As a rule, we avoid grand openings, soft openings and recently opened travel locations of all types. Why? Because in our business and personal experience, we’ve learned that it takes mistakes, time and practice to achieve a reasonable level of executional competence in any endeavor. That’s truer when success requires delighting experienced travelers like us.
Completely ignoring all those years of painful experience, we journeyed with our extended family group of eight kids and seven adults to Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange, GA, in its early weeks of operation. And we doubled-down, visiting during a holiday weekend period.
What Is Great Wolf Lodge?
For those who haven’t heard of Great Wolf Lodge, it’s an indoor waterpark attached to a mid-scale resort hotel. A more robust description would include a mixture of water park, adventure park, arcade, vacation lodge and out-of-control day care center where the overwhelmed and frantic parents can enjoy an alcoholic beverage.
The indoor water attractions are great in summer when Georgia thunderstorms are raging outside and during our mild Southern winters when only Canadians or Russians would dare enjoy a dip in an outdoor pool. Be forewarned: high ceilings and hard surfaces echo the high-pitched voices of children screaming with fear, delight, and dirty diapers. For me, that’s has the same pleasing tonal quality Axl Rose might achieve trying to sing with Frankie Vali and the Four Seasons. OK, maybe that’s slightly inaccurate and my cultural references need updating, but it can be very loud and unpleasant.
To be fair and less grandpa-grumpy, Great Wolf operates 16 of these water resorts around the country, and they are rated highly by travelers and travel web sites like Family Vacation Critic and TripAdvisor. The water park is open only to overnight resort guests, which keeps the crowds at a reasonable level. Beyond water attractions, an (extra-fee) ropes course, large arcade area and other activity options keep kids of all ages busy. The all-in-one resort concept works well for families traveling with children who need a weekend get-away, a short stop-over on a longer trip, and even a residential base during multi-day sporting events like baseball tournaments, gymnastics competitions and swim meets. The water park features slides that will delight all ages, a wave pool, a lazy river, and lots of play areas where parents can relax while their younger children splash around safely.
Helpful Tips to Plan Your Visit
Although we ignored our own advice with the timing of our visit, we did learn a few helpful tips which can make your visit more pleasant.
- Play in the Water Early or Late. Like all arriving guests, we checked in (after 4 pm) and made an immediate dash to the water park, encountering the largest crowds. And we cleaned up and went to dinner around 7 pm, just like everyone else. We decided then to get up the next morning and hit the water early. Arriving for the 9 a.m. opening, there were no crowds. Our average wait time on the popular slides was six minutes, whereas during peak periods we waited up to 30 minutes. The little ones had unlimited time on all the kiddie attraction without waits. As more people began arriving around 11 am, our older kids moved over to the lazy river and wave pools. The same was true after 7 pm, as groups vacated the water attractions and moved elsewhere.
Crowds are largest throughout the afternoon. At busy times, the wave pool and the outdoor pool are often least crowded areas. 
Crowds are smallest in the morning hours, and in the after-dinner period. So go early, take a break, and return later if you like shorter lines and smaller crowds. - Join in the Fun. We were among the many adults sitting at tables and in beach chairs watching younger ones have fun in the water. In retrospect, we should have embraced the moment and joined in more of the fun. While we did wander ankle deep into some of the pools with our grandchildren and even braved the water guns and dumping buckets to walk them through the play areas, we now wish we had taken the plunge – literally. Next time!
Next time, we’ll definitely join in more of the fun, including a slow float around the lazy river during an uncrowded morning time. - Plan Your Activities. In addition to the timing of activities, take a few minutes to consider all the available options against your available budget rather than jumping into the resort experience head-first without a plan. The rope course, climbing wall, mini-golf, arcade and gold-panning are all extra-charge activities. So is Magic Quest, which blends a Harry Potter-like sorcery theme with scavenger-hunt-style quests for secret magical locations. A variety of package offers allow you to purchase combinations of activities at a discounted price. That’s a much better idea than wandering around and buying each adventure ala-carte.
Aerial ropes course, climbing walls and mini-golf are among the many activities available for an additional fee at Great Wolf. Combination packages make these more affordable, so plan ahead rather than buying ala-carte. - Bring Some Snacks and Beverages. Many trips to Great Wolf involve driving rather than flying, so we found it convenient to pack a small cooler with cold beverages and a bag-full of convenience snacks. While coolers aren’t allowed in the waterpark, having beverages available in the room was great for our large party of small children. And fruit, peanut butter crackers, and breakfast bars were a great alternative to the high calorie, high salt, high-priced alternatives available from the food outlets.
- Venture Out. While Great Wolf is an all-in-one destination, explore the nearby area if you have the time. Specifically, you might want to head into nearby LaGrange for some of your dining as the food outlets at the resort can get crowded and have a limited number of average food options. When we return, we’ll likely have brunch-time meals at the resort, and perhaps an early dinner elsewhere. Beyond dining, Great Wolf is within 30 miles of F.D. Roosevelt State Park, Wild Animal Safari, and Callaway Gardens near Pine Mountain, the Little White House in Warm Springs, and all the park and recreation access areas of the huge West Point Lake. That means lots of opportunities for boating, fishing, hiking, biking, other outdoor activities and touring attraction. If you have the time, we loved our visit to Wild Animal Safari and our drive-thru in the rented touring vehicle where we fed all the animals.
Things we Really Liked
There’s a lot to like about Great Wolf Lodge, and these were our favorites:
- Unlimited towels, available at the entrance to the water park. No need to bring your own or try to keep track of where you left your towel.
Don’t miss the free kids programs, which include story time, movies, activities and costumed character interactions. Yes, you likely will do the Hokey Pokey. - Cute entertainment for kids, catering mostly to the 10-and-under crowd. At story and movie times, kids gather in the special lobby area for the shows. Costumed character appearances are scheduled through the day and resort.
- Wolf ears, which were distributed to our herd of eight kids and a few of our adults. This may have been an opening-time promotion, so don’t make any promises before you arrive.
- Luggage carts, and lots of them, available to help get all your belongings from the acres of parking lots into the expansive, multi-story lodging area.
- Snack bars, because while we did bring some bagged snacks, our little one worked up giant hungers for other treats, too. Snack bar food was convenient, portable, and reasonably-priced.
- Adult beverages, available at the snack bars and a tiki bar in the water park. Great Wolf does a great job with ID requirements and all the adults who were consuming did so in moderation and were well behaved.
Things We Learned (or Relearned)
As usual, we learned new and old lessons during this travel adventure:
- Walking is exercise. While there is a small workout room with the normal cardio equipment, we achieved our daily step count without any real effort. But, that may have been because our little ones (or their parents) insisted on using bathrooms in our rooms rather than the public facilities in the swimming area.
- We’re coffee snobs. The Dunkin Donuts outlet serves their usual assortment of donut shop and fancy coffees, but it can be overwhelmed in the morning. A convenience outlet offers decent choice of Kuerig-style pods and a brewer, but we discovered it too late to enjoy our favorite blends. No knock on the resort here, but we missed our favorite blends.
- US weight statistics are accurate. At least, that’s our conclusion after viewing normal Americans cavorting near the water in swim styles that expose more skin and body areas that daily clothes. We’re included in that observation, and this experience reminded us to keep our daily exercise routine.
Will We Return?
Definitely. Approximately 90 minutes away (and shorter for much of metro Atlanta), it’s close enough to be convenient and still far away enough to consider as a treat. Plus, our grandkids and visiting family had a great time. While unlike Six Flags or Stone Mountain, there is no “season pass,” we will be checking the website periodically to find opportunities to visit with promotional packages.
