Great Wolf Lodge resorts are several locations (Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.) that cater to family entertainment. The indoor water parks allow for year-round visitations and offer an array of experiences – depending on location. I had the opportunity to head to the GWL that’s located in Scotrun, Pennsylvania. While at Great Wolf Lodge Pocono Mountains I quickly learned what the draw was. Besides the thrills and or relaxation of the water park, the Pocono Mountains location offered several other indoor and outdoor activities to keep the whole family entertained.
How’s the price?
The first thing that’s worth pointing out is the cost. Is GWL “worth it” or do we consider it “expensive”? This is a tough question to grapple with and I feel it’s important to broach before digging into the review. When I went with my party, my female roommate made all the reservations and handled everything. What’s important to note about it, she did so during an annual sale that GWL holds.
The sale is called the “84⁰ Sale.” The flash sale was offered during a limited time over the summer and room rates started at $84.00, which refers to the temperature GWL keeps their indoor water parks. There are all kinds of blackout dates and restrictions, but this is a great deal. On the room that we booked, we saved in the neighborhood of 65% off the regular price for just the room. Nothing else was discounted, but this was still a very good value.
Options and strategy
What was included with our stay? We booked a one weeknight stay, checking in on a Thursday and checking out on a Friday. Paying a little extra for late checkout and upgrading our package to include one of the “attraction passes” for our junior traveler was a good idea. We opted to also get the breakfast package.
The great thing about staying on property is that guests get to use the water park from the time of opening on the day of check-in. Basically, show up in your swim suits nice and early…if your room is not ready, head to the waterpark to get the most out of your stay. Day of checkout? Stay until the water park closes, shower in one of the change rooms, and enjoy the facility until everything else closes.
Our plan was to be on location for 10 a.m., the time the water park opened. We fell flat and landed there around 11 a.m. When my wife checked us in to get our park passes, she was told that the room was already ready for us, and we were able to stow our belongings then head to the water park.
The “Wolf Den Suite”
The type of room we booked was a “Wolf Den Suite.” Our room was one floor below the lobby level, which was actually nice. Being sub-lobby, we were on the same floor as the entrance into the water park and many of the other entertainment options.
The Wolf Den Suites are able to accommodate six guests. There’s a queen bed, a full sized pull out sleeper sofa, and a bunk bed in the “den” area. The den is a cute compartmentalized area of the suite and my little wolf pup enjoyed staying on the top bunk. There’s a television in the den area as well as in the main suite area. The room also came equipped with a coffee maker, mini-fridge, and hair dryer.
The suite was neat and clean. There was nothing that was in disrepair and accolades should be paid to housekeeping. The Wolf Den Suite was one of the smaller of the rooms available in the main lodge, but there are several other offerings to accommodate groups of different sizes. Great Wolf Lodge Pocono Mountains also has two other lodging options; the Woodland Villas and the Mountain Tower.
Pocono Mountains location newly renovated
Great Wolf Resorts, Inc. announced on October 5, 2023 that they finished renovating the property. I don’t know what the property was like prior to renovations, but the fact that time and money recently went into the asset was abundantly clear. When we were there in November of 2023, the only remnants of construction were outside and some scrim in the lobby. The scrim in the lobby was a bummer because we were not able to take in the cool architecture in full, but that’s okay – we’ll just have to return, for that and some outdoor attractions we did not get to enjoy.
An impressive indoor water park
The indoor water park was impressive. The first thing that drew my attention was that it did not smell like a musty building and that all of the water slides were leak free. Having been to numerous different water parks, most of them have slides that leak at the mating surfaces where slide segments come together at flanged connections, and there’s usually algae growing in many places. GWL Poconos had no such issues. Every attraction was working except for one – and that could have been a staffing or other maintenance issue.
When you first walk into the water park, straight ahead would be GWL’s “interactive four-story water fort treehouse complete with slides,” Fort Mackenzie. This is a cool attraction that could soak up a fair amount of time and is noted to be “best for” family, children, and toddlers. Directly to the left upon entering, there’s the only in area place to get food, Buckets, a splash area for the little pups, and an area with mini water slides (Whooping Hollow).
Some of the offerings
The park also has:
- Slap Tail Pond which is a “wave pool.”
- Crooked Creek “lazy river.”
- Chinook Cove is a pool set up to play basketball.
- Cub Paw Pool is a “zero-depth” entry pool for the little pups.
- Big Foot Pass is a course where guests hop from lily pad to lily pad, across a pool.
- Two different hot tub areas, one adults only.
- Six different water slide attractions.
The indoor water park has a number of private “cabanas.” The cabanas are semi-secluded seating areas that park guests can rent. To get pricing on cabanas, it requires calling their reservation hotline, so I don’t know if they’re affordable or worth it. Cabanas include:
- Guaranteed seating for four, including chairs, sofa, and oversized ottoman
- Four bottles of water
- Four towels to use during your stay
- Access to server for food and drinks (11am – 6pm)
Eating and drinking while in the water park
We spent most of the late morning and afternoon in the water park. While there we did dine at Buckets. Buckets was okay. My companions had no issues with their food, pizza and a vegetarian burger. My double bunless burger tasted like it came from one of those brown warming boxes that used to get wheeled into classrooms in the late 1980’s and passed off as food. The burger I ate oozed with a low-grade cafeteria vibe. Other than me not digging the burger, the food was good, and there were no complaints. I did pluck up a few French fries from my pup and they were perfectly delicious.
A big issue with the lunch exchange though was the pizza, it was not sold by Buckets. To get pizza, you had to go to the eatery connected to Buckets, Hungry as a Wolf. That location is outside of the water park area.
If you wanted pizza – and this was true at the Williamsburg location too, spoiler alert – you had to exit the water park, then order and receive your pizza around the corner. Why they don’t sell pizza at Buckets proper, I’m sure they have a reason – whatever it is, it’s not a good one.
Another peculiar thing I learned about when dining there was there’s new Pepsi dispensing machines out in the wild. They were like regular self-serve fountains, however there was a scanner that required you to scan a code on each individual cup. If you purchased a 20 ounce cup, the machine would dispense 20 ounces and 20 ounces only, counting how much has been dispensed. I certainly understand this will cut back on people stealing soda from the machines, but might be a little too “Big Brother” for me. Even the Coke Freestyle machines at other entertainment locations kinda run a bit unregulated. Is there loss and wastage? I’m sure. But this I felt was excessive.
The food was not over-the-top expensive, but it was not cheap either. I’d say it was consistently priced in comparison to other themed venues and parks. At the time when we went, I was unaware of some of the packages that GWL offers, and there might be one that fits your needs. So, be sure to check out what kind of offerings they have on dining and merchandise plans.
In the water park there were two bar locations. We did not end up utilizing them, but they looked like nice enough areas to sit and enjoy a cocktail without leaving the park. The Watering Hole is reminiscent of a resort’s pool-side bar and is located by the wave pool, and the Outpost is a location that offers up craft beers and cocktails on the other side of the property.
Many on-site amenities
At the entrance to the water park is a swimwear store, Paddle Bay Outfitters. There you can purchase a number of water sports related items such as goggles, towels, cover-ups, etc.
Included with your pass to enter the water park is complementary towel service, linked to your reservation. The water park has restrooms and showers on location, and lockers available for use for a small fee.
There was a wide variety of water slide options. Some of the attractions were suited for several visitors on larger rafts, and then there were also some for those who want to go solo head first on a mat. There really was no lack of selection. Some of the slides were quite thrilling and give you that circle the drain feel due to what I’d consider a toilet bowl construction. There were also slides on the Fort Mackenzie attraction.
The wave pool, lazy river, and Chinook Cove pool were all great attractions. A howling of a wolf would indicate when the waves were on their way. The frequency and amplitude of the waves were moderate, but could be just enough to make one queasy if they just ate. The lazy river was decent, however my lazy river standards are fairly high, with me thinking none of them are really deep enough. Chinook Cove was a nice area where there were several basketball hoops to take some shots.
Plenty to do beyond the water park
While staying on property, we enjoyed several of the other attractions and amenities. As mentioned earlier, we opted to purchase one of the attraction passes that’s available. Those passes are bundles of different things to do while staying at the property. We purchased the “Wolf Pass” for our little pup and it included a lot. If you a la carte out everything that was included on the pass, you’d be paying a significant amount more.
Things the Wolf Pass included:
- 1 MagiQuest game
- 1 MagiQuest Vellara wand, topper or belt
- 1 game of bowling at Ten Paw Alley
- 1 round of Howl at the Moon Mini Golf
- 1 admission to Moonstone Mirror Maze
- $5.00 arcade game card for use at Northern Lights Arcade
- 1 Build-A-Bear stuffed animal
- 1 small candy cup with serving of bulk candy from the Great Wolf Candy Company
- 1 scoop of ice cream from Wood’s End Creamery
- 1 personalized Leather Treaty bracelet
- 20 to 25% off select items sold
We ended up doing everything on that list and some mining at Oliver’s Mining Co.
After spending the day at the water park, we went back to our Wolf Den to shower and wash up. Our plan for the evening was to have dinner and do some of the things on our Wolf Pass.
On the lobby level is their main shop, the Buckhorn Emporium Gift Shop. The Buckhorn is massive and has an extensive line of everything GWL. The Buckhorn did impress me. When you check in, you want to stop by to pick up your complementary wolf ears at the Buckhorn.
Great Wolf Lodge branded Build-A-Bear shop
In the back of the shop is where the Build-A-Bear is situated and is super unique. For animal selection, guests get to pick from a custom line of GWL inspired signature characters from the “Great Wolf Pack”: Wiley Wolf, Violet Wolf, Brinley Bear, Oliver Raccoon, or Gammy Squirrel. The Build-A-Bear also had other bears available and some MagiQuest themed stuffies as well.
Our little roommate brought to life his own Wiley Wolf and the attendant punched our Wolf Pass indicating we used up our Build-A-Bear credit. We also got buffalo plaid pajamas for Wiley to keep him warm.
After our Build-A-Bear experience, we went through the Moonstone Mirror Maze. The maze was fun but you need to keep your wits about you, as to make sure you don’t walk into any walls. The attendant punched our pass but did not charge us extra for all three of us to participate in the experience.
Fireside restaurant
We opted to have dinner at Fireside, which serves up unique signature cocktails and the menu offerings are akin to contemporary gastropubesce American. The food was good across the board at Fireside. We ended up dining there both Thursday night and Friday night. Fireside is located just off to the right when entering the main lobby of the facility.
Mini golf and mini bowling
After dinner we headed to the Howl at the Moon Mini Golf and Ten Paw Alley mini bowling lanes. We played a round of mini golf, having to pay for two members of the party who did not have a Wolf Pass. Proceeding the round of golf, we paid for two tokens so the three of us could bowl. We went across the hall to the mini bowling alley and ended up playing several rounds together, needing to get extra tokens after our first game. The Ten Paw Alley was nicely laid out and a lot of fun.
Before heading to bed for the night, we did get our candy cup and filled it up at the Buckhorn Emporium, which was included with our pass. We also got our pup one of the Leather Treaty bracelets – part of the pass – prior to night’s end.
The next day
The next morning we had breakfast at Timbers Table & Kitchen. We opted for the breakfast package when we booked and Timbers Table was a buffet. If we wanted to dine at Fireside again, they had a family style breakfast offering or there were a la carte options. As far as the buffet went at Timbers Table, the food was decent and there were a fair amount of options to choose from. There were no complaints and everyone enjoyed the food.
We were scheduled to stay only one night but did avail ourselves of the late checkout option. Right after breakfast, we headed to the water park and got in right at the 9 a.m. opening. We stayed in the water park for a little over two and a half hours before leaving to shower and get ready for checkout.
MagiQuest
Just because we were checking out, it did not mean we had to leave. We could have stayed in the water park the entire day, but decided to finish checking things off our Wolf Pass. I’d say all that really remained was the ice cream, arcade, and MagiQuest game, but that’s a bit more than you’d think. We also did want to get a bag of dirt by the mirror maze and do some slouching for precious gems and rocks at Oliver’s Mining Co.
The reason why I said what remained was “a bit more than you’d think” is because getting a MagiQuest wand and topper, and then playing a round is a whole other adventure. MagiQuest in of itself can have its own full review (and probably will in the future). The game is a hybrid electronic and physical scavenger hunt that spans four floors of the resort and involves lots of walking and up and down. To complete one game takes from four to six hours, and we were not exactly valedictorians – so it took about six hours to complete one full game.
In the middle of our MagiQuest game we ended up breaking for dinner. We ate at the Fireside again, as noted earlier. By the time we were done with the MagiQuest game, we were completely smoked and still had to burn up our $5.00 at the arcade and grab some ice cream.
The arcade
The arcade was not bad. Coming from Jersey and hitting the Jersey Shore on the regular, it’s difficult to impress us with arcades, because we have some of the best. The Northern Lights Arcade was more than a sufficient location for being something else to do on the property. They had a nice sized and impressive prize wall as well. We finished off the $5.00 worth of credits on our game card and snagged up some ice cream before hitting the road to head home.
We’re going to have to return
We did not get to enjoy any of the outdoor amenities or activities during our stay since it was November. There’s an outdoor pool area as well as the Howlers Peak Ropes Course, both options I’d like to return to check out.
The Great Wolf Lodge Pocono Mountains location is impressive. Just coming off the heels of a major renovation, we caught the property at its most recent prime.
Great Wolf Lodge Pocono Mountains is a quality location
As far as family entertainment goes, GWL is a quality operation and one that I’ll be re-visiting on more than one occasion (we already hit up the Williamsburg, Va. location for a day pass and to play some MagiQuest) and hope to hit more locations. The property was clean, well maintained, and all the staff were helpful and respectful. As for the price, well, depending on when you go and whether or not you hit a sale, expect to pay for the quality you’re receiving.
My family and I recommend GWL as a vacation option or to just pop in for a day trip. Our little pup won’t stop talking about his time there and when we talk about planning things and “what to do,” he unapologetically says, “Great Wolf Lodge?”
The Great Wolf Lodge Pocono Mountains is located at: 1 Great Wolf Dr, Scotrun, PA 18355
