I’m excited to share a full assessment of the brand new Great Wolf Lodge in Scottsdale, Salt River, AZ. This kid-friendly resort has a lot of enjoyable choices for households. Read on for the great… and the unhealthy. 
Hi pals! Hope you’re having an exquisite morning. Today I’m sharing a full assessment of the brand new Great Wolf Lodge in Scottsdale! It’s an excellent enjoyable and kid-friendly resort that the WHOLE household will love! Let’s check out this assessment to see what we thought so you’ll be able to see if it’d be a vacay your fam would love!.
We spent 3 days and a couple of nights on the brand-new Great Wolf Lodge, which is mainly a child’s dream come true. The ladies misplaced their minds! I’d seen just a few posts about Great Wolf Lodge over time and was excited lastly to take the crew. When I came upon this summer time that we had been getting one, I booked our rooms the primary day that they opened the system for reservations. The website crashed a number of instances in the course of the course of. I used to be in a position to snag a room for the tip of the month, which ended up being their grand opening weekend. The room charges had been fairly honest, and I used to be joyful to pay them.
Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale Review
Great Wolf Lodge is a family-friendly resort with a lodge “campfire” kinda vibe to it. The two wolf mascots, Wiley and Violet, and different characters, stroll across the property for picture ops, they usually have fairly just a few enjoyable facilities.
Activities at Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale
I used to be fairly blown away by the quantity of actions they provide on-site. They have a mini golf space, gold panning, a mine exploration exercise, an indoor ropes course, a mini bowling alley, a rock-climbing wall, and a full indoor water park. The waterpark is climate-controlled to 86 levels year-round and has numerous slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, an enormous splash pad, and a child/toddler space.
Inside the resort, additionally they have a Build-A-Bear workshop, a children’ space (the place they provide childcare), a sweet retailer, and MagiQuest.
MagiQuest ended up being one of many largest hits with the children. It’s an indoor scavenger hunt utilizing magic wands (that you simply buy for round $20). You pay an extra $15 to take part within the MagiQuest recreation, and as you discover completely different spots all through the property – they’re marked with slightly inexperienced leaf – you flick your wand on the object and one thing will occur.
It could be one thing small, like an image on the wall will mild up or do one thing fairly intense, like the large animatronic dragon that can come to life. You must comply with a “quest path,” accumulating completely different runes and objects, and battling completely different characters on screens all through the property, and it will possibly flip into a really concerned recreation. This half was really magical and children in all places had been operating round waving their wands at numerous objects, then heading to the portal to see what they wanted to do subsequent. It was very Harry Potter.
Saturday morning, the women and I hit the highway pretty early and made the fast drive as much as Scottsdale. We checked into the lodge, the place the women acquired cute wolf ear headbands,
and since our room wasn’t fairly prepared, we spent an hour on the arcade, which is conveniently open 24/7. 
I managed to win stuffed sloths for every of them from one of many claw machines they usually had been fairly pumped.
We checked into our rooms and grabbed dinner on-site earlier than heading to the waterpark. We spent just a few hours leaping within the waves, and taking part in on the splash pad, and the women rode the slides till it was bedtime. The Pilot got here into the room once we had been all crashed, and we spent the following couple of days alternating between the waterpark and the indoor actions. It was a terrific household staycation and the right strategy to have a good time the tip of airline coaching.
The Pros
The actions. I used to be stunned by how most of the actions had been included with the price of staying on property. The waterpark was included, the place we spent hours every day, they usually additionally provide a each day schedule with numerous actions on the hour. These embody character greetings, face portray, story time, a dance celebration with the wolves, Bingo, and so forth. Some of the opposite actions had been an extra buy, just like the bowling, ropes course, gold panning, rock wall, and so forth. I didn’t discover the costs to be unreasonable for what they provided. You should purchase a Wolf Pass for every child which incorporates every thing, however I wasn’t certain how a lot we’d truly do, so I opted out of it.
The waterpark. The ladies LOVED the waterpark and we actually spent hours right here every day. There was a lot for every of them to do, and I feel it’s excellent for infants all the way in which as much as youngsters.
The Cons
The meals. The meals was overpriced and horrible. We often love lodge meals – the women have a critical obsession with room service – and we will simply discover one thing all of us love. That wasn’t the case in any respect right here. Even when you evaluate it to Disney meals, it’s additionally overpriced, however not less than it’s good meals they usually have tons of choices. I discovered the choices to be very restricted, not very wholesome/recent, and overpriced. I’ll say the fries had been nice however you’ll be able to’t reside off fries for 3 days. (Liv even stated the pizza was gross, which I’ve by no means heard her say earlier than.)
Here are the saddest tacos you’ll ever see in your life. They had been known as “fajita veggie tacos” which had been on very small tortillas, crammed with pico salsa and one or two slices of bell pepper on every taco.
We’re in Arizona. We do tacos nicely and this was simply an abomination.
Great Wolf Lodge was clearly nonetheless understanding a few of the kinks because it simply opened. It wasn’t uncommon to attempt one thing (like a merchandising machine or a drink machine) to search out that it was damaged. We additionally discovered the rooms to be so-so. The cover was like half an inch thick. I’ve the worst time sleeping after I really feel just like the blanket is only a sheet. So I take towels from the toilet and canopy myself in towels lol. They additionally had a smoke detector within the room that flashed an excellent vivid mild each 10 seconds. We didn’t get nice sleep the primary evening.
What’s Nearby?
The excellent news is that Prep & Pastry, Fashion Square, and extra is just 12 minutes away. There are so many superior eating choices close by too. There’s no denying that Scottsdale has a ton of fantastic meals. So I feel it’s value it to go off-property for actual meals and simply rely upon the Great Wolf Lodge for fast bites and snacks. (Some of my recs: Olive & Ivy, True Food Kitchen, Flower Child for lunch, Blanco tacos, and Butters.)
Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale may be very conveniently positioned close to a wide range of sights that make it an ideal base for household enjoyable. Just a brief drive away, you’ll be able to discover the Desert Ridge Marketplace for purchasing and eating, or have a look into the underwater world on the OdySea Aquarium. For these trying to take pleasure in some nature, Pinnacle Peak Park has loads of gorgeous, scenic mountaineering trails with breathtaking desert views.
We checked out the model new Scottsdale Prep & Pastry location and ordered all of our faves. The chickpea scramble is amaaaazing.
(So happy with Kyle and their new location!)
How does Great Wolf Lodge evaluate to Disney?
They’re utterly completely different animals. (<— see what I did there?) Disney is such a well-oiled machine and runs easily and effectively, with a lot of magic touches all through. Obviously, it’s been round for a very long time, and any teething points have been nicely and really ironed out.
Great Wolf Lodge isn’t making an attempt to be Disney, and what they do is tremendous enjoyable they usually do it nicely. But it simply isn’t the identical form of expertise. I imply, we nonetheless had a fully fantastic time, nevertheless it’s not a kind of locations the place we’re like “Omg I can’t wait to go again.” All in all although, I feel it was completely value it. I’m certain the women will wish to return sooner or later. I extremely advocate it, even as soon as. It’s nonetheless a really cool expertise.
At this time, it’s again to the swing of issues over right here! I’ve a few convention calls this am, am going to get in some cardio!
I hope you might have an exquisite morning and I’ll see ya quickly.
xoxo
Gina