Our Trip to Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange, GA: Spring Break 2019.
This last Christmas we started a new tradition for our family where we gift a trip to the kids rather than go all out with gifts.
Both Zach and I are excited about this shift and we decided to keep the first trip pretty low-key.
We also plan to schedule these trips over Spring Break each year as we enjoy our chill time over Christmas break and feel like Spring Break is a good time to do traveling and isn’t too far away from Christmas either!
Originally we hadn’t planned to bring Spear but I’m SO GLAD we did! It was really a very toddler-friendly trip and my mama heart would have been filled with all sorts of guilt if he hadn’t been there with us!
This was our first time ever visiting a Great Wolf Lodge and we didn’t know what to expect. I’ll be sharing a travel tips post soon with all our tips and recommendations for your visit!
It was a solid 3.5 hours from our house but it felt longer than that with the type of drive it was…not a TON of highway driving which makes it feel longer to me?
It actually took us longer to get to Great Wolf than it does to get to Disney!
We checked in on
In case you missed it at Christmas…here is the kids surprise about the trip:
We also decided to get a Wolf Pass for each of the three older kids. I’ll go into more detail in my planning post but basically you pay a set price and have access to everything on the pass.
Since
I’m so so super thankful for sweet friends on Insta and all the advice about Great Wolf and also the local LaGrange area!
We heard that the food at GWL is not very good and is VERY pricey so we planned to eat out rather than stay in!
We hit up a recommended Mexican restaurant for dinner and Spear had his first ever lemon.
He was cracking us UP and kept eating them! I think he liked the reaction he got out of all of us about it!
After dinner we went to Walmart to get some basics for the stay. Breakfast stuff etc which is a good plan if you’re visiting a GWL to avoid spending tons of money on their food!
We spent the trip doing a lot of trading off. One of us stayed with Spear, the other took the big three to have fun.
It really worked out just fine! It was nice having everything under one roof!
We got settled into our room and then I took the big three down for Storytime, a dance party and to check out the water park for the next day.
I love that the resort has so much theming and so many fun things to do!
Our room was the Grizzly Bear Suite. It was VERY basic BUT very spacious which was great for our needs.
It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms
The kids LOVED wearing their pjs around the resort and it was super fun!
Kye was pretty bored in both the story time and the dance party but he really enjoyed choosing a magic wand and learning about the game they have where you use your wand to cast spells.
Sound familiar? It was NOT as cool as the one at Universal 😉 But still neat!
Tess was a bit frustrated that her Harry Potter spells didn’t work there haha!
We had a blast the first night! The kids didn’t head to bed until 9ish but it was so worth it and that only added to the fun!
We put Spear in the master bathroom and the big three shared a bedroom with two queen beds.
The sleeping arrangements couldn’t have been better!
The next morning we ate our breakfast then Zach took the big three down to the water park while Spear had his morning nap.
One negative that I don’t understand is why the water park portion doesn’t open until 9 am. It’s located IN the hotel area.
Only people who are staying at the resort can access the water park. So why not open earlier? They have to know that most families with young kids are up WAY before 9!
Once Spear woke up he and I headed down to the water park to meet up with everyone!
He was SO CUTE and so daring and LOVED IT!
I went down one slide with the big kids and it was a raft that ended up having me facing backward the whole time and I literally thought I was gonna puke. Not a good experience!
We enjoyed the water park area for a few hours then headed up to the room for lunch. We ate lunch in the room each day which worked out nicely!
As y’all know we are ALL ABOUT some nap time so we had the kids all rest/nap that afternoon.
We decided to use that afternoon to use some of the Wolf Pass options and do the ropes
Spear is such a sweet kid and so easy going to hang in the stroller while the big kids did all the things!
After dinner, Spear went to bed then we had another Mommy-fun time for a bit where we picked up the kids’ ice cream as well as their candy from the Wolf Pass.
Britt had been SO PUMPED for the ropes course and she couldn’t WAIT to do it! She and Kye both LOVED it and I was so proud of how brave they were. They did BOTH levels of it!
Tess wasn’t tall enough for the ropes course so she was pretty bored and I took her to look around…of course she fell in LOVE with a stuffed animal. Gotta get a little prize every now and then right? 😉
Since Tess was too short for the ropes course they let her swap out for the mini golf which allowed Zach to play mini golf for free!
He and I didn’t get a Wolf Pass which saved us a LOT of money and I’m thankful we didn’t do it as the activities were really geared towards KIDS.
Spear and I were able to walk around the putt-putt area and watch. Britt got a hole in one and so did Kye!
Kye actually BEAT ZACH and WON!
Tessie was adorable because she LOVED putt-putt! And kept telling Daddy she wanted to do it again with him 🙂
Part of the Wolf Pass included a bit of credit at the arcade. It was nice because the kids each had a card and once it was empty, it was empty. I didn’t add ANYTHING to it.
We skipped the Story Time but still hit up the dance party that night! Kye really wanted to play the Magic Quest game so I let him stay around the dance party area and play a bit while the girls got their groove on.
Out of all the things on the Wolf Pass, the candy was really the best “value” in my opinion. It
Our next morning was the same as the first. Breakfast then I stayed with Spear and Zach took the big kids down.
During the breakfast time I really wanted some coffee and the room coffee wasn’t cutting it.
Sidenote but they did NOT do a full clean of our room the entire stay. Which shocked me and disappointed me. For how expensive the rooms were…how could they not clean them?
Tessie went with me down to the lobby area and we hit up Dunkin’ Donuts.
It was April Fools Day and that morning I got the kids SO GOOD. I dumped all their candy cups into baggies and hid them and left out the empty cups.
I told the kids Zach and I had eaten all their candy the night before. Tess cried haha MEAN MOM.
But once they got the joke we spent the whole day saying “April Fools!”
Tess and I played a great joke and told them all that we got donuts and ate them…but really we surprised them with a box of donut holes 😉
I’m SO THANKFUL we canceled one of our nights.
We’d originally planned to say FOUR nights and as I did more research I heard that really you can just stay ONE night and be FINE and feel like you did everything.
I was nervous that we’d end up bored and feel like we wasted money staying that long so I dropped the trip down to three nights and it was really perfect.
Honestly, it still felt a little too long for Zach and I haha but with four kids and driving that far, three nights is a good length of stay!
Tess was pretty much over the water park by then and didn’t want to go down with Zach and Kye and Britt so she stayed with me and Spear and had some chill time.
Once Spear woke up we headed down to meet them…and when we got there Kye and Britt were wanting to leave!
Total the whole trip we spent about 5 hours in the water park and really the kids only enjoyed it for 3-4. So truly you don’t need a TON of time at Great Wolf!
If we hadn’t had the Wolf Pass they would have been very bored but the Wolf Pass DID make our longer stay worthwhile since we had so many things to do! And it was nice being able to spread all the things out over a few days rather than feeling rushed.
Tess’s favorite thing was the lazy river and at first it was closed when we got down there but once they opened it up she and Britt had a blast going around!
Britt loved the wave pool! Kye spent most of the time I was down there just observing because he was DONE.
I loved seeing Spear explore. The carpet in the hotel room bothered his knees and caused a little rash so he was wanting to do a TON more “walking” with holding my hands and preferred cruising over crawling which was encouraging.
He had so much FUN which made my heart so happy! When we go and do as a family, Spear is often not able to participate as much as I’d like for him to and it was great that he had a moment!
Such a random picture to be my most favorite family picture YET but it totally is! We are all LOOKING and SMILING! #miracle!
We headed back up for lunch and naps/rest again.
In the afternoon we wanted to give the kids the chance to climb the rock wall before heading out to dinner.
I was SUPER impressed with how well the kids did with the rock wall! Their Wolf Pass allowed them two attempts and Kye actually made it almost to the top.
Tess did great and so did Britt and I am so proud of their bravery. Y’all know I wouldn’t ever even attempt that junk!
Not only did I LOVE our family picture but I also LOVE the sibling pics we got! Great Wolf Lodge for the WIN for some happy kid photos 🙂
For dinner, we headed to Your Pie. Zach had it recently for the first time and has been talking about how delicious the pizza was and how reasonable the prices were so I was eager to give it a try!
They were having kids night that night so for $1.99 per kid they were able to get their own pizza, a drink, AND a scoop of ice cream PLUS a balloon animal. What! What!
Valdosta doesn’t have anywhere like this and we all LOVED It.
My dad has always been the type to talk about businesses and opening places and such and I totally have that same spirit.
For years I said we should open a Froyo in Valdosta. One finally opened and it’s done amazing. I got the idea that we need to open this pizza chain in Valdosta too.
I mean college town? This would kill it!
We spent the whole meal talking about it and looking into it. And came to realize that it’s a TON of work to open a franchise and it’s not really something that makes crazy big money haha. Oh well! If/When someone opens one I will be a customer 😉
It was a VERY chill environment and such affordable prices and SO delicious. We seriously LOVED it!
And being very honest…Zach and I needed the break from the Great Wolf Lodge. Being cooped up inside for that long started to make me feel claustrophobic and just feeling like I needed AIR. Zach felt the same!
It’s kinda like when you go on a cruise and just get that feeling like you need solid land. We needed non-circulated air. It was SUCH a nice dinner and just fun family time!
Mother of dragons 🙂
Once we got back to the resort I took Spear up to get him ready for bed and to go ahead and pack us all up to head home the next morning.
The big three had Daddy fun for the evening!
They finished up their Wolf Passes! Kye and Britt did the ropes course again at the same time that Zach and Tess did another round of putt-putt.
Then they all played their round of bowling.
Tess fell in LOVE with bowling at Universal and was SO excited to get to bowl again!
It’s so good for the kids to get that kind of quality time with Zach. They get SO much of that with me and I want for them to have super fun memories with Daddy too 🙂
And can we also say Daddy rocked out at the picture taking? So proud!
The next morning we had breakfast and got fully loaded up and hit the road after Spear’s nap.
We had one more little adventure before heading home!
The kids had an absolute BLAST. It was the PERFECT Christmas gift! They have continued to say how much they enjoyed it and it was so nice because none of them had to really sacrifice.
It’s hard having four kids with such wide age ranges. Usually either Tess and Spear are having to sacrifice for the older two or the older ones are bored doing something for the younger ones.
At Great Wolf Lodge there was enough fun for them ALL.
We are so glad the kids loved it…however. Zach and I? We just didn’t.
Don’t get me wrong….we love family time together and we made some fabulous memories. But the whole Great Wolf Lodge experience felt overpriced for what it was AND it was more of us watching the kids have fun rather than being able to experience the fun WITH them.
Have you visited Great Wolf? Do you agree with me that it’s more FOR kids rather than FOR families together?
Overall it was a great experience together! A great first Christmas gift trip…but oh my word Zach and I are BEYOND PUMPED for the Christmas gift trip experience coming up 🙂
Here’s our family video from our trip:
My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.
You can read more about our family on my About Me page. Also be sure to follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!
- What I’m Gifting My Family: 2024 - November 21, 2024
- Effective Parenting Tips to Discipline a 5 Year Old Child - September 24, 2024
- Happy 9th Birthday to My Daughter – Letter to Tess from Mom - August 26, 2024
