An Overnight at the Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange, GA
One night at the Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange, GA was plenty for water park fun. We came prepared to be up-sold on experiences and instead devoted ourselves to the water park until we couldn’t swim any more. The kids were none the wiser and can’t wait for another water park overnight!
The Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange, GA is an hour south of Atlanta and on the road to Montgomery, AL. As we frequent this route, I jumped when a great rate popped up for the hotel. (I recommend following the Great Wolf Lodge on Facebook to keep up with current deals.) We booked several months in advance and prepaid to get the night at a low rate.
There are so many room choices, it really depends on what you are looking for. We went for the no frills standard queen room. It was comfortable for the five of us with two queen beds and a pull out love-seat (enough for one to sleep). We are so used to squeezing into tiny European hotels that all the space in American hotels is like a dream.
Friend of ours stayed a different weekend and did one of the themed rooms with a separate bunk room for the kids. These rooms also interact with the wands and bears you can purchase at the Great Wolf Lodge.
On the day of your check-in you can arrive at 1pm, although rooms are not guaranteed until 3pm. On your day of check-out you can stay until the water park closes at 8pm. That means with a one-night stay you feasibly have 18 hours of water park time. That seemed like plenty for our three littles.
The boys had been craving some indoor waterpark fun since our time in Europe usually included a weekend or two at a Vakantiepark each year.
We opted not to pre-purchase any of the extra activities. It is easy to add on the things you want to do when you are there and we presumed (correctly) we wouldn’t really have time for extras.
We checked in online, got our room assignment, and easily picked up our bracelets, which serve as your room key, around 1pm. Prepare for quite the walk from the parking lot. The hotel was only 63% occupied when we were there and the hike from the parking lot was more than I anticipated. We used a luggage cart to get the stuff and kids up to the room and then one adult moved the car.
The boys wanted to head right to the waterpark.
You are allowed to bring your own Coast Guard approved floats, or they have life jackets to borrow. Each child gets measured on the way in and has to wear an additional color-coated wristband that helps determine which rides they can ride.
The Water Park at the Great Wolf Lodge La Grange is made up of six areas.
The Wave Pool
The wave pool was the boys’ absolute favorite. The waves ran every 5 minutes. The pool goes from zero entry to a maximum depth of 5 feet. We varied our experience by going deeper, before the waves break to bob up and down and dive under the waves. We spent time in the break zone letting the waves crash over us. Then we also rested in the zero entry portion of the pool where the waves lapped our toes. Everyone enjoyed the variety of ways to interact with the waves.
The pool was not very crowded either day we visited, so it was easy to keep all three boys together and in arms reach.
Water Fort Treehouse
The large play structure is the centerpiece of the water park and is sure to get you wet. You can’t even get near it without getting sprayed. Luckily, once we all got wet initially no one minded the splashing.
Everyone should get splashed by the giant bucket at least once. When the splash cleared we were all laughing so hard! The anticipation of the bucket tipping was so much fun!
So many fun options in the treehouse that it is impossible to stay dry up there.
The backside of the water treehouse has a small slide that our Middle and Little Littles loved. There were also two taller waterslides that descend from the treehouse that the whole family could ride. An adult would go down first. The three littles would each follow on their own and then the last adult would close it out.
The Lazy River
I love lazy rivers. Love them. The kids were sort of unimpressed with this one. There are plenty of tubes though, doubles and singles, so we enjoyed not having to wait for tubes when we wanted to ride. The river doesn’t really go anywhere and you’re guaranteed to get soaked as there are several places you can’t avoid the falling water from the treehouse. (The Little Little didn’t love that part.)
The Kiddie Play Area
This little area consists of a shallow pool, three kids-only water slides and lots of splash park type water shooters.
Although the kids loved these slides, the pool by the slides gets crowded because it is the only place you can go without getting splashed. All three of my littles tried to avoid the other part of this pool because there is just too much water falling on them. Little kids do not like to be splashed on their heads, plus it makes it hard for them to see. I wish these elements were on a rotation so they weren’t all splashing at once. Additionally some of the only seats where you can comfortably sit in the water with babies are in this pool…right in front of the slides.
This pool was fun but certainly the most crowded of all the areas.
The Outdoor Pool
The outdoor pool officially opens on Memorial Day. It was open on the Monday when we arrived but closed on Tuesday morning. (They failed to put out a sign though so people kept getting in!)
This is the best pool for swimming. It’s also perfect for getting away from the chaos inside. There is plenty of room to swim. It is significantly quieter than the indoor section of the park, which has all the large splashing sounds combined with piped in music. Jeff also suspected the outdoor pool water was warmer than the indoor pool water.
It also has a deck with lounge chairs in just a few inches of water, which is complete paradise, even when the kids crawl all over you.
Can you tell we love to swim?
The Waterslides
The waterslide tower has five waterslides. Jeff rode them all. I rode three of them and we convinced the boys to ride two of them. There was even one the whole family could ride at once.
Water Sports Area
A small pool in the back is divided into two areas. One area has lily pads kids use to work themselves across while holding onto a cargo net. This area is well patrolled so it’s one kid at a time and hence the line gets long.
Adults can get into the pool to help the little ones cross the lily pads.
The other pool has some basketballs and hoops, which were a lot of fun.
Food
There are several restaurants at the Great Wolf Lodge, including a few inside the waterpark area. We browsed the menus online but in the end decided that we would head into La Grange to eat dinner. There are a number of fast food options as well as sit down places nearby. We opted for a little Mexican place. This was certainly more inexpensive than eating at the resort.
When it came time for breakfast, I came prepared for our early risers. We packed our breakfast food and stored it in the room’s fridge. (There is also a Publix grocery store nearby.) We ate breakfast in the room with a little TV time, which was a huge treat for the boys.
Free Activities
The Great Wolf Lodge hosts a variety of free activities every day. We were pretty busy in the water park but stopped by after dinner for game time and the Jammie Jamboree and then participated in Yoga Story Time the next morning.
The Yoga is a lot of fun. They run through all the poses, which have fun Wolf Lodge names. Then you do the poses in sequence as part of a story, just like in Cosmic Kids Yoga.
They really do a nice job with their programming.
The Great Wolf Lodge La Grange also has a small outdoor, covered playground. We played here in the morning before the water park was open. It wasn’t anything fancy but enough to entertain the kids for a bit.
Paid Activities
The Great Wolf Lodge hosts a variety of paid activities as well. They sell passes to try them all, or choose a few. You can also pay for each one individually. We’ve seen or done things like them in other places and really wanted to focus on spending time at the water park.
- Ropes Course
- Mini Bowling
- Rock Climbing
- Miniature Golf
- Make Your Own Critter (like Build-A-Bear)
- Make Your Own Flip-Flops
- MagiQuest
- Gem Mining
We packed our time at the Great Would Lodge full of water park fun and one night was plenty for us. If you want to add in the other activities plan another day or two and make it a full out vacation.
