Great Wolf Lodge Grapevine, TX

The waterpark was disappointing. The commercials and website led me to believe that the waterpark had a splash zone and other areas that would be good for my 24 month old. Unfortunately, it turns out that the Great Wolf Lodge Waterpark is really no place for a toddler. Kids ages 5 and up would probably have a great time at their waterpark.

The website mentions that they have an outdoor waterpark area. If you are like me and were hoping to keep your little ones out of the hot Texas sun for most of the day in the inside waterpark and thought the outdoor one might be a nice break now and then, then you too would be sorely disappointed. The outdoor waterpark is actually a lot nicer than the indoor one. We ended up having to douse our little ones with sunscreen over and over because none of us wanted to hangout in the indoor park.

The website also claims that the indoor park is a nice and balmy 85 degrees. Well, we went the first week of August and it was more like 70 degrees, and the water was even colder than that! The water was so cold that our 24 month old's lips turned blue and her whole body started shaking.

So, as far as the "indoor" waterpark idea goes, it was worthless. And if you are going to douse yourself with sunscreen and stay outside any way, you might as well go to Six Flag's Hurricane Harbor that's just right down the road and much, much nicer with a ton of things to do.

The one nice thing I can say about Great Wolf is that you really don't have to leave the hotel unless you want to. They have various restaurants and snack shacks to choose from. They even have a Pizza Hut.

I was pleasantly surprised by the snack shack at the outdoor waterpark when I saw things on the menu like: club sandwich, chef salad, and a chicken wrap along side kid friendly items like hamburgers, french fries, and chicken nuggets. So, I got a chef salad. And, it was frozen! I don't mean it had been frozen and they served it to be thawed...I mean it was frozen when I got it. The boiled egg, lunch meat, cheese, and yes even the lettuce all had ice on them. In the heat, part of it thawed quickly and then the lettuce was all limp and soggy. Oh, and did I mention it was around $8.00, not including a drink!

My family all went down to the sit down restaurant to eat one night while I stayed in the room with the baby. My husband gave me a menu and asked me what I wanted and he'd bring it up. Since his sister was treating us to this meal I thought I'd order just a salad to save her some money. I ordered a salad that had grilled chicken, strawberries and a blackberry vinaigrette. Well, so much for saving money. My little salad was $14.95! They had a buffet that was $20 a person!

Ok, so how much does the glorious Great Wolf Lodge cost?

Just the plain Jane family suite (not even one of the neat themed rooms) is $189 a night and that is during the off season time (during the school year) and on a week day! The same room is $229 a night on the weekend during the off season months! The neat themed rooms run anywhere from $329 to $429 a night. And keep in mind that this doesn't include the food, which is outrageously high if you eat at Great Wolf.

We stayed in a family suite, had 4 adults and 3 kids (mind you, all the kids were free because they were all 3 and under) and after we paid for food, our little 2 night trip was well over $1,500! And that doesn't even include the gas we spent to drive up there!

We could have flown somewhere neat and stayed a few nights for that price, or gone to SeaWorld.

We were very disappointed with Great Wolf Lodge. It was just way too expensive and wasn't as age appropriate for toddlers as I had expected. Since it's better for school age kids any way, you'd be much better off going to Hurricane Harbor and staying at a nice hotel.

You could stay 2 nights at a nice hotel, go to Hurricane Harbor one day and Six Flags the next and still not spend as much as you would at Great Wolf Lodge.