Review: Great Wolf Resort, Grand Mound, WA

I recently had the chance to stay for a weekend at the new Great Wolf Resort at Grand Mound, WA.

For a weekend, the place is pretty good. There’s lots of things to do for kids up to about mid-teens. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to keep adults entertained or to even visit again. It’s a water park, with a hotel and conference center attached.

Exit 88, off of Interstate 5, must have been a simple truck stop up until this project was set in motion. There was the requisite greasy spoon/diner, the shiny new gas station/McDonalds, the feeling of emptiness outside of a half-mile radius of the freeway…

Anyways, back to the resort itself. I liked the hotel and room amenities. We stayed in a "KidCabin" room, which provides a cabin-like facade for the bunkbed and daybed. The room was large, with a hide-away bed, queen-size and the cabin, it could sleep up to 7 people. We had a slight issue with some wetness around the refrigerator, but we just laid a towel over the wetspot and carried on.

One neat feature was the wrist bracelet that performed double duty as room key and room-charge card.

The room’s safe, which has become a high-priority item for me when traveling, was mounted on the wall near the door, vertically. This made it awkward at best to put a computer into it. We ended up only putting small valuables such as our jewelry, wallets and small electronics in it.

The hotel contains a buffet, which was poor in my opinion. The food was not very good, and the service was lousy. The other food amenities were a Pizza Hut, a little snack bar by the pools, and an ice cream/sweets counter. There was one lounge-looking area, but I didn’t get to try it.

There is also a MagiQuest game for the kids to interact with objects laid out in the first 5 floors of the 8-floor hotel. Note: if you go, avoid rooms numbered less than xx10 on the first five floors! The game was kind of fun, especially for a 6-year-old boy, and we did a lot of stairclimbing as the elevators were so slow. Maybe MQ is really an exercise program!

The water park was fun, but there isn’t a whole lot there after you’ve explored for a day or two. The kiddie pool had one piece of non-functioning equipment, but it did have two slides. The wave pool alternated between large "fun" waves and smaller "bobbing" waves. There were long stretches between the waves too, which diminished the fun. There was a climbing structure leading to the two large slides, which featured a 1000 gallon bucket that filled every 5 or so minutes and tipped over, dumping water on the structure below.

I didn’t get to try the soaking tub, because it was small and filled early and nobody seemed to leave it. Nor did I try the three inner-tube slides, though my son had a blast on them.

The last water feature was a "recreation pool" that ranged from 3 feet to 5 feet depth. Unfortunately, it was so crowded most times, that unless you were a tiny tyke, you wouldn’t be able to swim more than 4-5 yards at a time.

The safety equipment was decent and there were plenty of lifeguards on hand to keep everybody safe. Towels and deck chairs aplenty.

So overall, I thought Great Wolf was fine for a weekend getaway. I wouldn’t spend more than 3 days/nights there in any circumstance. Rack rates were kind of expensive, though local employers (Boeing, Microsoft, etc) have discounts available to them. A lot of activities seemed to carry a separate charge, from the teen club to the spa, from the daylockers to the MagiQuest game.

My rating: 6.5 out of 10 and don’t stay longer than a couple of days

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