Feel free to skip to the bottom for final reviews from Jordan, Little Mama and me.
Ah Day 2, waking up refreshed from our long commute and first day. We needed to run to Walmart to pick up some supplies including Half and Half since the Resort Fees that cover Coffee, and the Maker are poor at best. Holy Ice Cubes! It is freezing! It is 30 degrees or less outside.
Walmart was a quick trip. We debated many locations for breakfast, but we opted to go back to The Great Wolf Lodge to grab Dunkin Donuts. It couldn’t have been much past 10AM. The only options to order are by kiosk or app. Incredibly they only have 4 total donut types to offer and no munchkins. There was no seating area for the Dunkin, so we had to bring it back to the room. Hugely disappointing but we all settled for chocolate on chocolate. The glazed donut sounded delicious as well but those disappear so fast, and one won’t fill you up in the slightest. You need like 3 to begin feeling full.
We planned to go to the Waterpark as early as possible and to spend the majority of the day there. As excited as we were to go to the water park, we wanted to get some filming in for a hotel review. We made plans to review MagiQuest, do some treat tasting and then head to the waterpark.
MagiQuest – saved by enthusiastic employees and Bard Rock
The daytime crew at the MagiQuest Store was way more enthusiastic than the nighttime crew. The store is small, so when you are the only one in there it can be awkward. I asked the same questions as the night before about the powers of the wands and the mods. Justice was way more helpful about the wands and background of the game. She explained MagiQuest is a 4-6 hour commitment. But if you are unable to complete the quest during your current stay, your progress is saved, and you can pick it up on your next vacation.
What is this catchy music you are playing in this store? It really makes me feel like I am in a forbidden forest. Justice was really excited at this point. “They told me I can play any music I like as long as it fits the theme. I found this musical type called Bardcore Rock. The song playing now is All-Star.” She then turned on Hips Don’t Lie. You need to look this stuff up for real. I couldn’t believe how magical and medieval it felt in the store, lol. It sounded like I was in the movie Brave and Merida was racing through the forest. I kid you not, this genre of music is going on my Spotify playlist.
Check out these wands and mods that the girls chose
For the quest you get to pick your Wizard name. They maintain a daily, weekly, monthly and all-time leaderboard. After a good amount of questing, we returned to the MagiQuest Store to see how we stacked up against the other kids in the hotel that day. Corey shared the results with us. As he scrolled, I noticed one name that kept popping up whether daily, weekly, monthly, all time “Applesauce Man”.
I’m naturally curious so I inquired of Corey about this Applesauce Man. Corey informed me that there are people that come to the hotel every day just to play MagiQuest. They must come every day to maintain their presence at the top of the all-time leaderboard. Interesting. My follow up question was if they were a social media channel or if there was a reward for being the top Quester. To my surprise, there was absolutely no prize, recognition or YouTube channel to watch. It’s all for the glory of having your Wizard name seen.
I described a man I saw throughout the hallways to Corey and sure enough, he matched the description of Applesauce Man. I said he really knows what he is doing because he avoids the super-duper excruciatingly slow elevators and uses the stairs between floors. Corey let me in on another secret. Rumors abound in the Magical Forest that if you take the elevators then other people (kid’s) on a MagiQuest can steal your gold! Is this true? It doesn’t sound that way, but that didn’t stop us from pretending like we were taking other people’s gold in the elevators to make sure the rumor would stay alive.
Hungry as a Wolf Pizza
For dinner the second night we tried their Hungry as a Wolf pizza shop. As with Dunkin Donuts, there are no seats so you must eat in your room. The pizza tasted like a large Little Caesars pizza. It was a delicious thick crust pizza that was good yet very greasy. We also tried their chicken alfredo pasta. It was solid with penne pasta and chunks of chicken baked with cheese over top. The kids loved the pasta, and it did not last long. The price worked out to be the same as the restaurant. Your little bit of savings is that there is no tip required since you aren’t eating in a restaurant. One night of this food was plenty for me.
It doesn't look great looking at these pictures lol, but it was delicious.
Waterpark – small but good enough. Needs a hot tub.
The water park was small. Way smaller than I expected. I didn’t check it out ahead of time. I just assumed it would be large. There were only a handful of water slides to go on. There were a couple of single / double tube rides, a couple of family tube rides, a set of racing slides, and a series of tiny body slides on Fort Mackenzie. There were some non-slide options as well with the wave pool, a basketball pool and a lily pad run.
Do you know what was missing and how they could improve the water park experience as a whole? Add a couple of hot tubs for the adults. Most parents are just sitting in their chairs or watching from the edge of the water. Imagine a heated, swim up bar tucked away in the corner. Maybe turn on sports. That would make some good revenue.
Our favorite slide was the Howlin’ Tornado. This is a six-story funnel slide. They tell you to hold on to both straps. This is the first time on a slide that I felt like I needed to. This was partially due to our tube not being fully inflated, so my side was really weighed down. Yep. I almost cracked my head and fell out. Saved by the straps. At the bottom I was the one who hit the water backwards. The kids screamed out and laughed with joy as I sunk our tube down into the approximately 6 inches of water and lifted up their side in to the air.
The kids loved racing across the lily pads. The main complaint I would make about the lily pads is that the ropes above them are too low. They are obviously low for the smaller children but that makes it harder for the bigger children. I would prefer to see two different heights for the ropes. Make it more fun for kids of all ages.
Candy Wall
There’s a candy wall in the shop. They advertise as if it’s a big draw. However, the wall is quite small. There was a sign in the hallway for souvenir candy buckets. The signs looked big with the enlargement feature. The actual buckets were quite tiny. The bucket we bought was really cool, but it was over $20. The amount of candy you could fit in it was minimal.
We love to make videos where we eat a bunch of treats offered at locations. The candy wall was weak. It was mostly filled with jellybeans but there were skittles, sour patch kids, Mike and Ike’s and other gummies.
Luckily, they had an ice cream shop downstairs, and we were able to grab cups of Dippin Dots. These were actually good value around $5 apiece.
Our review of the treats will be on the Isabelle McFive YouTube channel.
Resort Fees breakdown ($40/day)
I hit the Resort Fees hard in part one of the review of Great Wolf Lodge, but what’s the harm in rehashing the terrible value of the Resort Fees.
Life jackets – Up until a certain age/height, these are likely required to be worn, maybe by law. But beyond that, most people don’t use them.
Towels – Towels in your room are free of additional charges I believe. Towels at the waterpark… they make you feel like a degenerate. You must go to their store and request towels for the waterpark. Your towel allotment is counted and charged to your room through your wristband. If you don’t return them at the end of the day, additional fees apply.
Internet – Most places give you a basic service for free. Sure, they throttle you down but it is normally complimentary and then you can pay for an upgrade. For most people the internet service is barely used.
Virtual concierge – The hotel decided they don’t want to have an actual concierge or correspond in person with their patrons. They went out and bought a virtual system. Then they charge every customer that stays there to make up for the cost. That’s a solid return on investment for the Hotel.
Coffee maker – Single serve of sadness with no stirrer is more like it. You receive two coffee pods. And they give you a packet for your coffee that includes two sugar packets and one half and half powder packet. No stirrer. Incredible value here.
Mini fridge – The mini fridge was a good size. Here’s the kicker. I can buy a pretty large mini fridge at Walmart for about $100. It doesn’t cost too much electricity to run a mini fridge. Also, you have to either bring supplies with you or head out to Walmart. There aren’t good supply values within the hotel.
Complimentary arts & crafts – Again, you can’t call it complimentary if I am paying a Resort Fee. It’s the exact opposite of complimentary which means “given or supplied free of charge”. Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of these complimentary arts & crafts. You get a coloring page with crayons and markers provided to color on it. There were probably 40 kids there coloring. I can buy a coloring book with 40 pages at Five Below. Just a reminder the value add is low.
Kids reviews
Jordan’s Review
Great Wolf Lodge was so much fun! I loved the water park, but there were not a lot of slides. There were 7 slides to go on. My favorite slide was Howlin Tornado. This was a family tube slide where you go up the big walls a bunch of times. I also loved the arcade. There were a lot of games to play and there were a lot of prizes to win. My favorite game was the Snow Ball Toss. You throw plastic balls at the clown targets. The more you knock over the more tickets you get. The best part about the Great Wolf Lodge was MagiQuest. I got a cool wand. It lit up and it looked like a Forest. You get to choose a wizard name for the scoreboard. My wizard name was Forest Slayer. It was a super fun puzzle game. If you get bored of the water park MagiQuest is fun to play while you take a break from the water park. I would rate Great Wolf Lodge a 10/10. I loved it so much.
Little Mama’s Review
Great Wolf Lodge was so much fun! I think it is great for kids and adults. If you get lost it is very easy to find your parents. Because it is smaller we were allowed to go play on our own a little more. The room was so cool. We got the kids’ camp room. It came with a bunk bed. The only bad part about the room was the bathroom, it was very stinky. The food situation was very good and delicious. For dinner the first night I ate mini corndogs. They were amazing! The water park was not as big as I thought it would be but still it was a lot of fun. Other than the water park there is a lot to do like bowling, arcade, laser trail, VR experience, ropes course, and Magiquest. I did MagiQuest and it was so cool, it is good for all ages too!
Helmet Guy Ratings
Price…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10
Hidden Fees (Parking and Resort)....……………………………………………………............ 1
Check-in…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
Room ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
Waterpark ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
Restaurant ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7
Arcade …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7
MagiQuest ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10
Kid’s happiness ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 10
Final Verdict
All in I would give a rating of 6.5 out of 10. I would recommend giving the Great Wolf Lodge a try during a slower season. If I was there at peak business, I think that would have been tough.
I made expectations and set a bar high based on my visits to Kalahari in the Poconos. Kalahari is over 200,000 square feet. Great Wolf Lodge in Concord is 80,000 square feet. If I had really thought about that ahead of time, then I should have expected a place that was 3x smaller. For that reason, I can’t blame Great Wolf Lodge if they failed to meet my expectations.
There were aspects of Great Wolf Lodge I did not enjoy, most specifically the hidden charges, the room was musky, and the bathroom was moldy. It was also smaller than I expected.
My suggestion to Great Wolf Lodge is to add a couple of hot tubs and include a heated swim up bar for adults. I think there will be enough revenue here that they can thank me later. 😂
The food was good but not something that wowed me. The price to value was not anything to be excited about. The prices indicated the hotel thought “we can charge you just enough over expectation that you won’t leave.” Unfortunately, they were right. Lucky for me I can write down how I felt at the time so I will always remember. 😊
MagiQuest and the Arcade were a lot of fun. The arcade is very expensive. MagiQuest was a good value. The kids loved it and that’s what really matters.
There were great family experiences to be had, and I’ll cherish the memories I got to make with my kids. They had the best time. I would go back to Great Wolf Lodge if the kids asked me to. But I would go to a different location that is a little larger.
Comments