Great Wolf Lodge Grapevine TX
 

Have you taken any younger teens, (13 - 14) to the Great Wolf Lodge? Did they enjoy it or was it "too young" for this age group? Any other opinions on resort?

THanks for any help

ttt

We just spent 2 days/1 night at the GWL in Grapevine for my 10 yr olds birthday. We had 2 13 yr olds with us and they seemed to really enjoy it. We got a KILLER deal that is gone now - pd $99 for a family suite including 4 waterpark passes! We had 6 in the room (me and 5 10 yo boys..!) so had to pay an additional $60 for waterpark passes - still a steal. My thoughts:

You aren't guaranteed your room until about 4 or 5 the day of check-in but you can get into the waterpark starting at 1. We went in 2 groups - the first arrived about 1:30 to take advantage or early check-in and my group didn't arrive until about 3:30. It is a ZOO between 1 and 3 - so our friends basically stood in line the whole time anyway and only got in a few minutes before us. So I guess to take advantage of early access you have to get there REALLY early and wait.

We loved it but I won't go back until Fall/Winter - it was really HOT inside (we were there on 2 hot days in early June) - REALLY steamy and humid and the water was warm so didn't offer much relief. The outside part was great - felt good out there. But the kids didn't seem to care, they absolutely loved it.

The lines aren't too bad and in the late evening and early morning it's the least crowded.

We got takeout pizza from a Little Ceasers near by - great way to feed all the kids for a decent price.

The next day we took all the kids to the all you can eat buffet for a very late breakfast. We had snacks when they woke up and then hit the buffet about 10:45 so it worked for their breakfast and dinner combined. The buffet was AWESOME - so worth the money. I am not a big buffet person usually but this was great - I would go back just to eat the breakfast buffet. Everybody loved it - well worth the cost - I think it was $14 for adults and $9 for all the boys.

Another thing we splurged on was letting all the boys play MagiQuest. I thought it sounded pretty lame - these are not boys that are really into video games or fantasy stuff, they are all "jocks" so I didn't think they'd like it but they DID - they LOVED it and it was worth it (although it's crazy expensive when you have to buy them all wands too). They ran all over the lodge playing. Talk about unbelievable excercise.

Between the waterpark and the Magiquest - they boys pretty much had the run of the hotel. I was a little nervous, but it felt really safe - they each had a partner they had to stay with if the group split up and it worked out well.

The other thing we did was let them all get tatoos - they thought that was so cool and it was pretty reasonable - and they lasted a long time - even after a few more hours in the waterpark.

Overall, fabulous 2 days. The resort is really nice - I expected it to be pretty "tacky" but it was very nice. Certainly that it's brand new helps. All 6 10 yo boys had a blast. To answer your original question - my 13 yo daughter also loved it. There was a teen "club" that she wasn't interested in checking out, but it looked interesting too. It's not a place for a week vacation, but for a weekend (or 2 nights) it was great!

I meant the buffet worked as combined breakfast/LUNCH - we really did feed them again at dinner ;-)

We just spent 3 days there,
mom,dad, boys both 15, girls 11,12
I agree with most of what the previous poster said.

It was nice, to let the kids play downstairs in the water park and not have to worrry about them.
do not plan on getting the room you request, and don't pay extra for a balcony or patio, it is literally a few square feet surrounded by dirt. they are still doing a lot of construction, and when the new wing is finished, I can imagine it will seem very crowded. it was full, when we were there, but did not seem so.

FOOD- we did not eat in the buffet restaurant. we were told it was $20 and was about like A Golden Corrall, so we did not bother. the walk up snack windows on the park level, were terrible, the kids said it tasted like school food. the restaurant on the 4th floor, was very good, and we ate all our meals there, I would compare it to the "Chilis" chain restaurants in price, and menu, we really enjoyed it.

Bring earplugs. If you have a room near the elevators/stairwell you might need them, the little kids who are up early run up and down the halls playing this Magi quest game very early in the morning, and most of the things they have to find are concentrated in these areas, we were about 6 rooms away, and they woke me up about 6:30, and the older kids that did it were up very late doing it. my kids were not interested in it, but it looked fun, ($30).

if you want a coffeemaker in the room you have to ask, but its free. our air conditioner did not work properly, and they were full so could not move us. they brought me an air mattress, and it was free, and nice,(much cooler when you're not sharing a double bed with someone)

$$$$$-I was very proud of my kids. I had told them to get the receipt every time they used their wristbands to charge to room, and to total the ticket. I checked our tab every day, and was please at checkout that with 6 people for 3 days, with meals, snacks, ice cream, extra donuts for breakfast,late night pizza, and a few adult drinks, and each kid bought something from the gift shop, it was about $450--oh, I forgot my boys went to the teen hangout all three days, it was mostly x-box and guitar hero, and you could get online. they played music at night, but no one danced. this cost $10 per person per day.

They also over charged me at checkout for my room charges, but I had kept my "check in confirmation" and they refunded me $78. YEA.

I am mostly telling you the bad stuff, because thats what most people want to know.
But, we had a great time, and my kids can't wait to go back, and us parents really enjoyed the weekend also, I highly recommend it.

The kids are definitely running around playing Magiquest as long as it is operating - so that's a good point about hearing them running around. The game is only "active" from 10 pm to 9 am (I think? Maybe it started at 8) at least when we were there, but maybe the kids at 6:30 didn't know that and were just running around trying to make it work. I did get a coffe maker in my room with out asking, plus a good refrigerator, this was great because we brought all our own snacks/drinks. I was also surprised by the sofa bed - it was actually quite comfortable - again probably helps that it's all brand new.

I was definitely surprised by the buffett as well - Golden Corrall is one of my least favorite places and this was nothing like that. TONS of fresh fruit, fresh bakery goods, eggs done a bunch of ways plus really good breakfast burritos, fresh made waffles with a giant wolf in the middle (a BIG hit with our group), lots of cold cereal, grits, all the usual breakfast meats plus a really nice chicken apple sausage, yogurt, milk, lots of juices. Any kid would love it but I was impressed at how well it catered to adults - especially with all the health conscious items.

I forgot to mention the wristbands the previous poster mentions. Everyone in the room gets one for the waterpark and you can control whose wristband has key/charging privelages. Pretty cool system!

All I know is that my college-age son and his dorm friends go to a very similar water park/hotel place and have a blast! Go figure.

Maybe we should have tried the buffet, we'll have to next time.

when checking in, there are some wristbands, that are just plastic bands, with out the computer chip. these will not open the door, or allow charging. these are just basically park tickets. after getting up to the room, and getting them on, we realized these must be just for little kids, and had to go back down, and get "adult" ones for all my kids. I was aggrivated because they were all standing with me at check in, and she should not have given them the baby ones.

the place is big, and -i'm, going to run up to the room, or run down to the water park, turns into 30 minutes.

we also had all kinds of snacks and drinks in our room. one time I even took the rollie cooler to the park, and we snacked down there, a lady was surprised they let me bring it in, so they must have a sign saying "no" or something, but they never said anything to me.

P.S. they have towels down at the park which are fine (reg. size) however they will not let you leave with them. so either take your own towell or a cover up, ladies, if you don't want to traipse up and down with only a thin layer of spandex on!!
It was nice just to hang out with only your suit and a cover up on, ( we overpacked, did not even need "one outfit per day")
ended up wearing "real clothes" about4 hrs over 3 days. even ate in bathing suits( with cover up) and everyone else did too!

We did go to the GWL in Grapevine. I would mostly agree with other posters here. All my kids had a blast. The whole place was much nicer than I expected. The only gripe I had was the food in the buffet restaurant. I thought it was very mediocre. I think they could have done a better job with that. But the whole place was clean, attractive and nicely themed. We were there at an off time so check in was speedy. The bracelets were convenient. The service was good. We are going to the one in Williamsburg next year.