REVIEW: Great Wolf Lodge in Massachusetts

Review from Guest Mom Erin.  She went on her own and wanted to share her review!  Thanks Erin!!

 

Over spring break our family of 5 stayed 2 nights at Great Wolf Lodge in Massachusetts (New England location).  This was actually our second visit at this location the last being 3 years ago when we only had a 7 and 5 year old who have literally been begging to go back ever since!

With regular off peak rates for a standard room starting around $220 a night resort fees, food, many activities and arcade not included it just didn’t seem feasible. Finally a Groupon and a coupon code (which I highly recommend waiting for and booking through) was worthy of a much needed family getaway. Perfect dates the girls were off… ok they were supposed to be but thanks to snow days school was in session, so we skipped it …shhhh! We booked our two night standard two queen bed w pull out couch suite for $319 including fees and tax. SCORE! You could spring for an ultra cool bear cub or wolf den suite and get your kids bunks with their own tv but it’s just for sleep right? So we skipped it and I’m glad we did, those rooms are located in an active part of the resort and with a 1 year old I imagine it would have been a nightmare to nap and at bedtime!

We decided instead to put our money else where and go for some add ons. Now watch me break the bank but it was so worth it and the savings added up in the end.

Although my daughters b day isn’t for another 3 weeks she had decided this would be for her birthday (works for me!) we bought the big birthday package $100 which included:

We also decided on the biggest activity passes x2 kids totaled $200 this kept the girls busy the entire time and was helpful when I had to put the baby down too because my Husband was able to take them around and do much of it this, included:

 

A few things about the wolf pass, creation station animals are like those animals we all know at the mall but are GWL themed characters however note the outfits are extra and at $20 a pop or they have t shirts for $6.99. These characters also interact with a scavenger hunt game with ques around the resort. The ropes course admission is unlimited. Make sure you get your glitter tattoos and leather bracelets at the end of your trip as they aren’t waterproof.

Lastly we added a meal deal. We opted for the 2 meals and a breakfast $100 for 4. Night one we did the dinner buffet I have to advise against it just order off the menu instead. None of us loved our food the meat was overly salted and it all got cold very quickly. Mac and cheese was good but that was about it. The breakfast buffet was much better although food goes fast and we had to wait for some to be refilled but there was plenty to choose from. They also have a pizza/pasta place and the pizza was good. An ice cream, fudge and cookie snack shop, Dunkin’ Donuts, a burger place and a few snack and bar type places. Although I wasn’t too sure it was appropriate to have “sex on the beach” advertised in the pool area lol I doubt any kids really noticed. We ended up staying for lunch our last day and spent $60 we also brought sandwich stuff for one lunch (mini fridge in your room) otherwise we were covered, so again a good deal!

 

As for FREE activities we were given full itineraries there was daily Yoga, dance parties, a scavenger hunt, arts and crafts, bingo and of course the nightly story time with character/s. We had plenty of photo ops with the resident critter characters Wiley and Violet the wolves and Brinley Bear daily too!

Clearly the kids loved the water park they hung mostly in the wave pool of all places, the toddler area was perfect for my 1 year old, there’s a lazy river, a pool with basket ball nets an indoor/outdoor hot tub numerous slides for braver adventurers which we are not and the big tipping bucket of course. I found it a bit chilly by a few degrees but the kids didn’t seem to mind.

The arcade is always a hit as well and we may have taught the kids a thing or two, like gambling. Oh well $100, 8,840 tickets yes 8,840, two bags full of stuffies, rubber duckies and other things we never knew we needed and they were happy!

 

For the most part all of the staff was exceptionally friendly and helpful 1 in particular heard how we didn’t receive a free birthday donut at Dunkin Donuts and was insistent on telling the manager which ended in us receiving free ice cream for all! It goes to show they do their best to keep everyone happy, busy, entertained and provide an over all positive experience. We will definitely be going back as soon as we recover, save up and find another can’t pass up deal!

Not mentioned: the baby being sick 3 am needing a full bath having a fever waking everyone and consequently moms lack of sleep but that’s mom life! Glad I packed the Tylenol.