Tips for Visiting Great Wolf Lodge

The Great Wolf Lodge here in Colorado Springs just recently celebrated its one-year anniversary.

I’ve been hearing from lots of friends who have visited with their children over the past year, and for the anniversary, my kids and I were invited down to celebrate the day. They had a wonderful time!

I didn’t realize that there was so much to do there besides the water park itself. By the end of the day we had:

• climbed a ropes course
• panned for gems
• gotten glitter tattoos (of course)
• gotten stuffed animals and taken them on a scavenger hunt
• gone on the water slides and in the wave pool
• eaten celebratory cupcakes
• played a round of mini-golf
• gotten a hug from Wiley before we headed home

If you’re planning a visit of your own, here are a few things to know:

Tips for visiting Great Wolf Lodge

1.) Get there at 1pm for water time

You’re allowed to access the water park beginning at 1pm the day you check in. You can’t go in your room just yet, so I’d pack a bag with your water park things and leave everything else in the car until check-in. But go early and play until it’s time to get your room. You can also check out of your room the next day, but continue to use the water park until it closes at night.

2.) Don’t bring towels but DO bring goggles

There’s no need to load up all the beach towels – the water park provides towels for guests, so you have one less thing to pack! Also, goggles are great – especially for kids whose eyes are sensitive.

3.) Consider bringing food

The rooms have microwaves and fridges, so you can bring snacks and food for your stay. You can also consider heading off-site or even ordering pizza or other deliveries to the lodge.

4.) Plan for activities besides the water park

You could spend your entire time just at the water park, but there are other activities (like the abovementioned ropes course, mini-golf, and bowling) available. Most of them cost extra, so plan for that. There are also various tiers of passes available that include different activities, depending on your budget and what you’d like to do. My kids’ favorite activity was actually the ropes course – they went on it several times throughout the day.

5.) Look for deals

The lodge often has mid-week or off-season deals. Keep an eye out, sign up for email alerts, and check the “Special Offers” link on the website for discounts on your stay.

I’m always looking for things to do when the weather is bad here in Colorado, and one of my favorite things about our visit was that the kids could swim and climb and other activities we usually do outdoors…in the middle of winter.

We were given Wolf Passes and access to the Great Wolf Lodge water park for review purposes. All opinions expressed in this post are true and are my own.