This past weekend we decided to take a trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Washington State. It's about two and a half hours for us, and as far as the Pacific Northwest goes, it's the only real "child friendly resort" around. Since we had never been before, we figured it would be fun for the girls, who are currently 5 years old, and 22 months.
We ended up paying a little over $500 a night for 2-nights, which seems to be the average price. Being that we paid that much, I went into this with high expectations. Upon arrival I was impressed with the hotel for the most part. Our room was huge and things seemed nice. After a nights sleep on the bed, I came to the conclusion this was possibly the worst, most stiff bed I've ever slept on. For $500 a night, shouldn't I be sleeping on some sort of nice pillow topper mattress?
We ate at the numerous food places in the hotel (including the restaurant), and I have to say that the food is actually reasonably good. I wouldn't give it 5 stars, but I would say it's much better than I expected it to be.
What irks me the most is that for $500 a night, it doesn't include anything at all other than water park access. Shouldn't we be getting maybe one free meal per person per day? I would think so.
The waterpark is awesome, but there was so many people in that damn place that it was almost claustrophobic. If it wasn't for that, it would be a blast.
The activities to do around the hotel are stupid expensive. There's this "MagiQuest" game that kids play by running around with these $60 wands you have to buy (not including the cost of the game). There's things all around the hotel that the wands activate and make these animatronic animals talk, screens come on, treasure chests open, etc. At first it seems cool, until you realize that there's literally little kids running around everywhere! It's nothing short of chaos. You're walking up the stairwell and kids come flying through the huge, heavy doors, knocking people over, running into things, tripping over each other. You'd swear it was a stampede! I ran into a number of kids multiple times. It was scary walking around corners not knowing if you're going to smash into one of them (which happened so many times).
We ended up taking our daughter to the little girls "salon" they had in the hotel. She's at the age where she is obsessed with princesses and glamor, so we bought the $100 "Princess Package" which includes a facial, manicure, tiara, and robe. I was thinking okay, for $100 this should be an hour long affair, which is what we were hoping for. Nope... it lasted all of 15 minutes! All the woman in the "salon" did was paint her nails, and not even the professional way either (like my wife has done). I've honestly never felt so ripped off in my life!
We came out of this trip knowing that while the kids had a blast, as an adult, this was miserable. It wasn't relaxing at all (not that we expected it to be), everything was drastically overpriced (I felt ripped off on a number of occasions), and the amount of loud noise and chaos in that hotel was mind numbing.
I think what really gets me the most though is that you're paying $500 a night for a room, which is the price of a room at most very nice tropical resorts (i.e. Hawaii) or Disney World. Yet somehow, you get nothing for that price other than a decent sized room with horrible beds and starch stiff sheets.
I didn't complain the entire time (except to my wife), so this is mostly just me venting out loud. I'm happy the kids enjoyed it, which is all that matters. I just can't get over what a rip off it was.
I guess when you're the only resort in the PNW, you can charge whatever you want and get away with it. If we do go back, it won't be until they're much older (old enough to go off on their own). Next time we'll take them somewhere better, where $500 a night is actually worth it.
We ended up paying a little over $500 a night for 2-nights, which seems to be the average price. Being that we paid that much, I went into this with high expectations. Upon arrival I was impressed with the hotel for the most part. Our room was huge and things seemed nice. After a nights sleep on the bed, I came to the conclusion this was possibly the worst, most stiff bed I've ever slept on. For $500 a night, shouldn't I be sleeping on some sort of nice pillow topper mattress?
We ate at the numerous food places in the hotel (including the restaurant), and I have to say that the food is actually reasonably good. I wouldn't give it 5 stars, but I would say it's much better than I expected it to be.
What irks me the most is that for $500 a night, it doesn't include anything at all other than water park access. Shouldn't we be getting maybe one free meal per person per day? I would think so.
The waterpark is awesome, but there was so many people in that damn place that it was almost claustrophobic. If it wasn't for that, it would be a blast.
The activities to do around the hotel are stupid expensive. There's this "MagiQuest" game that kids play by running around with these $60 wands you have to buy (not including the cost of the game). There's things all around the hotel that the wands activate and make these animatronic animals talk, screens come on, treasure chests open, etc. At first it seems cool, until you realize that there's literally little kids running around everywhere! It's nothing short of chaos. You're walking up the stairwell and kids come flying through the huge, heavy doors, knocking people over, running into things, tripping over each other. You'd swear it was a stampede! I ran into a number of kids multiple times. It was scary walking around corners not knowing if you're going to smash into one of them (which happened so many times).
We ended up taking our daughter to the little girls "salon" they had in the hotel. She's at the age where she is obsessed with princesses and glamor, so we bought the $100 "Princess Package" which includes a facial, manicure, tiara, and robe. I was thinking okay, for $100 this should be an hour long affair, which is what we were hoping for. Nope... it lasted all of 15 minutes! All the woman in the "salon" did was paint her nails, and not even the professional way either (like my wife has done). I've honestly never felt so ripped off in my life!
We came out of this trip knowing that while the kids had a blast, as an adult, this was miserable. It wasn't relaxing at all (not that we expected it to be), everything was drastically overpriced (I felt ripped off on a number of occasions), and the amount of loud noise and chaos in that hotel was mind numbing.
I think what really gets me the most though is that you're paying $500 a night for a room, which is the price of a room at most very nice tropical resorts (i.e. Hawaii) or Disney World. Yet somehow, you get nothing for that price other than a decent sized room with horrible beds and starch stiff sheets.
I didn't complain the entire time (except to my wife), so this is mostly just me venting out loud. I'm happy the kids enjoyed it, which is all that matters. I just can't get over what a rip off it was.
I guess when you're the only resort in the PNW, you can charge whatever you want and get away with it. If we do go back, it won't be until they're much older (old enough to go off on their own). Next time we'll take them somewhere better, where $500 a night is actually worth it.
