four hour drive home, we are usually ready to sleep when we get home! But the boys talk about it for so long afterwards that we try to make it a yearly visit. Next time though, we hope to try out some new things such as Magiquest or maybe the Lazer Frenzy! I know the boys would love it!

Go here to start planning your visit!

Comment below if you have ever been to a Great Wolf Lodge? I know there are many locations around the country!