Photo TR: Great Wolf Lodge - Grapevine

We had never been to any of the waterpark resort hotels anywhere, so when Great Wolf Lodge opened up in Dallas, I was excited. We were going to go over spring break to coincide with the pinball fest, but it was way too expensive that week. So, we decided to go when the Scarborogh Renaissance Festival started up. We decided to arrive Wednesday evening, enjoy the full day there on Thursday, and check out Friday. I had read many reviews saying the place is a zoo on weekends, and they simply can't handle the crowds. So, we take the boy out of school for a couple of days and head to Dallas.

We've been to Schlitterbahn Galveston in the SUmmer and WInter and have been fairly underwhelmed both times. The outside part is very sparse, although we went before the tube chute section opened. The indoor part is VERY sparse for the money. A torrent river, some small slides, some big slides that you froze getting to, and a little kids area. For $30 a person regular price. I hoped GWL was better.

So, we had a bit of a hard time finding the place, since it's in a fairly new development area. Once we found it I was amazed at its size. THis is one big ass Lodge. Eight stories high, with a huge waterpark with slides sticking out of it. THere is a great drop off area, complete with huge wolfs carved in it. My son and I jump out to go check in, and I was amazed with the entry area. Every bit as good as the Wilderness Lodge, imho. My son drools over the waterpark which is viewable through a huge glass in one wall next to the checkin desk. SInce this was Wednesday at about 7, there was no wait and I walked up, checked in, got two airport carts for baggage (they have about 50 of them), and head out to the wife, whose been unloading stuff. We pack everything on the carts, which was a bit of a pain. They have no valet, and no large carts, but it was fine. I park real quick, and meet them at the doors. We take in the entryway and go back to the elevators. There is one bank of 4 elevators, which is a massive design flaw. This is a 8 story hotel with tons of rooms, and a lot more under construction. That alone would maybe be OK, but add in the Magiquest game, which was basically played in the elevator landing areas on each floor, and I see a major issue that I'll get to later.

We get to the room, which is pretty close to said Magiquest game, which scared me a bit, but never became an issue, even with the Knothole Fungus right outside our door. The room was huge. Larger than a normal midrange hotel like a Hampton Inn. It had a microwave, fridge, central air, and safe. It also had some awesome citrus soap that we somehow ended up with about 10 bars of when we got home.

The bed was Queen size in some alternate dimension. My son had the sofa bed. THe bed was far from comfortable, and really stuck out from the quality of everything else. We quickly unloaded and went down to start Magiquest. I had played the real one in Myrtle Beach and loved it, so I was looking forward to playing it with my son. We loved DinoQuest last Summer in LA. He got a dark wand and had earned a topper of his choice for a phenomenal report card, and chose the dragon head.

My MB wand wasn't found in the system, but the guy added my info back in and I used my old wand. We payed the $15 each to play during our stay, took the Ancient Book of Wisdom, and began our quest. The quests were very reminiscent of MB's, but simpler. In MB, you spend a LOT of time going form area to area to find the items, and it was even worse here, since items could be on any floor. Usually they were on a range of 3 maybe 4 floors. Some quests were tough. The Great Wolf quest especially. And since the 5th floor totally crapped out while we were on that quest, we didn't finish it.

Each successful quest netted you a rune to be used for other things. Three runes had interactive sessions with characters on the big screens. The Dazzle rune was used with the Pixie Princess to get her magic gem charged up, and you dealt with Ursa Major with the GW rune. The main battle was downstairs in the Dragon's Lair. The main difference in this MQ was that all the items to look for were stand alone things or wall mounted pictures/paintings, so once you went to the floor it gave in the clues, you easily found it. The MB version had many things simply embedded in rocks or bricks and you really had to find them.

We got one rune the first night before heading to the waterpark. I realized that I had packed swim trunks from about 8 years ago that had apparently shrunk over that time, and were a bit unstylish in their length. Well, nobody knows me here, so WTH, I wore them, but was just conscious of their fit all the time.

The park is pretty darn big, and seems bigger than most GWL's I've seen pics of. Maybe close to the one in Wisconsin Dells. It's all one large building. THere is a large bucket kids area right in front to get the kiddies excited when they check in. It had 2 decent slides that kept my son occupied most of the time. THere were some buckets you could drench people with in a few areas, including right at the start of one slide. THere was also a little kids and Milfs play area to the right that had some really small slides and such. Behind that was the wave pool that had very short wave times. THen there was a large pool with lots of basketball goals in it. Then the big stuff. THere were two stairways up to the big slides. ONe to the lower lever was for 1 or 2 person slides that you lugged up tubes for. One slide was not done yet, which was weird because it was just missing one section outside, and everything else were there. ONe of these was a standard slide, the other was a toilet bowl. There were both very good slides. THe cool thing was that from the splashpool of these slides, you could enter a dark tube that led to the fairly short lazy river. It was a sort of bonus slide. The lazy river was OK, it had lots of water effects in it.

The top level had two slides, a large, enclosed raft ride, and one of the large funnel slides. My son is pretty skiddish of big slides after a bad experience on the White Water Tubechute at Schlitterbahn, so he didn't ride the big slides much. We never did ride the funnel. My wife was amazingly going to ride it, but that was on Friday morning. Oh that needs some explanation.

We spent most of THursday playing Magiquest, and were leaving the evening to end in the waterpark and some hot tub time. They had an adult hot tub and a slightly cool family hot tub, which was cool. They also had some cabanas which I'll never understand who the hell pays for, especially at a resort where your room is just up the elevator. Anyway, the waterpark was open until 10, so we got some Pizza Hut pizza in the hotel. It was undercooked, but damn tasty and not too high priced. We then headed down at about 8. Well, at 9, we abruptly told to get out. Mass confusion followed, and I argued with many people that closing time was 10, and that I had the paper in my room. The kids running it didn't care, and booted out everyone. And everyone was mad. I head to the front desk to complain and there was one other lady there that I had already talked with downstairs complaining. I ganged up with her on the manager at the time, who said she didn't know what happened, and that she'd know in about 20 minutes. So, I go up and shower and come back down, with my sad kid to get more sympathy. As I go up to the counter, I'm asked by some management type how I was, to which I said "not very good". This piqued her interest, and I caudal see her watching me complain to the front desk. She came over and said she was the top manager. I ripped into her pretty good. We had planned a nice end to our final day, including hot tub time, only to kicked out an hour early. The most important hour really, since the park was pretty vacant, although a LOT more crowded than the previous night when they were scheduled for a 9pm close.

She asked if I was local, to which I said no, so she skipped the free waterpark pass offer and offered up a free breakfast buffet for us. Well, we're not big buffet eaters, and I figured that was not worth a whole lot. I pressed harder and point out my son, who was told to look quite sad, and ended up getting a $25 offer off my night. SInce the room price went up $50 for that night, I said that was pretty much for that extra hour of waterpark time. She ended up with $30 off, the price of a waterpark pass, and a lot of "I'm sorry"s. It sounded like a misprint, but that's too bad. If they put a sign up in the entryway giving park hours, it would get rid of the problem.

She also gave us a 1pm checkout, so we could hit the park Friday morning. So we did. The crowd was getting bad, and that gets us finally back to the funnel slide. The wait was getting pretty bad. Our whole stay, they operated the two big rides as such: THey had one lifeguard on the tower, and one in between the pools. They would send down one raft on one slide, wait for it to empty on the bottom, and then start loading a raft on the other side and sending it down. This was insane, and ended up with about one raft down the slide you were waiting for every 4 minutes. Given that most rafts had 2 or 3 people on it, this made for an insanely long wait. On Wednesday night, when we had like 8 people in front of us, it was a 15 minute wait. On Friday morning, when I could see the line going down the first flight of steps, I knew I was unwilling to wait, especially when a quick check verified that was how they were still manning it. This was flat out totally unacceptable. It seems through reviews I read online that this is also how they do it on weekends. That's simply horrific management that doesn't care about guests. They also used walkie talkies to give the all clear for the rides. Never heard of buttons? Was there a big GWL lawsuit? THey obviously have corporate lawyers that hate their guests.

We also finished the Dragon battle on Thursday. After earning the portal, ice arrow, protection, and freezing runes-, you could go on this quest. You were sent to find a picture with the secret code for entry into his lair. ONce getting those three symbols, you pointed at them on the portal, then used the portal rune to enter. Next, after hitting the MQ light with your wand (which was totally not obvious), you began the battle. It took a few times to figure it out, but me and my son both defeated him. For defeating him, you receive the red dragon amulet, which is amazingly also available in the store for $13 (my family owns two, what a coincidence).

THey really need to expand this game. I'm amazed they don't have a dueling station there, since I would think it would mint money. There is room in the secondary MQ room on the 6th floor for another large screen, so I'd say more quests will be added. They really should just make a full blown MQ game at the lodge. Maybe a bit smaller, but still make it its own room. Because there were way too many kids taking the elevators for one stinking floor change for the game. We used the elevator for 3 floor changes, and boy were my legs spent after climbing slide towers and MQ secret stairs.

I surprised my wife with a massage at the spa in the hotel. It was here first one, and she absolutely loved it. Afterwards she sat in front of the big fireplace sipping Starbucks Hot Chocalate. I could have said I was having an affair with Britney and she wouldn't have cared. It was pretty reasonable too. Overall, the restaurants were not too gouging, but we brought enough food we only ate a pizza and some ice cream.

They have some issues still, for sure. Ultimately, our stay was awesome. We had a very empty lodge with very short waits for most everything. We are already thinking of a return next Winter.

As a quick aside, we really enjoyed the Scarborough Ren Faire, but not as much as the Texas Ren Fest here. It was about as big, but not nearly as many vendors, and seemed smaller. We had a great Scotch Egg, some of their Mead, a unique orange drink, and of course a Steak of a Stake.

Of course, a trip to Dallas always ends with a stop at the Russel Stover factor outlet. Not as great of deals as last time, but still 75% off chocolate, and they had an incredible deal on large boxes of their Premium chocolates that was abut 90% off.

Rastus O'Ginga

WTF?

Gathering for a parade

Crazy guy at Ren Faire

Downstairs has a redemption arcade, ice cream, pizza, MQ, shops, and a teen hangout

The meager outside section

Opening a treasure chest

ONe of the halls of Maqiquest stuff

The main slide tower in the back of the park

A screen showing out quest status

Some of the tube slides

More of the lobby and the treehouse

Dragon Slayers

The MagiQuest store

At night, they had an animated kids show in the lobby

The huge fireplace

The waterpark view from the lobby

The main facade

^That last pic kinda looks like Rob Zombie.

Now that looks like a fun trip! Thanks for posting these.

I stayed at GWL in Mason last weekend and had a similar experience with their two biggest slides up top. The capacity is HORRIBLE. The line for the Proslide Rocket was consistently 45-60 minutes. And they run their Rocket in total weaksauce no airtime mode. After hearing how great Deluge at SFKK was, I was thoroughly disappointed with this. One of the Crush 'n Gusher slides completely destroys GWL's Rocket.

Overall, it's a pretty nice place: big rooms, nice slides. But it's not some place I'd want to go back because there's just not that much to do after you've been there for a few hours.

The last picture looks like George Clinton. I plan on going to the one in Mason this winter when rates a re cheap again and I have vacation days.

Hey, I recognize that Ren Fair, Scarbrough right?

I really wanna hit up Wolf Lodge, but don't you have

to stay the night?

Hey, I recognize that Ren Fair, Scarbrough right?

I really wanna hit up Wolf Lodge, but don't you have

to stay the night?

Well you don't have to stay the night, but you do have to buy a room. I think that GWL guests can get you in for $20 though.

It's $30 for a visitors pass. I get the feeling you could go, even if you don't know anyone there. It wasn't clear about that.

RO

That's neat. I saw it during my two connections in dallas. Each time we landed, I saw it. I was wondering what it was. Thanks for the TR

It's $30 for a visitors pass. I get the feeling you could go, even if you don't know anyone there. It wasn't clear about that.

 

RO

http://www.greatwolflodge.com/Locations/Mason/checklist/index.aspx

4) Can other people use the waterpark?

 

Our waterpark is exclusively reserved for our guests. In the event you have visitors during your stay, a limited number of additional wristbands may be purchased for a fee of $20 per wristband.

I checked the Grapevine, TX location and the policy was the same except that the wristbands were $30.

I'd really hope that they aren't selling the waterpark wristbands to anyone who walks in as this defeats the idea of paying for a fairly expensive room in order to get exclusive waterpark access.

but it was way too expensive that week

Yes! I looked into it for Spring Break when they were running the "$199 introductory special". It turned out to be a $459 special during spring break.

Since we only live about 20 minutes away, we'll save it for another day. The pics look cool, thanks for sharing!

I am very confused about this Magiquest thing?!?! It seems like a live action MMORPG type thing!?!? Almost like the Crystal Maze at Oakwood.

I just looked at Crystal Maze. That looks a bit cooler, and more puzzle driven. Magiquest is more of a scavenger hunt. There are a few things you have to figure out from the clue poems as far as what order to do things, but not really puzzles.

Crystal Maze looks more like Wizard Quest in the Dells, which is a bit more puzzle driven.

RO

I just looked at Crystal Maze. That looks a bit cooler, and more puzzle driven. Magiquest is more of a scavenger hunt. There are a few things you have to figure out from the clue poems as far as what order to do things, but not really puzzles.

 

Crystal Maze looks more like Wizard Quest in the Dells, which is a bit more puzzle driven.

 

RO

Although we really enjoyed Wizard Quest, we wound up not doing Magiquest. It was really neat how Wizard Quest was set up in its own little maze where you had to do things like climb inside fake trees to find stuff. Magiquest, like you said, just seemed like scavenging around the hotel, which is a lot less immersive. With as huge as GWL is, you'd think they could make a dedicated area to the game.

Wow, it seems like GWL is spending too much time trying to expand and not much time focusing on the guest experience there. The original in the Wisconsin dells does a great job with guest relations as well as water park capacity. I have been disappointed with the ride selection in both the indoor and outdoor water parks and would rather pay the extra 50-75$ a night to stay across the street at the Kalahari. I live an hour away and all you have to do is ask an actual guest to purchase visitor passes for you.

sorry to hear you had a bad stay!

I absolutely didn't have a bad stay. HOwever, I can see that if you stay there on the weekend, you're almost guaranteed to have one. Tripadvisor is full of people talking about 15 minute lines for the elevators, 45 minute lines at the waterpark (wow, that would make me livid when spending nearly $300 a night on weekends), and lines for food.

We had a great stay. If we return, it will again be for a Wed-Fri time period.

RO

That is an odd coincidence, the elevators in the GWL - Wis Dells are horrible, at least in the condos area, I have waited upwards of 5 minutes for one on the 5th floor and decided to take the stairs instead. I am happy to say here we don't have the capacity issues though and long waits are ~5 minutes, even on the popular water slides. Your stay may not have been bad but not to GWL's standards by any means,

Sadly, it does seem to be GWL-Grapevine standards. I've read many complaints of long waits for waterslides, which is simply unacceptable. You're paying for an exclusive park, and a 45 minute wait is simply insane. I would be livid if I stayed there on the weekend and found "really big rides" to have waits similar to what I'd find at Six Flags, all because they were too damn cheap to pay for 2 more lifeguards. Heck, the guy wouldn't even preload the rafts. He didn't even get the raft off the conveyor until the other raft was emptied in the splash pool.

I'm sure they've gotten many complaints about this, and haven't changed, so it must be SOP for that lodge. I want some wait, just so I can catch my breath, but I can go to Splashtown on a weekday and have a shorter wait for their funnel slide for a lot less money.

It's a shame. That one single operational issue that saves them about $25 an hour will really tarnish people's memories of the place. I'm also amazed that they aren't putting at least small Magiquest rooms into the lodges and then just have maybe half of the stuff in the hallways.

RO

Sadly, it does seem to be GWL-Grapevine standards. I've read many complaints of long waits for waterslides, which is simply unacceptable. You're paying for an exclusive park, and a 45 minute wait is simply insane. I would be livid if I stayed there on the weekend and found "really big rides" to have waits similar to what I'd find at Six Flags, all because they were too damn cheap to pay for 2 more lifeguards. Heck, the guy wouldn't even preload the rafts. He didn't even get the raft off the conveyor until the other raft was emptied in the splash pool.

This was very true of our trip to the Mason GWL during the weekend. We only got 2 rides on the Proslide Rocket, the main reason we had for going to GWL, because the lines for it just SUCKED. The line almost reached the bottom of the stairs at one point. The only reason we got a second cycle was we ran to the Rocket first thing Sunday morning. We got one cycle in and by the time we got off the line was already at least 30 minutes long. Totally unacceptable for what they charge. The lodge wasn't even that crowded when we went. I can't imagine how much it sucks on the really busy weekends. We also had to wait quite a while to get rafts at one point and had to fight off some pretty aggressive people trying to jump line.

We also had to wait a good 30 minutes when we got there only to be told that our room wasn't ready yet. They really need to fix this process. Maybe they could get a self-check-in kiosk or something.