Vacationing with 5 kids
That’s right not only do I survive living with five children we also take them on vacation. And this is NEVER easy nor perfect, but we don’t want them to miss out.
One of our favorite vacations is the simplest: Great Wolf Lodge.
We discovered great wolf lodge when we went on a whim in Arizona for Lucy’s birthday last year. We booked it and got a really good deal. We tried it out and we all had one of the best vacations ever. When we heard there was one nearby in Maryland, we decided to go again, and will likely keep this a yearly vacation. So here are my tips and experiences with Great Wolf Lodge.
Why Great Wolf Lodge
First, why we love it so much. It’s essentially a whole vacation in one building geared to large families. I’m sure it’s fun for smaller families too but it’s one of the most cost-efficient ways to go on vacation if you have multiple kids.
The rooms are specifically designed for families. We get a “Cabin Suite”. This is one room that has a bathroom, a small inserted kids’ bedroom with bunk beds and a third bed to the side, and then the main living area with a queen sized bed and a full pull out sleeper couch. Currently we put the three older ones in the cabin section, I slept on the queen bed with the baby and Travis slept on the pull-out couch with Forrest. They have other options too with more beds but this is the most affordable for a family our size and we will continue to use it as long as we can.
There is also a small table in the room, and a mini fridge. I will say there aren’t really any dressers or drawers, which makes unpacking a little bit difficult. There are shelves under the long counter so you can set some clothes out but it’s one thing I wish was different. With 7 people in a room, living out of suitcases can get a bit confusing.
The Downsides
My other complaint about the rooms is there isn’t a safe in the room. I’ll explain how charging things works in a little bit, but there should be a safe since you are encouraged to not carry your wallet around with you. And lastly, there are hangers in the room but I personally believe there should be hooks and towel bars everywhere you turn. This is a waterpark hotel which means wet swim suits and towels and there wasn’t even enough hooks for bath towels let alone all the swimwear. This has been true for both Arizona and Maryland, so I suspect it is a common theme across the country.
Aside from those minor issues, the room is perfect and much easier to fit a large family than a standard hotel room. Honestly you don’t spend much time in the room anyway. When you check in everyone is given a wristband. The adult wristbands have a little chip in them. You use your wristband to unlock your room door and also you can use it to charge things to your room. This way you don’t have to carry your wallet or money around with you.
The Extras
Downstairs there is a huge lobby where they have activities for kids. Sometimes it’s a story, sometimes it’s a character meet and greet and sometimes it’s crafts. On the way to the waterpark is like being in a Vegas hotel, but for kids. There is restaurants, a dunkin donuts, mini golf, an arcade, bowling alley and more. All of this costs extra money unless you buy one of the passes.
My opinion on the pup passes is it isn’t worth it or necessary, at least if you have younger kids like me. My kids spend all their time in the water park and the extra activities seem small and not really worth the cost.
We do love magiquest. There is a game scattered throughout the hotel that sends you on missions. You end up going back and forth and throughout the whole place looking for objects or people. You need a magic wand to play this game, but the cheapest way to do it is to buy the cheapest wand. Little kids don’t need the complicated games put on it. Just the one that comes with the wand. We bought one wand our first time and got two more this time.
Magiquest is a great way to kill time when waiting for the water park to open. The little kids just like lighting things up. The older kids will actually try to find things like crystals. This is probably my favorite part about the vacation.
The Water Park
The water park is honestly pretty decent. I thought the one in Maryland would be better because it’s newer and has more slides but honestly the one in Arizona was marginally better for one simple reason: The toddler area.
Each water park has a “toddler” area. It isn’t exactly toddler friendly but it is more like a splash park and the slides are smaller and the pool is only a little bit past my knees in depth. Forrest absolutely loved it at this one. My issue with it: it isn’t fenced in. Let’s be real if people are spending time in this area it’s because they have at least one (likely more than one) small child that might take off running at any given moment. I wish it was fenced in with some seating and I could of rested while holding the baby and just supervised (SITervised). But instead, they placed it right near a lazy river so I was on my feet essentially the entire time so I could make sure my toddler wasn’t going to sprint off into a different pool.
We spend from when the water park opens at around 10 until about 2 there. They say you can’t bring outside food and drinks in but with the exception of one employee it has been pretty relaxed. We bring our whole wagon in with kids and diaper bags and no one is checking. I’ve seen families eating sandwiches. It’s a dumb rule and seems to be more for keeping families from ordering a pizza and bringing it in. I don’t think they mind your PBJs I think they mind you buying food from elsewhere.
Saving Money on Food
We see a lot of big families at the lodge and they come in LOADED down with food. Everyone brings their own food. The food at the restaurants on site are unreasonably priced so everyone just brings food and makes their own I think as much as possible. People bring coolers and mini grills and everything. The last two times we have gone we have brought our own food for breakfast and lunch and gone out to eat dinner. It’s nice to get out and by like 3 pm we are DONE with the water park so it kills most of the late afternoon. Then we can play magiquest for a little bit before the kids crash.
And the kids crash. Our kids have been so exhausted it’s like the best sleep of their life. They zonk out. Both Great Wolf Lodges we have been to have been right near a casino so here’s the best part: Travis sneaks out and stays up as late as he wants, I lay in a QUIET room and read as late as I want while all the kids sleep.
You can use the waterpark the day of check in and the day of check out. Check in is technically at like 3 or 4 so be prepared you might not have a room. We wear our bathing suits and go straight to the waterpark after stopping by the front. Check out is at 11 so same deal we put everything we need to change in the stroller and head to the waterpark and stay as late as we please. With that in mind 1 full day 2 nights seems ideal (and apparently is the most popular stay time according to the website).
Weekday Vacation
Also STRONGLY recommend week days if you can take the time off. It is MUCH quieter. The lodge is absolutely packed on weekends and you can save a TON of money if you just shift it to three weekdays. This time we did a Mon-wed and I honestly think the Wed-Fri plan was better.
If you are planning a Great Wolf Lodge trip reach out! I have tons of tips! We plan to make it an annual trip!