Disclaimer: This post will contain a lot of pictures. I thought about splitting the post but I wanted to give you all everything at once.
This past weekend, I took my son to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas for his birthday celebration. There are 17 Great Wolf Lodge locations in the United States. I made the short two hour drive south to this location.
Booking
I booked the deal on GroupOn for $268/night, we stayed two nights. In my opinion, the price per night was a little steep. This price included the breakfast buffet.
Arrival
The property is located minutes north of Dallas Fort Worth International. There is not much for entertainment around the property. I arrived at 12:45pm, but check-in usually does not start until 4pm. Guests are allowed to use the water park from 1pm on the date they are scheduled to check-in, if there room is not ready.
Check-In
The front desk is to left when you enter the automatic doors.
The bellmen desk was to the right.
There were two people in front me in the line. I waited about 20 minutes before I was called. It took another 20 minutes to complete the check-in. During this time, the front desk clerk told me that we would have to wear wrist bracelets for the duration of our stay because it serves as a room key and water park pass. I thought this was silly and asked if there were any “regular” keys, sadly, there were not. She also told me that if we lost the key, it would be $54. Crazy!
Room
After finally completing the check-in, I took a right down the main walkway towards the room.
I took another right just before the elevators.
The property has animal them throughout, which was nice on the light covers.
Our room was located halfway down the hall, on the left.
We were assigned a special assistance, maybe due to availability. The room was huge.
To the left was the bathroom.
On the right was the open closet, microwave, coffee pot, and some welcome pastries.
As you walk further into the room is the king bed, a swiveling television, and a desk.
The couch was located on the far wall.
There was not much in the way of views from this room.
Dining
The property has numerous places to grab a bite to eat. The first place that I visited was the Lodge Creek Woodfire Grill on the 4th floor. I took the stairs up.
I was provided a menu by the hostess and was told to be seated anywhere, so I sat at the bar.
I was not really hungry, but decided to order some chile wings to nibble on while I worked on my website. They. Were. Terrible.
The next day, I went to the breakfast buffet. It is located on the 1st, across from the front desk. The buffet costs $21.95.
I was greeted by a waiter who showed me to my seat. I asked for a coffee and water. He pointed me to the ONLY buffet line in the place. It was so long.
None of the food looked appetizing. As I noted in The Great Wolf Lodge in 5 Photos post a few days ago, the bacon station was the final straw that made me lose my appetite.
The bright spot in the restaurant was the two omelet stations.
I ordered a ham, cheese, and jalapeno omelet. It was pretty good, but my plate was bare (I even managed to salvage a few pieces of bacon).
Water was never delivered so I went to the fountain to retrieve a glass. In no uncertain terms, I was told that I could not get a water and to go ask my waiter for it. After the interaction, I noticed trash store in the middle of the restaurant.
There were a few more restaurants on the basement level. The restaurants include a pizza joint, bakery, candy shop, and two snack bars in the pool area.
Attractions
There were many attractions to keep the older kids busy, but my son being two, was resigned to the water park. The water park is located on the basement level.
Also on the basement level was a children’s spa, arcade, magic shop, build a bear, and a XD theater.
There was a gift shop on the 1st floor and an adult spa on the 4th floor.
A magic dude provided entertainment.
If none of these things piqued the kids interests, there was a treehouse up the stairs for them to play in.
Fitness Center
During check-in, I asked if there was a fitness center. The person helping me stated that there was one…and nothing else. Well, after seeing all of the people at the property, I probably was have gotten sicker touching the equipment.
Final Word
I feel that The Great Wolf Lodge does a great job keeping older children busy. That is the only positive. The place is insanely overpriced, had too many (for me), and the cleanliness was severely lacking. I would not recommend the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine to anyone, especially on the weekend.
